Reflections from your Pastors

Tuesday, August 22

Of course, a three-year old was at Horsetooth Reservoir yesterday during this heat wave. What a wonderful way to cool off…on a paddle board with mother, and grandmother tubing behind! Grandmother described a little fish of a granddaughter as a wee little one with dark hair and dark eyes, and a life jacket, jumping with abandon into the water, swimming around and climbing onto the board only to do it again and again squealing with excitement.

Consciousness of experience can bring delight! Grandmother was filled with delight too!

This is reminiscent of the fish in the ocean while looking for the water, and yet not able to find it. Consciousness again can bring delight! The water, yes! The water, God! Everywhere that we are, even within us!

Opening to any page in The Book of Awakening by Mark Nepo, this appeared on page 5:

“Between Peace and Joy”

We could never have guessed

We were already blessed

Where we are…”

- James Taylor

The author goes on. “This reminds me of a woman who found a folded sponge all dried and compressed, and tucked inside the hardened fold was a message she’d been seeking. She carried the hardened sponge to the sea and, up to her waist in the deep, she watched it unfold and come to life in the water. Magically, the secret of life became visible in the bubbles being released from the sponge, and to her amazement, a small fish, trapped in sleep in the hardened sponge, came alive and swam out to sea. From that day on, no matter where she went, she felt the little fish swimming in the deep, and this – the swimming of the little fish that had for so long been asleep – gave her satisfaction that was somewhere between peace and joy.

Whatever our path, whatever the color or grain of our days, whatever riddles we must solve to stay alive, the secret of life somehow always has to do with the awakening and freeing of what has been asleep. Like that sponge, our very heart begs to unfold in the waters of our experience, and like that little fish, the soul is a tiny thing that brings us peace and joy when we let it swim.

But everything remains hard and compressed and illegible until, like this woman, waist deep in the ocean, we take our sleeping heart in our hands and plunge it tenderly into the life we are living.”

To help awaken, the author continues:

• “With your eyes closed, meditate on the image of a hardened sponge unfolding like a flower underwater.
• As you breath, practice seeing your heart as such a sponge.
• The next time you do the dishes, pause, hold the hardened sponge in the water, and feel your heart unfold.”

With our own neurons firing, we hear Jesus. “The truth is, unless you change and become like little children, you will not enter the kin-dom of heaven. Those who make themselves as humble as this child are the greatest in the kin-dom of heaven.” (Matt 18.3-4)

Today, how can we expand, embracing our experiences as the 3-year-old jumping again and again into Horsetooth Reservoir did?

Peace internally then Peace externally will follow,

Pastor Jane

Image by lisa runnels from Pixabay

This Week at Mary of Magdala

It’s time to Reserve a "Table for 4"

For September/October

Please consider trying this opportunity to get to know other members of Mary of Magdala in smaller groups.



• To participate, select the RESERVE TABLE button below or call 970 224-0297.
• Reservations are due September 5th.

If you are not aware of Table for 4: It is an opportunity for MoM members to meet in smaller groups to get to know one another a little better. Participants are put into a group of 4 and they decide whether to go out to breakfast, lunch, dinner, coffee, drinks, etc.

Each Table will meet one time during the two month period. Table for 4 is open to singles and couples. You do not need to join every time reservations are open... only when it fits into your schedule.

Table for 4 will be offered FOUR times a year: January/February, March/April, May/June, September/October.

Support and Relief Efforts for Maui

Here is a suggestion of Bishop Fitzpatrick, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii, for the best ways to support relief efforts for the fires in Hawaii.

• The Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii is coordinating immediate diocesan relief efforts to the Lahaina Fire disaster through the Diocese’s A CUP OF COLD WATER (ACCW) (a non-profit organization of the Diocese that serves the houseless on Maui). 

Make an online donation through the Bishop’s Pastoral Fund on the website of the Episcopal Diocese of Hawaii (the funds will be gathered and sent to ACCW).

