Shed
upon your Church, O Lord, the brightness of your light, that we,
being illumined by the teaching of your apostle and evangelist John,
may so walk in the light of your truth, that at length we may attain
to the fullness of eternal life.
– Collect for St. John, Apostle and Evangelist
Today is the feast
day of St. John the Evangelist, our patron saint. This is a hard
feast day to celebrate coming as it does on the heels of Christmas
Day and the tradition of many clergy, myself included, of taking a
few days off immediately after the rush of services.
For today's
Wednesday Word, I thought I would give you a little information about
our patron.
Tradition says that
John the Evangelist was the brother of James, son of Zebedee, and a
fisherman. He was a close friend of Jesus, often portrayed as “the
disciple whom Jesus loved.” He and his brother were ambitious,
asking Jesus to sit at his right and left hand when he came into his
power and glory. He was the only male disciple at the cross during
the crucifixion. He was the author of the gospel that bears his name
and the Revelation. Or maybe it was that he was the author of the
gospel and the three letters, but not Revelation, Or maybe it was
that he was the author of everything that bears his name, Church
traditions are a little fuzzy. And, according to tradition, he was
also the only disciple/apostle who died a natural death, ie he wasn't
martyred.
As we move forward
into 2018, may we, as disciples of Christ and parishioners of St.
John's, work to manifest the words of today's Collect in the world
around us.
May the light of
Christ shine brightly through us.
May we walk in that
light and truth.
May we illumine the
life of those with whom we come into contact.
May we, by our word
and example, reflect a life of love which was so central to John's
theology.
Blessings
to you on this Third Day of Christmas,
Todd+
No comments:
Post a Comment