Oops! I omitted the time. Thank you to Chrissie who spotted my error. Always vigilant 🙏.

The service will be on Thursday at 11am, on Fr. Rodney’s Facebook page, and later the video recording will be posted here.

A note for your diary!

On Thursday (June 11th) Fr. Rodney, together with Fr. Robin, will conduct a Eucharist to celebrate the festival of Corpus Christi. This is the day when we mark the communion, which Jesus taught us to share.
Corpus Christi = the body of Christ.

As on Sundays, you can join the service live on Fr. Rodney’s Facebook page. It will then be uploaded as a video recording and shared through this medium for everyone to watch at leisure.

Here is the link to watch this morning’s inspiring Eucharist led by Fr. Rodney with Fr. Robin.

Saturday Video is ready to be watched, so when you get a minute, and you feel like it, have a look.
Hope you are feeling all cozy and warm today.
Here is the link – The opposite of faith? June 6th 2020

The Fruits of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control

My Dear Friends,
During this period of Pentecost, I would like to spend some time unpacking the Fruits of the Spirit.
These are the consequence of allowing the Holy Spirit to work through us rather than goals that we try and attain all on our own. So, it is not about striving, but rather receiving, and allowing these beautiful experiences to be the very heart of our lives.
We begin with the wonderful concept of Love. It is the New Commandment that Jesus gives to his disciples, ‘That you love one another, and it is also the closest we have pf a definition of the Divine when we read in John’s Gospel the ‘God is Love’
But it is also a fruit of the Spirit, and it comes to us through the grace of God, and is our to dwell in and enjoy.
Sometimes the concept of ‘Love’ is over used, and it becomes too familiar. Sometimes we say we love something, or someone with out even thinking about it. Sometimes we feel we can’t love just because we don’t like, and that is a shame.
So, let’s just reflect for a moment what Christian love is.
When we allow the Holy Spirit into our lives, we are letting the presence and power of God to influence our every thought and feeling. When we shed our Ego, and accept the Grace of God, we will experience love in ways which are beyond our imagining, because we will be in tune with what we believe is the will of God.
There are three characteristics of this sort of love, and remember they come to us rather than we struggling to put them in to practice.
The fruit of the Spirit which is love has a sacrificial quality. The world view of ‘Love’ is based around what we can get from it. We base our love for someone or something on how they can benefit us emotionally, intellectually, or physically. In other words, “we” are at the centre of our love for another party. Christian love stands against this because of its sacrificial nature.
Instead of taking from another, Christian love constantly assumes the posture of giving. Of serving. You and I know that we are most truly happy when we are offering our love to others.

The second characteristic is that it is demonstrated rather than just talked about. We cannot say that we love our neighbour, but then watch them be beaten or mistreated. We cannot ‘Out of love pray for the lonely’ but not offer to visit them.
The Holy Spirit prompts us, and gives us the courage and the grace to stand up against injustice, and if we allow the Spirit in, we will find ourselves sharing our love with all God’s Children.
This takes us neatly to the third characteristic which is about initiative.
Throughout our scriptures Jesus takes the initiative, and in so doing engages with folk when they need him.
The world would hang on to it’s love until the other person is deemed ready to warrant it. But the fruit of the Spirit allows us to love even those who are unlovable, and to seek out all who are made in the image of God, and to offer them the greatest gift of all.
For me, the Fruits of the Spirit are incredible. I mean, who would not want Love, Joy and Peace in their lives. And how great that they flow through us when we let God’s Spirit in.
Your homework is to accept the fact that you are loved more than you could ever imagine, and so am I, and so is the person you don’t like very much!
Bless you, Bless you, Bless you, and I look forward to spreading some Joy next time.
Fr Marcus

Click here to watch

Hope and Expectation and the presence of God.

