Laura and I have always enjoyed watching nature at the lake where we live. We see alligators, otters, fish, ospreys, hawks, and Bald Eagles. We enjoy them all, however, our favorites are the ducks. Wood ducks especially. We even put cracked corn on the beach every day to entice them to come near. We have 5 wood duck boxes which are occupied at this time of year. While I’m pretty-much sure that it is pure luck, we occasionally catch the baby ducks plopping down from the box immediately after hatching. Momma duck is down on the beach under the box encouraging the babies. Shortly after, we see the mother with her brood of babies in the shallow water at the edge of the weeds. While sitting on the screen porch on our upper deck last Sunday evening we saw 2 groups of 10 to 15 baby ducks with their mothers. One group on the neighbor’s beach and one on our beach. Before long they all came together, all mixed up together. Laura was concerned that they would get lost with the wrong mother. As we watched, each mother moved away into the water, each began calling and within seconds, the mixed-up bunch became two separate groups just like before. Each mother moved her babies away to a different weed patch.
Read MoreThe “Road to Emmaus” was also the gospel passage for last Wednesday and I’m going to hone in on some of the same points this morning. Hopefully, we will all gain from learning and refreshing our understanding.
Please turn to page 857 in the Book of Common Prayer. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find a Q & A on the Sacraments. The first question is, “What are the sacraments? The answer is, “The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace.
This is, of course, from our catechism right in the prayer book. It is essentially what I memorized for my own confirmation and remains the teaching of our church. But what does it mean, really, “an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace”?
Read MoreOne hundred years ago yesterday, the weather was balmy; lows in the mid-60s and highs in the mid-80s. Lake Wales was at the peak of the Florida Land Boom, with lots of people moving into the area. Traffic was terrible. Bok Tower was a set of blueprints. (They would begin construction on it the following year.)
It was an exciting day. The missionary community formed under the name Church of the Good Shepherd gathered to celebrate Easter Sunday. It was their very first service in their brand-new church building, their own worship space, which elevated them from “mission” to “parish” status. They had worked very hard for months to raise the funds and build that wooden church on this very spot.
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