Women in the Bible Whose Lives Were Strengthened by Prayer

The Virgin Mary Led a Godly Life: The Birth of Jesus Foretold 26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you…

God Bless the Water and Rainy Days

Water is a major theme in the Bible. Perhaps that is because water was so very essential to the nomadic people in the Bible. Consider the 23rd Psalm.  2  He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters….”  Psalm 23 A psalm of David. 1 The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. 2     He makes me lie down…

Celebrating the Very Old Epicopalian Tradition of Rogation Sunday

ut Yesterday, my Episcopal Congregation traveled to a member’s farm to celebrate Rogation Sunday. Since the ceremony involved a blessing of the fields, I assumed that the definition of Rogation would involve a few words about agriculture. But the word “Rogation” is defined as a request. For over 1,000 years, the term “Rogation” has been…

The Tradition of Flowering the Cross at Easter

Image Credit:Wikipedia “Flowering the cross is a Western Christian tradition practiced at the arrival of Easter, in which worshippers place flowers on the bare wooden cross that was used in the Good Friday liturgy, in order to symbolize “the new life that emerges from Jesus’s death on Good Friday”.[1][2][3] The result is a flowered cross that is set near the chancel for Eastertide.[4][5] History “The Christian custom…

The Episcopal Calendar – The Feast Days & Seasons of the Episopal Year

AdventThe Episcopal Church Calendar Begins with Advent. “The first season of the church year, beginning with the fourth Sunday before Christmas and continuing through the day before Christmas. The name is derived from a Latin word for ‘coming.’The season is a time of preparation and expectation for the coming celebration of our Lord’s nativity, and…