This Week at Trinity
Weekly Announcements • September 29, 2024
September 28, 2024
September 28, 2024
Sunday School will be studying the10 Best Ways. Daryl Mark will be teaching.
When is the last time you forgave yourself? How does forgiveness transform love?
The phrase “Walk in love”is borrowed from a letter Paul wrote to Ephesians in which he discusses the Christian understanding of love: to “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Indeed, walking in love is integral to the Christian tradition; at the same time, essential and secularly connected to each of our hearts.As a young adult, wishing to honestly engage in a reflection of love, my mind projects past the static, screened portrayals that streamed romcoms and pop lyrics are soaked with into something deeper: love as paradox. Paradox as recognizing the relationship between two highly differing experiences which do not negate each other like contradiction does. Instead, when paired together, vastness opens up so wide, we can hold each separate concept in our hands and feel the infiniteness of life swirl within us. Paradox is a flipped coin,currency; a battery,energy. Love must be a paradox.
In my encounters with paradox, there is a side which is conventionally received within the culture of our society; the other side faces a struggle to accept. I wonder what lies within love – the shadow-side that together completes a whole.
Forgiveness blossoms on my lips.
In the spring of 2020, a friend sent me Pádraig Ó Tuama’s reading of Dilruba Ahmed’s poem, “Phase One.” Forgiveness flowers across stanzas, coating a hurt heart like liniment: “... Ointment reserved/for healers and prophets. I forgive you./ I forgive you.” (Ahmed, 39-41). As the tears fell across my cheeks, a realization was released: to forgive is to love. And so, as I would forgive, or love,another, I must forgive, and love, myself.
As a child, I translated our commandment of love to “Love your neighbor as your [honest] self.” In other words, come as you are to the world; with all your ugliness or beauty, love nonetheless. Now, I see it another way: “Love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.” Society says, “Love begets love,” but this is not always true. Forgiveness begets love. So here,as ourselves and towards our neighbors, we must return to love.
— Vivian Altopp runs an educational nonprofit, Striving Together Empowering People (STEP), for young people in West Philadelphia out of her home church, Calvary St. Augustine, and is currently working on a novel on the life of the posthumously famous photographer, Vivian Maier.
We will be calling a deanery assembly meeting on September 30th, at 5:45 PM, to vote on all Diocesan grants: Sending, Serving, and House of Mercy. For more information about the grants, please see this link. A light dinner will be served, and following our meeting, please join us for our Holy Eucharist service at 7:00pm, with Trinity's choir joined by singers from other parishes.
On the first Sunday following the Feast of St. Francis (October 4), Trinity Parish holds its annual Blessing of the Animals. Do you have an animal that you would like to take part in this rite? Bring him or her to the 10:00am liturgy next week! Please have pets leashed or crated.
The parish vestry voted in 2022 to go "mask friendly"; that is, unless otherwise indicated, masks are optional at Trinity Parish. Please note that, pending further guidance from the Diocese and local infection rates, the church may in future return to requiring face coverings for in-person gatherings.
Located at 11 Homer Street in Newton Centre on the lower level of Trinity Church, the Pantry is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and a member of the Greater Boston Food Bank. It is open most Tuesdays from 2:30–5:30pm and the third Saturday of each month from 11:30am–2pm.
New households are asked to fill out the Online Pantry Registration Form or print and fill out this paper form. If you live in Newton and wish to be added to the CSFP delivery list, send an E-mail with your name, phone number, city, and family size. If you live in Boston, click here to find resources available for those in need of food.
Please remember in your prayers: the Episcopal parishes of Newton, our clergy and people; the Centre Street Food Pantry, its clients and staff; Joseph, our President; Maura, our Governor; and Ruthanne, our Mayor. Pray also for Joan and for peace and a return to calm in South Africa; for peace in South Sudan, the Palestinian territories, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, and Yemen; comfort and care for all migrants and refugees; All Saints Anglican Church, Winterton, KwaZulu-Natal; the Khethani Christian Fellowship, Khethani Township, KwaZulu-Natal; B-READY Afterschool staff, teens, youth, and families; comfort and healing for Ellen, Dotty, Margaret, Beverly, MaryAlice, Solomon, Hannah, and Jorge; for the soul of David; for the soul of Eleanor; for the soul of Carolyn; for the soul of Bette; for the soul of David; for the soul of Ephraim.
Saints Calendar (For readings please see satucket.com/lectionary/)
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