Church of the Resurrection Anglican-Episcopal

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2010-01-09T14:32:00.000+01:00

Sunday after Ascension Day, 24 May 2009

2009-05-24T16:03:00.000+02:00

His Glory, Our Glory

Last Thursday was Ascension Day, when we commemorate Jesus’ ascension into heaven. In the opening chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we read, “When Jesus had said all this, as the disciples were watching, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight.” I think we would have to say that Ascension Day has become the forgotten feast day in our Church calendar. But we do say in the Creed that we believe Jesus ascended into heaven. It is surely not an event that we can forget. The ascension of Jesus reveals wonderful and hopeful and beautiful things to us. So, this morning let’s reflect on what the ascension reveals, and celebrate what the ascension reveals.

We say we believe that Jesus ascended into heaven. We also say in the Creed that we believe that Jesus came down from heaven. The disciples, like the people of their time, did think that heaven, the dwelling of God and the angels was up above the sky. The early leaders of the Church who wrote the Creeds thought the same thing. None of these people knew the science we eventually came to understand. We know that there is no sky; there is no blue vault covering the earth. We know heaven is not up there. Just as we do not believe that Jesus literally came down from heaven, we also do not believe that Jesus flew up among the clouds. That physical view of the Ascension is not what we believe, and is not what we commemorate.

First of all, we must understand that Jesus rising from the dead and Jesus ascending into heaven are one and the same event. Jesus ascension into heaven did not occur forty days after his resurrection. In his rising Jesus ascended. It happened on the same day. The ascension confirms what should be our understanding of the Resurrection. He is risen does not mean Jesus came back to the life he had known for some thirty years. Jesus is risen means he is risen into God. Jesus is risen means this man born of a woman like the rest of us began to live like God---he began to live the eternal life of God. For Mark, Matthew, John and Paul, Jesus rising from the dead into the glory of God was one and the same event. In what they wrote it was not Jesus who came out of the tomb who appeared to the disciples, and lastly to Paul. It was Jesus who came out of heaven who appeared to them. Only Luke writes as if the Resurrection and the Ascension were two separate events. To make them two events was something people could picture, and so it was something people could understand. People’s mind then, and people’s minds always, do work physically. We need pictures to get the picture. We cannot picture Jesus rising into the glory of God, and so it happened that through the centuries Christians adopted Luke’s description of the Ascension, as if it happened forty days after Jesus rose, and even though the other three Gospel writers and Paul offered the Resurrection and Ascension as one and the same event.

At this point I think we all might need to play with a bit of philosophy. Jesus, this man with a body like ours, lives the eternal life of God. We believe that. But where did he go? Where is he? Doesn’t a body, even a glorified body, have to be some place? We do not really need to go into this, but it may get us thinking about things we hadn’t thought about before. Let’s start with this. God is everywhere. God is in this church, in Orvieto, in Italy. God is on the moon, he is in the stars. God is everywhere. All things exist and move and live in God. Question? Where was God before there were galaxies and stars and planets? Where was God before the earth came to be? Where was God before anything existed? Where was God, when there was only God? We can’t say God was everywhere. Why? Because there was no “where” in which to be. Before anything other than God existed, God was nowhere. Where was God before anything other than God existed? Nowhere. God was forever and ever, before there was any space or place to be present in. We have to understand also that after creation, and after all things came to be, God is everywhere but, but, the reality of God, God’s being, is not limited to the extent of the material universe. God is. We cannot picture any of this at all. But the fact is that “to be” isn’t the same as “to be somewhere”. To be doesn’t require somewhere, to be doesn’t require being in a place. For us, to be means having to be somewhere. It’s the only way our physically working minds can think of to be. For us, to be means being somewhere, and if you’re nowhere, then you ain’t. But despite the limitations of our minds, to be and to be in a place are not the same thing.

Where did Jesus go? Where is Jesus? He is alive in God. Where is that? Everywhere and nowhere. Everywhere and nowhere. We stretch our minds to think about being without being in a place. We stretch our minds to think about being not bound by here or there. As I say, no matter how much we stretch our minds, we cannot picture it. Enough philosophy.

We believe in Jesus’ promise that where he is we shall also be, even if we cannot picture what that means. It is where that isn’t anywhere. We believe in his promise. We believe in God’s will for us, and indeed his will for all creation. We believe in humility because the reality of his promise is beyond our minds to imagine. We cannot picture Jesus rising and beginning to live the life of God. We cannot picture what it means that we will rise in his likeness. We cannot picture the new, glorified, material creation, or what it means that in Jesus all things will be made new. But this is our faith.

In awe, in wonder, in thanksgiving, in hope and expectation, we believe with Paul, when he wrote, “We speak God’s wisdom, secret and hidden, which God decreed before the ages for our glory…what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him…these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God…and we speak of these things in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.” Amen.

Sermon, Sixth Sunday of Easter 2009

2009-05-24T06:04:00.002+02:00

“Abide in my love” (John 15: 9)

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells us to “abide in my love.” What a lovely English word “abide” is! We do not have a lot of true Old English words, since English today is about 60% French, with many other borrowed words. Nor is it a Saxon word. No it is one of fewer than one thousand truly English words, and as I say, it is beautiful. “Abide with me, fast falls the eventide,” is my favorite hymn for funerals.

“Abide” conjures up a sense of stability, of belonging to a place and a family. Its conjugation is “abide, abode, abidden.” (I did some etymological research for this homily, you know.) So we can see the derivation of “abode,” a place where you abide.

When Jesus tells us to “abide in his love,” he means therefore to indwell it. To put it on. To use it like a house we build about ourselves, as it were.

What is the quality of this love of God in Jesus? A few lines later he tells his disciples, now his friends, “You did not choose me; I chose you.” In other words, God’s love in Christ is a gift. We did not deserve it, we did not go looking for it, it is just there, a fact, a given. There is something not human about this love, in that it does not depend upon how we respond. When we love, we look for something in return. God’s love is just given, like it or not.

So there is a passive side to this love: we are chosen first. It does invite a response, of course, and this is what I think Jesus means by “abiding” in his love. He has given us commandments, which by keeping them we abide in him. And these commandments are, first, his summary of the Law of Moses, welding two disparate verses together: “love God with all your heart and soul and strength and mind” and “love your neighbor as yourself.” The second is his own, “new commandment,” that we love one another as Jesus has loved us.

I have to say that this strikes me as very difficult. Can you order someone to love another? I mean, I like (indicate someone), but God orders me to love him/her. Whoa! This commandment is not like the others, more familiar: “do not steal, do not bear false witness,” etc. These are negative, like the ones we were given in childhood. “Pierre, don’t touch that hot stove!” “Don’t you hit your sisters!” (I have four…)

But love one another? Let us consider what God’s love is. It does not come to us as a Word, or a book, or tablets of stone. God shows us this love in the form of a…baby. And this child grows to become a “man of sorrows.” His life is characterized by suffering. An intense loneliness stays with him all his life. He endures the adulation and then the rejection of the masses. His family thinks he is crazy. Finally even his friends abandon him to a terrible death, one which he ardently wanted to avoid but could not, for love of us.

So through this Jesus we come to see that it is in our own suffering, rejections, loneliness, fear of death and its pangs, that God in Jesus comes to meet us and share them. It is not only in the sweetness of this life that we encounter the love of God, but also, oddly enough, in those circumstances which so many today like to raise up as proof that there is no such love, no such God.

