Anglican Ascetic

We hear our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ speak about Holy Matrimony in our Gospel reading. He says, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?” Here he is quoting from Moses and the Book of Genesis, chapter 2. He is affirmin...

Here is the kick-off to my new podcast, called “Anglican Ascetic.” The focus of the Anglican Ascetic Podcast is prayer life in the Anglican tradition—a tradition rooted in the New Testament Church, and its sub-apostolic and patristic eras, which became manifest when the womb of the Upper Room went Boom. I am calling this my “Pilot Season,” because it will probably take me a number of episodes to t...

I want today for us to reflect upon the teaching of Saint James, the Brother of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I will give attention especially to two verses, both of which are well known. The first is “Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” And the second comes at the end of the passage we heard, where James teaches, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father i...

We hear today of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ speak of the coming of the Holy Ghost. In our Gospel passage, we hear Him called the Comforter. And the Holy Ghost is called the Spirit of Truth; we know that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life: thus the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of Jesus, and shares with us the spirit of Christ. The Holy Ghost is also spoken of in the Epistle from S....

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then co...

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then co...

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then co...

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage from the Song of Songs, then co...

We have here in the north and south walls of the nave of our church the Stations of the Cross. There are fourteen stations, and through each one we follow our Lord Jesus in His Passion. We accompany Him through the sacramental action of the Liturgy. We participate in the experience of the inward and spiritual grace of Our Lord’s Passion: His holy walk of sacrifice, all the way to the Cross, throug...

It is a great joy to share with you all in the heavenly peace brought into the world by Jesus Christ, on this the day of His resurrection. I want to welcome especially our visitors to this holy space on this most holy of occasions. It is a blessing to have you with us. You are always welcome to pray with us in worship of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we invite you to pray for us, as this...

Let us look closely and examine our Gospel passage for its power and its symbolism. When Saint John the Evangelist was going to write about the mystery of our Lord, in which He washed the feet of His disciples at the Passover meal before He went forth to His Passion, John first took care to make clear what the name “Passover” mystically expressed. Passover means passing over. It derives its ancien...

Given that we are in Holy Week, and that my parish keeps Palm Sunday Evensong through Holy Wednesday Evensong by means of Prayer Book adaptation of the Orthodox Bridegroom services, this episode is the “ Holy Wednesday: Bridegroom Edition .” [Apologies for no podcast for Holy Tuesday. Once the Liturgy got going, I realized I had left my recorder back in my office.] The format is two Scripture pass...

Given that we are in Holy Week, and that my parish keeps Palm Sunday Evensong through Holy Wednesday Evensong by means of Prayer Book adaptation of the Orthodox Bridegroom services, this episode is the “ Holy Monday: Bridegroom Edition .” The format is two Scripture passages, followed by my homily. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. A Lesson from t...

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. Given that we are in Holy Week, and that my parish keeps Palm Sunday Evensong through Holy Wednesday Evensong according to a Prayer Book adaptation of the Orthodox Bridegroom services, this episode is the “ Bridegroom Edition...

Today we have gathered to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today He returns from Bethany, having raised Lazarus from the dead, and shared a meal with Saint Lazarus and Saint Martha and Saint Mary Magdalene, and been anointed by her with oil of spikenard. After this, He proceeds of His own free will toward His holy and blessed Passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down...

This service, Lazarus Saturday, is very ancient, traced to the early 300s, the day immediately preceding Palm Sunday. It is the first of the “stations” that we in our liturgy follow in this time of year, the last being at Pentecost in fifty days. For the death of Lazarus, and the raising of him, happened right before Jesus entered in Jerusalem, which we call Palm Sunday, and is intricately part of...

This Lent on Friday evenings I am offering a teaching series called “The Wonder of Prayer.” It explores key facets of the prayer life. This is the fifth and final session. The audio of the talk is above. The two parts of this second session are * Review of Prayer and its Characteristics * Liturgical Prayer * Personal Prayer Rule What is Prayer? Combining the doctrines of prayer by S. John of Damas...

This Lent on Friday evenings I am offering a teaching series called “The Wonder of Prayer.” It explores key facets of the prayer life. This is the fourth session. The audio of the talk is above. The two parts of this second session are * Review of Prayer and its Characteristics * Types of Praying: * Meditative * Affective * Contemplative * Recollective What is Prayer? Combining the doctrines of pr...

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage...

I spoke last Sunday in very high ways about the Eucharist. For example, I said that because Jesus Christ is the source and summit of our life, so the Eucharist, the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, is the source and summit of our life. The Eucharist is Christ, and Christ is Himself the Eucharist. I also said that no matter what our feelings may be on a given Sunday, or a given Liturgy of the Euchar...

In addition to speaking about how Jerusalem above is our mother, Saint Paul in our Epistle today speaks of our freedom. He speaks of our freedom in Christ, because Christ has set us free. In speaking of freedom, Paul means freedom from sin. He means freedom from sinful ways, sinful habits which are called passions. Paul means freedom from being a slave to sin, or a slave to the world. In Christ we...

We hear Saint Paul today teaching us to be imitators of God, as beloved children. If we takes that the slightest bit seriously, then we are immediately drawn to a great pause. Paul wants us to imitate God?!? That’s quite a big ask. Usually we are urged to imitate the Saints. And as difficult sounding as that might be, the Saints are at least human! They are like us, and we are like them. But we ar...

This Lent on Friday evenings I am offering a teaching series called “The Wonder of Prayer.” It explores key facets of the prayer life. Last night was the third session. The audio of the talk is above. The two parts of this second session are * What is Prayer? (a review) * The Threefold Regula — the Rule of the Church * Penitence and Petition We review prayer as such as well as the threefold Regula...

Evenings With Bede is a homily podcast. The episodes are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., where I am Rector. SEASON TWO is devoted to understanding the Song of Songs with the Venerable S. Bede as teacher, and yours truly as interpreter. We will go verse by verse through the entirety of the Song of Songs. The format is a short passage...

Our patron, Saint Paul, has a word today about true holiness. And we also hear the curious story Jesus and the Canaanite woman, about which we will speak about in a moment. Paul teaches that God called us to a lift of holiness. That holiness is characteristic of our prayer life, indeed how we walk, so as to please God. Indeed, as David says in our Psalm: that we lift up our soul to God, in Whom we...