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Church Notes
Church Notes
SPorter
CHRISTIAN SKATING EVENTS. Let’s Roll, a free family skating event at Hall’s Skateland, 152 Adwolfe Road in Marion, will take place on Saturday, April 25, from 4-8 p.m. each day. The event will feature free food and drinks and skating. The program is hosted by The WAY (Who Are You) program, which strives to help youth recognize their need for Christ and upon receiving him, reinforce their identity in Christ.
GOD SO LOVED MUSICAL. An Easter season musical, God So Loved, will be presented on Saturday, April 25, at 6 p.m. at Marion Baptist Church. Marion Baptist and Joyful Noise choirs will present the cantata based on the biblical verse: God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world, through him, might be saved.
FUMC FOOD PANTRY SCHEDULE: First United Methodist Church,115 S. Church St. in Marion, will hold its food pantry on the fourth Tuesday from 1-4 p.m. January through October and on the third Tuesday from 1-4 p.m. in November and December. Dates are April 28, May 26, June 23, July 28, August 25, September 22, October 27, November 17, and December 15. Visit marionfumc.org to check about schedule changes.
SACRED MUSIC CELEBRATION. Area residents are invited to rehearse to sing with an interfaith choir for the Sacred Music concert event on May 3, part of the eighth annual Sacred Music Celebration in Johnson City, Tennessee. The next rehearsal will be held on April 29 from 7-7:30 p.m. at Munsey Memorial, 201 South Roan St., Johnson City. The event is made possible by Munsey Memorial Music Ministry, The Carol G. Transou Arts Endowment and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
NATIONAL DAY OFPRAYER. A National Day of Prayer service will be held on Thursday, May 7, at noon at the flagpoles in front of Marion's Town Hall. All pastors are invited to join the gathering to offer a prayer in this service that will observe this 75th anniversary of the commemoration. This year's national theme is "Glorify God Among the Nations, Seeking Him in All Generations," following 1 Chronicles 16:24. The community is invited to take part.
Light One Candle
St. Louis’ devotion to Mary
Fr. Ed Dougherty
Columnist
“Mary is the safest, easiest, shortest, and most perfect way of approaching Jesus,” said Saint Louis de Montfort, whose feast day is April 28th, which is the same day he passed away 310 years ago in 1716 at the age of 43. It’s a good time of year to remember Saint Louis de Montfort because his feast day falls just a few days before the start of May, the month of Mary, and he was so instrumental in elevating devotion to our Blessed Mother.
Louis de Montfort grew up in a large farming family in France’s northwestern region of Brittany. When he was twelve years old, he began attending the Jesuit College of St. Thomas Beckett in the nearby City of Rennes. There, he discovered the work of a local priest preaching missions promoting consecration and entrustment to Mary. Louis began to dream of following in that priest’s footsteps to spread Marian devotion.
Arriving in Paris to study theology at the Sorbonne, Louis found that he lacked adequate funds for lodging, so he lived among the city’s poor while going to school. Louis already had a profound love for the poor and desired to preach missions to them. His first-hand experience living among them led him to fulfill that calling, and also to grow in compassion for others.
Shortly before entering seminary, Louis became very ill and had a harrowing experience before finally recovering and entering the Little Saint-Sulpice seminary, run by the Society of the Priests of Saint Sulpice. Working as seminary librarian, Louis immersed himself in books about devotion to our Blessed Mother, which prepared him for the work he would do as a priest promoting what he called “total consecration to Jesus through Mary.”
Louis went on to preach missions throughout northwestern France and became known as “the good Father from Montfort.” He was also a prolific writer, composing poetry for translation into religious songs, and he wrote books, including “True Devotion to Mary,” which remained unpublished and unknown until being discovered more than a century after his death. When it was finally published in 1842, “True Devotion to Mary” was celebrated for the spiritual fruits it bore in people’s lives. This led to a wider appreciation for Louis’ other writings, such as his books “Secret of the Rosary” and “Secret of Mary.” Together, these three Marian classics explore Louis’ profound insights about how devotion to our Blessed Mother can draw us closer to Christ.
In “True Devotion to Mary,” Louis writes, “God the Father made an assemblage of all the waters, and He named it the sea. He has made an assemblage of all His graces, and He has called it Mary.”
Total consecration to Jesus through Mary entails detailed steps that can be found in “True Devotion to Mary.” Those steps are also enumerated in many other books and places online. They are essentially aimed at a personal act that can be done on one’s own, with a small group in a private setting, or on retreat. Put simply, that act entails turning to Mary with total love and trust that she will lead us to Her Son.
“Totus Tuus,” meaning “totally yours,” was the phrase Pope Saint John Paul II took from Saint Louis de Montfort to capture this devotion. It’s a simple phrase we can say daily, making our own personal act of consecration to Jesus through Mary, turning to our Blessed Mother with total trust and asking her to lead us to Christ.
For free copies of the Christopher News Note Nurturing Seeds of Faith and Hope, write: The Christophers, 264 West 40th Street, Room 603, New York, NY 10018; or e-mail: mail@christophers.org.
Words to the Wise
Romans 4 (copy) (copy) (copy)
Pastor Cliff Bowman
Bastian Church of God
Paul has already made something unmistakably clear: all of us stand guilty before God. The Gentiles are guilty. The Jews are guilty. No one can claim the moral high ground. And in chapter four, Paul anticipates the question that would naturally rise in the Jewish heart: “But what about Abraham?”
Surely he would be the exception.
After all, Abraham was a great man. He walked with God. He obeyed when it was hard. He left everything familiar to follow the call of the Lord. If anyone could stand before God on the strength of their own goodness, it would have been Abraham.
But Paul tells us something remarkable. If Abraham had been declared righteous by his works, then he might have had reason to boast before people—but never before God. Scripture tells us plainly: “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”
Abraham’s righteousness was not earned by what his hands had done, but rooted in what his heart trusted.
Think about what Abraham believed. God promised him and Sarah a son when it was humanly impossible. Their bodies were as good as dead, yet Abraham trusted that God could do what no human strength or achievement ever could. That faith—simple, trembling, yet resolute—was what God counted as righteousness.
Abraham’s life was filled with accomplishments, but none of them saved him. He was made right with God because he believed God. He staked his future, his hope, and his identity on the faithfulness of the Lord.
And this is where Romans 4 speaks directly to us.
It is the same for us today. We are not declared righteous because we live moral lives, attend church faithfully, or try our best to be good people. We are declared righteous because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. Our hope rests not in our performance, but in His sacrifice. Not in our faithfulness, but in His.
Salvation has never been about earning God’s approval—it has always been about trusting His promise.
If you are not a Christian today, God’s invitation is still open to you. Salvation begins not with perfection, but with surrender. Here are the simple ABCs of becoming a follower of Christ:
• Admit that you are a sinner in need of a Savior.
• Believe that Jesus died for your sins and rose again from the dead.
• Confess your sins, ask God to forgive you, and commit your life fully to following Him.
Like Abraham, you don’t come to God with a résumé of achievements—you come with open hands and a trusting heart. And God is still faithful to count that faith as righteousness.
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