What follows Good Friday is of course Easter. Death could not conquer Christ, and his love for us, his choice of us before we could respond, promises that it shall not triumph over us either. To abide in the love of Jesus is to be free to face whatever each new day may bring, for we never face it alone. It is to be free to take chance on loving others, as we are loved. In the power of Easter, we can also learn to love our selves, such as we are, for we have first been loved. We have a future, which nothing can take away from us, if we abide in the love of Jesus.
And finally there is what happens when we choose God back, when we purpose to dwell in that unswerving love. When you go to a museum and you see something that is one of a kind, how much is it worth? It is literally priceless. And you and I are therefore priceless in God’s eyes, infinitely precious, because each of us is unique.

There has never been and never will be again a Pierre Whalon (some might rejoice at that). There will never again be [indicate] or you or Father Russ or… Each of you is priceless, irreplaceable, one of a kind. And here then is the key to happiness in this world: to abide in Christ’s love by seeking to do that which God has purposed to do through us. Jesus Christ is unique and priceless, and only he could accomplish on Earth what he was sent to do. You too are unique and priceless, and God has designed you to accomplish that which he has purposed through you. It may seem very small in human eyes, this thing you are to do, but God does not respect our opinions. What seem like great works to us may well be paltry in heaven, and what seems of little account here may well turn out to be decisive in heaven.

So abide in the love God in Jesus Christ. Let yourself be free to love as you are loved, to love God with all that is in you, to love those around you as God loves them, to love yourself, and to enjoy doing that for which God chose you to begin with.

For that is where it all began. So now the question is, how will it end for you?

-The Rt. Rev. Pierre W. Whalon

Sermon for Sunday 24 May

2009-05-22T11:03:00.000+02:00

Jesus rising from the dead and Jesus ascending into heaven are really one and the same event.
Jesus is alive in the glory of God, but WHERE is he?

The Charity Challenge

2009-05-16T08:39:00.005+02:00

Lately I've been reflecting on charity. Not the kind where we drop a few coins in someone's basket or some used clothes at the Caritas, or even the kind where we make a financial contribution to a good cause. While important, those are relatively easy, impersonal forms of charity. But what about charity that challenges us at a personal level? Do we behave charitably towards those who don't fit our internal constructs of being "deserving"? Do we react with charity to individuals who's own personal suffering causes them to behave badly towards us? Do we challenge ourselves to look for "that of God in everyone"?

We all know someone who pushes our buttons - an acquaintance, relative or colleague who just makes us crazy. It's so easy to judge, to disengage - especially when people are legitimately objectionable. While we all know intellectually that we should be charitable towards these people, that to do as Jesus did requires us to be, but how often do we really challenge ourselves to open our hearts and do so?

Do we ration our charity according to who merits it more? Does a disaster victim "deserve" our charity more than a criminal? Is an addict less worthy than a cancer patient? Do recipients of our charity have to be faultless, blameless in their pain for us to engage? I try so hard to remember that the greatest acts of charity are the most difficult ones. Of course this doesn't mean that I always succeed, or even almost always, but I do try. I have to have faith that this spiritual practice, and my imperfect charity, are some small measure of what Jesus asks me to do.

This has been on my mind and heart a lot lately. I suppose I ask more questions than I am capable of answering. I hope that some of you will feel moved to weigh in with your comments.

-Elisabeth C.

Bishop's Committee Meeting Minutes, April 2009

2009-05-14T19:48:00.003+02:00

CHURCH OF THE RESURRECTION

Bishop’s Committee Meeting
Monday, 6 April 2009
3:00 – 6:00 pm

Present: The Rev. Russ Ruffino
Elisabeth Catuogno, Warden
Rosemarie Valentine, Treasurer
Chase Palmeri, Clerk

1. Father Russ opened the meeting with a prayer and a gift.
2. Minutes of the meeting of 3 March 2009 were approved.

Action Report

3. Move to Corso Cavour has been completed.
4. Chairs were purchased at Arreda Famiglia. The wrong chairs were delivered.
5. Tables and closets were delivered and have mostly been assembled.
6. Italian service was held on 22 March, but not as well attended as expected.
7. Gordon College President has written responding to Father Russ’s letter of thanks for hospitality.

Vicar’s Report

8. Bishop’s Committee members received letters of appointment on Sunday 5 April, will be blessed at mass for church dedication Sunday 26 April.
9. Bishop’s Committee meetings will be held first Monday of every month at 3:30 pm.
10. Sermon on finances will be delivered by Father Russ on Sunday 26 April.
11. Sermons will continue to be sent to the full mailing list by Father Russ. Rosemarie will update mailing list to include all members of the congregation and provided contact information.
12. Photographs of the church are needed, particularly of special occasions, like Easter, for our own uses and to provide to St. Paul’s Church and the Bishop. Elisabeth will invite a prospective parishioner to attend and take photos for Easter. Rosemarie and Elisabeth willing to take photographs if that person does not attend and on other occasions.
13. Mid-week service arrangements to be finalized by Father Russ after his consultation with the congregation using a written form seeking their preferences with respect to the time, date and type of service.
14. Insurance policy has been obtained and will be kept with the rental contract.
15. Father Russ will write a bi-monthly newsletter to keep parishioners informed about church calendar, services, events, news, summaries of Bishop’s Committee meetings and actions.
16. Elisabeth has created test version of a blog that might be an easy and timely way to communicate news (see also Warden’s Report below). Father Russ will look at the blog and would like to consider this alternative to newsletter.
17. Role descriptions of Warden, Treasurer, Clerk will be prepared by Father Russ. To this end Rosemarie will provide him with a copy of Vestry Handbook.
18. Bishop’s Committee members should make an effort to write notes about how they do routine tasks related to their assignment for eventual inclusion in the Polices and Procedures Manual for easy access by others.
19. All files and papers related to the church including contract and insurance policy from point 14. above will be kept at the church premises where the church filing cabinet will be located. The church file is presently at Csaba’s house.
20. Past Bishop’s Committee minutes available in soft copy, through March 2009 will be saved by Rosemarie on a disk or pen drive and left in filing cabinet. This will be updated once per year by the Clerk with soft copies of all new documents. The possibility of storing the soft copy of key files on-line in connection with the church web page or the church blog would be explored by Elisabeth.
21. Attention to policies, procedures and committees is needed in four main areas: (i) publicity and outreach; (ii) hospitality; (iii) Sunday school; (iv) altar guild. These areas were discussed here and later during the meeting in reports from Rosemarie and Elisabeth.
22. Publicity and outreach. Cynthia Selfridge has offered to do this over next five months. Elisabeth and Father Russ will contact her to take this further. This was discussed further during the Warden’s Report as below.
23. Hospitality. One person should coordinate this. Kay has been willing so far. Helene Rufty and Carol McConnell have also offered and can be approached by Elisabeth to assist.
24. Sunday school. Elisabeth and Helen Rufty comprise a provisional Sunday School Committee. They have acquired materials except felt board and books that are much needed. And she has been doing some outreach to contact and follow up with English-speaking parents.
25. During upcoming weeks we will continue without Sunday School. Spring and Summer will be used for planning, organizing, and getting last materials. It was agreed that Sunday school will be launched with an agreed, well-planned approach and teaching arrangements in September.
26. Elisabeth agreed to do outreach for the Fall and will contact parents of potential Sunday School children and consult them.
27. A coordinator will be identified for Sunday School, possibly Helene Rufty. A committee should be formally appointed and other members of the congregation should be encouraged to get involved in teaching on a rotating basis. It would also be good to have a person on the Sunday School committee who is not a parent. Father Russ will follow up on this.
28. Altar Guild. The work of the Altar Guild includes cleaning the church, laundering the linens, producing the bulletin, making sure there are church flyers, assigning readers and chalice bearers . Father Russ agreed that he will take on the responsibilities of the Altar Guild, except the laundering of the linens.
29. It was agreed that Rosemarie should have an alternate for the Altar Guild, that training could be held to teach others how to undertake altar guild and acolyte responsibilities at some time in future.
30. It was agreed that cleaning the church could be done by a cleaning lady and that Father Russ will approach his cleaner.
31. Father Russ will be absent from Orvieto while in Rome 13-16 April filling in for Father Michael.

