Dear Readers,
My roots.
Primate Archbishop George Le Mesurier, IOCC of
America
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
+++
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
+++
Bishop George OtienoOdhiambo, IOCC of Africa
+++
Franz
Devantier, IOCC South Africa
Invocatio:
P.
In nomine Patris, et + Filii et Spiritus
Sancti. Amen.(In the name of the father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. )
Confiteor:
A. O Lord, Thou hast created man to be immortal and made
him to be an image of Thine own eternity; yet often we forget the glory of our
heritage and wander from the path which leads to righteousness. But Thou, O Lord, hast made us for Thyself
and our hearts are ever restless till they find their rest in Thee. Look with the eyes of Thy love upon our
manifold imperfections and pardon all our shortcomings, that we may be filled
with the brightness of the everlasting light and become the unspotted mirror of
Thy power and the image of Thy goodness;
Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Absolutio:
P. God the Father, God the + Son, God the Holy Ghost, bless,
preserve and sanctify you; the Lord in His lovingkindness look down upon you
and be gracious unto you; the Lord +
absolve you from all your sins and grant you the grace and comfort of the Holy
Spirit. Amen.
18th
Sunday after Pentecost – 12th October 2014 (Colour of Celebration – Green)
The Church is blessed abundantly in and
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Announcements:
We are actively recruiting candidate Priests. A custom program will be created for each
candidate Priest to reach the goal of Ordination to the Priesthood. Please contact us at: father@waseff.com
Special Prayer Requests:
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Let’s pray for the Salvation of all the souls on earth, and the return of Jesus
Christ.
News:
Still looking for a place to
meet on Sundays.
Download your free copy of
“Atonement for Everyone” by Father Mac Khruisium here:
Sacred References:
Epistle: Corinthians I,
chapter 1, verse 4-8
Gospel: Matthew,
chapter 9, verse 1-8
Homily / Sermon:
Firstly I will discuss “Thy sins be forgiven thee.”
Secondly ”In all things you are enriched by Jesus Christ.”
Thy sins be
forgiven thee
Jesus Christ was busy with his three years ministry, after
preparing for eighteen years, after he had reached the age of twelve years
old. In the Jewish tradition he had
become a man at the age of twelve. The
Holy bible tells us almost nothing about these eighteen years of preparation,
but the New Testament focuses on the three years of ministry which ended in the
Cruxifixion. It was during this three
year period, that the disciples brought a man to Jesus, who was sick with
Palsy. He was so sick that he had become
bed-ridden.
Jesus Christ looked at the sick man with compassion, and
after some consideration said to him: “Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be
forgiven thee.” We as outsiders looking
on, would immediately ask: why did Jesus forgive his sins, instead of curing
him of his illness.
It is not always easy to understand that in the bigger
picture, it may have been more important for this man to have his sins
forgiven, then to have his physical condition cured. You see we are looking on at this scene with physical
eyes, and are looking for and expecting physical things to happen. When we see something physical happening,
then we will be satisfied that something has happened, because we are physical
beings.
God on the other hand is spirit, and even although God had
manifested in the form of the physical body of Jesus Christ, God still remains
spirit. From a spiritual perspective the
most pressing or important task was to forgive this man’s sins, the illness
that this man was afflicted with was of a secondary concern to Jesus Christ.
There were some very important and respected people present
there that day, a group of scribes. With
our modern communications technology it may be difficult to appreciate the
important and respected role that the scribes played in society. Scribes were considered to be learned
people. Now these scribes, these learned
and respected people were thinking about what Jesus had just done. They were even thinking that maybe Jesus
Christ had committed a blasphemy.
Now we see that Jesus Christ was aware of their thoughts,
he knew that they needed to see the physical side of a miracle in order to be
able to take it seriously. Although
Jesus Christ had already done something absolutely amazing for this sick man,
he was also going to heal him physically.