My dear Friends,
The great feats of Pentecost has been and gone, sort of.
The festival date has been and gone, and we kept the feast the best we could with Fr Rodney and Fr Robin’s wonderful online service, but the meaning of the feast has certainly not ‘Gone’. It never will.
Do you remember when this lockdown started, we thought it would last for two weeks, and then a month. We never expected to celebrate Easter at home instead of in church, and even then we were really hoping that we would be back at Church for the Great Feats of Pentecost. Of course we did, after all ours is the Chaplaincy of the Holy Spirit Costa Blanca.
So I, for one, hoped to be in church, and for us to be embracing a new normal, looking back on how far we had come, and celebrating all the good things that God had done. I was expecting a Powerful Pentecost.
But that was not to be. Our congregations are not yet able to gather, and we continue to be very aware of many people’s concern for the physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing of all of our members.
Does this mean our Hopes and expectations were lost? Did we lose out on something? Did Pentecost not happen for us this year?
By no means. And we should not be surprised, because nothing can separate us from the love of God.
We didn’t gather in the buildings we normally use, and we didn’t greet one another with the Kiss of Peace, and many of us were not able to receive our physical Communion, but The Power of the Holy Spirit was certainly present and active, and God’s Grace was and is abundant amongst us.
Of course we like to celebrate our major feasts, and embrace our beautiful liturgies, but this time of separation is reminding us that God is not confined to His Churches, or the Sacraments, or to gatherings of people we know. But he, and his Grace are present everywhere, if we have eyes to see.
The gift of faith allows us to discern the grace of God at work in the world.
His love, power, presence and work are far greater than the barriers that we subconsciously erect through our egos, and our unconscious bias would have us believe. He is active now, and his power is strong.
We all know this, and yet we think we need our familiar rituals to make everything ok.
Recently I was up very early, walking alone on the hills behind my house and stood at the top overlooking Calpe. The whole town. It was beautiful, and I was absolutely aware over the overwhelming presence of God. It Is His World, His Beauty, His Love, His Will, His Joy.
My initial thought was, yes, that is what I seek. But it was quickly replaced with, Yes, that is what I receive.
God always takes the initiative, and he is there for us to embrace.
So, we didn’t have the services we had hoped for, but God’s Holy Spirit was very much alive and active.
Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.
Until next time,
Fr Marcus

Click the link to view this morning’s glorious communion service for Whitsunday, from Fr. Rodney and Fr. Robin.

Here is the link to today’s message from Fr Marcus.

‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’
My Dear Friends,
Pentecost is almost upon us, and now is a great time to put things in our hearts right with God and one another so that we are in a good place emotionally to receive the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
This Virus that has affected so many has brought the best out in lots of people, and we have seen remarkable stories of love, care, concern and self sacrifice. And Praise the Lord for that!
But it has also taken it’s toll on many people emotionally and concerning their mental health. Some people have struggled more than others, some have got very anxious or depressed, and some have become very negative. All of this is really sad, however understandable it is.
I myself have felt the pressure of trying to stay positive really hard sometimes, and that is not like me at all. So apologies if you have been on the receiving end of that.
But as always our scriptures, and the Gospel in particular come to our help.
You know the story so well. As Jesus was arrested Peter fearfully denied him 3 times, and he broke down in tears once he realised what he had done.
But before we get to the end of John’s Gospel, we have the gracious Restoration of Peter, when Jesus asks him three times if he loves him.
The first time, Jesus says, ‘Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?’
It is not completely clear what Jesus means.
Does he mean –
Do you love Me more than your fishing nets, boats etc? Do you love Me more than your former way of life? After all at the first sign of trouble Peter went fishing.
Or -Do you love me more than you love these other disciples?
Or-Do you love Me more than these other disciples love Me?
It may well be the last one, but Jesus always chooses his words carefully, so it is right that we contemplate all three.
As we are going through our own joys and struggles, where does Jesus fit in.
Has he gone down a peg, because we have worries of our own. Are we finding that we are missing other things more than we are missing church? Do we want to fall into a trap of comparing our love of Jesus with what we think other people’s Spirituality is like?
I believe we need not worry about these things.
In the Gospel, Jesus asks Peter three time. Yes, because Peter had denied him three times, but more significantly, because Jesus want to offer Peter every chance to think about what his love for Jesus means. Jesus’ questions give peter the opportunity to say
‘Lord, you know everything; you know that I love you.’
How great is that. To be reminded that Jesus knows everything. He knows the secrets of our hearts, and he knows what is making us Joyful or crabby.
For me, this story helps put everything in to perspective. As always Jesus takes the initiative, and through his grace he gives us the opportunity to discover what he means to us, and as he knows the secrets of our hearts, he can discern our love for him, even when we bury it behind our troublesome ego.
It is not so much about how we are feeling right now, it is more about knowing deep down that ‘Yes, we love Jesus more than these.’
It is with that love of the Lord in our hearts that we deal with our struggles, and it is through his grace that we can be inspired to be graceful to others.
But it doesn’t quite end there. Jesus give Peter some responsibilities-
To ‘Feed my lambs.’ ‘Tend my sheep.’ ‘Feed my sheep.’
I shall leave you to ponder what Jesus is saying to You through these words.
Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.
I pray that we all open our Hearts, Minds and Souls to the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
As ever,
Fr. Marcus