Aug 11
11
CHILDREN’S SERVICE
Come this Sunday and worship with the guidance and presence of our children. Every second Sunday of the month is our Children’s Service at 10am and 6pm. They do the readings, lead the prayers, and carry the cross, along with other roles.
During this service at the offertory, children bring forward the food that we have collected to share with those in need. As important as helping hungry people is the act of children bringing food forward at the time of the offering–this is a formational act the children will remember for the rest of their lives. The acts they do will help shape and form the kind of people they will become. They will remember lugging up sacks and cans of food and stacking them around the altar. They will watch the food be blessed, know that it is being given to those in need, and feel good they helped.
This can be a profound experience. Please bring cans or dry food any Sunday that you can. It does not have to be just on the second Sunday. Help make this a formational experience for our children.
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Family Promise of Lawrence is a faith-based non-profit program that transforms the lives of homeless children and their families by providing shelter, food, transportation, training, counseling, medical care and other assistance in a safe, compassionate home-like environment.
Your generosity and compassion enable us to rescue Lawrence children and their families from homelessness. Please join us for our annual Family Promise golf Tournament and Auction Party.
Auction Party, Sunday, September 18, at Corpus Christi Catholic Church
Golf Tournament, Monday, September 19, at Alvamar Country Club
Honorary Co-chairs: Cindy Self and Wayne Simien
Flyers and registration available at back of church or call StM’s office.
For more information visit: www.lawrencefamilypromise.org
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Oct 10
8
Join One of Our Small Groups
ADULT FORUM – Sunday, 9:00 am
Explorations in Living like Jesus Really Rose
Getting born is not too much of a challenge, growing old, God willing, happens on its own, but growing up is not so much a given, “growing up in Christ,” takes intention. Come and join the conversation as we explore what the Christian life was meant to be.
PARENTING SMALL GROUP
A monthly study for families with small children is forming. Meetings are held at Ron and Carolyn Crawfords’ farm, 834 Hwy 40. We will share a meal, parenting study topics, prayer and friendship. Babysitters will be provided for the whole family to come. Contact: Carolyn and Ron Crawford, 785-841-3795
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Sep 10
30
Children’s Service Begins in October
The first of our monthly Children’s Service begins this month. What a Children’s Service entails is, basically, as much children involvement as possible. We will be seeking out children to do the readings, lead the prayers of the people, be oblationers (those who bring up the bread and wine), take up the collection, and so on. The sermon will be a children’s sermon and the celebration of the Eucharist will happen at the foot of the chancel steps (steps in front of the altar) with a children’s version of the Eucharistic prayer. The Children will be invited to come sit with me around the table and I will have a short explanation about the bread and the wine. We will have this time videoed and put up on the screen so that all can see what is happening.
Concerning this kind of service I prepare myself for liturgical chaos! One never quite knows how this will go. So bring a spirit of joy and grace as we let our children probe and experience our Christian Mysteries.
It is a good time to invite someone you know who has children that might be looking for a church home. We will try and incorporate any willing child. Also, grandparents whether they are members or not, love to come watch and listen to their grandchildren.
Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14
At the moment the Children’s Service will be at the 10:00 service but not at the 5:30. Presently, there are not enough children to be able to do this service.
See you Sunday, Matt+
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Sep 10
29
Einstein’s Dummy
While in Texas, Cate and I went out to the McDonald Observatory. The telescopes are a sight to behold. After gazing at the stars, we went through the gift store on our way out. I noticed a book entitled, Einstein for Dummies. After reading the book, I did not understand Einstein any better than when I started. Since the book failed in its mission, I could only conclude that I am not a dummy. In fact, as confused as I was at the end validates that I must be quite brilliant!
What I did take from the book was something I never knew and that was how much Einstein used his imagination in figuring out his theories. He talked about how he imagined himself racing alongside a beam of light shooting around the universe or riding it, holding a mirror out in front of him to see if he could see his face at the speed of light.. He credited his childlike imagination for his discoveries. Insight, he said, did not come from mathematics or logic but from intuition and inspiration.
“He used his imagination to connect things in his head, and to imagine things that human beings couldn’t see with the naked eye. He thought about mass and energy in a new, creative way. His imagination helped him to think about things that don’t actually exist, but would prove his theory.” Einstein said it well, “”Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” For Einstein, it wasn’t his remarkable intelligence that fueled him but his unceasing wonder for the mystery of the universe. It is the same for children, wonder and awe are part of a child’s spirituality. Perhaps Einstein’s real genius was that he was smart enough not to outgrow it like most adults.
A child’s sense of wonder and awe at life is a natural doorway to seeing God and knowing God. The art of playing is so important, it is where imagination and creativity, as Einstein would say, ‘stretch around the world.’ Many times we adults don’t value a Child’s play and how it can make them present to God. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me.’ He did not say force or coerce, he simply said let. A little child’s wonder naturally draws them to God. It is our desire at St. Margaret’s to “Let” a child come to Jesus, drawn by their own sense of wonder.
See you Sunday, Matt+
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Aug 10
13
Centering Moments
For reasons I deeply question, I have my alarm set to wake me up with the news. Wafting over my consciousness gloomy reports on the state of economic conditions bid me to wake. It’s on everybody’s mind demanding attention declaring that it is the most important thing and deserves to be the center of our attention. The realized losses and the potential losses both reported and predicted constantly on our news, telling us that this is our current reality. We continue to focus and listen not realizing the effect it is having on us.