To fully understand the depth and significance of what Jesus Christ had
done for this man, you can download the free ebook “Atonement for Everyone by
Father Mac Kruisium. Look under the News
heading, above the sermon.
Jesus addresses the scribes: Jesus asks them if it is easier to say “Thy
sins be forgiven thee, or, Arise and Walk?”
Can you answer this question, which is easier to say and why? Jesus continues talking to the scribes: “In order that ye may know that the Son of
man hath power on earth to forgive sins.”
Jesus turns to the palsied man and says, “Arise, take up
thy bed, and go unto thine house.” To
the amazement of everybody, the palsied man who was bed-ridden rises, he rolls
his bed up, throws it over his shoulder, and starts walking to his House.
The Scribes, and the crowds are amazed, at this marvel that
Jesus Christ had performed. They begin
to glorify God for this tremendous power that has been given to ordinary people
to heal others in the name of Jesus Christ.
They were still contemplating the relative advantages of forgiving sins,
as compared to physically healing a sick person. I am sure that if you had to be honest, you
would have to admit that the physical healing of somebody is far easier to
appreciate than the hidden benefits of forgiving the sins of another.
In all things you
are enriched by Jesus Christ
Paul explains how he thanks God on behalf of the disciples
for the Grace that has been given to them by Jesus Christ. To think that such encouraging words would be
coming from Paul while he was in that ancient jail. It is really as though he was able to see and
understand beyond the physical circumstances that he was forced to live
in. Paul was the type of person that
would be saying, “Thank you Jesus, that I can be in jail for your sake, thank
you for this opportunity.” In those days
the blood of the martyrs was like seed for more and more Christians or
followers of Jesus Christ.
The Romans certainly did their best to stamp Christianity
out in those early days. Countless men,
woman and children were slaughtered like animals, because they proclaimed the
name of Jesus Christ. Probably similar
in some ways to the type of atrocities that are being carried out in some
countries at the top of Africa currently.
I read one report where people were running through the streets and
murdering in horrible ways every child, woman and man who were supposed to be
Christians. Worse than this, they were
doing this in the name of God. These murderers
had mistakenly believed that God wanted them to do this. The interesting thing is that the Christians that
were being murdered in the name of God were also followers of God, because
there is only one God. Not every group
of people have their own God, there is only one God, and we all have to share
God with each other.
Now I ask you this: What must God think of all of
this? One group says that God has told
them or requires them to mercilessly murder and abuse people in the streets to
the extent that the blood is running down the streets, and the scene looks like
“Hell on Earth”. The other group refuse
to give up their belief in God. They are
prepared to die because of their belief in God.
I don’t know what God thinks about the atrocities that we
commit against each other in the name of God.
I do know that even the most uninformed outsider will seriously doubt
that the people doing the murdering are connected to God in any way. They will probably think that they are hiding
behind the concept of God, in order that they can walk down the street
murdering people.
The uninformed onlooker will find himself or herself doubting
that such religion has any merit in it at all, although others of the same
religion will point out that their religion is all about love?
Personally I believe that God is disgusted with all of
us. We all need to take responsibility
for what has happened in the past, and for what is busy happening right
now. We can’t just sit back and say, “you
know what, I don’t belong to that particular group, but rather I belong to this
group.”
There are some positive things that we can do.
·
We can adopt an
attitude of zero tolerance to crimes against humanity in the name of religion,
regardless of which religion.
·
We can adopt a
position of neutrality, being an impartial arbitrator for both sides of the
conflict, and being part of the solution, rather than adding to the problem.
·
We can strive for
World Peace. One of the first
requirements for world peace is that no group of people regardless of who they
are should ever again be allowed to commit atrocities against another group of
people. No reasons will ever be
sufficient to justify this, and therefore such action should be stopped at
whatever cost, so that we can enjoy peace.
·
We can start speaking
to people about the possibility of choosing Peace rather than contributing to or
supporting groups that practice atrocities against humanity in the name of
God. We can aggressively petition for
Peace. Peace is the result of serious
action, and not the result of overlooking atrocities and doing nothing about
it. If your brother has murdered woman
and children in the name of God, then it is your duty to let him know that you
do not approve on any level, in any way.