Warden’s report (Elisabeth)

Worship Space

32. Store room will be organized including lighting and closets that will be assembled as soon as chairs are picked up by courier.
33. One closet will be used to store hospitality related material and Rosemarie has requested one cabinet for the altar guild supplies.
34. All contracts and utilities for church have been finalized by Elisabeth.
35. Elisabeth will update the inventory and put “Property of Church of the Resurrection” labels on church property if possible.
36. Flowers for church were donated by Catuogno’s.

Publicity

37. Proposal’s for publicity and outreach activities included:
a. Church blog
b. Increasing links and search optimization
c. Increased amount and quality of contact with people on mailing list
d. Print and on-line advertising
e. Permanent framed posters for tourist offices in Orvieto and Todi
f. Re-design of brochure and exploration of further distribution channels for it
g. Editorial contacts with Fodor’s. Rick Steve’s, Frommers, Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, etc.
h. Information to British, Australian, and American consulates local real estate agents, villa rentals, other businesses providing services to foreigners
i. Person-to-person contact through networking including an invitation to worship and lunch afterwards, to be coordinated with Hospitality committee
j. Father Russ on the road, looking for speaking engagements
k. Direct contact with local study abroad programmes
38. Additional suggestions included:
a. Father Russ officiating for weddings and blessing of marriages
b. Offering church space as a location for musical events
39. Elisabeth informed the Committee that she has created a test version that can be seen at www.cotr-orvieto.blogspot.com The blog could help in increasing the amount and quality of communications with people on the mailing list who could subscribe. She has also contacted some study abroad programmes and begun person to person contacts. Father Russ and the Committee members supported all of the proposed initiatives. Elisabeth agreed to follow up on each to the extent possible. Costs are likely to be Euro 250-300. The Committee agreed that she could incur costs up to this amount. The Treasurer will incorporate expenses for publicity in the budget for 2009.

Signs

40. Elisabeth has met with the Comune of Orvieto and requested permission for a sign above our door and on the arch leading in from Corso Cavour. She will provide to the Comune a design of the sign including wording and dimensions. The actual design will be made later by Csaba or Helene. It was agreed that the dimensions of the sign would be slightly small than the existing grate over the door.

Altar Guild Report (Rosemarie)

41. The Paschal Candle and a brass candle stand were donated by Father Russ and Barbara.
42. The Laudian frontal was purchased.
43. Some vestments have been purchase. They will be stored in the closet in the foyer.
44. Alternate(s) for Rosemarie and need for training noted as above, p. 29.

Treasurer’s Report (Rosemarie)

45. Income from collection plate increased in March, but still collection plate income to-date in 2009 still does not cover the direct costs of holding the Sunday service. Offerings to date in 2009 have been Euro 979.10 direct expenses of holding the service have been Euro 1048.67 leaving a deficit of Euro 69.57 for the first quarter of 2009.
46. Total expenditure made for the Church of the Resurrection, covered by St. Paul’s and other donors, during the period 1 January through 31 March 2009 were Euro 10 048. This included capital and operating expenses, including the costs of the stipend and housing of the Vicar, rent for the church and move in costs.
47. It was agreed that we should have a table that shows all costs of the church for the given year including columns for budgeted (or projected) expenses and for actual expenses. That table should clearly show separately operating and capital expenses.
48. It was agreed that Rosemarie will contact Laura at St. Paul’s to learn how its accounting is set up to determine if the same formats could be used by the Church of the Resurrection, before revising the budget and expenditure tables that she prepared. This will be done, if possible 13-16 April while Father Russ is in Rome.
49. Rosemarie will provide Father Russ with global figures of all operating and capital costs – if possibly by 26 April - so that they can be provided to the congregation to help all to understand the need to mobilize more resources.
50. The Treasurer moved and all agreed that the Treasurer be informed of all expenditure made for the church, regardless of whether reimbursement is sought.
51. All expenditure will be recorded as such regardless of how that expenditure is financed, even when the person or institution making the expenditure does not seek reimbursement. In that case the expenditures will be shown as donations.
52. Petty cash vouchers with receipts attached will be submitted to the Treasurer by the Bishop’s Committee and members of the congregation for all expenditures they make whether or not reimbursement is claimed.

Other Business

53. A calendar of all future events will be included on the agenda for information and review in next Bishop’s Committee Meeting.

Next meeting: Monday, 11 May 2009

Warden's Report

2009-05-13T07:53:00.003+02:00

Fr. Russ has asked me to give a brief Warden's Report directly after the service on May 24th. I'm looking forward to updating everyone on all of our exciting developments and (hopefully) inspiring more of you to get involved in various existing and new ministries at the church. If you won't be in church that day, watch this space for updates after the 24th.

-Elisabeth C.

Morning Prayer Fifth Monday of Easter, 11 May

2009-05-11T10:09:00.001+02:00

A Prayer Attributed to St. Francis

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen.

-Offered by Rosemarie Valentine

The Challenge of Science

2009-05-11T07:15:00.001+02:00

During the first week in March the Vatican hosted a five day conference of theologians, philosophers and scientists to acknowledge the 150th anniversary of the publication of Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Species. (Did you know that Charles Darwin was a member of the Church of England, and that he considered becoming a priest before he got interested in science?) The conference general focus was to affirm that there can be no real conflict between religion and science. Ditto. No one has to choose between science and faith. How much science is there in the Bible? None. To look for science in the Bible is like looking for the recipe for melanzana alla parmigiana in a book on architecture. A book on architecture is not a cook book. The Bible is not a science book. It is a book of faith---a book that tells us about the faith experience of people through the ages and invites us to share their experience.

The early Fathers of the Church were saying this centuries ago, even the “all-time greats” like Augustine. Origen, the third century theologian, wrote that to take the story of creation in the Bible literally would be “absurd”. He questioned how there could be light and dark before the sun and the moon and the stars were created; how there could be plants without the sun; how could it be that God took a daily stroll in the Garden of Eden, or that God on one of his strolls could not find Adam and Eve, when they had hid themselves.

The challenge to religion from science and technology is not going to get any less challenging. It is going to get more challenging Our young people especially need to understand the complementary relationship between religion and science. Should evolution be taught in our schools? Of course, it should be taught. Evolution is the core component of human knowledge. Indeed, evolution is the key to understanding what being human means, and even what it means to be Christian. Should creationism be taught in schools? Not as part of science courses, but it could be included in a humanities course.

