Afleveringen
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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 from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive 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 Song of Songs, 1.15
Behold, you are beautiful, my friend; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are those of doves. Behold, You are beautiful, my love, and comely. Your couch is full of flowers. The beams of our houses are of cedar, our paneled ceilings of cypress wood.
A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede
When the Bride hears that a two-fold beauty has been brought together in her by the Lord, she then responds with a devout voice: “Behold, you a beautiful, my love, and comely,” as if she should say openly, “Surely whatever I possess of beauty, simplicity, and spiritual grace I have doubtless receive through Your generosity, by which I have come to possess both the remission of sins and the ability to do good. But You are truly beautiful and comely beyond compare, You Who are God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, and when the time for my redemption arrived you were conceived and born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, not only free from every stain of sin but also full of grace and truth, and You came into the world and lived in the world, and to all those who partake of Your grace You have even granted that they might also share in the virtues of Your beauty. Therefore you are beautiful and comely, that is, admirable both in the eternity of Your divine nature and in the dignity of the humanity that You assumed.”
If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago to help to rebuild the Anglican tradition.
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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 Eucharist on a weekday, the very nature of the Eucharist is that it is Christ’s most precious Body and Blood. And I said that the Eucharist heals us because Christ heals us, and He is the Eucharist. The Eucharist strengthens us because Christ strengthens us, and the Eucharist is Christ. The Eucharist showers us with heavenly love because Christ is Love, Who became man in holy sacrifice for us.
That kind of understanding of the Eucharist and the Sacrifice of Christ is central to a right knowledge about Jesus. He took our flesh so that He could dwell among us. He became flesh to dwell among us as the Eucharist, as the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of His Passion, indeed the Sacrament of His Sacrifice. Yet understanding the Christ sacrificed at all took the Church time to realize. Really until Paul started writing his holy epistles–that is when the nature of Christ’s Sacrifice became widely known and widely understood.
Yet, there are hints that the disciples sensed some of this during Christ’s human life. Saint Peter said to Jesus, “To Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” Peter also said of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Certainly the Blessed Virgin Mary had a strong sense of Who her Son was, and Who He always will be. Saint Mary Magdalene and the other holy myrrh-bearing women had a good sense, as well. Saint John the Apostle, the beloved disciple, shared this sense with the holy myrrh-bearing women.
Yet most of the disciples fled the Cross when Jesus was nailed to it; they would not have fled if they knew that the Passion of Christ was the most glorious sacrifice possible. They were confused and uncertain Who Jesus was, and uncertain of what His death meant. But somewhere, amid their confusion, there was a seed growing in them. This is how God works: He plants seeds in our heart that are intended to grow in us, so that we are able to conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our minds. It takes time, but the power of God’s seed is infinite. It always grows in good soil.
In our Gospel account from Saint Matthew,, the Mother of Saint John and Saint James, the sons of Zebedee, named by Jesus as the “sons of thunder,” speaks to Jesus. She is doing so because her sons asked her to. They had seen the Transfiguration of Jesus and it opened the eyes of their heart, and began to transform them. Seeing Jesus transfigured meant a seed of glory was planted in the hearts of James and John. In seeing Him transfigured they also witnessed Elijah and Moses appearing, one of the right of Jesus and one on the left. They heard a voice from the cloud which overshadowed them, say, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” And they were told by Jesus, as they came down from the mountain after the Transfiguration, to tell no one the things they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. What they saw left a mark on their soul. This is the seed that was planted.
They wanted to be at the right hand and at left hand of Jesus as He entered His kingdom. Why? Because they saw Moses at the right hand and Elijah at the left hand of Jesus as He appeared to them in His transfigured glory. That seed which was planted started to grow. They were filled with zeal, they were filled with strong desire to be with Jesus. They wanted to imitate Moses and Elijah, two Saints of the Church, and to be able to speak with Jesus in His glory as Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus. James and John, in other words, wanted what we should all want. They had zeal which we should all have. They were filled with desire that we all should be filled with. And even us more so than them, because unlike them, we have the benefit of the New Testament writings and two thousand years of the prayer of Holy Church, and they did not. We have the Eucharist, and at that time, they did not.
And because of this, we know something very important, that had yet to be revealed to John and James: to enter into the glory of Christ and be with Him requires that we be with Christ in His Passion. We must be with Christ as He offers His Body and Blood in holy sacrifice: doing so both as the Sacrifice and the High Priest Who offers the Sacrifice which is Himself. The new covenant is the covenant made with Christ’s Body and Blood shed in His Passion, which is the beginning of all creation.
