Anglican Ascetic

This Lent on Friday evenings I am offering a teaching series called “The Wonder of Prayer.” It will explore the many facets of the prayer life. Last night was the first session. The audio of the talk is above. The two parts of this second session are * What is Prayer? (a review) * The Rule (Pattern) of Prayer * Adoration and Thanksgiving The first part reviews the basic definitions of prayer from...

The conclusion of my sermon for last Sunday had these words: In the profound account given us of love in the example of Jesus Christ, we may well feel overwhelmed at our great lack of it, as we come to fathom the depths of our need, and measure ourselves by Our Lord’s perfect pattern. Our great relief now, in Lent, and all our days is to look to Christ in prayer; in prayer with regard to every par...

This Lent on Friday evenings I am offering a teaching series called “The Wonder of Prayer.” It will explore the many facets of the prayer life. Last night was the first session. The audio of the talk is above. The two parts of the first session are * Images of Prayer * What is Prayer? The first part is an exploration of various icons that illustrate dimensions or kinds of prayer, and in the second...

The Liturgy for Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent in the western Church, happens in a unique way in my parish. We only celebrate Matins and Evensong, and do not celebrate a Eucharist. There are two reasons for this. The first is that the absense of Holy Communion helps to create a sense of stark relief and contrast. This is very helpful to bring about and induce a shift to Lent which is experie...

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...

Last Sunday’s sermon finished with these words: In addition to the liturgical life and the Sacraments, the Church has always taught of the necessity of examining our conscience, and doing so regularly. Preparing for Lent is a time to examine our conscience. It is a time to take inventory about ourselves. It is a time to take inventory about our habits, and whether we have unholy habits, unholy vic...

Today I was a visiting lecturer at Wheaton College in Illinois. I gave my lecture via Zoom at the invitation of Dr Matthew Milliner. I entitled the lecture: “An Introduction to the Venerable S. Bede’s Commentary on the Song of Songs.” After the lecture, Dr Milliner (a friend whom have known for about ten years) tweeted: … which made me laugh. Dr. Milliner also called me afterward and indicated tha...

Why does our Lord Jesus give us emphasis in His parable of the Seeds and the Sower to the material into which the seed is planted? He not only lists the different material in sequence – path, rock, thorns, and good soil – but He attaches specific symbolism to each one, which we see in His explanation to the disciples. Jesus is at pains to specify the differences in the material that receive the Wo...

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...

As we are using the traditional Western lectionary for our worship on Sundays and Holy Days, starting today and lasting for the next two Sundays is the period of time known as “Pre-Lent.” And these Sundays have funny names, inherited from the Latin language. Septuagesima is Latin for seventieth—that is, approximately seventy days before Easter. Next Sunday is named Sexagesima, which is Latin for s...

The disciples said, with astonishment, “How is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” They said this because they were eyewitnesses to Christ’s majesty, and had beheld His glory and power. They said this because after they woke Him up, they watched Jesus rebuke the wind and they watched Him say to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And they witnessed what happened next: the wind ceased, and ther...

To celebrate at the beginning of the Epiphany season the Baptism of Jesus is an ancient liturgical custom. It is among the most ancient liturgical feasts of the Church, predating any liturgical celebration of Christ’s Nativity – meaning, it is older than the Church’s celebration of Christmas. And the Church’s liturgical art in icons of Christ’s baptism dates as far back as the early 200s. What all...

When the Lord and Saviour was born in Bethlehem, as the sacred history of the Gospel bears witness, the angel of the Lord appeared with a great light to shepherds who were watching and keeping watch by night over their flocks, and declared to the world that the Sun of justice had arisen, not only by the voice in heavenly utterance, but also by the brightness of the divine light. We should know tha...

On this Fifth Day of Christmas, let us reflect on certain passages of our Gospel account. Firstly, we notice that Saint Matthew wishes, in our Gospel account, to speak of Mary. He makes clear what a difference there was between her child-bearing and that of the rest of the genealogy of Jesus. The rest brought forth by the customary joining of male and female; Jesus, however, seeing that He was Son...

To acknowledge and celebrate in our Divine Liturgy the birth of time of the Mediator between God the Father and human beings, the man Jesus Christ, born of woman, born of Mary under the Law, we are now drawn to reflect upon the words of the blessed evangelist John concerning the eternity of the Word, that is, concerning the eternity of Christ’s divinity, in which He remained always equal to the Fa...

The eyes of all wait upon Jesus Christ. Indeed, the eyes of the world, the whole world, wait upon Jesus Christ. For in but a few short days comes the festival of our redemption, the festival of the redemption of the whole world: the whole world being at peace, Jesus Christ, eternal God and Son of the eternal Father, desiring to consecrate the world by His most loving presence, having been conceive...

In the audio above is the third lecture of the Advent Study Series that I am doing at my parish. The series is called “ Foundations of the Church: Introducing the Church Fathers .” This lecture follows on from the overall introduction to the Church Fathers in my first lecture, as well as the second lecture on Ss Ignatius of Antioch and Anthony of Egypt . The third lecture looks at three Greek Fath...

Jesus Christ is our King. Of that we must never have any doubt. Things in the world we can doubt, we can question, we can critique. Things of the world can, as kids today say, be “sus.” (That is shorthand for “suspect.”) Yet of Christ, none of this applies. He is our King, He is our Saviour, He is the Coming One. He is ever seeking to come to us, every day. This is why He came to visit us in great...

In the audio above is the audio from the second lecture of the Advent Study Series that I am doing at my parish. The series is called “ Foundations of the Church: Introducing the Church Fathers .” This lecture follows on from the overall introduction to the Church Fathers in my first lecture, which you can find here . The second lecture looks at two early Church Fathers. For both I provide an outl...

I concluded my preaching for the First Sunday of Advent with these words: “Recognizing that Christ is always the Coming One is the basis of life in Christ’s Kingdom, and thus the basis of Kingdom culture.” How is He the Coming One? In Advent we especially recognize that Christ is the Coming One by means of Scripture and by means of Sacrament. The knowledge that He is the Coming One through Scriptu...

In the audio above is the audio from the first lecture of the Advent Study Series I am doing at my parish. The series is called “Foundations of the Faith: Introducing the Church Fathers.” In the lecture I reference the icon above, which is of the Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, which happened in AD 325. In the part of the talk not included in the audio above, I went through many...

As is mentioned in the Service Bulletin and described in more length in the December Parish Journal, starting today with the First Sunday of Advent we are using the traditional one-year lectionary for the Scripture readings for Sundays and Holy Days throughout the year, and doing so with the permission of Bishop Justin Holcomb, which is required. We are one of five parishes in our diocese doing th...

I want to bring together threads that have occupied my preaching these last Sundays. These threads included reflections on the Holy Spirit, the image of our parish as a garden, our dedication of this holy house and ourselves with the clear and singular purpose of giving God the love which He is owed, and having a living faith. I spoke of how the Holy Spirit is the Lord and giver of Life: the giver...

Our gospel story gives us again the beautiful, simple, and touching story of the poor widow. And it is held up in our lectionary in our stewardship season, as it is reaching its conclusion. And that is so very fitting. Because Christian stewardship, for as much as I have said about it in my recent preaching, really is as simple as the poor widow. Just as she put in everything she had, her whole li...

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...