When we reflect on all this more deeply, the implications of evolution on our Christian faith is a lot more fundamental than the issue of how things came to be. Evolution requires us to be more open about the traditional teachings of the Church, starting with the very meaning of Redemption. Question? Are our clergy and spiritual leaders prepared to re-conceive and re-define and re-direct the teachings of the Church in view of the ongoing challenge from science and technology?

People of faith should celebrate the challenge of science and technology. We should celebrate what religion and science together contribute to our understanding of God’s creation, and particularly this earth, our island home. Those who fear this challenge, or fear the advancement of human knowledge, limit their faith to a God way too small. We believe that God reveals himself in Jesus the Christ, in Sacred Scripture and in the Breaking of the Bread. We should celebrate that God also reveals himself in his creation “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament reveals his handiwork.” (Psalm 19) We should celebrate religion and science together in a God-proclaimed cosmic enterprise. We should celebrate that the more we understand about God’s creation, its expanse, its power, its mysteries, the more we can come to know, or at least glimpse, the awesome glory of God from whom it all comes.

(Rev.) Russell G. Ruffino, S.T.L., Ph.D.

Collect of the Day, Fifth Sunday of Easter 10 May

2009-05-11T07:10:00.002+02:00

Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life: Grant us to perfectly know your Son Jesus Christ to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life; through Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Fifth Sunday of Easter, 2009

2009-05-11T06:48:00.000+02:00

The Great Amen

There is so very much in our life of faith that I am eager to share with you. Most of all, and in the first place, I am eager to stir up your faith in the total and unconditional love of God. I am also eager to help you grow in your understanding of the meaning and the power of the Holy Eucharist. In fact, I would go so far as to say that if I could not help you to grow in your understanding of the Holy Eucharist, it would mean that I fail you as a minister of the faith. As I say, there is so much to share and there are so few opportunities to share. So I trust you will indulge me that today I will preach not from the readings we have heard, but I will use this time to talk to you about the Holy Eucharist, God’s Gift of Gifts.

Our Prayer Book tells us on page 13 that the Holy Eucharist is our principal act of worship. Without any reservations I believe that presiding at the Holy Eucharist is the most important thing I do for you and with you, and your participation in this principal act of worship is the most important thing you do as Christians. Without reservation I believe that not to understand the meaning and power of the Holy Eucharist is not to understand our faith, or our salvation, or our life in the Spirit, or who we are or what our lives are supposed to be about.

A very helpful way to get at the meaning and power of the Holy Eucharist is to pose this question. What is the most important part in our celebration of the Holy Eucharist, or what makes the Holy Eucharist the Holy Eucharist? It is not the readings from the Bible. It is not the sermon. It is not the Creed. A very popular answer to the question would be that the most important part in the Holy Eucharist is the words, “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood”. Not so. Another popular answer would be that the most important part is receiving Holy Communion. Not so. The Holy Eucharist is first of all worship, and secondarily spiritual nourishment.

Let us also understand that the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is not a re-enactment of the Last Supper, although we do have the impression that is what it is because of the way the priest acts at the altar. Let’s understand that when Jesus said the words “This is my Body” and “This is my Blood”, he was saying these words to the disciples gathered at the table. When I say these words, as every priest should do when he says these words, I am not saying them to you gathered at this table, nor am I looking at you, as if I were re-enacting our Lord’s action. These words are in what we call the Eucharistic Prayer, and I am saying these words in this prayer to God the Father and looking to heaven.

The most important part of the Holy Eucharist, what makes the Holy Eucharist the Holy Eucharist, is you, the people gathered at the table. The most important part is our act of offering. And what do we offer to God?

What happens when we are gathered here to celebrate the Holy Eucharist is a Divine Mystery. What happens is this. The whole Jesus Story becomes present here and now, or better, we are in the presence of the whole Jesus Story. His birth, his home in Nazareth, his teaching in the towns and on the hillsides and in the temple, his compassion, his inspiration, his arrest and mockery, his agony and death, his resurrection to glory, his self-giving, his whole life and all his love, are present, or better we are present to all of that Story here and now. In the Holy Eucharist we are no longer limited by time and space, as God is not limited by time and space. For God all is now. All is present. In the Holy Eucharist we are in God’s now; we are in God’s eternal present. In the Holy Eucharist as it is for God, so it is for us, two thousand years ago is here and now. It is as if we are there in Bethlehem, in Nazareth, in Judea and Galilee, in Jerusalem, on Calvary, and rejoicing in the Risen Lord with the disciples. We are here and now, AND we are there and then. Jesus, living, suffering, dying and rising, there and then, AND Jesus, living, suffering, dying and rising, here and now. Jesus’ perfect life and total and unconditional love are present to us, or better we are in its presence. The Bread and Wine are the signs that Jesus is really and truly present, that Jesus’ whole story is present, that all that he was and all that he is are present, or better that we are present to all of that.

In the Holy Eucharist, God invites us, gathered at this table, to unite ourselves to the whole Jesus Story, to unite ourselves to Jesus’ life and love. His life and love were his perfect worship. His life and love were for us, his life and love are for us, and in the Holy Eucharist together we offer to the Father the whole Jesus Story, Jesus’ life and love as our perfect worship. In the Holy Eucharist Jesus’ perfect adoration and praise become our adoration and praise; Jesus’ perfect thanksgiving become our thanksgiving; Jesus’ perfect satisfaction for unlove becomes our repentance; Jesus perfect petition becomes our petition for all our needs and for all our hopes.

The most important part of the Holy Eucharist, what makes the Holy Eucharist the Holy Eucharist, is you the people gathered at the table. The most important part is that together we offer Jesus and the whole Jesus Story to God. There is a moment in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist when we express that we are here together to offer Jesus’ worship as our worship. In a sense this moment is the most important part in the celebration of the Holy Eucharist. Here it is. We conclude the Eucharistic Prayer, “Through him and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit all honor and glory are yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.” And then THE moment. AMEN, we sing. The GREAT AMEN. God invites us to believe that the whole Jesus story was and is for us, was and is for the whole of creation, and we sing AMEN. Yes, we believe. Yes we acknowledge what the Jesus story means to us and to all creation. AMEN. Thank you, God of love and power. Thank you, Jesus, Lord and Savior. Thank you. AMEN. Thank you that you make Jesus’ story our story and we commit ourselves here and now again to live our Thank you. AMEN. This is what the word “eucharist” means. “Thank you”.

Without our act of offering, and indeed without our AMEN, there is no Holy Eucharist. Without our offering,without our AMEN, there is no worship. Our uniting ourselves to the whole Jesus Story and offering the Jesus Story as our worship, our Amen, makes the Holy Eucharist the Holy Eucharist. I bow. I bow in the presence of Jesus the Christ and his story. I hold up the Bread and Wine, the signs of the presence of Jesus and his story, and what it means to us and to all the world. And together we sing AMEN.

Then these words to say, to highlight, what we are doing, “And now with Jesus the Christ present among us, everything he was and everything he is, together we offer his life and his love to the Father, as our perfect worship, and we say “Our Father”.”

Let us understand that one Holy Eucharist is more powerful than all the worship and prayer that have ever been offered or ever will be offered because the Holy Eucharist is the worship and prayer of Jesus himself.

