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St. Gabriel and All Angels

Theme: The Healing Flame Within
Location: St. Gabriel and All Angels Church
Friday, October 22nd - Sunday, October 24th
Cost: Free will Offering
Registration requested

Registration is easy. Just send an email to retreat@stgabe.org and let us know you are coming. continue reading

Absolution, one of the Seven Sacraments of the church catholic, comes from the Latin root words ab solvo, which mean "to loosen". This Sacrament is intended to help the person to discontinue from erroneous behavior, but, as, or more important, to be relieved and disconnected from the downheartedness and guilt that perpetuate of such behavior. Absolution provides an important feature in the life of the spiritual aspirant.

Absolution has commonly become known in just one of it's forms - confession - the telling of one's sins to a priest. The Liberal Catholic Church offers two additional, traditional forms of the Sacrament of Absolution.

The most frequently experienced is the "general absolution," the blessing which follows the beautiful Confiteor prayer at the beginning of Holy Eucharist and many other of our services. The priest absolves all those present, who, in the Confiteor, have acknowledged the human condition on the path of evolution - "...often we forget our (spiritual) heritage, and wander from the path which leads to righteousness...". But those who pray the Confiteor also acknowledge the essential fact of human origin - "Thou hast created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of thine own eternity...".

Another form of Absolution is known as Holy Unction. This ancient rite is not unknown within other catholic churches, but is rarely practiced in the Western church. It does not include the confession of sins to a priest. Rather, it consists of being anointed with holy oil and receiving powerful blessings.

Invoking the name of the Blessed Trinity, the priest then says over the person, "I exorcise all influences of evil, that thou mayest be rightly purified to receive this sacrament of Holy Unction." The priests then anoints the forehead, top of the head, throat and nape of the neck with a holy oil, olem infirmum. Then, gently laying his hands upon the person's head, the priest prays "Christ, the Son of God, pour down his healing power upon thee, and enfold thee in the light of his love.'

Holy Unction is very popular among Liberal Catholics who have experienced it. A wonderful, blessed surprise awaits anyone who ventures to approach this valuable Sacrament. Very often it creates a distinct clearing of negative emotions and self-denigration, and in their place arises self-forgiveness, renewed hope and a fresh, positive attitude toward the present and future.

In the Liberal Catholic Church, the Sacraments of Jesus Christ are open to any and all who approach in reverence, whether members of the church or not, so you come, too!

''Those who take their religion seriously commonly go through a period, sometimes a
long period, when they experience the apparent absence of God. The ideas, images,
concepts which they have previously used in thinking about God or addressing him
have suddenly become meaningless and unreal.

The person feels as if God is absent or does not exist. The reason for this disagreeable
phenomenon is ... continue reading

Every Sunday morning we get out of bed, get prepared to come to church and arriving we come through the church doors and choose a seat. Individually, we do all of these things and also hopefully get a moment of prayer , some meditation time and maybe even a chance to read todays Epistle and Gospel before we begin our Holy Eucharist.

As we begin each Eucharist we are encircled by the opening procession, sensing us as ONE, gently connecting us all together. From outside the church our singing voices can be heard, but not as individual voices, rather as one voice singing together. The sign of the cross during the opening invocation now unites us together with the holy Trinity; Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. The celebrating Priest then blesses with holy water the alter, the church space we worship in and all there in. The celebrant then calls on the Angel of the Eucharist to come and help us in building together the spiritual temple. Next we sing the Canticle followed by repeating the Confiteor, In the Confiteor we acknowledge the truth of our being created to be immortal, made to be an image of God's own eternity and the wish of our creator to have us know this fully. continue reading

The Liberal Catholic Church, as part of the larger Christian Church, has a special role to play, and I feel blessed to be able to participate. The heart of the Church as a whole is to be a vehicle for the distribution of Christ’s power and love to all who sincerely desire to know God. Through the sacraments, Christ comes to all, and wakes up His Life within us. As we come more and more awake to that Divine Spark within our heart, we live and breathe the Love of Christ in all we do and live for the greater good of all life, not just for ourselves. continue reading

I just want to express my appreciation of this very profound and moving sermon. It reminds me of how extraordinary St.Gabriel's is and how lucky I have been to be part of it. Ria

• The only way to peace is through love.
• The dynamic of love’s story is this:
  • It starts in the flow of the Divine at the birth of creation and in the continual process of God embedding His spark of life, His spark of pure Love in each and every living form.
  • This love cannot remain stagnant, so it too flows in and through each of us and the whole of our world.
  • As we each gradually come to acknowledge that Love as who we are, as all that we are, we offer it back to its Source, back to God, through every intention and action.
  • Our whole life becomes the flow of Love.

"The Spirit of God blows out from us so that we can love and perform good acts. Then he draws us into ourselves so that we can take rest and find enjoyment in him. This is eternal life: not unlike our breathing the air out of our lungs and breathing in fresh air. What I mean is: we move inwardly in a mystical enjoyment and move outwardly in good works, both in communion with God. Just as we open our eyes, look and then close them again, in such a smooth transition that we hardly notice what we are doing, so we die in God and live out of God, always remaining united to him."

"In the abyss of this darkness, in which the loving spirit has
died to itself, there begin the manifestation of God and eternal
life. For in this darkness there shines and is born an
incomprehensible Light, which is the Son of God, in Whom we behold
eternal life. And in this Light one becomes seeing; and this
Divine Light is given to the simple sight of the spirit, where the
spirit receives the brightness which is God Himself, above all
gifts and every creaturely activity, in the idle emptiness in
which the spirit has lost itself through love which attains an
external goal, and where it receives without means the
brightness of God, and is changed without interruption into
that brightness which it receives."

The fundamental energy of Christ’s church is compassionate love - His love for us, our love for Him, and our love for Him in our neighbors. So it is not surprising to find that prayers for the support of those in need play an important part in virtually all Christian services. But they play an especially significant role in the Eucharist of the apostolic churches. continue reading