This is thankworthy, that if a man for conscience endure grief, suffering wrongfully. (1 St. Peter ii. 19)Our Epistle reading for The Second Sunday after Easter, taken from St. Peter’s First Letter, continues our Easter tide theme of suffering. Last week we meditated upon how suffering and death are necessary components of Resurrection and new life. So today we continue to see how the ancient Church Fathers, who chose the readings for our liturgical season, had some deeper truth in … [Read more...]

As my Father has sent me, so send I you. (St. John xx. 21)You and I have just come off of an intense Holy Week and Easter when we tried to walk with Jesus Christ from His suffering, Passion, and Death into the first intimations of His Resurrection. You will remember that last week we left Saints Mary Magdalene, John, and Peter having found the Empty tomb. Christ Jesus had not yet appeared to them, and so with them, our faith wondered and pondered what all of this might mean. What they did … [Read more...]

If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above,        Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affections onThings above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your lifeIs hid with Christ in God.(Col. 3. 1-3)There is something rather strange about our Easter Epistle, which was addressed by St. Paul to the Church at Colossae, a small Phrygian city in Asian Minor. For no sooner has Christ appeared to Peter, to Mary Magdalene, … [Read more...]

He riseth up from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel and girded himself.Tonight you and I are invited to the last supper of Jesus Christ. We move into a realm that is fraught with the fear and trembling of Jesus’ friends, who do not understand the meaning of it all and what will come next on the tomorrow of God’s today. For the Apostles have been following Jesus for some three years, and they have experienced the hand of God at work in Him. In a sense there was so much to … [Read more...]

Although all be offended, yet will not I. (St. Mark xiv. 29)We ought to remind ourselves that our membership in the mystical Life of Christ is no easy business. To become a tried and true member of the life of the Crucified One takes time, practice, the development of spiritual discipline, and an ongoing surrender to the Mind of Christ that longs always to remold and remake us. One thing that we learn about the spiritual life today is that membership in the life of Christ requires vigilance, … [Read more...]

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.(Gal. iv. 26)At the very beginning of Lent Jesus said to his disciples, Behold we go up to Jerusalem. (St. Luke xviii. 31) We began our journey at Christ's command. Long journeys are hard work, and this Lenten journey is no exception. For nearly some seven weeks Christians are invited to walk with Jesus towards Jerusalem. Walking to Jerusalem is what our lives are all about. We walk with Jesus in order to see how He … [Read more...]

 Against thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight…(Ps. Li. 4) Ultimately when we sin we rebel against God. Even when we sin against our neighbors, we are sinning against God because they are His craftsmanship and work and deserving of our righteous respect. At the end of the day, whether we sin against others or ourselves, we shall have to give an account of our sinning before God our Righteous Judge. In the final reckoning, all sinners must deal with … [Read more...]

…The people pressed upon him to hear the word of God…(St. Luke v. 1)It must always be the case that good Christians should be pressing upon [Jesus] to hear the Word of God. (Idem) But hearing the Word of God is one thing, and doing it is quite another. St. James tells us to be…doers of the Word, and not hearers only. (St. James i. 22) This is where most well-intentioned Christians find trouble. After all, we can read God’s Word and hear it, but how can we do it? The problem seems to be … [Read more...]

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. (1 St. Peter v. 6,7)Trinitytide is all about participating in the life of God the Holy Trinity. In the season of Trinity, we are exhorted to return to God the Father, through Jesus Christ the Son, and by the effectual sanctification of the Holy Ghost. What we are invited to participate in is nothing short of the eternal dynamism of the Triune … [Read more...]

 My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. (St. Matt. xv. 22)MORALLY by this demoniac is understood a sinful soul and here are noted two evils which a man acquires through deadly sin. The first is, that he is possessed by a devil; the second is, that he is grievously vexed.Every literal historical fact of Scripture can be understood on a higher plane, as allegorical or spiritual in meaning. The Gospel for the Second Sunday in Lent is no exception. A Syrophoenician woman … [Read more...]

God’s will is always being done. Are we aligning our wills with His will? God’s will is His unfolding desire in created time and space. His will is always being done because the laws of His logic and wisdom rule and govern the universe. We cannot escape the law of his logic and wisdom. It is the only formative, ruling, and governing principle that gives meaning to all things. That men choose to ignore and/or reject His rule and governance does not undermine God’s law in any way. He rules and … [Read more...]

 But when thou art bidden, go and sit down in thelowest room; that when he that bade thee cometh,he may say unto thee, Friend, go up higher: thenshalt thou have worship in the presence of themthat sit at meat with thee.(St. Luke xiv 10) Today we celebrate the Feast Day of St. Bonaventure. He was born as Giovanni di Fidanza in Bagnoregio in 1217. He was the Seventh Minister General of the Orders of Friars Minor or the Franciscans. Later he was made Cardinal Bishop of … [Read more...]

But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, lethim be your minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be yourservant: even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister,and to give his life a ransom for many.(St. Matthew 20. 26,27)Today we celebrate the Feast of St. James the Apostle. Tradition has it that St. James is the kinsmen or relative of our Lord Jesus Christ, often called St. James the Great or St. James … [Read more...]

O God whose never-failing providence ordereth all thingsboth in heaven and earth, we humbly beseech thee to put awayfrom us all hurtful things, and to give us those things that beprofitable for us…(Collect: Trinity VIII)We concluded last week’s mediations with an exhortation to zeal. Having learned that the Divine desire for all men is that they faint not, but rather feed continually on the living Word of God, we opened our souls to the ongoing nutriment that overcomes sloth. … [Read more...]

Graft in our hearts the love of thy name, increase in ustrue religion, nourish with all goodness, and of thy great mercykeep us in the same.(Collect: Trinity VII)If you spend time reading the Epistles of St. Paul carefully, you cannot help but come away with a sense of the Apostle’s uncanny ability to unite spiritual contraries to make his point. Perhaps this is a natural consequence of his momentous conversion, when, in a fit of zealous and rabid hot pursuit of Damascan … [Read more...]

  Whether the soul is a body? Objection 1: It would seem that the soul is a body. For the soul is the moving principle of the body. Nor does it move unless moved. First, because seemingly nothing can move unless it is itself moved, since nothing gives what it has not; for instance, what is not hot does not give heat. Secondly, because if there be anything that moves and is not moved, it must be the cause of eternal, unchanging movement, as we find proved Phys. viii, 6; and … [Read more...]

 …The people pressed upon him to hear the word of God…(St. Luke v. 1)Are you spending your life pressing upon [Jesus] to hear the Word of God? (Idem) And if you are, what good has it done you? Do your neighbors recognize the Word of God alive in your souls? Or does your Christianity involve rather more of an institutional identification that has made others think no further than this address or location? Jane is a quaint gal. I believe that she goes to that Anglican Church near the … [Read more...]

God is the Judge; He putteth down one, and He setteth up another.(Ps. lxxv. 8)Trinity-tide is all about spiritual fertility and progress. In this season, we are called into a state of sanctification and redemption that ensures our safe and eventual passing through things temporal that we finally lose not the things eternal. (Collect) Today we shall learn that one of the chief obstacles that frustrates our spiritual advancement is judgment or judging. Jesus tells us this morning, Judge not … [Read more...]

 For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith: and much people was added unto the Lord. (Acts xi 24)This morning we celebrate the Feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle, traditionally observed on the 11th of June. The name Barnabas comes to us from the Hebrew bar-naba, and it translates roughly into the son of encouragement or the son of prophesy. St. Barnabas had come to Jerusalem from his native Cyprus of a Levite family. His birth name was Joseph. The Apostles welcomed … [Read more...]