The St. Margaret’s Guild would be grateful if you could return your bazaar-bought preserving jars, once you’ve consumed that delicious Million Dollar Relish, Pear Amber, Spicy Beets or Perky Pepper Jelly. If you come by on a Sunday morning, you’ll find a receiving basket in the breezeway entrance, just waiting to be filled. Every dozen returned jars saves the Guild $18, which helps keep costs and prices low and shows good environmental stewardship, too.

Thought and Prayer of the Day
by Deacon Joanne Warman

March 27, 2025

This coming Sunday will be the fourth Sunday of Lent (how time flies when you’re having fun!). The joy of Easter is just around the corner.

In some traditions this Sunday is known as Laetare Sunday. Laetare is a Latin word associated with the entrance antiphon in a Roman Catholic mass reflecting on Isaiah 66:10-11: “Rejoice, Jerusalem, and all who love her. Be joyful, all who were in mourning; exalt and be satisfied at her consoling breast.” Laetare simply means rejoice. Laetare Sunday expresses hope and joy in the midst of Lenten fasts and penances.

In addition to being a Sunday for rejoicing, the colour in some churches changes. The purple is changed into a pink or rose colour much like the third Sunday of advent changes to a pink candle in the advent wreath.

Laetare Sunday is the Church’s way of giving us a “shot in the arm” as we approach the dark days of Good Friday and Holy Saturday. It’s an opportunity to savor and keep in the back of our minds what awaits us on Easter Sunday — the reality that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, and that our hearts will always be filled with joy!

For our parish, this coming Sunday will be the fourth Sunday of Lent, the colours of the vestments will still be purple but every Sunday is a reminder of the resurrection. We may still have pass up the sweets at coffee hour but Easter is drawing closer every day and what a day of rejoicing that will be!!

PRAYER:

Loving Creator
We feel the pace of Lent quicken and are filled with joy as we draw closer to Easter.
Teach us to follow the example of your Son, to be worthy of being called one of His followers.
Help us to live each day as he did – turning hatred into love and conflict into peace.
We anticipate the celebration of your Son’s resurrection with eagerness and joy.
AMEN

Source: https://dioceseofprovidence.org/news/prayer-for-the-fourth-sunday-of-lent

 

Thought and Prayer of the Day
by Father Geoff Lloyd

March 20, 2025

The Beginning of my Christian Journey 

I was born into a secular family where any mention of a loving God and going to church was frowned upon. My Dad loved gardening, and he always told that was where he came closest to finding anything of a spiritual nature. Having said that, I went to a Methodist Direct Grant School called Truro School where I was exposed to Morning Services and RE lessons. But none of it had a personal effect on me.

It was not until I married my wife Jan that any form of worshipping God and having a personal relationship with Him started to formulate in my life. I started going to church because our 3-year-old daughter was nervous to go into Sunday School on her own and needed Dad as company and there was also an inquisitiveness on my part. Tess soon grew in confidence and so Dad was left to attend the Anglican Service. The sermons were interesting, the communion was moving and overall, it was a positive experience.

However, I was not driven into any sort of personal commitment even though I had been going to church regularly for nearly two years. But things changed for me when one of our neighbours who also went to church invited me to join a men’s group to listen to a Radio Kent Lent Course. The discussions we had, the contributions from the Radio Kent leaders and the depths we went to helped push me along my Christian Journey.

But then our secular life intervened. We moved to a new area in Kent called Biggin Hill and bought a house there. Our daughter settled into Primary School, Jan settled into the local hospital Outpatient’s Department, and I continued my police career. Although this was all positive stuff, we both found we were missing worship and our spiritual life.

Well, God certainly sorted that out by providing an excellent Anglican Vicar called Alan Morris for whom I shall ever be grateful for leading me along my first beginning proper of my journey. He persuaded me to become confirmed and challenged me and the other six members of the class. He had become a latecomer to Christianity, just like me, and was a very special influence. My baptism was on a beautiful spring evening in April in St Mark’s Church Biggin Hill and I will never forget it. Without Alan I would not be your priest today. It is wonderful the people God sends into our lives.

Prayer of the Penitent 

Most merciful God, have mercy upon me, in your compassion forgive my sins, both known and unknown, things done and left undone. O God, uphold me by your Spirit that I may live and serve you in newness of life, to the honour and glory of your name; through Jesus Christ our Lord.