Passion Sunday
The Fifth Sunday in Lent

WE beseech thee, Almighty God, mercifully to look upon thy people; that by thy great goodness they may be governed and preserved evermore, both in body and soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Readings appointed for this Sunday below: Hebrews ix. 11, St. John viii. 46.

If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death.


The new testament (covenant) is epitomized in this quote. Keep the saying of our Lord Jesus, and you shall never taste death, but rather you shall live forever with him. The Gospel today records one of the encounters that Jesus had with the Priests and Pharisees over his ministry. In his discourse with them, he made clear who he was, and that his teachings were from the Father because he proceeded from the Father. He tells them, before Abram was, I AM. Their response was attempted murder.

The promise of eternal life that Jesus gives here is conditional. It requires that we keep his sayings. As Jesus says in Matthew 5:20, For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Today many Christians are being led astray by those who have been called to lead them. They are the blind leading the blind. They indulge in behavior that is explicitly proscribed by the Scriptures and they, and many of their peers, attempt to convince their assemblies that this violation of Scripture is "good" and blessed by God. Others give tacit approval to unrighteous behavior by not denouncing it vehemently from the pulpit or pew. Thousands of Christians look up to these leaders and the result is a generation that is being led astray. We must take the Gospel seriously, or we shall certainly loose our inheritance.

Jesus was clear in today’s Gospel. He was clear in Matthew 5:20, the whole of the Scriptures are clear. Practice unrighteousness while representing the Church as a minister of the Gospel and you shall have the same promise that the Pharisees and scribes in today‘s Gospel had. Jesus told them they were liars and sons of the Father of all lies -- Satan. Keep his sayings and have eternal life, flaunt them before the assembly and suffer eternal damnation.

Our collect this day calls on our Lord to look upon his people that they may be governed by his great Goodness. You will find his standard of Goodness in the Scriptures, not in the vain speeches and letters of corrupt Church leaders. There is but one mediator, as Paul points out, he is our High Priest and only Mediator. He has called us to righteousness. Those who honestly attempt to live up to his standard, follow him, and do what is Right, will receive the promised prize. Those who have no fear of God and choose to live outside of his sayings will likewise win their prize.

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The Epistle. Hebrews ix. 11.

CHRIST being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.


The Gospel. St. John viii. 46.

JESUS said, Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered, I have not a devil; but I honour my Father, and ye do dishonour me. And I seek not mine own glory: there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you; but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple


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The Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary. [March 25.]

WE beseech thee, O Lord, pour thy grace into our hearts; that, as we have known the incarnation of thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an angel, so by his cross and passion we may be brought unto the glory of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Annuciation is celebrated in the traditoinal Church exactly nine months before Christmas. Every year at this time, I read the story of the Annunciation and think of the miracle of God’s creation. The Scriptures again and again celebrate conception as something people pray for and rejoice in. All of God’s children are special to him, for he knows them when they are created in the womb; he knows their innermost being.

America is in a moral dilemma. Abortion is a great evil, and it reaches it’s ultimate evil in partial-birth abortion. As the courts rule against laws which would prohibit these abortions, others call for laws which would make the killing of a fetus by any other means by another person as murder. Can one logically hold both views? I think not. However, I do believe that the Scriptures for the Feast of the Annunciation clearly point to the Truth. God abhors the killing of the conceived child in womb of a woman. God is active in every aspect of creation, and as the psalmist wrote: For thou didst form my inward parts: Thou didst cover me in my mother`s womb. I will give thanks unto thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: Wonderful are thy works; And that my soul knoweth right well. [Ps 139]

The Gospel today tells of God’s great gift to the world of his Son, Jesus, through the miracle of the Holy Spirit coming in power over Mary so that Jesus might be conceived in the Virgin’s womb. And when did this miracle occur? - at the point of conception, when the power of the Almighty was upon her. It was the fulfillment of the prophecy of the seventh Chapter of Isaiah, that a Virgin should conceive a son, whose name shall be Immanuel – God With Us.

