Welcome to the St. Martin's Prime Timers Web Page!

We meet each Sunday in the Payne Education Center from 10:10am to 10:50 in rooms 207-209. Advent is the season of Hope and we invite you to join us during this wonderful time of year in the Christian Church.

Announcements

This is a wonderful time in the Christian Year! A lot will be happening at St. Martin's this month and we hope you will be part of it. Our lesson plan has readings for each week during this season, although we will only be meeting formally on the 18th of the month. Never fear, the bible readings will be posted here each Monday afternoon, even if there won't be a class on Sunday.

On December 11, all the St. Martin's A.B.F. groups will meet in the Bagby Parish Hall together for a discussion by author James P. Moore, Jr. of his new book, One Nation Under God:  The History of Prayer in America. 

Set aside Saturday, December 17th. Rick and Maud Ella Hartley are hosting the Prime Timers Christmas Party! Please RSVP to Maud Ella or Rick by December 10th. Their number is 713-621-0455. There is a charge of $10, which includes dinner. Bring a bottle of your favorite wine!

To reach the Hartley's home:  from 610 go east on Post Oak Blvd to Briar Hollow and turn right. Take the 1st Left (S. Briar Hollow Lane) and go one-half block to Raintree Place (on the left). The Security Guard will direct you to the Hartley's home.

Good News!

We set aside time every Sunday for our members to bring us their Good News.

This week Richard Cook told us that both his sons were out of college and headed for Graduate School in Vancouver.

Serving Others

This week was a special one for the Prime Timers. We set aside the scheduled lesson for this week to hear about the spiritual path of one of our members, Dr. Bill Moore. He was our Gospeller.

Dr. Bill, as he is known to many of us, is looked up to as an authority as we make our way through our Sunday readings, and after hearing his story I think you will know why.

Because his mother was angry at the church, Dr. Bill did not go to church as a child. He attended medical school and was based in Galveston in the Army. During this time he wasn't a religious person, and recalled a very different Galveston, where if a medic was drunk the police would give them a ride home. They needed medics!

Two weeks out of medical school, Dr. Bill did experience Grace, marrying his wife Grace and beginning a marriage that is still strong today. They moved to Pensacola, Florida where he worked as a flight surgeon. It was here that the Moore's had two children. Grace wanted the children baptized and while he still says he was not a religious man, Dr. Bill was baptized as well.

After the military the Moore's moved to Houston, where Dr. Bill began his residency in Psychiatry at Baylor, and joined St. Peter's Episcopal Church, where they were members for twenty years. It was during this period that he first began seriously searching for spiritual meaning. While working on a project to revise the church prayer book, he began attending seminary courses at St. Mary's Catholic Church. He is still attending these classes, and perhaps this accounts for some of the weight we give to his insights in our class.

Dr. Bill went to Rome to learn from the Jesuits and recalls being told to "pick a certain time to pray everyday or God might not think you are serious."

All this time Dr. Bill did not bring up religion in his Psychiatric practice, feeling it would be inappropriate. One patient was himself very religious and many discussions did in fact revolve around religious matters. The patient told Dr. Bill the he was one of the best spiritual advisors that he (the patient) had encountered. This got Dr. Bill thinking:  what were the requirements to be a Spiritual Advisor? At the Cenacle in West Houston, Dr. Jerry May told Dr. Bill that the call came from the Holy Spirit. And today Dr. Bill Moore is one of three Spiritual Directors at St. Martins.

When I heard that Dr. Bill was going to tell the class about his spiritual journey I guess I was expecting to hear about a moment of enlightenment, or a spiritual event, that changed him from the un-religious person he said he was as a young man to the thoughtful one he is today. Kind of like Saul, also know as Paul, from our exploration of the Book of Acts, who receives the call from Jesus. There was not any event that seemed to qualify, but hearing his story I realized that he didn't need a lightning bolt or some such because his whole life gradually took him to this path. Choosing Psychiatry as a profession, joining the church to please his wife and then getting deeply involved in its affairs, the quest for answers in the many courses in seminary, its all a spiritual journey. Bless you, Dr. Bill, your story was an inspiration to me. 

Jackie Rose then led a healing prayer for the class and concluded with the benediction.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

The Rev. Maurice L. "Rusty" Goldsmith. D.D.
713/985-3831
rgoldsmith@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leader

The Glare is Gone!  Our classroom now faces away from the windows so you won't have to squint to see the teacher!

Maud Ella Hartley reminds us that we need to RSVP for the Prime Timers Christmas Party before the 10th!

Dr. Bill Moore was our Gospeller this week.

The fabric frontals on the altar at St. Martin's change to brand new Sarum Blue, symbolizing hope, for Advent.

If you haven't seen the St. Martin's stained glass windows up close, you owe it to yourself to take the Docent's Tour of our New Church, on Sundays 12:30-1:30pm, and Wednesdays and Fridays 10:45am-12:30pm. Group Tours are available by appointment (713-830-4117)

 The Lesson for Sunday, December 11th is titled "Strength from God"

Key Verse:  Isaiah 50:7

Focus of the Lesson:  Everyone experiences physical, emotional, or mental weariness at some point. Where can we draw strength during our own times of weariness? Our strength comes both from God and from people like Isaiah who carry God's comfort to us.

The reading is Isaiah 49:5-6; 50:4-9. This text is from the New International Version^®.

5 And now the LORD says—
    he who formed me in the womb to be his servant
    to bring Jacob back to him
       and gather Israel to himself,
    for I am honored in the eyes of the LORD
       and my God has been my strength-

6 he says:
    "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant
      to restore the tribes of Jacob
    and bring back those of Israel I have kept.
I will also make you a light for the Gentiles,
    that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the  earth."

Isaiah 50:4-9

 4 The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue,
    to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
    wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

5 The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears,
    and I have not been rebellious;
    I have not drawn back.

6 I offered my back to those who beat me,
    my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard;
I did not hide my face
    from mocking and spitting.

7 Because the Sovereign LORD helps me,
    I will not be disgraced.
Therefore have I set my face like flint,
    and I know I will not be put to shame.

8 He who vindicates me is near.
    Who then will bring charges against me?
    Let us face each other!
  Who is my accuser?
    Let him confront me!

9 It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me.
    Who is he that will condemn me?
They will all wear out like a garment;
    the moths will eat them up.

NIV®