Anglican Ascetic

Saint John tells that we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. And John goes on to say, “This is the love of God: that we keep His commandments.” Keeping our Lord’s commandments is how we love God. And fittingly, what it means to keep Our Lord’s commandments is a rich subject. Jesus Christ in many places speaks to this. He says “If you keep my commandme...

Evenings With Bede are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., for which I am Rector. The format is a Scripture passage, then a passage of commentary from the Venerable S. Bede, then a short homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. A Lesson from the Gosp...

“I will stand on my watch, mounted upon the rock,” says the wondrous prophet Habakkuk, and I also will stand with you this today, by the authority and vision given me by the Holy Spirit, and I will look steadily and observe what will be seen and what will be spoken to me. I have stood and looked steadily, and behold a man mounted upon the clouds, and he was very exalted; and his appearance was lik...

Are there any who are devout lovers of God? Let them enjoy this beautiful bright festival! Are there any who are grateful servants? Let them rejoice and enter into the joy of their Lord! Are there any weary with fasting? Let them now receive their wages! If any have toiled from the first hour, let them receive their due reward; If any have come after the third hour, let him with gratitude join in...

When Saint John the Evangelist was going to write about the mystery of our Lord, in which He deigned to wash 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 ancient name from the Lord’s passing over on this day through Egypt, striking the...

Evenings With Bede are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla. , of which I am Rector. The format is two readings (a Scripture passage and passage of the Venerable S. Bede’s commentary), then a short homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two readings is found below. A Lesson from...

Today we have gathered to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today He returns from Bethany and proceeds of His own free will toward His holy and blessed Passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with Himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can...

Note: It is an ancient liturgical tradition to celebrate on the day before Palm Sunday our Lord’s raising of Lazarus from the dead. My parish celebrates this liturgy as a “votive mass,” or Mass for particular occasion and intention. The propers for the Mass (Collect, Readings) derive from standard liturgy of the Orthodox Church, which has long celebrated this day. We hear in this carefully crafted...

Evenings With Bede are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services of Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach, Fla., for which I am Rector. The format is a Scripture passage, then a passage of commentary from the Venerable S. Bede, then a short homily by yours truly expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. A Lesson from the Gosp...

You hear sometimes about the sin of Satan, the sin of the Devil. And with that sometimes is spoken the pride of Satan, the pride of the Devil. One might think, on that, how to do we know about the sin and pride of the Devil? The very fact that Satan thrice attempted to tempt Jesus in the desert bespeaks Satan’s pride. No angel with humility and fear of God would act that way. The prophet Isaiah at...

Evenings With Bede are taken from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services in my parish. The format is simple: first is a Scripture passage, second is a passage from S. Bede in which he comments on the Scripture passage, and third is my short homily expounding upon both. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. If you find this edifying, please cons...

In the Rector forum sessions this Lent, we have been reflecting on the beginning verses of the Gospel according to St John. These comprise what is called John’s Prologue, the first eighteen verses. Within John’s Prologue, which is something of a summary of his Gospel account from beginning to end, there comes verse 14: “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us.” It is commonly thought that th...

Evenings With Bede come from the Sunday solemn Plainsong Evensong services in my parish. It is a simple format: first is the Scripture passage, second is the passage from S. Bede, and third is my short homily. The audio for all three is found above. The text of the two passages is found below. If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your supp...

I will continue today to reflect on the topic of concupiscence. This has become a low-key sermon series, it seems. To begin let us marvel that Saint Paul writes to us today with a rich and difficult teaching about the faith and about understanding ourselves in light of Jesus Christ Our Saviour. He writes: “I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war w...

Introducing a new weekly feature here on the Orthodox-Catholic Anglican. It is called: Evenings With Bede. These will come from the Sunday Evensong services in my parish. For these weekly plainsong services, I select a passage from the writing of the Venerable S. Bede, English monk and scholar who fell asleep in the Lord in the year 735 and who is depicted above in the icon by Aidan Hart. The pass...

I want to continue the Lenten reflection about concupiscence, what the Prayer Book calls “wretchedness.” Before getting into that, I find it such a poignant question that Saint Paul asks, in his Epistle to the Romans. He asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” When we think of the trajectory of Paul’s life, the poignancy of his question particularly stands out. The greatest persecut...

I want to reflect today on the meaning of “wretchedness” which is part of the Collect for all of Lent. Before I do, let us hear again that “the Spirit” drove Jesus out into the wilderness. And He was n the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and He was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered to Him.” Two common misconceptions about this pivotal episode in the life of Our Lord Jesus Ch...

As our prayer moves into the season of Lent, Saint Peter wants us and all the Church to know that the experience of Christ transfigured was for him, James and John truly first-hand. They were eyewitnesses to the majesty of Jesus Christ. Just as during the Eucharist, the priest holds up the consecrated Body and Blood of Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God,” the Father held up His Son Jesus to t...

The healing of Saint Peter’s mother-in-law must have been a pretty big deal to warrant its coming down through the decades of oral tradition after the Passion of Christ all the way to Saint Mark. Many biblical scholars suggest Mark’s gospel dates from the early 60s; some even as late as the year 70. Even at the earlier date, we are talking about 30 years of oral preaching and teaching about the he...

There can be no question that Saint Paul the Apostle is among the group of Saints whose life and intercession for us is most fundamental to Christian life. Alive in Christ’s resurrection along with the all the company of heaven, Saint Paul’s witness and martyrdom—which are two words that say the same thing, because the word “martyr” means in Greek “witness”—is a perpetual image of what it means to...

How each Evangelist begins his account of the Gospel of Jesus Christ our Saviour is something to study. In Mark’s account, after his description of S. John Baptist fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah, Jesus immediately comes on the scene: first to be baptized by John, and then immediately to speak. And Christ’s first words in Mark’s account are a calling. He is calling us to repent. For Mark, then,...

We prayed in our Collect that our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world. This is because in His light only are we able to perceive the uncreated light of the Father, Who is revealed through Christ. After affirming that Jesus is the light of the world, we ask God that we, illumined by His Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ’s glory, that through us, the whole world to...

Such a brief bit of Scripture accounts for this Feast of the Baptism of Jesus Christ. Yet all four Evangelists testify to this event, and for Matthew, Mark, and Luke, do so in much the same way. Jesus coming out of the waters of the Jordan, the perception of the opening of the heavens, the Spirit descending upon Jesus as like a dove, and the voice of the Father, Who names Jesus as His Beloved Son....

Now that we have acknowledged and celebrated 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, and done so through the words of the holy Evangelist Saint Luke (whom we heard on Christmas Eve and Day), we are now drawn to reflect upon the words of the blessed evangelist John concerning th...

My dear brothers and sisters, our Saviour is born this day. With the angels, let us rejoice! Sadness should find no place on this the birth day of Life Itself; on the birth day of Life Himself. With the fear of death removed by His Life, let us be filled with gladness, because of our own promised immortality. No one is left out or excluded from sharing in this cheerfulness, for the reason of our j...