America has found it convenient for all the wrong reasons to allow the slaughter of millions of children. A mother’s womb is the most dangerous place for a child in this land. We go along treating this gift of God like so much unwanted rubbish to be discarded at a whim. I wonder what we have thrown away in our indulgence. God’s command was to go forth and multiply and be fruitful – not to kill our own children.

O Lord God, who did send the Holy Ghost upon the Virgin Mary that she might conceive your only Son, Jesus Christ, to come into this world that we might be saved, so send your Holy Spirit upon this land to convict all men of the sanctity of life, and to move our hearts in compassion to save the unborn generations. Amen

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The Epistle. Isaiah vii. 10.

MOREOVER the Lord spake again unto Ahaz, saying, Ask thee a sign of the Lord thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the Lord. And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also? Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

The Gospel. St. Luke i. 26.

AND in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: and he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Elisabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.

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The Third Sunday in Lent.

WE beseech thee, Almighty God, look upon the hearty desires of thy humble servants, and stretch forth the right hand of thy Majesty, to be our defence against all our enemies; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Ephesians v. 1. St. Luke xi. 14.

Blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.

In today's Gospel, Jesus concludes his dialog with a blessing of those who hear (understand) God's Word and do it. This is closely akin to St. Peter's statement concerning Cornelius in Acts 10, "he who fears God and does what is right is acceptable to Him." The person who does follow God's Word will indeed be happy, for they shall have the Peace of God in their lives, and the promise of the inheritance of the greatest prize imaginable in their vision. Praise the Lord!

Jesus was about his Father's work in healing people, and he did so body and soul. He cast the devil from the dumb man, thereby cleansing his soul, so that his tongue would be loosed. There are always the critics and naysayers who will malign a good work, and such was the case here. They went even further to impute evil into Jesus' good works. Jesus rebuked these blasphemers, and promised they would be judged for their malicious accusations. Jesus then warns that once evil is cast out, it may quickly return with a sickness much worse than before (seven times worse - perfectly and completely). At the same time, he gives the remedy, Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. The person who has some evil excised from his life, and then fills his life with what is good, wholesome and pleasing to God in thought, word, and deed, shall indeed be happy.

In St. Paul's letter, he admonishes the Christians at Ephesus to guard against all manner of uncleanness. I wonder if he had observed or heard of some problems with the assembly there? Perhaps some had returned to their old ways or perhaps they never completely abandoned them all or continued to have close associations with those who were engaged in the unclean acts.. Whatever may have been situation, Paul was very clear that those who persist in such behavior would never inherit the Kingdom of God. He instructed the people to rebuke the unclean, and to avoid contact with them. As in the Gospel, he encourages them to goodness saying, :for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.

What shall we do? Obey our Lord's command to hear and do the word of God. General Thomas J. Jackson's advice for Christian living was "The most important thing in the world is to know the will of God, and then to do it!" During this season of Lent, clean out your house as in the parable in the Gospel. Identify all associations that are applicable to our lesson today and dissolve them. Look for every thought, word, and deed that is outside of the Goodness and Righteousness that Paul commends and sweep them away. And through your prayer, study and discipline, fill you life with God's goodness and enjoy the happiness and blessings that shall come through His word.

Let us Pray.

Almighty God, Captain of the Host, aid us in our defense against the evil of this world, from every evil spirit that would enter in. Help us to see those things in our lives that hurt us and are in conflict with your Word and to sweep them from our lives, and send your Holy Spirit to strengthen us in all goodness that we may be protected from all evil; through Jesus Christ our savior and only Mediator. Amen.

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READINGS

The Epistle. Ephesians v. 1.

BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be not ye therefore partakers with them. For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make man-ifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

The Gospel. St. Luke xi. 14.

JESUS was casting out a devil, and it was dumb. And it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake; and the people wondered. But some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the chief of the devils. And others, tempting him, sought of him a sign from heaven. But he, knowing their thoughts, said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desola-tion; and a house divided against a house falleth. If Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because ye say that I cast out devils through Beel-zebub. And if I by Beelzebub cast out devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? therefore shall they be your judges. But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: but when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils. He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest; and finding none, he saith, I will return unto my house whence I came out. And when he cometh, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh to him seven other spirits more wicked than himself; and they enter in, and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lifted up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked. But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.



