My Family Prayer Book

  2022-May-29: The Ascension of the Lord   Some congregations celebrate Ascension of Our Lord on Thursday, as that comes 40 days after Easter.  Acts 1:1-11 Luke addresses both his books to Theophilus  (a combination of the Greek noun theos , translated “God,” and the verb phileo , meaning “to love” or “cherish”) perhaps refering to a historical person and/or symbolically to readers who consider themselves as the friends/lovers of God. The first book, the Gospel according to St Luke portrays the birth, life, death and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The second book, Acts of the Apostles recounts the events after the ascension of Our Lord Jesus Christ.  Luke and Acts both describe the ascension (Luke 24:50-51, Acts 1:9) Today's reading talks about the Ascension into Heaven but before going Jesus tells his disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the seminal event of the Descent of the Holy Spirit, which will in turn empower them, transforming them into Christ’s “...

  Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary time 1 Kings 17:10-16 At Zarephath (town between Tyre and Sidon), Elijah meets a Canaanite widow at perhaps her lowest level of material resources in the midst of a drought/famine. She is gathering firewood to prepare what would be the last meal that she and her son would eat before facing death by starvation. The drought/famine should be seen in the bigger context of the battle of Yahweh versus Baal to see who controls nature, and the widow could be seen as collateral damage in this war. We know that women and children are most acutely affected by disasters and war. According to the laws of hospitality to strangers, the widow brings Elijah water and Elijah imposes an insensitive and even selfish request for bread. And then Elijah ups the ante and asks for cake with a promise that Yahweh would ensure her larder never empties till the rains. In effect Yahweh is replacing her impending death sentence with redemption, if she chooses to believe in Yah...