FOR THE LOVE OF MIKE Volume 66 Number 3
MARCH 2016
The Episcopal Church of Saint Michael & All Angels Pacific View Drive at Marguerite
Corona del Mar
California 92625
...From the Desk of the Rector
BELOVEDS IN CHRIST “Empty!” We usually think of “empty” as a bad thing, sometimes even a burden. Sometimes we find ourselves full of nothing, full of “empty”ness. When we go to the refrigerator only to find it “empty,” we leave hungry. When there is no clean water or our water bottle is “empty” we walk away thirsty. When we go to buy something and discover that both our wallet and bank account are “empty,” we are disappointed and embarrassed. Carl Jung said, “The central neurosis of our time is emptiness.” When a beloved dies, the emptiness of grief fills our hearts. Every time we see their empty chair, the empty place at the table, the empty pillow on the empty bed, the emptiness of the grief threatens to overwhelm us. And, we know the “‘empty’ nest syndrome,” and the constant disappointment of the empty promises of the politicians in whom we misplace our hopes. We pretty much despise “empty.” Empty-headed people drive us nuts. We hate leaving “empty-handed.” Yet, empty calories fill diets and empty phrases fill mouths. The sad truth is that many of us are “running on empty,” as Jackson Browne sings. And, we don’t like it. Because emptiness is motionless and keeps us from moving forward or growing. “Empty” is unresponsive, dead and buried. And that is exactly how the women disciples felt that first Easter morning when they ran away from the empty tomb to find the male disciples who were hiding in the upper room. They had witnessed it all: the triumphant entry upon palms into the holy city one week before, Jesus’ “cleansing of the temple,” the “Last Supper,” betrayal. All their hearts, and hopes and dreams, were empty; they had seen them nailed to a cross and sealed in a tomb. They felt used up, disappointed, stricken, confused, hopeless, empty. Because “the tomb was ‘empty’,” “empty” is re-defined, re-framed, restructured, re-made, re-imagined through Christ. “Empty” is now about God’s triumph over sin and death. Now, empty lives can be filled; empty FOLLOWING THE GOOD dreams can be fully lived; empty hope FRIDAY EVENING LITURGY, can over-flow. The Rev’d Canon Haynes will be available in the Sanctuary Empty now reminds us why Jesus for the rite of Reconciliation of willingly took on the emptiness of our a Penitent, pages 447-448 or lives: the emptiness left by trials and 449-452 in the Book of tribulations, the emptiness left by trying Common Prayer, or at other to fill our hollow lives with the “stuff” times by appointment. of this world instead of the Stuff of
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stmikescdm.ladiocese.org
HOLY WEEK 2016 WORSHIP SCHEDULE Palm Sunday, March 20 Holy Eucharist at 8am and 10am with Blessing of Palms and Procession • Evening Prayer (said) at 5:30pm Monday in Holy Week, March 21 Evening Prayer at 5:30pm Tuesday in Holy Week, March 22 Evening Prayer at 5:30pm • Tenebrae at 7:30pm Wednesday in Holy Week, March 23 Holy Eucharist with Healing 12 noon • Evening Prayer at 5:30pm Maundy Thursday, March 24 Evening Prayer at 5:30pm • The Washing of Feet & Holy Eucharist at 7:30pm in the Sanctuary • The Stripping of the Altar • The All Night Watch at the Altar of Repose, 9pm to 9am Good Friday, March 25 Morning Prayer at 9am •Stations of the Cross on the patio at noon • Stations of the Cross for children & families on the patio at 4pm • Evening Prayer at 5:30pm • Stations of the Cross on the patio at 7pm • Good Friday Liturgy with Music at 7:30pm (See note at left below for availability of Rite of Reconciliation of a Penitent) Holy Saturday, March 26 Morning Prayer 9am • Evening Prayer 5:30 pm • The Great Vigil of Easter at 7:30pm with the Lighting of the Paschal Candle, Holy Eucharist and Holy Baptism* Easter Day, March 27 Festival Choral Eucharist with Choir, and Organ and Instruments at 8am and 10am (Childcare provided from 8am through Easter worship)
* Childcare provided for this service Continued on Page 3 BUILDING OUR F AITH: L OVING CHRIST AND SER VING OUR COMMUNITY FAITH: LO SERVING