And then we receive the Bread and Wine and Jesus touches us personally, and by his touch he stirs up the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, and we are forgiven and healed and enlightened and strengthened; we are slowly but surely transformed in Jesus the Christ, so that we can live our Thank you and become everything we should be for ourselves, for others and for the world.

How many people are here this morning? My friends. In each and every Holy Eucharist we are one with all who celebrate the Holy Eucharist today, and with all those who celebrated the Holy Eucharist in the last twenty centuries, and with those who will celebrate the Holy Eucharist tomorrow and tomorrow and into the future. We are one with all the angels and saints. How many are here today? Whether we can count, even only one or two, in every Holy Eucharist there is present always the countless throng, living and dead and yet to come.

The Holy Eucharist is the most important thing we do together. The Holy Eucharist is our greatest privilege and our greatest joy. May God grant us the grace to celebrate each and every Holy Eucharist as if it were our first Eucharist, as if it were our last Eucharist, as if it were our only Eucharist. Amen.

Sermon, Sunday 10 May 2009

2009-05-07T09:28:00.000+02:00

The Holy Eucharist should not be understood as if it were a re-enactment of the Last Supper. The climax of the celebration of the Holy Eucharist is not the words, "This is my Body" and "This is my blood".

What is the Holy Eucharist? What does it mean to us?

Bishop's Visit

2009-05-06T07:09:00.004+02:00

We've just been informed that our Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Pierre Whalon, will be paying us a pastoral visit on Sunday 17 April. Bishop Pierre, in addition to celebrating the Eucharist with us, will be officially installing Fr. Russ as our Vicar.

If you haven't already met Bishop Pierre, this is a great opportunity to get to know him. If you have, you know why this is a don't miss Sunday! If you've been wanting to learn more about the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, the American Cathedral in Paris or anything else relating to the Episcopal Church, this is your chance. Of course, it is also a moment to express our appreciation of and thankfulness for Russ' presence in Orvieto by participating in his installation as our Vicar.

Hope to see you then!

Collect of the Day, Fourth Sunday of Easter 26 April

2009-05-03T15:17:00.002+02:00

O God, whose Son Jesus is the Good Shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Fourth Sunday of Easter, 2009

2009-05-03T15:13:00.003+02:00

Listening to John

When I began to prepare the sermon for today, I found myself in a debate with myself. As usual, I reflected on the readings appointed for today to decide on what kind of message I would offer to you. Again and again I looked at the Gospel reading, Jesus the Good Shepherd. That’s always a sermon asking to be given. Again and again I looked at the passage from the Acts of the Apostles, and there is Peter, the man who betrayed Jesus, the man whom Paul accused of being a hypocrite; there is Peter, full of faith and courage and fire. There’s another sermon asking to be given---to talk about how Peter’s experience of the Risen Christ, how Peter’s experience of the power of the Holy Spirit, had made him a new person; there is Peter standing ten feet tall, speaking before the high and mighties, telling them what they had to hear and pulling no punches.

I thought, all right, is it Jesus the Good Shepherd or Peter the superhero? It would definitely be one or the other. But John, his letter, kept saying “uh, uh.” I wanted to preach about the Good Shepherd. I wanted to preach about Peter, and how we might share in his life changing experience. But John kept saying, “uh, uh.” Why would I base my thoughts on John’s letter, when I had two marvelous possibilities in front of me. No, it would be the Good Shepherd or Peter’s transformation. “Uh,uh,” John said. I was a little annoyed with myself that I couldn’t settle on the Good Shepherd or that inspirational scene in Acts.

I gave in. John got his way, and it’s more than wonderful to reflect on our reading from his letter.

Listen again, “We know love by this, that Jesus laid down his life for us.” Then John’s punch line, “And we ought to lay down our lives for one another.” We ought to lay down our lives for one another!

John was the last surviving Apostle, and it goes without saying, that Christians wanted to see him and meet him and hear him. Any time John was going to visit a group of Christians, they looked forward to his visit with excitement for what he could share with them. Here was someone who was there. He was there at that last meal with Jesus. He was there at the foot of the Cross. He was there; he knew the Risen Christ. What stories and insights he could share. And yet, again and again, in a way, people were disappointed. John’s message over and over again was the same. Love one another. Is that all? Yes, that’s all. That’s all.

John continues, “Let us love not in word and speech, but in truth and action.” Then we come to a couple of verses that really say it all. “This is God’s commandment that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another.” Is that all? Yes, that’s all, but no, John goes on. Love as Jesus commanded us. And how did Jesus command us to love one another? Love one another, as I have loved you, Jesus commanded. Loving your neighbor as yourself is all well and good, but Jesus gives us a new commandment. Loving your neighbor as yourself isn’t going to make you a new you and isn’t going to make this a new world. You are not the measure of how to love. Jesus is the measure of how to love. And how did Jesus love. He loved without measure. He loved totally and unconditionally. In Jesus the infinite, all-embracing love of God is perfectly revealed.

Jesus knows we cannot of ourselves love as he loved. Again and again Jesus teaches that the very Spirit of God, whose Name is Love, dwells within us, the same Spirit who dwelt in him. Jesus commands us to love by the power of the Spirit, Divine Power. When we love by the power of the Spirit, it is God who is loving. Jesus commands us to be channels of the very Love of God. Jesus commands us to make the love of God real. This is what Jesus means when he tell us that the kingdom of God is within us. Loving by the power of the Spirit, we will be transformed into new persons, and this world will be transformed into a new world. The brokenness of the world will be healed and all things will be made new, and the world will be transformed into the kingdom of God, and we will know the abundant life Jesus promised and the complete joy that is God’s will for us.

There is another punch line. “And by this we know that we abide in Jesus and Jesus abides in us, if we are loving by the Spirit who has been given to us.” How could we ever tire of hearing this message? This is what it is all about. This is what Jesus came to tell us. This is what Jesus came to show us by his example, example which climaxed on the Cross. New life? New world? Love one another, and love one another as I have loved you, by the power of the Spirit of God who dwells within you and among you. Is that it? Yes, that’s it. “But.” There are no “buts.” “What if?” There are no “what ifs.” No exceptions. If you want to do it God’s way, this is the way.

So, what about the Good Shepherd? What does it mean to follow the Good Shepherd? It means to try each and every day, enlightened and strengthened by prayer and by God’s Word and by his Sacraments, to try each and every day, to love as he loved, by the power of the very Spirit of the very God.

So, what did Peter’s experience of the Risen Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit do for him? It turned him on to love as Jesus loved. It transformed him so that Peter could and would invite the rulers and the elders and the scribe and the high priest and his whole family to follow the Good Shepherd. We sing “The King of Love, my Shepherd is.”

One of the signs that we are trying to love and live by the power of the Spirit is that we try to see each and every person from God’s merciful perspective. So it is that judgmental sheep and critical sheep cannot hear the voice of the Good Shepherd and cannot experience what Peter experienced. Let’s go further. One of the signs we are trying to see every person from God’s merciful perspective is a sense of humor. Grouchy sheep, in particular, cannot hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. One of the signs we are trying is our smile. Those who really are trying day by day to follow the Good Shepherd are more than people who smile. They are smiles that God builds people around. How does Jesus know his sheep? By the way they love, and frequently by their smiles.

I’m glad I gave in, and decided to think out loud about what John says in his letter. Do we really get the message? Perhaps two steps forward and one step back, but we have to get the message because the command to love as Jesus loved is the whole of it. After all has been said about the Bible and Sacred Tradition, after all has been said about doctrine and Creeds, after all has been said about codes of behavior and Church canons and polity, and name what else, this is what it’s all about.