Request for Prayers

Please send prayer requests to marymagdalafc@gmail.com. Prayers will be listed for one month unless requested for longer. Prayers for the repose of souls will be listed for six months unless requested for a longer time.

Celebrating the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Celebrate with Mother Rosean Amaral presiding on August 20. You can view the video of readings and Mother Rosean's homily here.



Social Justice Reflection

Sunday August 20

Tom Moos, Social Justice Ministry, Chair

There have already been 423 reported killings by US police officers in 2023, roughly 200 more than in 2021 and in 2022. People of color continue to be disproportionately represented in this grim statistic.

Brandon Cole was killed in an altercation with Denver police that began on August 5, in response to a domestic violence call. Two officers arrived on the scene and found Cole’s wife, sitting on a curb next to her wheelchair. She begged the officers not to draw guns on her husband and asked for an ambulance. The officers tried engaging with Brandon and told him to raise his hands. Cole began approaching the male officer who drew a taser, while the female officer who arrived from a different direction, drew a gun. Cole turned towards the policewoman. The officer with the taser fired but missed and the female officer shot Cole twice. At a press conference, officials claimed the officers had followed standard procedures to de-escalate the situation and believed Cole might be carrying a knife which turned out to be a black marker.

The fallout from this shooting is still unfolding. Advocates say people will continue to be killed by police unless transformative change comes to the

city’s public safety system. This was the first officer-involved shooting of Mike Johnston’s term as the new Denver mayor. While campaigning, Johnston spoke about a police department with more co-responders, civilian workers trained to ride with officers and help people in mental health crises. Not much has changed so far but Johnston is still new to the job.

Perhaps, Brandon Cole’s tragic death can be an opportunity for us to encourage change to public safety policies and procedures via letters or phone calls to governmental offices? Did you know that in the UK (where assault weapons and handguns are banned and only a small percentage of officers even carry a gun) deaths by police shooting are almost non-existent? British police rely on their mouths and brains rather than weapons in their work. Of course that is easier given that less than 4% of the population owns a gun. Such bans may be too much to expect in America. And yet, unarmed trained behavioral experts working with police may prove effective in de-escalating engagements with law enforcement resulting in fewer deadly outcomes.

Mass Schedule

Weekly Mass Wednesday, Aug 23 at

11:00 am

• Weekly mass in the Fireside Room
• No Zoom available

Sunday Aug 27 at 12:30 pm

• Rev. Jane Reina is presiding. In-person and with Zoom

Weekly Mass Wednesday, Aug 30 at

11:00 am

• Weekly mass in the Fireside Room
• No Zoom available

Sunday Sept. 3 at 12:30 pm

• Father Teri Harron is presiding. In-person and with Zoom

Did you miss an article or announcement?

Past e-bulletins posted here



• ECC House of Laity, NEWSLETTER, August 2023, read here
• Dedicating Altar Flowers? Contact Joan Stepleton at JoanStepleton@gmail.com or 864-650-2816. A $25 dollar donation is kindly requested.
• The purpose of the Mary Magdalene Society is to financially support aspiring and current priests and encourage the development of youth in their spiritual journeys. Read more here.
• The Summer newsletter from the Office of the Presiding Bishop of the Ecumenical Communion can be read here
• To read the recent ECC House of Pastors' Newsletter, click here

Mary of Magdala Parish Community

All are invited and ALL are welcome to join our parish community.

• Here is the webpage with more information on membership
• If you would like to contribute to Mary of Magdala, here are ways to schedule a single or recurring Sunday offertory.
• Need to view, update information or download a copy of the member directory? Just click here.



The ECC Regional Website is now live - View here.

Newsletters of Trinity Lutheran Church and the St. Paul's Episcopal  

Click here for the Trinity Lutheran Church monthly newsletter, "Tidings". And here is St Paul's weekly bulletin.