·
We can take
responsibility for the actions of our brothers and sisters, regardless of the
atrocities that they may have committed.
We must step forth and offer healing and peace, and humble ourselves on
behalf of the atrocities of our brothers and sisters. By taking responsibility we will be making
sacrifices on their behalf to restore Peace on Earth.
Regardless of your faith, regardless of your background,
regardless of who you are: the fact remains that there is and always will be
only one God. There is only one Jesus
Christ, who came to Earth to offer salvation for every person with no
restrictions at all. The petty conflicts
between various faith groups and religions, should not be tolerated any more in
any way, or on any level.
Jesus Christ enriches us all in many different ways, in
fact in all things we are enriched by Jesus Christ. It does not matter about our belief system or
who we are. Jesus Christ is for
everybody on Earth. Jesus Christ enriches
you in all the things that you say, in all the things that you do, and in all
the knowledge that you acquire, and in everything that you work with.
The work of Jesus Christ was continued by his disciples, who
did their best to fulfil the commission to take the good news of Jesus Christ
to “all the world.” The early church or
organization that was formed from the followers of Jesus Christ had the
possibility of being the organization for everybody on Earth. Such a church or organization would have accommodated
absolutely everybody, and they would have all been united by the fact that they
believed in Jesus Christ. You see after
Jesus Christ came to earth there was no longer any need for all the different
religions of the world. Jesus Christ is
God himself, or as we know him as the Son of God, but he remains and always
will be the second aspect of the one and only God. Sadly the early church became in time, the
Catholic Church, and did not replace all the religions of the world. I believe that the world was not ready for
that at the time. Is it ready now, what
do you think?
Everybody on Earth needs to believe in Jesus Christ, and
learn the ways of God that Jesus Christ taught us. In this way we will be ready for the second
coming of Jesus Christ. In fact Jesus
Christ may be patiently waiting for us all to finally come to this realization.
If you take this seriously, then you should pray the prayer
of Redemption if you have not already done so, so that you can start to receive
all of the gifts of the spirit, and position yourself for the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and contribute towards the goal of world peace. See the Prayer of Redemption below.
Please download your free copy
of “Atonement for Everyone” by Father Mac Khruisium here:
Once you have read it, then
please send a copy to everybody that you know.
This ebook has an open source licence which enables you to freely
distribute it to as many people as possible.
The Prayer of Redemption
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for dying
on the cross for my sins.
Please forgive my sins and give me the
gift of eternal life.
I ask you into my life and heart to be
my Lord and Saviour.
I undertake to be baptized as called
for in the scriptures, Mark 16, verse 16.
I undertake to regularly partake of
Holy Communion, as in Mathew 26, verses 26-28.
Amen.
Mark, chapter 16, verse 16
Whoever believes and is baptized will
be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.
Mathew 26:26-28
And as they were eating, Jesus took
bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said,
Take, eat; this is my body. And he took
the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For
this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission
of sins.
Prayer:
Our
Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name: Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Give us this day our
daily bread. And forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation. But deliver us from evil.
For
Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen.
A Prayer for
Jesus Christ’s Return
From the
Understanding of God
Let
Understanding flow into all humankind.
Let that
Understanding fill the Earth.
From the Will
of God
Let God’s
Will become our will
The purpose
which only God fully knows.
From the Love
of God
Let Love fill
the hearts of humankind.
May Jesus Christ return to Earth.
Let the
Understanding, Will, and Love of Jesus Christ Reign on Earth.
Benedictio:
P. The peace of God, which passeth all
understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and
of his Son, Christ our Lord; and the Blessing of God Almighty, the Father, + the Son and the Holy Ghost, be
amongst you and remain with you always.
Amen.
Love,
Franz of Saint Titus, IOCC, South Africa,
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