Tracy's Blog

“ Almighty God, whose Son fasted forty days in the wilderness, and was tempted as we are but did not sin, give us grace to discipline ourselves in submission to Your Spirit, that as You know our weakness, so we may know Your power to save, through Jesus Christ our Lor d, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.”   This prayer is the Collect (opening prayer) for the first Sunday in Lent from the Book of Alternative Services of the Anglican Church of Canada (page 286). When we prayed this prayer last weekend, the line “so we may know Your power to save” jumped out at me. This is what Lent is about. Knowing God's power to save us from our sin. This has been an encouragement for me this Lent as I've set in place certain disciplines that I believe are in submission to the Spirit and what has been revealed is my weakness. My need of a Saviour. So, if you are finding you are seeing more of the parts of your life and pers...

I attended the Ash Wednesday service at St. Margaret's last week and was deeply touched. The opportunity to confess my sin and receive God's mercy was very beautiful. How needy we are... and how graciously God provides. I wanted to share one of the prayers we prayed as it sets a meaningful tone for Lent: “Lord, for thy tender mercies' sake, lay not our sins to our charge; But forgive that is past, and give us grace to amend our sinful lives; To decline from sin, and incline to virtue; That we may walk with a perfect heart before thee, now and evermore.” Book of Common Prayer p 614 God not only forgives us, but He also gives us the grace to change and improve our lives. And the prayer tells us how to do it: “ To decline from sin, and incline to virtue.”   I love that line. Why? Maybe because it gives me visual images that help me understand what it means to repent. I can imagine moving my body away from sin like a child who doesn't want to eat what is ...

It kind of caught me off guard.  I had just preached at the early serice at St. Clement's and was going to be the guest preacher at the 9:15 am service at St. George's. Mawejje (the priest from St. Clement's Anglican Church ) had instructed me to meet him at my in-laws house in Selkirk so I could leave my car there while we drove to the nearby town of Clandeboye to St. George's Church.  But when I got to Bob and Adeline's, he wasn't there.  I knew he needed to warm his car up since it was colder than -20 degrees but as I waited I began to wonder why it was taking so long.  Then I had a thought that surprised me, "Did Mawejje really say to meet here? Or maybe I misunderstood him." I thought I should phone him but realized I didn't have his cell phone number.  I started to review the conversation we had had only 10 minutes previously.  And that's when a feeling caught me off guard.  I started to feel a slight panic.  What wa...

I hang out with a group of Moms every second Thursday morning. Usually we chat, drink coffee, and eat snacks. Last week, the coordinator, Michelle, gave us a challenge. She encouraged each woman to share one healthy habit that they would like to implement. The idea is that we will hold each other accountable to developing these habits by checking in in two weeks to see if we've established the habit. If we have, we are welcome to add another habit to the list. If not, we don't add anything new until the first is established in our life. With Lent approaching (Ash Wednesday is Feb. 13 th ), I've been thinking about holy habits – activities we do regularly that draw us near to God. When it comes to these spiritual habits (or disciplines), I am leaning towards the approach that our coffee group has: develop one habit at a time. I know that there are many activities that will help us grow in our faith in God - such as prayer, Bible study, Scripture memorization, giving...