St. Stephen's Anglican Catholic Church

06/07/2026

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06/07/2026

06/07/2026

06/05/2026

The Readings for Sunday, June 7, 2026
The First Sunday after Trinity

Morning Prayer
Psalms: 73 OR 89:1-19 OR 90
First Lesson: Jeremiah 23:23-32 OR Isaiah 5:8-24 OR Genesis 3:1-24
Second Lesson: Matthew 7:13-29 OR James 5:1-20 OR Romans 5:1-21
Evening Prayer
Psalms: 119:33-48 OR 49 OR 85
First Lesson: Deuteronomy 30:11-20 OR Job 21:17-33 OR 1st Samuel 1:1-20
Second Lesson: John 13:1-35 OR Luke 16:19-31 OR Acts 6:1-15

The Collect for the First Sunday after Trinity
O GOD, the strength of all those who put their trust in thee; Mercifully accept our prayers; and because, through the weakness of our mortal nature, we can do no good thing without thee, grant us the help of thy grace, that in keeping thy commandments we may please thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Collect for Corpus Christi
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy Passion: Grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: First St. John 4:7-21
BELOVED, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only-begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the Day of Judgment: because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love Him, because He first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? And this commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also.

The Holy Gospel: St. Luke 16:19-31
THERE was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

Homily for the First Sunday after Trinity
One of Jesus’ most distinctive teaching tools in the Gospels is His use of Parables -- stories that tell us something about God, and our connection to Him. In Luke 8:10, Jesus told His disciples: "You have been given the chance to understand the secrets of the kingdom of God, but others are given parables so that they may go through life with their eyes open and 'seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand'.” Parables remain a test for us -- not so much a test of our intellect, but of our spiritual insight.
Today's parable, the story of the rich man and Lazarus, makes it clear that rewards and punishments in the afterlife do not always correspond to earthly fortunes. The two main characters in the parable are a rich man, traditionally named ‘Dives’ (the Latin word for “rich”) and a beggar named Lazarus (the Latin form of the Hebrew name Eleazar, meaning “He who has God for his helper”). The rich man makes no effort to help the beggar while he has the opportunity to do so, and when he gets to the next world, he suffers, because hell is hot. When Dives asks for a drink of water, Abraham tells him that the tables are now turned. The rich man had all the material advantages on earth, but now his situation and that of the beggar are reversed -- and the gulf between the good place and the bad place is so wide nobody can get across, no matter how much they might want to.
Dives then asks Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers, hoping that if they find out the consequence of selfishness in this world, maybe they will mend their ways. But this request does not show that Dives is solely concerned for his brothers' good - it was also a criticism of God. Dives is saying in effect, "It’s not my fault that I’m in hell. God didn’t do enough to warn me of the realities of His judgment upon my sins. If only He had given me stronger evidence, a little bit more proof, I would have believed. If someone had come back from the dead and warned me, that would have been enough to bring me to repentance, and caused me to change my life."
Abraham says, "Your brothers don't need to hear from Lazarus or anyone else that they should share with poor people; they can read about it in the Scriptures." Dives replies: “If my brothers could see a dead beggar come back to life and start talking, that will get their attention, and they will change their ways." Abraham’s response is very harsh: "If your brothers won't listen to what’s written in the Scriptures, they're not going to pay attention, even if someone returns from the dead." So the parable ends with a twist: it is not just about how one ought to treat the poor, it is also about the importance of knowing and obeying the teachings of God as found in the Bible. It is certainly more effective and memorable to tell this story than merely to say: "Help the poor; read the Bible, and take what it says seriously; because if you don't know God through His word, His miracles won't reach you either." But a parable is not a riddle for us to solve; it is primarily a challenge to us to change our ways. All of this comes together in today's Gospel, which poses the question, in words from the First Epistle of John: “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”

06/03/2026

The Readings for Thursday, June 4, 2026
The Commemoration of the Holy Communion
(Commonly Called Corpus Christi)

Morning Prayer
Psalm: 9
First Lesson: Numbers 20:1-13
Second Lesson: Luke 1, 57-66
Evening Prayer
Psalm: 27
First Lesson: Haggai 2:1-9
Second Lesson: Acts 7:54-8:4

The Collect for Corpus Christi
O God, who in this wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of thy Passion: Grant us, we beseech thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of thy redemption; who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

The Epistle: First Corinthians 11:23-26
For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread: And when He had given thanks, He brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
After the same manner also He took the cup, when He had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.