As Paul says, everytime we receive the Eucharist, we proclaim Christ’s death. When we receive the Eucharist, we proclaim the Gospel, for Christ’s death means forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life. Christ’s death, His Passion, is the source of all new creation, and the summit of earthly existences: for Christ is the Light of the world, through Whom all things are made, and all things through Him are remade. This is why the Eucharist, which is Christ, heals us, strengthens us, and showers us with heavenly benediction. Because of the Passion of Christ, He is able to live in us, and we are able to live in Him, Christ the King of all Creation, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost: ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 are a new creation. In Christ the eyes of our heart see above the firmament into the heavenly places. In Christ the dry land of our sinful existence, the dry land of spiritual darkness becomes earth, becomes capable of growth because of God’s grace. Dry land cannot grow grass which bears seed; dry land cannot grow fruit trees bearing seeds in the fruit. When we are slaves to sin, we swim in the waters of darkness, of the abyss. Christ brings us out of the darkness, because Christ is our light. And God parts the sea, He gathers together the waters so that dry land appears. And He calls us earth: this is the freedom we have in Christ, that being free, we can spiritually grow, that on the earth, which is to say in our heart, we can bear fruit and have seeds within ourselves, indeed that our heart can contain the seeds of all good works and virtues, that we can perform works of love and works of mercy, which are brought forth from the good treasure of our heart.
Our Collect invites us to be comforted by the grace of Christ, that in our suffering we may be relieved by the mercy of Christ. And what can comfort us more than Christ Himself? Who can provide grace to us but Christ Himself? Who may bestow mercy upon us to relieve us from our suffering, our wounds, our hurts but He Whose very nature is mercy, Jesus Christ Himself? Our Lord Jesus gives us the peace which passes all understanding, and He does so by His presence. He does so personally for each one of His children. He does so personally for each of his parish churches as a Body, because we are His Body.
And to His Body the Church He gives His Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament, in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist. Saint John teaches us that Jesus Christ distributes Himself to those who were seated. The image of being seated most powerfully is given us in the image of Saint Mary Magdalene, seated at the feet of Jesus. In being seated at the feet of Jesus, she offers herself as a living sacrifice to God. In being seated at the feet of Jesus, she adores Christ, listens to Christ, and puts all of her focus on Christ. In being seated at the feet of Jesus, her heart is centered on Christ and His Sacred Humanity. In being seated, she is fed by Christ, as He fed the five thousand who were seated.
In feeding us within Himself, Christ transforms us. We are transformed because the Sacrament of Christ’s Love, which is the Eucharist, fulfills its purpose in us. Receiving into our bodies Christ’s Body and Blood, we are drawn to become that which we receive: and we receive He Who is Love, so that we are drawn out of darkness, out of being merely dry land, to become fertile earth upon which the seeds of the Gospel grow. Christ’s Gospel seeds grow in our heart and transform our heart. Christ’s love envelops us and covers us and protects us. Christ’s love heals us, cleans us, and feeds us. Freedom in Christ means the ability to grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ. Christ’s love perfects us.
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. Thus the Eucharist is itself the surest tradition, the one tradition on which we always can safely rely. Thus we adore the Blessed Sacrament. Thus we always allow the Blessed Sacrament to shower upon us heavenly benediction. No matter what our feelings may be on a given Sunday, the very nature of the Eucharist is that it is Christ’s most precious Body and Blood. The Eucharist heals us because Christ heals us, and He is the Eucharist. The Eucharist strengthens us because Christ strengthens us, and the Eucharist is Christ. The Eucharist showers us with heavenly love because Christ is Love incarnate, Who became man in holy sacrifice for us, and Who always lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 are not like God.
We can go right down the list: God is Eternal, and we are not. God is Incomprehensible, and we are not. God is outside the conditions of time and space. God is Perfect, and perfect in all attributes with which we speak of Him: perfect beauty, perfect truth, perfect goodness. God is not merely holy – He is Himself Holiness. God is not merely loving – He is Himself Love. He is the source of all, the lover of all, the sustainer of all. So, sure, let’s imitate Him.
Let us bear in mind words I preached last Sunday: Lent is the season especially to focus on holy lives, and the holiness which must be part of every Christian’s experience, because as Saint Paul teaches in his epistle to the Hebrews, “Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.” This is what Saint Paul is after: imitating the holiness of God. Or simply: that we are to walk in holiness. Walk in love, holy love, the holy love of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross: walk as Christ loved us, and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Holiness is the life we are called to live. Our lives must not be polluted by sexual immortality, or impurity of any kind. There ought be no filthiness, foolish talk, or crude joking, Paul says. Rather, let us always offer our thanks to the God we adore. We are to walk as children of the light, always seeking to discern what is pleasing to the Lord, and then doing those things as a habit. And we are to expose works of darkness around us, works of darkness we come upon, we are to expose, but bringing in the light of Christ. We are to follow God’s commandments – to love God with everything that we are, and to love our neighbor as ourself, that and all the other commandments of God. We are to pray daily, worship regularly, study Scripture as we are able, and perform works of mercy. All of these sorts of things come up when the subject is a life of holiness.