This is our calling - each and every day to try to love as Jesus loved, by the power of the Spirit of God, whose Name is Love. This is what our neighbors are looking for. This is what those who are less than neighbors are looking for. This is, as Paul writes in his letter to the Romans, this is what the whole of creation is groaning for.

Amen.

Prayer Is a Gift and Not a Job

2009-04-30T16:35:00.003+02:00

Following the Spiritual Life Conference held in Palazzola in March, I have been working with Rev. Barbara Crafton (St. James, Florence) to develop simple ways for participants to develop the prayer life that God wants them to have. Based on the premise that prayer is a GIFT and not a JOB, we are developing easy links to access the Daily Office (for example). Participants are invited to sample various devotions to see what fits. I thought I would share this with our church family should you be interested.

1. Google Episcopal life online.
2. See various boxes at the bottom right of the homepage
3. Click on Spiritual Reflections. Today in Scripture
4. Click on Daily Office Online
5. Mission St. Clare homepage will pop up
6. Click on Daily Office
7. Click on the April Calendar under Rite II
8. Here you will find various options for Daily Devotion such as Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, Compline, etc.
9. The entire devotion is spelled out for you. No fussing around looking up scripture verses. The list on the left hand column will lead you through the service. Pick and choose from there.
Please let me know if you are interested in any of the other links we are developing to assist you in developing the prayer life that God wants you to have.

-Rosemarie Valentine

Absolutely True?

2009-04-30T09:47:00.001+02:00

Are there things that are absolutely true---things that are not open to question---things that can’t change---things that allow for no exceptions whatsoever. Are there “absolutes”? For me, there are five absolutes. I believe a lot of things with varying degrees of certainty, but I am absolutely certain about these five things.

First, I believe life, the world, history, have meaning. There is a “why” to it all. I believe we are not a chance happening of nature. I believe the human story is not merely a series of episodes and challenges. I believe it is all part of an evolving cosmic enterprise. I believe we are responsible for the directions and outcomes of the enterprise.

Second, I believe the human mind can and does know what we call objective truth. What is truth? Truth is “what is”, “what is so”. There are many philosophers who affirm that the human mind can only categorize our sense perceptions and observations, and can’t have any real knowledge of things and events in themselves. I believe that in and through our senses the human mind can and does really know “what is” and “what is so”. I believe human knowledge is not limited to forming mental categories of our sense experience. I believe human knowledge can and does go beyond sense experience, and can and does know and understand things and events in themselves---objective truth.

I believe also that we can and do know objective good. What is “good”? Good is what “ought to be” and “what ought to be done”. I believe that “what ought to be” and “what ought to be done” are not merely categories within the mind. I believe the mind can and does know and evaluate values and behaviors in themselves---objective good.

Third, I believe the human being is a free and self-responsible person. We are eminently more than a piece of machinery. We can and do act and react beyond material and physical forces. We are more than a collection of synapses, more than the result of positive and negative conditioning, conscious or subconscious. Human beings are more than the sum of their parts. We are self-determining, not as self-determining as we think we are, but neither are we as pre-determined as physiologists/ psychologists/psychiatrists/ behaviorists tell us. We are animals, but way more than that. We are persons. We have free will. So, I believe we can be and should be the author of our own uniqueness Free will means not that human beings do whatever they want. Our personhood, our capacities for self-determination, mean we should become everything we can become and we should do everything we can do to the fullest extent of our potential for our own good, for the good of others, and for the good of the world.
Fourth, I believe in God. Belief in God is personal. To believe in God is to acknowledge each and every day God’s personal relationship to us and our personal relationship to God. I do not believe I can prove the existence of God. We cannot and do not get to a personal belief in God through logical arguments. Belief in God is a gift to be hoped for and prayed for. I believe God is Love, and Love is God.

Fifth, I believe Jesus the Christ, is gloriously alive. Jesus who died on the cross rose from death not to return to the life he knew. Jesus rose to live as God lives. I believe the same divine power by whom Jesus was raised from the dead also dwells in us and in all creation. In the power of the Spirit of God we are raised to new life and empowered to love as Jesus loved and to serve as agents of the cosmic enterprise. By the power of the Spirit of God our minds are enlightened to know what is the truth and what is the good. By the power of the Spirit of God our freedom is healed and enhanced. By the power of the Spirit of God our faith is strengthened and increased. I believe that Jesus gloriously alive is the greatest and the most certain of all absolutes, because the revelation of the power of the Spirit of God, whose Name is Love, is the infallible source of all meaning and all hope and all self-realization.

These are my absolutes. I could live well enough if the Bible were not the Word of God. I could live well enough if God were not Triune. I could live well enough if the Church were entirely a human invention. I could live well enough if the sacraments were only ritual. I could live well enough if religious doctrines and philosophical teachings and scientific positions and theories were debunked one after another. BUT I would not know how I could live, if life and the world had no meaning, or if I were imprisoned within my own mind and had to be satisfied with only subjective opinions about truth and goodness, or if my powers of self-determination were an illusion and I were nothing more than a highly developed animal or perhaps a fleshy robot, or if God did not exist and God’s name were not Love, or if Jesus’ death on the cross were the end of him.

These are my absolutes. What are yours?

(Rev.) Russell G. Ruffino, Vicar
Church of the Resurrection

Sermon, Sunday 3 May 2009

2009-04-30T09:42:00.000+02:00

"Love your neighbor, as yourself" is not the Golden Rule for those who follow the Good Shepherd.

What is our Golden Rule?

Praying the Collects

2009-04-28T12:52:00.005+02:00

For a while now, Russ has been inviting us to pray the weekly Collects on Wednesday mornings. It's a nice way to reconnect during the week and invite the Holy Spirit into each of our homes, hotel rooms, dorms - or wherever we are - on a regular basis.

Even if you weren't in church on Sunday to pick up the Bulletin, we're posting the Collects on the blog every week. Are you checking in on Wednesdays? Let us hear what you think.

Participating in the blog

2009-04-28T12:42:00.005+02:00

If you've read through all of the posts or are just starting with this one, we hope you feel welcomed to the Church of the Resurrection in Orvieto wherever you currently find yourself. It is our aim to create a dynamic, informative and enjoyable place where church members, friends and the curious can come together online. We are happy to have your comments to individual posts - allowable on all posts except Russ' sermons (however you're invited to contact him directly if you want to talk about anything you read in the sermons) - and hope that you'll be moved to participate in other ways as well.

Written an article? Visited another congregation on a recent trip? Have a question about the Church of the Resurrection? Took a great photo at church you'd like to post? Seen something online that you'd like to share? Just have some thoughts or musings you've got to write down?

Just put your post in an email, or email attachment in the case of photos, and send it to ecatuogno@cluttonsitaly.com. We'll make sure to get in on the blog.

Hope to hear from you!

