The effect of hearing the story of Jesus’ transfiguration this morning — just before Lent — has the effect of framing the whole of Lent between two parallel stories. A story of Jesus going into a lonely mountainous place to pray, attended by his three closest friends: Peter; James; and John. A story in whichContinue reading “Rowan Williams on the Transfiguration”
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We Know All Things But the Truth
Step softly, under snow or rain, To find the place where men can pray;The way is all so very plain That we may lose the way. Oh, we have learnt to peer and pore On tortured puzzles from our youth,We know all labyrinthine lore,We are the three wise men of yore, And we know allContinue reading “We Know All Things But the Truth”
Education as Life
Education in the Church’s doctrines is not merely a matter of abstraction or learning, a kind of theological grammar. Salvation in Christ is not simply a matter of the mind or of checking off a list of the correct ideas. Education in the faith requires witness, testimony to one’s relationship with Christ and how oneContinue reading “Education as Life”
Death as Sleep
[The adults] didn’t know being dead is only being asleep, and you’re bound to wake up somewhere or other, either where you go to sleep or in some better place. Edith Nesbit, Five Children and It
Love and Fidelity
What is love without fidelity? In the ultimate analysis, it is nothing but a lie. For the deepest meaning of ever love, the inner “word” uttered in love, is the orientation toward and giving of oneself to the beloved, a giving that knows no time limit. No fluctuation in the course of life can shatterContinue reading “Love and Fidelity”
In Your Hands
This is the law of life on earth:for every thing that comes to birth,man and woman, child and mother,the life of each is in the other. This is the law of life in Heaven:we must forgive to be forgiven.Hands that close and will not give,cannot receive, and will not live. Thus by Thy divine decree,toContinue reading “In Your Hands”
St. Augustine on the Incarnation
Man’s Maker was made man, that He, Ruler of the stars, might nurse at His mother’s breasts; that the Bread might be hungry, the Fountain thirst, the Light sleep, the Way be tired from the journey; that the Truth might be accused by false witnesses, the Judge of the living and the dead be judgedContinue reading “St. Augustine on the Incarnation”
A New Thing Comes
Even in the old days [God] never asked men to do what was reasonable. Men can do that for themselves. They can buy and sell, heal and govern. But then out of some deep place comes the command to do what makes no sense of all – to build a ship on dry ground; toContinue reading “A New Thing Comes”
Guard Your Speech
God has surrounded the tongue with a double wall – with the barrier of the teeth and the fence of the lips – in order that it may not easily and heedlessly utter words it should not speak. Keep it curbed within your mouth. ~ St. John Chrysostom, Baptismal Instructions IX 33-35
The Rules of the Drink
Drink because you are happy, but never because you are miserable. Never drink when you are wretched without it, or you will be like the grey-faced gin-drinker in the slum; but drink when you would be happy without it, and you will be like the laughing peasant of Italy. Never drink because you need it,Continue reading “The Rules of the Drink”
Locus Communis 