Join us at St. John of the Cross Bristol on April 19 at 7:30p for the Easter Vigil.

This worship service focuses on Jesus’ crucifixion and this act done for us, God’s children.

This worship service focuses on Jesus’ crucifixion and this act done for us, God’s children.

St. John of the Cross will join us for the 7pm Eucharist on Maundy Thursday.

We will be joining St. John of the Cross for noon Eucharist on Maundy Thursday.

This contemplative service begins in light and moves to darkness as we listen to salvation history in scripture. It sets the stage for the Triduum services beginning the next day on Maundy Thursday, April 17. We gather in the Chapel across the hall from the Sanctuary as you come up the main steps.

Imposition of Ashes and Holy Communion

Imposition of Ashes and Holy Communion

Hear from Miriam, a woman witnessing Jesus’ arrival in Jerusalem

We begin our morning with mass at 9am. Following mass we will gather in the Great Hall for a carry-in meal and Annual Meeting.

St. John of the Cross and St. John the Evangelist Parishes will celebrate a joint mass on January 6 for Epiphany.

We begin our Christmas Eve celebrations with Carols and Participatory Christmas Program - When Heaven and Nature Sing at 6:30pm. Come to enjoy the program or to be in it! Most parts are non-speaking parts and need people of all ages. Stay for Candlelight mass at 7pm.

Christmas isn’t always the most wonderful time of the year. This service gives us a chance to acknowledge our sorrows and worries. This contemplative service offers prayers, silence, candle lighting, and space to just be.

Join us in making Gingerbread Houses. All ages are welcome to join in the fun.

Kid’s activities

Beekeeper Ken Peterson

Honey

Honey Mead (for adults)

This Rite II Eucharist is a sung mass where we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection. There will be a children’s message at this service. Come and raise your voice with others in praise of God’s salvation for us.

This traditional Rite I mass continues the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection that was begun at the Easter Vigil the night before. This is a spoken mass with the hymn Jesus Christ is Risen Today as the sending hymn to raise the rafters in celebration.

This traditional mass begins outside where we light candles and process into the sanctuary. The service then begins in candlelight. We hear the story of salvation through the reading of scriptures and hymns. At the Hymn of Praise all the lights are turned on and we hear of the saving grace of Jesus.

We will affirm our baptism at this service and rededicate ourselves to a life of faith.

We will gather with St. John of the Cross in Bristol for this service.

Good Friday is called good because of God’s plan for our salvation through the crucifixion of Jesus. We focus on Jesus’ death at this service.

All families are invited to join us in the Great Room downstairs following mass to make bread for our Maundy Thursday Mass. This event is free. Families will be able to take some of the bread home as well.

Each year on the Sunday before Easter, we begin our mass outside the sanctuary for prayers and a reading then we process in to the sanctuary remembering Jesus entry into Jerusalem. This mass includes the story of Jesus from the time he enters Jerusalem through his crucifixion. It is a moving and powerful service.

It may seem odd to think of joy on Ash Wednesday. The readings this day lean into what we would traditionally associate with a season of fasting: a long list of privations and human limitations. Where’s the joy in that? 

As you’ll discover this season, these experiences often help us recognize joy when we truly experience it. Joy does not require suffering or disappointment or austerity. But when we live through times like those, we know how to appreciate times of joy’s sudden abundance

In Psalm 51, the psalmist feels the kind of obvious, embarrassing humiliation that comes from recognizing what we have done wrong. The writer feels “born guilty,” filthy, dirty, crushed (5-8). What joy comes from the healing mercy of forgiveness! It is like restoration, or newfound wisdom, or the return of the lost, or being able to sing again (12-15).

Then, in the gospel text from Matthew, Jesus calls the faithful to hide their obvious shows of piety. What joy comes from washing your face to remove the signs of fasting? It is like a secret reward, the quiet delight in the knowledge that the God “who sees in secret will reward you” (Matthew 6:18).

In all the Ash Wednesday readings, we find a biblical roadmap to joy: it follows an experience of God’s absence and emerges the moment we rediscover our faith. Joy follows the painful, shocking recognition of our abject sin and emerges as we receive God’s forgiveness. Joy follows occasions of social jeopardy and personal calamity and bursts forth when we harvest unshakeable life in a moment that might have devastated us once.  

We are not meant to seek out painful and life-endangering experiences in order to find the joy that comes from God. It is enough to name them honestly. Our temporal misery, our bodily suffering, our grief – none of it is required for joy. These experiences simply help us recognize and appreciate and celebrate that which is worthy of true joy.