Yet holiness is also an attitude, a disposition, a posture or stance before God. We develop this attitude through being in right relationship with God, and here I mean having the right understanding of our relationship with God. Our relationship with God, from His side, is continuous. He is always keeping us in existence, moment to moment. And because He is Creator and we are creature, and He is perfect Creator, then He always has a perfect love for His creatures, a perfect love for us at all times. And as I said before, God is Eternal, God is Incomprehensible, God is perfect. He dwells in Light inaccessible, and dwells outside the conditions of time and space. When we think of Him, acknowledging Who He is ought to take our breath away. Our God is an awesome God.
This is where holiness emerges. We adore God, we behold Him, and then we look at ourselves. The sight of God comes first, then the sight of self, and all holiness springs from these two sights. To see God clearly and to see self clearly, we are drawn into holiness through the true vision of both God and self, and God and His people. We perceive the difference between God and us, and this difference is immense: He is Creator, we are creature, and each of us is one of countless creatures all created by the Divine Maker. Yet being like nothing, we are loved by God Who is the Maker, Creator, and Sustainer of all.
And holiness springs from knowing how prone to temptation we can be: temptation from the flesh, the world, and the Devil and his demons. Jesus provides us with necessary caution and wisdom in the spiritual life. Yes, by the grace of Christ unclean spirits go out of a person, and they are the better – the much better – for it. Yet rather than celebrate good times, we must have caution, our Lord insists. We must have caution and not let our guard down, because the demon is surely to return, and return with more unholy demons. The unseen warfare of the spiritual life requires constant vigilance.
And so we ask our Almighty and awesome God to stretch forth the right hand of His Majesty. We ask Him to be our defence against all our enemies. We ask His protection, we ask the protection of our Guardian Angel – that by His grace we are able to avoid immortality, impurity, filthiness, and foolishness. We ask the strength to reject the invitations of those walking in darkness – invitations to join them in seemingly benign revelry. We ask that by God’s grace our house is guarded by the blood of the Lamb – the blood of Jesus Christ, Who gives Himself to us always as holy Sacrifice that we are drawn to participate in His ever-living Sacrifice as He lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 (the Rule of the Church). Then we look at the four characteristics of true prayer—reviewing Adoration and Thanksgiving and introducing Penitence and Petition.
What is Prayer?
Combining the doctrines of prayer by S. John of Damascus and Father Martin Thornton yields a composite definition of prayer:
Prayer is spiritual activity: our lifting up of the heart and mind to the living God – anything we do which is conditioned by conscious relationship with Him, a relationship which is continuous, whether or not it is recognized or articulated.
PENITENCE AND PETITION
1. Julian of NorwichRevelations of Divine Love, chapter 5
We need to have in our knowing the littleness of creatures and to hold as naught (“nothing”) all-things that are made, so that we can love our God Who is unmade. For this is the cause as to why we are not at east in our heart and soul: that we seek here rest in those things that are so little, in which there is no rest, and do not know that our God is Almighty, all-wise, and all-good. For He is the true Rest. God wills Himself to be known, and it pleases Him that we rest in Him. This is the cause why no soul can rest: it cannot rest until it is made nought as to all things that are made. When we willingly see ourselves as nought, and that this is how we love God and see Him as all in all, and we are able to receive true spiritual rest from God and in God.
2. Julian of Norwich
God, of Thy goodness, give me Thyself:for Thou art enough to me,and I may ask nothing that is lessthat may be full worship to Thee;and if I ask anything that is less,ever me be in want – for only in Thee I have all.
3. Confession of Sin from the Book of Common Prayer
Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.
Silence may be kept.
Almighty God,Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,maker of all things, judge of all men:We acknowledge and bewail our manifold sins and wickedness,which we from time to time most grievously have committed,by thought, word, and deed, against thy divine Majesty,provoking most justly thy wrath and indignation against us.We do earnestly repent,and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings;the remembrance of them is grievous unto us,the burden of them is intolerable.Have mercy upon us,have mercy upon us, most merciful Father;for thy Son our Lord Jesus Christ's sake,forgive us all that is past;and grant that we may ever hereafter serve and please thee in newness of life,to the honor and glory of thy Name;through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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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 from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive 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 Song of Songs, 1.15
Behold, you are beautiful, my friend; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are those of doves. Behold, You are beautiful, my love, and comely. Your couch is full of flowers. The beams of our houses are of cedar, our paneled ceilings of cypress wood.
