This morning at Deacon House we celebrated the Presentation of the Lord, a feast celebrated in the East as The Encounter. The reference is to Simeon and Anna encountering the Child Jesus in the Temple.
It’s been forty days since we encountered the Newborn Lord and it will be forty more until Lent begins. After another forty days of penance and prayer we will celebrate Easter and witness the
Risen Lord, and shorly thereafter the incorporation of our Deacon brothers into the ministry of Christ, our great High Priest (as this countdown sign on the refrigerator at Deacon house reminds us).
Last night our Deacons shared with me a twenty-nine year old picture of when I was a Deacon.
(courtesy of Father John MacInnis…he’s the one in the brown shirt behind the stuffed bear…and yes, I’m the one with all that hair and a blue shirt...Fr. Busch is in a brown sweater and our Rector, Msgr. Murphy of Maine, is in the middle)
Last night our Deacons shared with me a twenty-nine year old picture of when I was a Deacon.
The Picture reminded me how we encounter the same Christ in each of the ages of our lives. Monsignor McRae celebrated the fifty-seventh anniversary of his Ordination to the Priesthood this morning.
Simeon was promised that he would not die until he had seen the Lord, while we are blessed to see him every day and to be touched by his Body and Blood in the Most Holy Eucharist. We forget that sometimes. Which is why it is good to keep a lookout for him today, on this Feast of the Encounter.
Simeon was promised that he would not die until he had seen the Lord, while we are blessed to see him every day and to be touched by his Body and Blood in the Most Holy Eucharist. We forget that sometimes. Which is why it is good to keep a lookout for him today, on this Feast of the Encounter.