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Stonewall Jackson - True Courage

Highly recommended for everyone - a first-hand account of General Jackson's actions in the war from a religious prospective, and his religious beliefs and practice, this is an excellent source document written by his Chief of Staff, Reverend R.L. Dabney, D.D., published in 1863 in Richmond. See it here.

True Courage: a Discourse Commemorative of Lieut. General Thomas J. Jackson




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Colonel Benjamin Everidge Caudill, CSA - Evangelist and Peacemaker
by Faron Sparkman, Commander, Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp, SCV

Benjamin Everidge Caudill was born on Sandlick Creek near Whitesburg in what is now Letcher County, Kentucky on January 11, 1830, the son of John A. Caudill and Rachel (Cornett) Caudill. Ben, as he was always called, grew up in mountains of Eastern Kentucky, with little advantage of schooling. His first teacher arrived from Virginia without a place to live and began teaching. At the site of a hollow tree centrally located between the Caudill and Hogg property, school was conducted.

The most noteworthy part of his youth was that he followed the local Old Regular Baptist preachers from the time he could talk. Daily two of his brothers and sister served as his congregation while practiced the art of delivering the word. At school in Whitesburg he would preach to his schoolmates. After the usual rebellious years of youth when he left home for a period, Ben returned in September of 1847.

In February of 1848 he married Martha L. Asbury of Tazewell County Virginia and during the summer of 1848 became a devout Christian. He built on home on Sandlick Creek and by 1850 joined the Sandlick Old Regular Baptist Church. Two years later in 1852 he moved to Tazewell County, Virginia and remained there one summer. By the fall of 1852 he moved back to Kentucky because he said his thoughts were so filled with concern for his lost friends in Letcher County that he could not find peace for himself or his family. He also felt inadequate because of his lack of education and not wishing to disgrace the Christian cause kept his strong desire to reach the unchurched a secret. Ben struggled with this dilemma for four years. He tried to take his mind off the situation by immersing himself in various activities. In the 1850s Ben Caudill entered politics by running for and winning the position of Constable in Whitesburg. But after working in the office for a time he found his thoughts were so consumed by his religious convictions that he was forced to resign. Ben Caudill spent much of his time studying the Bible and because of this improved his reading skills. On a Saturday night near the end of February, 1854 he preached his first sermon at the Rockhouse Church. He soon pastored several area churches.

When war came to the mountains of Eastern Kentucky Ben Caudill's sympathies were with the south. He temporarily left his church activities to enlist in the Confederate Army. Captain Oliver A. Patton (later Lt. Colonel) of Covington, Kentucky was sent to Whitesburg to assist Ben Caudill in recruiting and organizing a company of local soldiers as part of the 5th Kentucky Infantry. By November of 1861 Ben was given the rank of Captain and placed in command of Company F. 177 men, mostly from Letcher County, served under Captain Caudill for a one year term in this regiment and saw almost continuous fighting among the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia. Caudill and the men of Company F were engaged in the Battle of Middle Creek and the Battle of Princeton in 1862. As early as August of 1862 Captain Ben Caudill was already underway recruiting a regiment of his own comprised of men from throughout the mountains of Eastern Kentucky. By the fall of 1862 Caudill had raised nine companies of men from over 13 counties and was promoted to the rank of Colonel in command of the 10th Mounted Rifles. Ben Caudill was well known as a charismatic traveling evangelist throughout Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern Virginia, a tremendous asset in recruiting his regiment of 1,100 men. Many of the soldiers were related in some way to Colonel Caudill and in fact 32 of the men carried the Caudill name, including five of Ben's brothers. Caudill's 10th Kentucky was engaged in small battles in Perry, Letcher, Harlan and Breathitt Counties on a daily basis for ten months. During this period Colonel Caudill's home on Sandlick Creek in Letcher County was looted and burned and his family was forced to take refuge first in Russell and then Washington County Virginia.