A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede
Thus far, the Church has been receiving from her Redeemer gifts that she invokes as tokens of love. Then He responds to her by way of reward: “Behold, you are beautiful, my friend; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are those of doves.” It is as if He said, “Behold, you are beautiful in the pure works with which you live soberly and justly and piously in this world; behold, you are beautiful in the simplicity of heart with which you apply yourself to good deeds for the purpose of eternity alone, awaiting the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God. Your eyes are those of doves, the eyes of your heart are simple and pure and utterly free from all duplicity of deceiving or pretending; behold, they are greatly blessed because such eyes as these will see God.” And again as if He said, “Your eyes are as those of doves because your spiritual senses are endowed with understanding”; for since the Holy Spirit descended upon the Lord in the form of a dove, rightly are the spiritual senses and gifts signified by the terms “doves” or “those of doves.” Again, Christ’s friend has the eyes of a dove because every soul that truly loves Him inwardly in not like a bird of prey aroused by any craving for external things, nor does she contemplate any harm that she might inflict upon living things; for they say that the dove is gentle by nature and contemplates everything that happens with a heart that is simple, meek, and humble.
If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago to help to rebuild the Anglican tradition.
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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 put our trust. Our lives ought be different than regular lives of non-Christians. So we will get into that more.
I completed my sermon last Sunday with these words: Let us say unto the Lord: Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold. And how do we say this but in prayer? Prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, taught S. John of Damascus, 8th century Church Father. Let us truly pray, by lifting our heart and mind to God this whole season of Lent. This is what makes Lent a holy season: that our prayer is more intense, that our prayer is more robust, that our prayer is regular, which is to say, daily. End of those words.
So Lent is the season especially to focus on holy lives, and the holiness which must be part of every Christian’s experience, because as Saint Paul teaches in his epistle to the Hebrews, “Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”
This is one of the lessons our Lord seeks to teach us through the Gospel account from Saint Matthew. The thing to immediately notice in passage is the tension evident between the disciples and Our Lord Jesus. “Send her away, for she is crying after us,” they implore Jesus. But Jesus does not send her away, but rather listens to her, talks with her, and eventually praises her great faith, so much so that we are left with the impression that it was her great faith that healed her daughter from the demon, indeed exorcised her of the demon.
The next thing to notice is the dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. After the disciples attempted unsuccessfully to command Jesus to send her away, He says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before Him – she knelt, that is, she worshiped – and she said, “Lord, help me. And He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus answers, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” It sounds on a plain reading that Jesus is being unloving at first and is trying to exclude the woman. But if that we the case, it would violate basic doctrine about Jesus, that His very nature is love and that His Mission from the beginning is always for the salvation of all peoples. So what is going on here?
It is not Our Lord who is being taught about compassion and love, but rather the disciples and their hardened hearts, and by extension, us and our hardened hearts. Both of the seemingly inflammatory statements by Jesus—the first, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and the second, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”—reflect the exclusionary attitude of the Jewish religion of Jesus’s day, as well as the centuries prior. The Jews had been looking for a political messiah to restore political power to them and allow them to complete the rebuilding of the Temple and thereby overthrow their occupiers, the Romans. The last thing they wanted was a Messiah for all peoples Whose very showing of divine power was to die on the tree of the Cross—and be a voluntary failure according not to the illumined eyes of the heart, but rather according to the closed and blind eyes of the world. But it was always the plan of Jesus to show the world what it means to be God by the way He died as a human being.
In other words, Jesus used this moment with the Canaanite woman to teach not her but the disciples words He had taught to Isaiah centuries before: “Foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the Name of the Lord, and to be His servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, and does not profane it, and hold fast My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.”
And this is what holiness means: God is at work in all people, with no exceptions. He was at work in the prostitute Rahab in our first reading, so much so that through her faith, Joshua led the sons of Israel through the Jordan into the promised land. He was at work in the Canaanite woman, so much so that through her faith not only was her daughter healed, but it was used by Jesus to teach all Christians about real faith. Recognizing that God is at work in all people mean our heart and mind are holy, that they are partaking of the living water springing up into life eternal, indeed participating in the celestial water which is above the heavens. Such a heart and mind have been applied to lofty and exalted things, and able, as Saint Paul teaches, to regard no one from a human point of view, even to put on the mind of Christ, which we all are called to do – to love as Christ loves. Through the grace of Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 S. John of Damascus and Father Martin Thornton. The second part looks at two characteristics of true prayer: Adoration and Thanksgiving.
What is Prayer?
1. “Prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God.”
(S. John of Damascus, d. 749, Greek Church Father)
2. Prayer is our spiritual activity: anything we do which is conditioned by relationship with the living God.
Prayer is continuous relationship with God, whether or not that relationship is recognized or articulated.
(Martin Thornton, d. 1986, Anglican priest and confessor)
Putting those two together yields:
Prayer is spiritual activity: our lifting up of the heart and mind to the living God – anything we do which is conditioned by conscious relationship with Him, a relationship which is continuous, whether or not it is recognized or articulated.