The Holy Gospel: St. John 6:53-58
Then Jesus said unto the Jews, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eateth of this bread shall live forever.

Homily for Corpus Christi
Today, the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, is Corpus Christi Day – the Day of Thanksgiving for the Institution of the Holy Eucharist. Eucharist means ‘Thanksgiving’. But, because we are so familiar with the Eucharist --, the Mass, the Lord’s Supper, the Holy Communion -- we can fail to realize just how perilous this Sacrament is.
St Paul’s account of the Eucharist, which we read as our Epistle, is the earliest narrative found in the New Testament; it was written before any of the Gospels. What we didn’t hear were the next few sentences, which the lectionary omits: “Whosoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the Body and Blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. For this reason many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”
This is a glorious and a perilous thing we do here today. If we approach it without the authentic discernment that it calls for, then we call down judgement upon ourselves. But what does Paul mean when he says: “…those who fail to discern the body?” Much has been written about that. Christians of all stripes agree that Paul means ‘body’ in the sense of the ‘body of Christ’ – the Church, the body politic, all of us. That early Eucharist at the Church in Corinth was in grave danger of separating along social and class lines; the failure of one group to discern that the other was just as much part of the one body. For us, therefore, the warning is: Nothing less than a wholehearted commitment to the life and the unity of the Church is essential to the integrity of our holy communion. More contentious is a literal reading of the word ‘body’: Those who fail to discern the body – the literal Body, the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. That Christ himself comes to us in the meal of the Eucharist, is one thing, but the manner of his coming, the nature of his presence under the elements of bread and wine – these are Church-dividing questions.
Christianity is materialist. The setting of our salvation is the visible, tangible Church – an organization of people of flesh and blood; an organization with bills to pay and boilers to service. The signs of our salvation are bread and wine and oil and water – things which have weight and price. The source of our salvation is Incarnation; God as a baby lying in the manger of a cattle shed. The cost of our salvation is that same body pierced and nailed to a Cross. And the Church’s teaching is quite clear that we are not going to be spared the ignominy of the flesh when this life is over, for resurrection is not freedom from the flesh but the perfection of the flesh. And that same flesh has now been taken up, ascended, into the Godhead such that it is eternally one with God forever.
As if that were not enough, we have our Gospel: “Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood hath eternal life,” says Jesus in John 6:53. Remember that Jesus began Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel with 5,000 crowded around him. By the end of the chapter, all but a hardcore few have shied away from the gross carnality of it all. “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.”

As Christians, our highest spiritual act is to receive a morsel of bread into our hands and a sip of wine into our mouths. At the very moment of eating and drinking, we will be reminded: “The Body of our Lord Jesus Christ…The Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ...” There is no place here for contempt of the material. Indeed, there is no place here for taking offense at our own bodies, for the Christian Eucharist is about literal carnality. Christ is our brother after the flesh, and so the sacrament of the Eucharist is a cure for any loathing you may have for your own flesh. The bread and the wine that are on the altar are the work of our human hands – our labour. They are symbols of us, our bodies. The priest, in the place of Christ, takes the elements, gives thanks, breaks the bread, blesses the wine, and thereby incorporates us into Christ’s broken body. That same body, now by Christ, with Christ, in Christ, is shared with the body of Christ, the Church, for, though we are many, we are one body, because we all share in one bread and one wine. Failure to recognize the body in all its senses – the corporate, the corporal, and the corporeal – is perilous, says St Paul. This holy meal contains the fulness of all that God in Christ has done for us. And we know that the invitation to ‘…do this in remembrance of me…’ is the one command of Christ that we cannot refuse if we are to be true to our calling to be the body of Christ – the Corpus Christi.

06/01/2026

Let me hear in the morning of thy steadfast love, for in thee I put my trust. Teach me the way I should go, for to thee I lift up my soul. Deliver me, O Lord, from my enemies! I have fled to thee for refuge! Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God! Let thy good spirit lead me on a level path! For thy name’s sake, O Lord, preserve my life! In thy righteousness bring me out of trouble! And in thy steadfast love cut off my enemies, and destroy all my adversaries, for I am thy servant. -Psalm 143: 8-12

05/31/2026

June Newsletter