Before dawn on the morning of July 7, 1863 while Colonel Caudill's regiment was encamped at the current site of the Wise County Courthouse in Wise, Virginia (then known as Gladeville), a surprise Union attack led to a fierce but short battle resulting in the capture of 122 men. This included Colonel Caudill and the bulk of his officer corps. Several hundred of his men managed to escape but it was devastating blow to the regiment. Caudill himself was taken to Kemper Barracks, Camp Chase, Johnson Island, Baltimore, Fort Delaware, Fort McHenry, and eventually to Hilton Head, where he was chained in the lower decks of the ship, U.S.S. Dragoon for forty days as one of the "Immortal 600." Colonel Caudill said he endured the most extraordinary trials of his life during his time in prison. Not withstanding this he preached the entire time at each of his prison stops. Colonel Ben Caudill was exchanged on August 3, 1864 and returned to his command on Sept. 17, 1864. He continued fighting with the 10th Ky. Mtd. Rifles (renamed the 13th KY. Cavalry in February of 1865) until word of Lee' s surrender reached the regiment while camped on the New River in Virginia.

After the war Caudill settled in Allegheny County North Carolina and immediately returned full time to the ministry, beginning a relentless schedule as an evangelist on horseback throughout North Carolina and Virginia. Even in this area of the south there were many difficult and even life-threatening situations during his ministry in the late 1860s fueled by anti-Confederate sympathies. Blue or Gray politics managed to split many church groups apart in this region of the country but Caudill's vision was unwavering. He spoke of

"laying aside all party spirits and placing the churches on the same ground they were on before the war." He said that in the future they must be governed only by the Word of God and they must try to live in peace.

In 1879 Ben Caudill moved from North Carolina back to Kentucky, settling in Clay County and working with a new group of churches. His ministry was not without controversy as he spent much of the decade of the 1880s attempting to convert "missionary" Baptist churches throughout Kentucky to the doctrines of the Old Regular Baptist denomination. In 1888 Caudill traveled throughout Ohio and Indiana in revival meetings while starting new churches. On January 7, 1889 Ben Caudill left his home near Manchester, Kentucky for Tennessee to help start a new church. After completing this mission he was hoping to return to Kentucky to visit his son in Barbourville before returning to Clay County but fell ill in Claiborne County Tennessee on January 18th and was confined to stay at the home of a friend. Doctors were summoned but nothing could be done for the ailing preacher who was suffering from a severe cold, pleurisy and exhaustion created by his constant travel schedule. Ben E. Caudill died on February 11, 1889 at the age of 59. His body was returned to Kentucky by his children and laid to rest in the Slate Hill Cemetery just out of London, Kentucky. Ben E. Caudill was more than an ordinary man. A close friend said

"As a citizen and neighbor he was seldom excelled. As a professor of the Christian religion he fully demonstrated his faith by living soberly, righteously and Godly and with an ability given him by God. Truly, we as his survivors can say he fought a good fight and finished his course on the field of battle with his feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace."

Copyright Faron Sparkman 2004 - Used by Permission
Mr. Sparkman has commanded the Colonel Ben E. Caudill Camp, SCV, for the past 11 years. The camp is located in the moutains of Southeastern Kentucky in Breathitt, Letcher, and Perry Counties. At the time of this publication, the camp was the largest in Kentucky. Mr. Sparkman is related to Colonel Caudill, and his ancestor, Fifth John Sergeant John Sparkman, served under Colonel Caudill and was also a prisioner of war. To learn more about the Camp and its mission to preserve the truth and heritage of the Kentucky Confederate visit this website www.bencaudill.com

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Keep us Body and Soul Second Lent

ALMIGHTY God, who seest that we have no power of ourselves to help ourselves; Keep us both outwardly in our bodies, and inwardly in our souls; that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Lessons (see below): 1 Thessalonians iv. 1. & St. Matthew xv. 21

In today’s collect, we confess our inability to guard ourselves physical or spiritually, and beg God’s help to keep us whole. The collect clearly shows the concern with the body as well as the soul, and the two are ever related. The care of the outward, physical, person has a great deal to do with the health of the inward person. That which spots the physical person, harms the inward soul.