ADORATION AND THANKSGIVING
From the Anaphora of Saint Basil the Great(Eucharistic Prayer D from the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, in traditional idiom)
All remain standing for the SURSUM CORDA
Celebrant The Lord be with you.
People And with thy spirit.
Celebrant Lift up your hearts.
People We lift them up unto the Lord.
Celebrant Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
People It is meet and right so to do.
The Celebrant continues
O Master, the One Who Is, Lord God, Father Almighty, Who Art to be worshiped, it is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, to glorify Thee, O Father, and to give thanks unto Thee, for Thou alone art God, living and true, dwelling in Light inaccessible from before all time and for ever. Fountain of life and Source of all goodness, Thou hast made all things and didst fill them with Thy blessing, creating them to rejoice in the splendor of Thy radiance. Countless throngs of angels stand before Thee to serve Thee night and day; and, beholding the glory of Thy presence, they offer Thee unceasing praise. Joining with them, and giving voice to every creature under heaven, we praise Thee, and glorify Thy Name, saying,
Celebrant and People say or sing the SANCTUS
Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts: Heaven and earth are full of Thy glory.Glory be to Thee, O Lord Most High.Blessed ✠ is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.
All kneel. The Celebrant continues
We acclaim Thee, holy Lord, glorious in power, Whose mighty works reveal Thy wisdom and love. Thou hast formed us in thine own image, giving the whole world into our care, that in obedience unto Thee, our Maker, we might rule and serve all Thy creatures. When our disobedience took us far from Thee, Thou didst not abandon us to the power of death, but in Thy mercy Thou didst come to our help, that in seeking Thee we might find Thee. Again and again Thou didst call us into covenant with Thee, and through the prophets Thou didst teach us to hope for salvation.
Thou didst so love the world, O Father, that in the fullness of time Thou didst send Thine Only-Begotten Son to be our Savior. Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, He lived as one of us, yet without sin. To the poor He proclaimed the good news of salvation; to prisoners, freedom; to the sorrowful, joy. That Thy purpose might be fulfilled, He gave himself up unto death; and rising from the grave He destroyed death and made the whole creation new.
And that we might live no longer unto ourselves, but unto Him who died for us and rose again, He sent the Holy Spirit, His own first gift for those who believe, to complete His work in the world, bringing to fulfillment the sanctification of all.
[INSTITUTION NARRATIVE, and then]. . . And now, O Father, we celebrate this memorial of our redemption. Recalling Christ’s Death and His Descent among the dead, proclaiming His Resurrection and Ascension to Thy Right Hand, awaiting His Coming in glory, and offering unto Thee, from the gifts which Thou hast given us, this Bread and this Cup, we praise Thee and we bless Thee.
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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 particular of our daily short-comings; and what we derive from dwelling on the fact of our vices and sins, and thus our falling short of Christ’s expectation of us, is the assurance, that if we are faithful in Him and genuine in our desire to follow Him, to put off our old man and put on the new garments of Christ, if we are like the blind man who simply cried out to Jesus and said, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” He will hear us.
This is why Jesus entered into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. He did this not for Himself, for He is the Sinless One. He did this for us, that we would always know that He hears us in prayer. After all, Jesus is God. And in being God, He made a clear-cut decision to go into the wilderness for a very definite purpose. Jesus took on the Devil in the wilderness because He sought the Devil out. There was no question as to who would win this battle. Christ had already won the war, because He is God and the Devil is not. The Devil had lost long ago, had lost to Archangel Michael and his holy Angels fighting under their general, Jesus Christ. The Devil and his angels were thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.
This is what Moses described in Genesis chapter 1, verse 4: “God separated the light from the darkness,” the darkness that was over the face of the deep abyss of hell. The word “darkness” in Genesis 1 refers to the unholy angels of the Devil, and the Devil himself. They were separated from God’s grace by their own demonic pride, and now cover the face of the deep abyss of hell. Hence the Devil appears already in Genesis 2 to Eve and Adam, already the face of darkness, of temptation. Christ had already won the battle against the Devil, and so His entering into the wilderness was to show His disciples, to show us, that Jesus Christ conquers. And so do we, if we imitate the Archangel Michael and fight the devil under the banner of Jesus Christ.
We do this in our prayer. The battle is unseen warfare in our heart. Our weapons are the weapons of righteousness as Saint Paul teaches in the Epistle: purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God. We must have these weapons of Christ. Without them, we stand no chance against the temptations of the Devil. These weapons of righteousness are weapons of Christ’s light. With these weapons, the darkness of the unseen warfare is brought into the light of Christ. These weapons of righteousness are Christ’s grace, by which we are able to triumph over every evil. We are able to wield these weapons if we no longer live to ourselves, but unto Him Who died for us and rose again. Without Christ, the weapons are too heavy for our frail bodies of little strength. With Christ, He lifts them, He wields them, because Christ is our strength and our shield.