Sunday Liturgy Participants, May 2009

2009-04-28T12:12:00.006+02:00

Please check for your name on the following schedule. If you have a conflict, please contact Rosemarie Valentine at docval224@yahoo.com

Collect of the Day, Third Sunday of Easter 26 April

2009-04-26T12:31:00.000+02:00

O God, whose blessed Son made himself known to his disciples in the breaking of bread: Open the eyes of our faith, that we may behold him in all his redeeming work; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Third Sunday of Easter, 2009

2009-04-26T11:45:00.000+02:00

Facing Reality

I feel that what I am finally getting around to talking to you about today is one of the most difficult things a minister has to do. I believe it is part of the responsibility of every minister---vicar, rector or bishop, but I confess that personally I find it difficult to talk about. I have to talk to you about our support for this mission Church of the Resurrection. We have to face the reality of our financial situation.

Oscar Wilde, the Irish playwright, once remarked, “ When I was young, I used to think money was the most important thing in life; now that I am older, I know it is.” We do not believe that money is by any means the most important thing in life, but we can understand, and we do understand, that there are things that are important that just can’t happen and do not happen without the finances to back them up.

Let’s look at the Bible. There are some 500 verses on prayer in the Bible. There are 500 verses on faith. There are 2000 verses on money and possessions. In the Gospels one in ten verses deals directly with the topic of earthly treasure. Jesus spoke more often about money than he talked about heaven and hell. Money, what we have, is not the most important thing in life, but what we do with it is certainly way up there. And when it comes to sharing what we have, Jesus offered this divine and exuberant guarantee. “Give and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap.” (Luke6:38) Paul in his Second letter to the Corinthians wrote: “You voluntarily give according to your means, and even beyond your means, even begging earnestly for the privilege of sharing in our ministries…you gave not merely as expected. You gave yourselves first to the Lord…You excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in love, so we want you to excel in this generous undertaking…And Paul goes on, “God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance…You will be enriched in every way for your great generosity.”

Now let’s look at our budget. And these are only the basics. There are the costs involved with our worship. There are costs involved with our hospitality. We have to provide a stipend to our organist every week. There are printing costs for our Sunday bulletin and other materials. There are office supplies we need. There are equipment and supplies for the Sunday School. What about reaching out to the community? Every year at Christmas time we have an ecumenical service of Lessons and Carols at the Church of Sant’Andrea with a reception afterwards. Last year that event cost us 400 Euros. What kind of charity can we offer? Shouldn’t we make a donation to the relief of the people in Aquila and the Abruzzi region? What about spreading the word about our presence here in Orvieto? What about the costs involved in growing our congregation, and to survive and thrive we must grow? What about the rent for this our new home; that’s 550 Euros a month, plus utilities. We have a donor helping for a while, but at some point this help will come to an end. What about our role in the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe? We are expected to cover the costs of sending delegates to our convention. Lastly, I do have to mention that I am more than okay with lots of pasta and I have found wine at 99 centesimi a liter that isn’t bad, but there is a stipend involved in having a full time priest. There are the costs for the apartment I’m living in, and that’s 500 Euros a month for rent, plus utilities. As I say, these are only the basic costs. What would you figure these basic costs add up to?

Bottom line? The total cost of keeping our doors open adds up to 2870 Euros a month. That’s 700 Euros a week. Along with our benefactor who is temporarily helping us with the rent for our church, currently St. Paul’s in Rome is covering two-thirds of our costs. It goes without saying that were it not for St. Paul’s support and its belief in our mission, there would be no Church of the Resurrection. So here then is the question which we each have to answer. How much should each of us offer to meet these costs? You can do the math. Look around each Sunday and take note of how many are here. So, what should your share be? What should you offer regularly, and this means what should you offer even when you are not here? When you are not here, the costs are the same. Being welcomed among us, being part of our spiritual family, should never depend, and will never depend, in any way whatsoever on the financial support a person can offer. But, don’t we all have to decide what our honest share is? The Church of the Resurrection wants to be here for you, but how can we be here for you and for anyone and everyone who comes to us, unless each and everyone of us offers what we can for its necessary support, unless we each do our part in showing how much we believe in this mission and how much it means to us?

This is about a lot more than having the resources to pay our bills. This is about real sacrifice. This is about us. It’s about us. It’s about what we truly believe in. It’s about what we believe in together. It’s about how deeply, how personally committed we are to what is happening here and to what can and should happen here. It’s about our Gospel vision of the Church. We are a living vision of a Church in the making. We are creating a vision of the Church which we hope will make a difference in the way people see the Church. We are making a miracle happen. Does that sound too romantic? Well, that’s the truth of it.

Jesus is Savior, but we have to understand that our relationship with Jesus, and Jesus’ relationship with us, is not one on one. That’s not the way it works. We are each one with Jesus as members of the community of faith, members of his Body, members of each other. Christian and loner are contradictory terms, just as human and loner are contradictory terms.

This is about taking our faith seriously. This is about taking our love seriously. If we want to know who we are, we should look more than where we spend our money. We should look at where and how we give it away. This is about saying thank you for the blessings in our lives. This is about saying thank you for the wrong turns we did not take, for the crosses we did not have to carry, and for the grace to carry the ones we did. This is about where our heart is. Where our treasure is, there will be our hearts also. Life is not what we have time for. Life is what we make time for. Generosity is not what appears possible. Generosity is what we make possible.

In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples, “You are witnesses…and see, I am sending upon you what my Father promised.” Jesus is saying the same to us, telling us that we have been clothed with power from on high. The very Spirit of God, the same Spirit who dwelt in Jesus, the same Spirit sent upon the disciples, dwells in us and among us. This is all about our faith that all things are possible with God, that we can do all things in him who strengthens us.

“Tutto posso in colui che mi da forza.

Amen.

Collect of the Day, Palm Sunday 5 April

2009-04-03T14:20:00.003+02:00

Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find in none other than the way of life and peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Holy Week and Easter

2009-04-02T21:09:00.002+02:00

Palm Sunday 5 April
Holy Eucharist 10:30

Maundy Thursday 9 April
Service 12:00
Agape lunch immediately following

Good Friday 10 April
Service 12:00

Easter Sunday
Holy Eucharist and dedication of new space 10:30
Celebratory rinfresco immediately following

The Little American Church

2009-04-02T20:53:00.003+02:00

Word has gotten out around town about the "chiesetta americana" that's finally found a home. While native Orvietani understand where to find us after just a few words of explanation, it can take less experienced Orvieto hands a bit longer to understand where we are located.

Corso Cavour is the main drag of Orvieto that runs from Piazza Cahen (where the funicolare station is) all the way to Piazza della Repubblica (where the town hall is located). Though our address is Corso Cavour, 63 - which would indicate a location right in the stretch of shops between the Drogheria Svizzera and the Torre del Moro - we are actually located on a small cul-de-sac that opens off the north side of the Corso. Look for an archway directly across from the Ricevetoria Lotto and walk to the end. If you notice a hairdresser and some professional studios, you're in the right place. Our door is well marked.

Finding us is the easy part - parking can sometimes be a bit tougher. Sundays the best bet is the pay spaces in Piazza del Popolo. Other days of the week excepting Thursday and Saturday mornings (because of the market) this is also a good option, though finding a spot can be more difficult. Other possibilities are the pay spaces in Piazza Marconi or Piazza Cahen (if you don't mind a bit of a walk). The new parking structure on Via Roma across from the ex Caserma is rumored to be opening this spring, which should free up the parking situation in town considerably.

From Piazza Cahen (funicolare) there is also a mini-bus that goes to Piazza della Repubblica, just a hop, skip and a jump from the church.

