Above: Icon of St. James the Just
Image in the Public Domain
Dealing Gently with Each Other
MAY 8, 2022
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The Collect:
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning:
Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,
that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of life,
which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
—The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236
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The Assigned Readings:
Acts 15:12-31
Psalm 33
2 Thessalonians 2:13-3:5
John 21:15-25
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For the word of the LORD is right;
His every deed is faithful.
He loves what is right and just;
the earth is full of the LORD’s faithful care.
–Psalm 33:4-5, TANAKH: The Holy Scriptures (1985)
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Jesus placed no barriers between himself and anyone. He dealt gently with the Apostles (especially St. Simon Peter) in John 21. Three times did St. Simon Peter deny Jesus. Three times did the Apostle say that he loved Jesus.
I, as a Gentile, owe a great debt of gratitude to St. Paul the Apostle, St. Simon Peter, and St. James of Jerusalem. They did much to open the nascent Church (still a Jewish sect) to Gentiles. They tore down barriers and obstacles to joining the Church. And they stood within Jewish tradition.
(One should refrain from assuming that Judaism was ever a monolithic faith.)
Yet to be fair to Judaizers, one must acknowledge that they understood themselves to be be, in Pauline language from 2 Thessalonians, standing firm in the traditions they had learned. So was St. James of Jerusalem, who emphasized another Jewish tradition, the “circumcision of the heart.”
May we of the Christian faith deal gently with each other, especially during disputes. May the ways we treat one another bring credit, not disrepute, upon us and glorify God. May they never serve to dissuade people from joining the Church and to coming to or remaining in faith.
KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR
JANUARY 11, 2021 COMMON ERA
THE FEAST OF SAINT THEODOSIUS THE CENOBIARCH, ROMAN CATHOLIC MONK
THE FEAST OF CHARLES WILLIAM EVEREST, EPISCOPAL PRIEST, POET, AND HYMN WRITER
THE FEAST OF MIEP GIES, RIGHTEOUS GENTILE
THE FEAST OF SAINT PAULINUS II OF AQUILEIA, ROMAN CATHOLIC PATRIARCH OF AQUILEIA
THE FEAST OF RICHARD FREDERICK LITTLEDALE, ANGLICAN PRIEST AND TRANSLATOR OF HYMNS
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https://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2021/01/11/dealing-gently-with-each-other/
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LENTEN AND EASTER DEVOTIONS 
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