We possess these weapons as the fruit of faith in Christ. We know He will use them through us because we know that Christ always hears us if we call to Him in faith, in love, in zeal, out of our yearning for Him: His presence, His peace, His power. We know He hears us because in keeping His words and keeping His commandments, Christ dwells in us – for He taught this very thing, and taught it many times. And because He dwells in us, we dwell in His defense, under the defense of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty.
Let us say unto the Lord: Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold. And how do we say this but in prayer? Prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, taught S. John of Damascus, 8th century Church Father. Let us truly pray, by lifting our heart and mind to God this whole season of Lent. This is what makes Lent a holy season: that our prayer is more intense, that our prayer is more robust, that our prayer is regular, which is to say, daily. Let us this Lent read and meditate upon God’s holy Word more than we usually do. Let us this Lent worship in the Liturgy more often than we usually do. By increasing the intensity of our prayer and the frequency of our prayer, we allow Jesus Christ to join us in our hearts, and to win the battle against the Devil and his dragon-like angels: because our God is an awesome God, He is Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 part I share basic definitions of prayer from S. John of Damascus and Father Martin Thornton.
Images of Prayer
What is Prayer?
1. “Prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God.”
(S. John of Damascus, d. 749, Greek Church Father)
2. Prayer is continuous relationship with God, whether or not that relationship is recognized or articulated.
Prayer is spiritual activity: anything we do which is conditioned by our relationship with the living God.
(Martin Thornton, d. 1986, Anglican priest and confessor)
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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 experiential.
The second is that the appointed Scripture readings for Ash Wednesday in the 1979 Book of Common Prayer are excellent, and fit together perfectly for not only Ash Wednesday but for the whole of Lent. These readings are:
* Jonah 3-4:11 — Jonah’s proclaiming to the Ninevites
* Hebrews 12:1-14 — S. Paul’s teaching on Christ’s perserverance and discipline
* Luke 18:9-14 — Our Lord’s Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The audio above includes the three readings and is followed by my my sermon. The sermon was offered extemporaneously, and thus there is no prepared text for you to read.
If you want to skip the readings and go straightway to the preaching, that starts just after the 9-minute mark.
May your Lent be blessed and holy, my friends!
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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 from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive 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 Song of Songs, 1.12
While the King was on His dining couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My Beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh that shall lie between my breasts. My Bloved is to me a grape-cluster from Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi.
A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede
Because after the death of our Mediator and Saviour there soon follows the glory of the Resurrection, the Bride rightly says, “My Beloved is to me a grape-cluster from Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi.” Surely the meaning of this little verse according to the surface of the letter is this: “Just as the island of Cyprus produces grape-clusters that are larger than those from other lands, and just as those that grow in the Judean city that is called Engaddi are nobler than those from other vineyards, inasmuch as the liquid that comes from them is not wine but balsam, that much dearer to me is my Beloved than all those to whom I am joined in love, so that no creature can separate me from His affection.” But typologically, in the same way that myrrh on account of its bitterness signifies the sorrow of the Lord’s Passion, in which He took both myrrh and wine to drink from the soldiers and was anointed with myrrh by the disciples when they laid Him in the tomb, just so, as we have already said, it is not unseemly for a grape-cluster to indicate the joy of His Resurrection. For wine gladdens the human heart (Ps. 104:15). Therefore the Lord, Who had been a bundle of myrrh in His Passion, became a grape-cluster of Cyprus at the Resurrection. Accordingly, He lies between the Bride’s breasts because He has turned into a grape-cluster of the vineyard, which is the reason that holy Church never puts the memory of the Lord’s death away from her heart, since the One Who died for her trespasses also rose from death for her justification (Rom 4:25) and gave her an example of being raised after the anguish of death, so that she might follow in His footsteps.
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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 vices, that keep us from being good soil. To borrow from Saint John: If we say we have no vices, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our vices, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our vices, and cleanse us from the unrighteousness of our vices.
Today, on the Sunday before Lent, the Church sets before us the subject of charity, the older translation of the more modern word “love.” “Charity” is the English translation of the Latin word, caritas, which means “love,” that is, the sacrificial love demonstrated by Christ and embodied by Him. The Church brings before the subject of charity, or love, to remind us that all works of repentance, of turning to God, can be of no avail unless they begin and end in the love of God. On Sunday last we had the account of St. Paul’s apostolic labours, but in the Epistle for today, he tells us of how little avail all our works and labours must be without charity.
