Saint Wenceslaus - January 16, 2011 - Eric

What's Happening:
Nothing! Nothing is happening. My life has gone from the frenzied time crunch that is my late summer and fall to a nice relaxing slow pace. So you'd think that I'd have plenty on my mind to talk about, having all this time to reflect, but I don't. I'm not thinking about a lot. I am just really appreciative ... of having a loving God, having great friends, and the opportunity to serve.

Thankful isn't such a bad place to hang out in.

Joe, Brianne, Frank, Teri, Beth, Jen, Patrick, Marilou, and me. Thank you to the nice woman who snapped our photos, she really got into expressing her inner artist.

Location and Architecture:
Saint Wenceslaus, 15353 Pacific Street, Millard. What a pretty, well thought out design for a church. As I've mentioned before, I like the nooks and crannies, and there seemed to be plenty to explore everywhere you turned in this church, and I didn't get the number of pictures I wanted to get, or explore the number of corners either. Another Mass Chaos member came over and gave me the 'you're being too artistic' look, and then suddenly we are taking our group picture. The lighting in the church was wonderful, as was the mixture of old items and new.

You can see all of my pictures of our visit to Saint Wenceslaus here.

Gospel:
"The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." John 1:29

I have no great insight into the Gospel this week, I do want to share this; I cannot read this passage without starting to sing "Behold the Lamb" by Martin Willett. It begins

Those who were, in the dark, are thankful for the sunlight
we who live, we who die, are grateful for His word.

As one who has lived too much of my life in the darkness of fear and self-loathing, I am so grateful for the gift of the light. Very few things can remain scary when they are brought out and examined in the light of the sun. When things are brought into the light of Christ, all fear and misunderstanding melt away to be replaced with love and truth.

Jesus takes away the sin of the world. Not the sins of the good, not the sins of the faithful, not the sins of the other guy ... the sin of the world. This frees us from the burden of having to worry about our sins. It frees us from having to worry about what the other guy is doing wrong. Once we are free of these worries, we can examine ourselves, change our lives, and draw ourselves closer to our God of love.

Prayers:
Please pray for:
Tom who is deployed to Afghanistan, and his wife and two daughters.
Amy and Shannon for protection on their missions.
Kevin as he prepares for his final year of seminary and the priesthood.
Marcus as he has been accepted into seminary and will be discerning the priesthood.
My friend M., who is pregnant, please pray for her and her baby.

Next:
January 23rd @ 10:00 Saint John the Evangelist, 307 East Meigs, Valley.

Peace, Eric