Trinity Church, Gulph Mills

Weekly Letter from the Rector
 

 The Very Rev. Mark W. Preece, Rector
   

Phone:

610.828.1500

    Fax: 

610.828.0411

School:

610.825.2707

  E-Mail:

trinitygmills@comcast.net

Dear Friends--

A message from Rebecca Stone:
I am starting to make the prayer shawls this Sunday at church. The prayer shawls are shawls that members of the congregation will help knit while praying for the recipient of the shawl. I was going to hold the first meeting after church this Sunday and everyone is welcome to come help make the shawls.

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Holcombe Farewell Cookout.
Matt and Alicia Holcombe and daughter Allison are moving to New York next month so Matt can begin his studies at General Theological Seminary. We'll bid the Holcombes a fond farewell with a family cookout on Saturday, Aug. 9, at the home of Marta McCave and Rich Faulkner in Wayne. Please let us know if you can attend by e-mailing or phoning Marta and Rich or by signing up in the Undercroft. Hot dogs and hamburgers will be provided. We're asking everyone to bring a beverage and a side dish to share. Please join us!

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A reading for the feast of St. Benedict (today, July 11);

Benedictine harmony and balance and awareness call us all to life drunk deeply. And, interestingly enough, there has probably never been a better moment in history to do that. We have information that has never been known before. We have a vision of the world and all of its people and all of their needs that has never been known to humankind before this time. We have scientific insights that are far beyond the understandings of our ancestors. We have a level of technology that frees us to be humans, not beasts of burden, that frees us to be thinkers on the planet rather than mere survivors of its rigors. We have a mechanized life, a computerized life, and a connected life that frees us and bonds us as at no other time in human history.

All we lack, now that life has become so speeded up, is the will to slow it down so that we can live a little while life goes by. We need to want to be human as well as efficient; to be loving as well as informed; to be caring as well as knowledgeable; to be happy as well as respected.

It?s not easy. But the Rule of Benedict says:

Take care of everything,
revere one another,
eat and drink moderately,
pray where you work,
think deeply about life every day,
read,
sleep well,
don?t demand the best of everything,
pray daily,
live as community. (RB 4)

Be sure that one part of your life is not warring against the other.

From Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today by Joan Chittister, OSB (HarperCollins, 1990).

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Here's our schedule this Sunday

9.00 -- Holy Eucharist, Rite 2
10.15 -- Coffee Hour

And here's who's doing what:
Cross -- Richard Stone
Lectors -- Sherri Mullen, Sergei Nuissl
Ushers/Greeters -- Jim Beers, Patrick Buford
Altar Guild --Mary Gibbons, Carol Beers
Counters -- Nancy Williams, Caroline McMaster
Healing -- Carolyn Rogers
Flower Deliverers -- Mary Gibbons, Mary McGinn

O God,
you rested on the seventh day,
you are still at work today;
in the course of our busy lives
give us times of refreshment and peace;
and grant that we may so use our leisure
to rebuild our bodies and renew our minds
that our spirits may be opened
to the goodness of your creation,
the joy of life with you and with each other
in this world which you have made. Amen!

Peace,

Fr. Mark.
 

07/12/2008