Paul in the epistle to the Thessalonians admonishes us to "abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour. When we give ourselves up to Christ, it is body and soul, and we must guard one as the other – for we are incorporate in the Body of Christ. How is it then that so many in the Church can accept those things which defile the body? It is a great puzzle to me how the Church itself turns its face from obvious uncleanness and evil. Let us look at two contemporary examples of major branches of the Church. The first is the Roman Catholic Church and the second is the Anglican Communion, most conspicuously in the Western world were both are racked by scandal.

The Roman Catholic Church recently released a study reporting over 4,000 priests sexually abusing over 10,000 children. Since this is self-reported it may be conservative, and the number of actual incidents is probably much higher. Those who committed the crimes were appointed specifically to guard their members against evil, and yet they perpetrated it. How could such a state of affairs have developed in a church that exercises such authority? It comes from a great deal of cover-up, passive acceptance of a homosexual sub-community within the church, and cowardliness. The church provided a ground where evil men could practice their perversions on innocent and unprotected children. How could this have been allowed? Because, as one nun has put it recently, the hierarchy was compromised as well. The only light in this is that maybe there will be reform in the RC Church, and the Church has not tried to justify or rationalize the crimes.

The Anglican Communion on the other hand, or rather parts of it, especially in the developed countries, has embraced homosexuality. It began with its "inclusiveness", and welcoming of those who were leading homosexual lifestyles. It departed from its traditional custom of exercising some control over who might take communion based on their lifestyle; and most recently, it undertook to redefine the whole concept of right relationships in human sexuality. It essentially ignored the Scripture and accepted activity which was clearly proscribed. Its leaders went further to even describe these relationships and those who engaged in them as "wholesome" and worthy to hold the highest offices in the Church. The Episcopal Church of the United States, by its acceptance of homosexuality, is teaching a new generation acceptance of a sin which the Bible says will condemnn one to everlasting damnation. Jesus in Matthew said:" But whoso shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble, it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck, and [that] he should be sunk in the depth of the sea. Woe unto the world because of occasions of stumbling! for it must needs be that the occasions come; but woe to that man through whom the occasion cometh!"

A new generation of Episcopalians will learn tolerance and acceptance of this great sin, and many will stumble because of this teaching, and it will be because no one taught them the evil of this way. Instead they will learn that homosexuality is wholesome. This issue is not one limited to the ECUSA only, but every mainline Christian denomination will be under some pressure from the homosexual community and its supporters to adopt a similar position.

So, the question to you is where will you stand, who will you follow? Do you accept these activities proscribed by Scripture or will you follow Bible, the teaching that has guided Christians for 2,000 years and Jews for 4,000 years? Scripture tells us we must not accept the sinner, but rebuke him and call on him to repent and be saved. Will you passively accept these changes or will you have the courage to do the right thing: which may include praying for the Church, voicing your concerns to your elected officials, rebuking those who depart from this teaching, and training your children and grandchildren in the truth as expressed in the Scriptures.

We have a sickness in our society and the Church. In today’s Gospel, Jesus healed the Cannanite woman’s child on account of her persistence and faith. It is His will that we be whole and healthy, both physically and spiritually. He will heal us when we come to Him, confess our sins, repent, and ask for Him to heal our infirmities. He will heal the Church when it turns to Him.

Let us pray:

Lord God, our great Physician, send thy Holy Spirit to convict us when we have erred and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep; bring us back into the fold; purge and heal thy Holy Church from the infections that afflict it, that we may follow thy Holy commandments in truth and spirit, word and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with thee, and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

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Readings:

1 Thessalonians iv. 1. WE beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more. For ye know what commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: that every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God: that no man go beyond and defraud his brother in any matter: because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we also have fore-warned you and testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness. He therefore that despiseth, despiseth not man, but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.

St. Matthew xv. 21. JESUS went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.




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