Fifth Sunday of Lent, 2009

2009-04-02T17:58:00.003+02:00

Love is the Way of the Cross

I am sure we have all visited the Catacombs. did you ever notice that among all the artwork on the walls, there are no crosses? The early Christians heard again and again how Jesus suffered and died, but they never thought of Jesus as the one who suffered and died. For them, Jesus was the one who is gloriously alive. Jesus is the one who commanded them to love as He loved. Jesus was the one who proclaimed that through love and in love we are saved and made holy and the world is made new. In the catacombs there are the bread and the cup; there is the Good Shepherd. There is the symbol of the fish. But no crosses.

As time went on the cross did become the principal symbol of the Christian faith. In the eleventh century, Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, a theologian and philosopher, wrote a book Why the God-Man? to explain why God became man. This book, and the belief represented in this book, put the cross once and for all front and center as the symbol and more than the symbol of the Christian faith. Anselm explained that sin irreparably offended the majesty of God. Sin separated man from God, and human race, since Adam, on its own, could not make up for this offense, this Lese Majeste. Only someone equal to God could repair the separation. God in his mercy became one of us to accomplish this. Anselm affirmed that God required as payment, the payment to buy us back from Satan, “to redeem us”, the sacrifice, the suffering and death of a divine person. The church adopted this explanation of why the second person of the Holy Trinity became man and how we are made right with God, namely though Jesus’ suffering and death. So, it was not merely the cross that is the symbol of the Christian faith, it is the crucifix. The decoration of the churches and painting, sculpture and eventually even the cinema reflected this teaching. We should take note that all this happened in the Church of the West. It did not happen in the Church of the East. To this day we find no crucifix in any Orthodox church and the cross in an Orthodox church always manifests Jesus triumphant in priestly or kingly robes.

“Anselm. Let’s think again.”

Let’s really pay attention to the passage from Jeremiah that we read today and to the words he puts in the mouth of God: “I will put my law within them… I will write it on their hearts… No longer shall they teach one another, ‘Know the Lord’, for they shall know me, from the least of them to the greatest.” What is this law within? It is the very indwelling of God, whose name is Love. In the letter to the Hebrews we hear “Jesus learned obedience through what he suffered”. What was the obedience he learned? He learned how far love goes, how far God who is Love goes. Listen to Jesus’ words in John’s Gospel: “What should I say – ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour… so that when I am lifted up, I will draw all people to myself”. For this reason that I have come to this hour. What is the reason that brought Jesus to this hour? To reveal that the way of healing and salvation, rebirth, the way to make all things new is the way of total and unconditional love.

Here is the fundamental truth of faith. Salvation and rebirth are not really from obedience to laws on the outside. Salvation and rebirth are from obedience tot h one law, the one new commandment, on the inside, the law of Love. The law of total and unconditional Love. And the truth of the whole matter is this: the same spirit whose name is Love, who dwelled in Jesus, is the spirit who dwells in us and among us. Salvation and rebirth come from love. Not love by our own power, but love but the power of the spirit of God whose name is Love. “We adore you, o Christ, and we bless you. Because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world.”

Yes, but are we to believe that the all-holy and all-good God required and willed the agony and the suffering and the bloody death of his only begotten son as the price that had to be paid for the redemption of the world? Are we to believe that we are saved, and reborn, that all things are made new, through the horror of crucifixion?

“Anselm, everyone, let’s think again.”

We adore you, o Christ, and we bless you because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world, but, o Christ, you have redeemed the world not by your suffering and death, but on the cross you revealed to the world what total and unconditional love is. We adore you and we bless you because on the cross, o Christ, you draw all people to yourself, inviting us all to follow the way of the cross, which is the way of total and unconditional love.

Jesus was born not to suffer and to die as if salvation was to come though his suffering and death. Jesus was born to love as no one ever loved and in loving like that to live life to the full as no-one had ever lived life to the full. Jesus was born to reveal to the world that God’s gift to the world is the gift of Himself, the gift of His spirit, whose name is Love in whom everyone is called to love as He loved and to live as He lived.

Jesus was born to reveal how far love can go and how far love must go. This was the hour He came for, that on the cross the revelation of the gift of perfect love could be perfectly known. He was born to reveal what can happen in love, what can happen in the power of the spirit whose name is Love and who dwells in the world as the spirit of love dwelled in Him. This is the same spirit, the spirit of Love, who in the beginning swept over the face of the waters in creation, by whom all things came to be and by whom Jesus was raised from death – and by whom we are redeemed and raised to new life and by whom all things are being made new.

There is no sacred power in suffering and death. There is power in what Jesus’ suffering and death reveal, and that power is infinite. It is the power of the gift of the spirit of God who is Love, total and unconditional Love. How far should love go? On the cross Jesus reveals, “this far!” Jesus commands us to love as He loved not by our power but by the power that was in Him, the power of the spirit of God Himself. And in this power, in this loving, the forces of evil are overcome and we are redeemed. And through us the world is to be transformed into the realm of God, which is the realm of Love.

Anselm, couldn’t you see that when we focus on Jesus’ suffering and death as if these in themselves were what accomplished our salvation, we betray His cross? Couldn’t you see that when we focus on sin and weakness and fear, and not on the dignity and the power of our calling, we betray Jesus’ cross? Couldn’t you see that when we focus on the brokenness of the world rather than on what could be and should be in the power of the spirit of Love who is revealed to us, we betray Jesus’ cross?

Our faith began not in suffering and death. Jesus dies not by the will of God. Jesus was made to seem the fool by those who clung to the way things were, but those who build walls that separate people from each other. Jesus was dangerous as all those who follow Him are dangerous because they give of themselves for the sake of a new way of thinking and a new way of seeing and new priorities, and who turn things upside-down.

This is our faith, faith in our possibilities and in the world’s possibilities here and now and into forever. Possibilities in the power of love, the love perfectly revealed on the cross by which Jesus draws all people to Himself. Is the cross the sign that the work of salvation is complete? Look around. Does it look complete? Jesus has finished His part. The cross is the sign of salvation ongoing. The cross calls us to love as He loved and do our part in the salvation of the world. The cross that we see everywhere is not meant to be the symbol of suffering and death. The cross we see everywhere must inspire us, stir up the spirit within us and among us, to obey Jesus’ new, all-embracing, all powerful commandment that we love one another even as He loved us. Even as He loves us. Not as if we love by our own power, but that we love by the power of the indwelling God whose name is Love.

A Home of Our Own

2009-04-01T19:59:00.000+02:00

We are all so joyful at finally having our very own space. As of March 2009, the Church of the Resurrection moved into our new home at Corso Cavour, 63 in the historic center of Orvieto. We have a small yet beautiful worship space with an additional multipurpose room to be used for hospitality, Sunday School, meetings, adult education and whatever else we dream up. We also have a bathroom and a large storage room. St. Paul's has been generous in supporting our furnishing needs and we give thanks for an American friend who is supporting our rent as we work to become a self-sustaining parish.

We are truly blessed!

Sunday School

2009-04-01T17:47:00.000+02:00

We really want to get our Sunday School back up and running. Now that we're in our new space and have a wonderful setup for the kids, we just need to get going with our outreach. We had seven kids coming regularly before Christmas, all in the 2-5 year old range. One family moved away and another stopped coming, so our ranks have been depleted a bit. It's so important to all of us to provide meaningful religious education for our children. Hopefully other English speaking and bilingual families with young children will discover our little church soon.