From the Rector

Dear Friends,

This weekend, we mark Laetare Sunday. It’s one of the two “break” days during penitential seasons. You’ll remember them as the days we wear rose vestments and, in Advent, light a rose colored candle in the Advent wreath. This is why this one is often called Rose Sunday, as well.

The lighter vestments are traditionally also marked by the use of “Alleluia” in the liturgy which is not used during Lent and generally discouraged during Advent. Some churches will also sing the Gloria which is also generally suspended during Advent and Lent.

Customarily at Saint Philip’s, we use this as a day to celebrate with our Solemn Communion class. This is a class of young people who have been studying, praying, and reflecting over the recent weeks on what it means to receive Communion. In the Episcopal Church, we consider baptism to be the full inclusion of children into the life of the Church. They begin receiving Communion immediately after baptism if parents would like them to.

We don’t have “First Communion” as such. However, every Christian benefits, from time to time, from deeper reflection on what it means to be a people bound together at the Altar and fed from God’s own self.

Traditionally, this was a time when those who were preparing for Baptism would undergo preparation at Easter. This has been so from the earliest days of the Church. Weeks, months, and sometimes years of preparation would go into their work toward becoming part of the Body of Christ. In the early Church, this was not a choice to be made lightly. One could be persecuted or killed for making this choice.

It is still not a choice to be made lightly. Our chief threat, however, is not persecution, as such. Our chief threat is a kind of bland indifference. We risk domesticating the wild, fierce love of Christ with a kind of bourgeois placidity. Baptism and Communion are the gifts of the God who set the stars and oceans on their course, they are the gift of Christ crucified, they are the gift of the Holy Spirit who breathed the Pentecost fire.

It’s a wonderful thing that we celebrate this week, on this refreshment Sunday in the midst of Lent. We celebrate with young people who are learning what it means to come to the Altar for strength to love their days faithfully now and to the end—and beyond. It has been said that the one thing that angels are jealous of is our ability to receive Communion. It is a deeper union with God than even they enjoy.

I want to thank all those who have been part of the Solemn Communion preparations this year. Each and every year they prepare our young people to go from beholding the Body of Christ on the Altar to becoming the Body of Christ in the world. It is a joyful thing to see and a gift to have, year after year, young people turning toward Christ and finding him exactly where he has always promised to be—wherever two or three are gathered together in his name.

—Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert