Dear Fathers, Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
We honour Saint Agnes, Virgin and Martyr today and in order for you to understand something of her life , would you click on this link to an excellent blogspot.
Saint Agnes is often pictured with a lamb. symbolic of her unblemished purity. She is the patron saint of engaged couples, girls, chastity, rape victims, and virgins.
In this day and age we are not doing too well in this area of unblemished purity and chastity, let alone the number of rapes and sexual assaults, which mark our present society. I was reading in another report that Pope Emeritus Benedict defrocked more then 400 Roman Catholic Priests guilty of sexual assaults and sexual abuse. So it is in the Church and society.
There are few Churches left in this world, who promote purity and chastity to its young congregations when it comes to sex before marriage. The Roman Catholic and Anglican Clergy, i.e. most of all have abandoned preaching about it. One Roman Catholic Father who I know in New Zealand told me that if he preached about this, most of the young congregation would leave. To have a sleeping partner is the modern way, I heard someone saying the other day. In a Pentecostal type Anglican Church in Christchurch, New Zealand a former Vicar recommend from the pulpit that youth use condoms. And so it goes on.
Not long ago we celebrated the feast of Christmas and prior to Christmas we focussed on the coming of Christ on the clouds of heaven to judge the quick and the dead. There are some Scriptures passages to read through this evening, i.e. Revelations 22 beginning at verse 10 until the end.
Verse 11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still : and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous , let him be righteous still : and he that is Holy, let be Holy still. It is the Holiness our Lord is interested in. Verse 14 Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter through the gates into the city.
When you read these words , you realize that here on earth we still have a lot of work to do to prepare for the Kingdom of Christ. What about you ? Are you going take these words seriously?
Father Ed Bakker
Anglican Catholic Church / Original Province
Mission of Saint Aidan of Lindisfarne
Bendigo
Australia