It has been said that the thirteenth chapter of Saint Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians is the most important chapter of the Bible. The reason such a high claim is made about this chapter, which is our Epistle reading today, is that it teaches us two fundamental things. The first is that it teaches profoundly about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. And the second is that it teaches us how to respond to Christ’s blessed Passion and precious Death. In understanding Paul’s holy doctrine of love, we know more about Christ and we know more about ourselves – more about our Saviour and about being His disciples—more about our King and about what it means to be crowned—about the Perfect Love of Jesus to which we aspire to imitate in our lives every day.
We know that Paul’s doctrine of love teaches about Jesus Christ and Him crucified because, as Paul says of love, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” This describes perfectly our Lord, Who bore all our sins on the Cross, believed all that His Father had given Him, hoped for the salvation of all, and endured spitting, mocking, torture, and disbelief in Him all while keeping in Himself the peace which passes all understanding. In support of this, we have Saint John, who said, “God is love.” The Father is love, the Son is love, the Holy Ghost is love. And we know that Jesus is Himself the perfect pattern of love again from Saint John, who records our Lord says, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” We are His friends, because all that Jesus heard from His Father He has made known to us.
As Paul’s doctrine teaches us about Jesus, his doctrine teaches us about ourselves as disciples of Jesus. How easily this is seen by remembering our Lord’s commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and … that Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” We are to love the Father and we are to love our neighbor. In both cases we are to imitate our Lord’s love for the Father and our Lord’s love for every human being. No matter what words we say, without love we are nothing. No matter what wisdom and knowledge we might have, without love we are nothing. No matter what we do, even if we give our body to be burned, if we do not have love, are nothing. This is simply to say with with love we have life in the Holy Spirit, but without love we are spiritually dead, as if we never knew of Jesus, nor He us. Jesus told the five foolish virgins “I do not know you” and shut the door to them because they did not have love and perform acts of mercy, acts of love, in their life.
It is true that with 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 particular of our daily short-comings; and what we derive from dwelling on the fact of our vices and sins, and thus our falling short of Christ’s expectation of us, is the assurance, that if we are faithful in Him and genuine in our desire to follow Him, to put off our old man and put on the new garments of Christ, if we are like the blind man who simply cried out to Jesus and said, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me,” He will hear us. Jesus Christ has taught us that all our doings without love, without charity, are worth nothing; hence we ask God to send His Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts the gift of Christ’s mercy, the gift of divine love, which is the true bond of peace and all virtues—indeed that the Holy Ghost give us the gift of Christ in our hearts, that we may continue to conceive in our hearts the Eternal Word of the Father, Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the same Father and the same Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 that the lecture went over very well with his students. I hope to do this again sometime!
I offer the audio of the lecture above for you to hear. I hope it helps you understand how important the Venerable Bede is, and that he is misunderstood as the “historian of the Church,” as he is sometimes called. To rightly understand this important Church Father is to see him primarily as an interpreter of Holy Scripture.
In the lecture I reference this icon of S. Bede, painted by Aidan Hart (my daughter’s icon teacher):
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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 Word of God. Why is He at such pains? What is He after? Does He want the Word of God to be received on path, rock, or thorns? Clearly He does not. He wants the Seed to be received by good soil. So we need to think deeply on this.
Towards doing so, let us remember that the purpose of the Pre-Lent over its three Sundays is to prepare us for Lent. To prepare us to take on what Lent is all about. And what Lent is all about is the inner world of the heart, where unseen warfare happens between the Devil and the Holy Angels, even the Devil and Christ Himself.
What the Pre-Lent season invites us to recognize is that to fully attend to the unseen warfare, we must go on pilgrimage: indeed, that the spiritual life is a pilgrimage to the heart, and through the heart to Jesus Christ, and through Christ to the Father. The pilgrimage of Pre-Lent is a call to spiritual labor, through which we must love our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is our strength, our Saviour, our fortress. Hence we ask in our Collect, grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity. It is Christ Who defends us. It is Christ Who shields us. It is Christ Who takes us under His wing and protects us.
We must take comfort in Christ’s protection, my dear brothers and sisters. Who else can protect us? Who else by Christ has the words of eternal life which shield us from our adversaries? And it is through taking comfort in Christ’s protection that we can allow ourselves to be vulnerable before Him. Being vulnerable before Christ means we recognize our weaknesses – it means we recognize our failings – our shortcomings – our reliance on vices, what the New Testament writers call “passions,” and are our unholy habits of thought and action. It is because of our vices that we are led to commit sin. Vices lead to sins that we commit, either in the action of our mind or in outward deeds. This is how we must understand our weakness: unholy habits are rooted deeply in us, and we cannot help ourselves.
We need Jesus Christ. Only a Saviour can rescue us. Only a Saviour can uproot our unholy habits by His grace and by His transforming Holy Spirit. To be a sinner is to be a person who is aware that he or she is in need of a Saviour. This is humility, this is being reality-based: we cannot save ourselves, we cannot uproot our unholy habits that lead to committing sin without Jesus Christ, Who is our only Saviour, and the Saviour of all who put their trust in Him and Him alone.
