Preparing for Sunday
In order to make your Sunday worship experience more meaningful, we invite you to check out these resources below.
The first button will lead you to the "Preparing for Sunday" website, which will give you the upcoming Sunday's NRSV Lectionary readings, scripture backgrounds, reflection and prayer starters. By engaging this material, you will be well-prepared to receive and respond to Sunday's scriptures and sermon in a way that is intentional and meaningful.
If you are new to the Episcopal Church - or even if you have been coming for years - the "Getting the Most Out of Your Worship Experience" document is a helpful way for you to consider engaging more deeply and intentionally with the Holy Eucharist service.
The tradition of the church is that, barring illness or emergency, we will attend the Eucharist every week. For most people, that means one of the Sunday services. For others, though, it may mean some other Eucharist held during the week. We need that regular opportunity to come together as a worshipping community, to be renewed, to be fed with the spiritual food, and to be sent into the world to do the work we have been given to do.
The first step, then, is making a decision to join that Eucharistic community, week in and week out, regardless of how we feel at the time. We need to allow ourselves to enter into the rhythm of the Eucharist and let that rhythm form a kind of backbone to our lives. This will have a transforming effect on its own, but there are also a number of different ways we can individually enter into the Eucharist that affect our receptivity to God, others, and ourselves.
Resources for Prayer & Spiritual Formation
Prayer is responding to God, by thought and by deeds, with or without words.
– from The Book of Common Prayer, p. 856
Here at Christ the King, our conviction is that the Daily Office and the Sunday Eucharist are the foundation for a parish’s health and faithfulness. The Office brings us into the pathways of grace. It roots us in the scriptures and the common prayer of the church. It is the heartbeat of the Body of Christ. It allows us to enter into the ancient rhythms of awe and adoration. It concretely connects us to the church throughout the world. It teaches us that our spiritual life is not dependent upon our feelings.
There are two broad ways of considering the Daily Office tradition:
Day by Day
One is by placing an emphasis on "daily." Each day we take time to offer the Daily Prayers of the Church. At a time that works in relation to the flow of our day we pray with the psalms, scriptures and the common prayers of the church. We join ourselves to the church's ceaseless act of worship.
We can affirm a person's desire and ability to join on the Divine Office each day. The person makes a decision to routinely do that in the morning or at noon or in the evening or at the close of day.
Hour by Hour
The other possibility for the person is to pray "the hours." That's to place the emphasis on an offering made at several times in the course of each day. The historical Anglican approach has been twice a day - Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer, the current Book of Common Prayer provides four offices (adding noon and close of day), some monastic houses continue to offer more offices each day.
In either case we offer the person a way of: 1) avoiding the trap of basing their spiritual life on their feelings and 2) connecting themselves to the prayers of the communion of saints.
The value of the Office is its objectivity. It is a means by which we pray with the whole church, uniting our prayer with that of millions of other Christians living and dead. This is true whether one is alone or in a group, for the Office is essentially a corporate act. It is objective too in that it does not depend on our feelings, but gives our prayer life a regularity and a disciplined framework. Ken Leech, True Prayer
The stability and adaptability of the believer's spiritual life can be nurtured by grounding it in 1) the ancient tradition of the church and 2) useful information and free choice. The tradition offers roots. Useful information and free choice provides ownership.
Christ the King offers the public Daily Office in the Church at the following days/times:
Morning Prayer: Monday-Thursday @ 8:30am
Noonday Prayer: Wednesdays @12:00pm
Evening Prayer: Monday @ 4:00pm and Wednesday @ 5:00pm
The above material was Reprinted with permission. Copyright Robert A. Gallagher & Michelle E. Heyne from the blog "Means of Grace, Hope of Glory"
Reconciliation (Confession)
There are times in the life of every Christian when they begin to feel a sense of separation from God, when they begin to wander away from the way of following Christ. It is for these times that the Church has seen fit to offer the sacrament of Reconciliation, or the sacrament of Confession. In this rite, a Christian comes before a priest of the Church to confess their sins – to put words to the actions and thoughts that have been separating them from God and to affirm a desire to put a stop to this separation through the amendment of life. The priest, through the power given to them by the Church, then offers counsel, encouragement, and guidance before offering absolution and forgiveness.
Many members of the Episcopal Church make Confession a regular practice, making time regularly to take stock of their sins and to reconcile themselves to God. Advent and Lent, those two holy seasons of preparation, are particularly good times to avail ourselves of this sacrament.
If you are interested in making your Confession, please contact Fr. Richard.
Holy Eucharist/Communion
Holy Eucharist, or Communion, is the ongoing participation in the Risen Life of Christ who, at the Last Supper, not only shared with his disciples a meal but promised to be Present with them in a real and true way in Bread and Wine, which he told them would be his Body and Blood. Any baptized person is welcome to share in this meal of bread and wine and to find themselves forgiven, restored, and renewed by the grace Christ offers in this fellowship.
Learn more about “Living the Eucharist.”
Confirmation
Confirmation is when a baptized person, who has been instructed in the Christian faith, makes a mature commitment to God within a worship setting and receives a special blessing and prayer from the bishop.
Youth Faith Formation/Confirmation Class will hopefully start later in September during the 9:15am Sunday school hour for grades 7-12, led by Fr. Richard. More information coming soon!
We will be using the Journey 2 Adulthood curriculum, to learn more about it, click HERE.
Youth Faith Formation/Confirmation Class
Adult Confirmation
If you are interested in being confirmed, received into the Episcopal Church, or reaffirming your baptismal vows, please contact Fr. Richard.