My Family Prayer Book

2026-05-10  Sixth Sunday of Easter   Acts 8:5-8, 14-17 Samaria was a region of contested Jewish identity - faithful descendants of the northern tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, who worshiped at Mount Gerizim instead of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Samaritans were worshippers of the same God Yahweh but with different beliefs from other Jews, with each claiming to uphold the identity of Abraham.  Philip, one of the seven presbyters, takes the Gospel to Samaria and baptises them by the water but it is only after Peter, one of the Apostles, lays hands on them does God bless them with the gift of the Spirit - confirming that the Samaritans as a whole are now part of the Church. With this act the old divisions that kept Samaritans and Jews at odds would be undone in the family of God united in Jesus. The same baptism, the same Spirit, would mark them all as beloved children. Even today the Bishop, direct descendants of the Apostles, in most cases is the one ...

 2026-05-03 Fifth Sunday of Easter   Acts 6:1—7 Acts chapters 1 through 5 describe matters of the Holy Temple, whereas chapter 6 talks about the early Jewish converts. Jerusalem was a vibrant city with Jews from every nation under the sun. The native Aramaic-speaking Jews were probably the majority and the diaspora who had migrated from outside Judea and Samaria, referred to as Hellenistic Jews who spoke Greek, were a minority. There was a dispute involving the equal distribution of responsibility and honour between widows  of the local “Hebrew” and the immigrant “Hellenists.” The Apostles ask the community to select seven immigrant Hellenist men to serve at table, while they themselves focused on spreading the Gospel.  This passage therefore marks the unofficlal beginning of deaconship.  All seven have Greek, not Hebrew, names: Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and one, Nicolaus from Antioch, who was a convert, a former polytheist who conver...

 2026-04-26 Fourth Sunday of Easter   Opening prayer Today Thursday April 23rd 2026 is the feast day of Martyrs St George and  St. Adalbert of Prague St. George, Martyr (d. 303 AD)was a Roman soldier of Greek origin and a member of the Praetorian Guard for Emperor Diocletian. He was executed for refusing to recant his Christian faith during the Diocletianic Persecution in 303 AD. He is the patron saint of England and is frequently depicted on horseback slaying a dragon with a sword. This is widely viewed as an allegory for the triumph of the Christian faith over evil (represented by the dragon) and the rescue of the Church (the princess). Let us being with a prayer to St George: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. St. George, Heroic soldier and defender of the Faith, you dared to criticize the tyrannical Emperor Diocletian and were willing to endure torture and death rather than deny God. Help us to be as brave as you in the defence of w...

2026-04-12 Divine Mercy Sunday  Acts 2:42-47 Acts 2:42-47 summarises the daily life of the earliest Christian community in Jerusalem; marked by redistribution of resources. “From each according to his ability; to each according to his need,” - the communal living called 'Koinōnia' meant the community as a whole provided food for the hungry, resources for the impoverished, and burial assistance for the marginalised. Luke's Gospel and Acts both portray the material excess of the wealthy as a hindrance to spiritual access to the community of Christ. The Rich Man (often called "Dives") awakens in an afterlife of a fiery hellscape because of his neglect of the poor man Lazarus (Luke 16:19–31). We can also see this with Zacchaeus, who gained his wealth from being Rome’s chief collector of the financial penalty that Judeans had to pay for being conquered (Luke 19:1–10). Only after he says that he will pay back what he extorted does Jesus tell him that salvation has come ...

 2026-04-05 Easter Vigil (Year B)   Acts 10:34-43 Cornelius was a centurion of roughly 600 volunteer Italian citizens. Stationed in Caesarea, the Roman capital of Judea, he held a position of significant authority and respect. In these verses, the apostle Peter delivers a compelling speech to God-fearer Cornelius and his household, concisely outlining the Christian message about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. God-fearer" (phoboumenos ton Theon). This was a specific term for Gentiles who:     Worshipped the God of Israel.     Attended synagogue services.     Followed Jewish moral ethics.     However, they had not undergone circumcision or fully converted to Judaism. The interaction of Cornelius and Peter, sometimes refered to the Gentile Pentecost, involves a "double vision" designed to overcome the deep-seated cultural and religious barriers between Jews and Gentiles.     Cornelius’s Vision: An angel appeared to hi...

 2026-03-29 Palm Sunday   Opening Prayer In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. O God of eternal glory, you anointed Jesus, your servant, to bear our sins, to encourage the weary, to raise up and restore the fallen. Keep before our eyes the splendour of the paschal mystery of Christ, and, by our sharing in the passion and resurrection, seal our lives with the victorious sign of his obedience and exaltation. We ask this through Christ, our liberator from sin, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, holy and mighty God for ever and ever. Amen   Action item from last week's Practice of Faith - Practice Lectio Divina and imagine Jesus saying, "Lazarus, come out' Imagine the Lord saying your name and asking you to come out of your tomb of disbelief.   Matthew 21:1-11 Gospel Passage read at the entrance into the Church during the Procession into the Church with Palms When Jesus and the disciples drew near Jerusalem an...

2026-03-22 Fifth Sunday of Lent    Ezekiel 37:12-14 The Valley of Dry Bones is perhaps the best-known text from the book of Ezekiel. The Lord commands Ezekiel to prophesy to the bones, and they respond; bones come together, tendons and flesh appear on them, and skin covers them (Ezekiel 37:4–8a). But still “there was no breath [or spirit] in them” (verse 8b). So the Lord commands the prophet to prophesy to the breath (or spirit), and he does. “I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered [the slain]; and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude” (verse 10a).   The very final verse of the Dry Bones passage presents the threefold sequence: “I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil” (37:14). Psalm 130 In Psalm 130, the writer calls out to God from the depths of human suffering, with every confidence that God will hear and respond to his cry of pain because mercy is who God is. Grief, depression, illnes...

 2026-03-12 Fourth Sunday in Lent     1 Samuel 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13a Right from the start, Samuel warned the people about the dark side of choosing to have a king rule over them (1 Samuel 8), giving numerous examples of what kings could do when they get their hands on power. The eventual failure of Saul as king, where he disobeyed Yahweh as also the cost of war upon war, and the stark divisions rampant in the young nation - was very painful to Samuel. And he was repenting for having brought these miseries on the people - but now God asks him to go out once more to anoint the new king. Initially Samuel is looking for someone like Saul - tall, strong and handsome but God tells him, "Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him. Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance  but the LORD looks into the heart.”. God directs him to anoint the youngest son of Jesse, the shepherd boy David. Psalm 23 This evergreen popu...

 2026-03-01 Second Sunday in Lent   Genesis 12:1-4a This passage calls Abram of the Ur in the Chaldean, to leave his familiar life and surroundings and embark on a journey to an unknown country of God's choosing.  As a firstborn son, Abram’s leaving is notable. In ancient times, it was unusual for the firstborn to leave. The pattern was for a younger son (Jacob, Joseph) to go while the firstborn son stayed home, charged with care of aging parents and unmarried younger siblings. This Second Sunday in Lent we are also called to enter the unknown journey in obedience to God, out of our familiar surroundings to a place of God’s own choosing. Notice how God's promise to Abrams is a blessing which flows in one direction from the giver to the recipient. These blessings were also unconditional - the only thing Abrams had to do with have faith in God and were not dependent on the previous actions of the subject. Psalm 33 The psalmist, possibly King David himself, calls upon Israel...