Missio Dei

Welcome to Pax Vobis (“Peace be with you” in Latin). This newsletter will be my periodic thoughts on Missio Dei Church’s everyday liturgy (work of the people in Latin). The content here will encompass more than just our corporate gatherings on Sunday mornings, but how our faith in Jesus Christ encompasses our every day life.

I know when some of you hear the word “liturgy” you start breaking out into hives, so let me explain what liturgy really means. With its roots in λειτουργία (leitourgia), liturgy means "public work" or "public servant." In other words, all that we do, think, say before others... others in our homes, in our places of work, in our communities.... we humbly offer that this is our liturgy, our public service, before people, and before our all encompassing God. In no way is liturgy to mean rote, empty ritual, but rather

...liturgy is a school where through sign and symbol, word and music, our minds and hearts are formed to be in union with the movement of God, with God Himself. ~ Fr. M. Basil Pennington

Liturgy is our daily, vibrant movement with God Himself through the reading, memorization, and meditating on Scripture, the singing of hymns, through the cup and the bread. Liturgy is our pressing into the heart of God and moving with Him. Days, wild and crazy days of family life, need order, scaffolding, sacred rhythms. If we say God is at the center, so we order the tangle of our days around Him: we commune with Him through the liturgical, sacred everyday rhythms of our public work, our daily service, our vocation. And He untangles us.

My prayer is that Pax Vobis will be the place where we are stretched in how we think about and live out our everyday worship/service to Jesus Christ, the one who has redeemed us.

Peace be with you…

(Read Pax Vobis in its entirety by downloading it here!)