In stillness and silence Moses, the Lord’s Prophet, seeks and searches for God in Himself. What or who he searches for is what is not anything that he has experienced or encountered in the universe around him. In the universe are changing, moving, growing, and becoming beings. In himself he finds a changing, moving, becoming, being. He knows himself to be never the same, always changing, always becoming something that he was not before. Not only can he not step in the same river twice but he is … [Read more...]
I AM
Lent II
He is no unkind physician who opens the swelling, who cuts, who cauterizes the corrupted part. He gives pain, it is true, but he only gives pain, that he might bring the patient on to health. He gives pain, but if he did not, he would do no good. (St. Augustine: Sermon xxvii) Last week we contemplated the temptations that Jesus withstood on our behalf in order to draw us deeper into His love for God our Heavenly Father. And I pray that we came away with a real sense of His desire … [Read more...]
Being Moved Back to God
Look at all Nature, through all its Height and Depth, in all its Variety of working Powers; it is what it is for this only End, that the hidden Riches, the invisible Powers, Blessings, Glory, and Love of the unsearchable God, may become visible, sensible, and manifest in and by it. (Spirit of Love: ii.1, William Law) When God the Holy Trinity makes, He makes as Being, Knowing, and Love. What we mean to say is that He who Is, Knows what He does, and Loves to do it. The three names of Being, … [Read more...]
The Society’s 2017 Conference (16-18 February)
The Prayer Book's 2017 conference was held on the theme: Anglicanism: Catholic and Reformed - Revisiting the Reformation Legacy 1517-2017. It took place at St John's Church, Savannah, Georgia, from midday on Thursday 16th to midday Saturday 18th, February 2017. In the anniversary year of Luther's ninety-five theses which started the Reformation, this conference explored how Anglicanism emerged with an identity that is both truly reformed and enduringly catholic. And we are pleased to … [Read more...]
Trinity XXII 2016
Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. (Rev. iii. 20) I think that it is probably the case that, more often than not, we do not think of God moving or coming towards us. Rather we think of our relationship with God as our moving or coming to Him. The most earnest of Christians come to the Lord with laundry lists of supplications and intercessions. Expecting to be heard and heeded, in … [Read more...]
Trinity I: Dives and Lazarus
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (St. Luke xvi. 25) Trinitytide is all about belief that grows into love. If Eastertide might be called the season of vision and knowledge, Trinitytide is about habituation to the good or the generation of love for God’s goodness. In Eastertide we were called to see and behold God the Father’s goodness in the historical life of … [Read more...]
Other Creatures and the Last End
Whether other creatures concur in that last end? Objection 1: It would seem that all other creatures concur in man's last end. For the end corresponds to the beginning. But man's beginning---i.e. God---is also the beginning of all else. Therefore all other things concur in man's last end. God is the beginning of all creation. By ‘beginning’ we mean the First Cause, Origin, Source, or Mover of all that is other than Himself. God makes time and space; He fills it with … [Read more...]
Infinite Goodness — Thomas Aquinas
Whether any created good constitutes man's happiness? Objection 1: It would seem that some created good constitutes man's happiness. For Dionysius says (Div. Nom. vii) that Divine wisdom "unites the ends of first things to the beginnings of second things," from which we may gather that the summit of a lower nature touches the base of the higher nature. But man's highest good is happiness. Since then the angel is above man in the order of nature, as stated in FP, … [Read more...]
Thomas Aquinas Virtue Operative Power
Article 2. Whether human virtue is an operative habit? Objection 1. It would seem that it is not essential to human virtue to be an operative habit or a principle of activity. For Tully says (Tuscul. iv) that as health and beauty belong to the body, so virtue belongs to the soul. But health and beauty are not operative habits. Therefore neither is virtue. An operative habit is a principle of activity. A principle of activity brings about an effect. But, as Cicero writes, as health … [Read more...]
Thomas Aquinas on Gluttony
Summa: II, ii, 148, 1. Article 1. Whether gluttony is a sin? Objection 1. It would seem that gluttony is not a sin. For our Lord said: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man. (St. Matt. xv. 11) Now gluttony regards food which goes into a man. Therefore, since every sin defiles a man, it seems that gluttony is not a sin. Gluttony should not be considered as a sin since it relates to what goes into and does not come out of a man. Since no external and visible created thing is evil … [Read more...]
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