Apparently, calling me awake wasn’t enough. I listened to the news as I drove to the church. I got out of the car and took a breath looking around I saw our children’s school. I walked over and went and visited the kindergarten class. Children working in different stations turn and look at me when I entered. I received big smiles and acknowledgement of my advent. Some came up and greeted me immediately and walked with me as I went from station to station. What I witnessed was children creating art. One boy at the easel his attention fixed considered with care his next color choice and then with a sweeping motion drew the brush down with great control.
One little girl came close looked up and said, “LOOK!” she pointed with her finger to her lower mouth and the gapping hole where two of her front teeth had been. “MY TEETH ARE GONE!” she declared. Within seconds I am surrounded by children all with their mouths open showing me the holes where teeth once were. Like sunflowers fixed on the sun their faces beam up at me and follow me. I felt my body relax, here was something to center my attention on. I was reminded of another kind of loss, one that made me a nickel when I was young, one that makes way for something new, a loss worth celebrating. I wondered later if after time had past and people reflected on the losses if there would be anything redemptive about it. Would it cause some of us to redirect and reprioritize how we have been living our lives? I wondered if we would find that the losses caused us to think in a way that, otherwise, we never would have considered.
It’s too soon to reflect on that sort of thing. But, thanks to the children, I remembered that there is more than one reality going on at a time and I have the choice on which to center my day. I was reminded that life, while not particularly easy, is a wonder and a gift. As hard as it tried to demand my attention, the face of the economy pales next to the face of a child. I changed the station.
Jul 10
29
Soul Walking
Cate feels restored walking on the beach. It is a renewing spiritual experience for her. It is not so relaxing for me, for I know from previous experience that sooner or later she will start collecting as much of the beach as possible to take with her. Once, in Florida, she had me trying to drag a recently deceased (I hoped) large stingray out of the water. You know, that thing that took out the Crocodile Hunter. What the dictionary describes as possessing one or more large sharp barbed dorsal spines near the base of the whip-like tail capable of inflicting severe wounds or death. She, standing on the beach, kept assuring me it was dead. I, in the water, kept reminding her that she was not a marine biologist!
All this aside, I do have my reflective moments on the beach. In those moments standing on the sand I become aware of how temporal everything is. On the beach, nothing seems to be permanent. The waves roll in and out. The gulls are always on the move. Oceans have no equivalents of landmarks. The ships are not long in view. Unlike solid ground, the sand gives way under each step, and the way it looks today is not the way it will look tomorrow.
Sand walking is not easy. You quickly become aware of leg muscles that normally go unnoticed. Sand walkers must pay attention and keep alert or themselves with wet pants from a rogue wave which has transgressed the unspoken agreement about how far it may advance. Our presence seems like the most permanent thing in this environment, but even our footsteps, the unspoken proclamation that we have passed by, are quickly washed or blown away.
The beach has a way of reminding me that despite all my efforts for certainty, stability, and permanence are built upon the foundation of an uncertain and ever changing world. It is said, “The only thing that is permanent is change.” There is an irony to my reflection. Despite the shifting sand and changing views, it is the sand walker who is the most fleeting and temporal; for when the walker turns and looks back the only thing missing is the walker. Many walkers have come and gone throughout the centuries and it is the ever shifting, changing beach that remains.
When we walk through life in this world, it is like we are walking on a beach. When we look back over life traveled, where will we look for signs that we passed by? Where can we see our footprints, those unspoken proclamations that we were here? It is hard to leave permanent marks in a changing world. I think there is a place we can look, for we walk not only on sand, ground and concrete. My guess is that we are first soul – walkers and in the end we will find our footsteps left upon the landscape of the souls with whom we have chosen to share ourselves.
Souls, like sand, are not easy to walk across. It requires attention, spiritual muscles not always used. Step too lightly, you leave no trace; step too hard and hurt and pain are left behind. Soul walkers must seek to walk in a fashion that leaves behind meaningful impressions.
God spoke to Joshua as he stood before the Promised Land and said, ‘Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon will become the promised land.’ When we look back on our lives what will we see? A soul’s landscape left unchanged or damaged or a few more steps gained for the Promised Land?
One day we will be gone. Our lives last about as long as it takes the world to wink. Perhaps, the most permanent thing about this life we live in this world is our soul walking footprints which cannot be blown or washed away.
Jul 10
14
Join STM on Facebook!
St. Margaret’s has joined the world of social media. We are on Facebook and Twitter. Please take a moment to LIKE our Facebook Page www.facebook.com/stmargaretsks and follow us on Twitter www.twitter.com/stmargaretsks ! Links are also available from our home page.
Jun 10
17
Trinity Food Pantry
For June, please bring ground coffee and dried/powdered milk. We continue to need servers on Tuesdays for this ministry. There are three servers and we need one more to provide for more equal distribution of tasks in the food pantry. We thank you for your donations to the food pantry which helped us serve 508 people (172 households) in April with a total of 1,809 people (662 households) so far this year. Your donations of time and food are greatly appreciated.
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Jun 10
17
To Be A Christian
“To be a Christian is to be a traveller..like the Israelites in the desert we live tents not houses, for spiritually we are always on the move. We are on a journey through inward space of the heart, a journey not measured by the hours of our watch or the days of the calendar, for it is a journey out of time into eternity.” Timothy Ware