To have that attitude, to have that outlook, to be reality-based as a way of life, is the attitude and outlook of humility and all Christians aspire to attaining this attitude and outlook. We do not start there after our Baptism. We must grow spiritually to attain that attitude, as our everyday attitude; we must grow spiritually after Baptism to attain that outlook, as our everyday outlook. Baptism is necessary as the first step towards dying to self and taking on the resurrected life of Christ as our own life, but we must be trained, disciplined, and made fit for true humility.
This is what our Lord is after in His parable of the Seed and the Sower. We are all striving to be good soil. We are striving to be those who, after hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. The Church teaches we can get their in this life, we can become good soil through the liturgical and sacramental life of worship in the Church. But often we are not the good soil, but may be the thorns, who hear the Word, but as soon as they go on their way the are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, so their fruit does not mature. We may even be on the rock, who are joyful when they hear the Word, but because they do not have root, when they are tested by life they lose the Word and fall away from Him. We even might be on the path, who hear the Word, but the Devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts, because they have not learned how to reject the Devil’s invitations, and have rather suffer from all sorts of vices that they have yet to ask God to remove.
And so, in addition to the liturgical life and the Sacraments, the Church has always emphasized the importance 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 vices, that keep us from being good soil. to borrow from Saint John: If we say we have no vices, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our vices, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our vices, and cleanse us from the unrighteousness of our vices. All of this through Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen
.
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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 from the Song of Songs, then comes commentary from the Bede, and finally an interpretive 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 Song of Songs, 1.12
While the King was on His dining couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My Beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh that shall lie between my breasts. My Bloved is to me a grape-cluster from Cyprus in the vineyards of Engaddi.
A Lesson from a Treatise by the Venerable S. Bede
The Bride speaks as says, “My Beloved is to me a bundle of myrrh that shall lie between my breasts,” and we read that this was fulfilled according to the letter for the sake of our salvation when, after His passion was complete and His Body had been taken down from the Cross, “Nicodemus came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds, and they took His Body and wrapped it in linen cloths with the spices” (Jn 19:39-40). The Church’s beloved, therefore, became a bundle of myrrh when the Lord was covered with myrrh and aloes and enfolded in linen cloths; clearly He lies between the Bride’s breasts when the Church in her inmost heart meditates unceasingly on the death of her Redeemer. For who does not know that the heart is located between the breasts? And the bundle of myrrh will lie between the Bride’s breasts whenever any soul dedicated to God attentively remembers that apostolic saying that “those who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified their flesh with its vices and desires” (Gal 5:24) and is eager (as far as she is able) to imitate His death, by which she knows herself to be redeemed.
If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago.
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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 sixtieth—that is, approximately 60 days before Easter. The last of the three, Quinquagesima, is Latin for fiftieth—that is, approximately 50 days before Easter.
Do not let the strange Latin names for these Sundays complicate their purpose. The purpose is to prepare us for Lent. It is to move our liturgical contemplation and prayer for the season of Epiphany (which is focused on the manifestation in our midst of God the Son, Jesus Christ, fully God and fully Man) towards the focus of Lent, which is the inner world of the heart, where unseen warfare happens between the Devil and God’s Holy Angels, even the Devil and Christ Himself. What the Pre-Lent season invites us to recognize is that to fully attend to the unseen warfare, we must go on pilgrimage: indeed, that the spiritual life is a pilgrimage to the heart, and through the heart to Jesus Christ. The three Sundays function as a call to pilgrimage, a call to spiritual labor, always a pilgrimage and labour of love, and of loving our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is our strength, our Saviour, our fortress.
This emphasis on pilgrimage comes out in the short passage from 1st Corinthians chapter 9. Saint Paul speaks of spiritual pilgrimage as a race, and he wants us to run the race that we might obtain the prize. The prize is being crowned in the glory of heaven; the prize is that upward call to life eternal in heaven, receiving the same crown as the Saints have already received. That crown is the imperishable wreath Paul speaks of. And so we must run this race, says Paul, and the way we run the race is through discipline of the body and self-control. Every athlete, he says, exercises self-control in all things. So should every disciple. Whereas disciplined self-control by athletes involves muscles and joints, disciplined self-control by Christians involves the heart, and seeks to open the eyes of the heart, open them and keep them open.
This is because we are frail creatures living in a fallen world. This means our hearts are often blind. Blindness of the heart is what the Church calls the inability to perceive or understand the truth about God and our relationship with Him. We all suffer from this condition. We all suffer from blindness of heart in our lives. And this is because, living as fallen creatures in a fallen world, we are plagued by vice and sin.
Part of preparing for Lent is being sober about the human condition, and especially sober about oneself. Vices, or what is called in the Bible “passions,” are unholy habits of thought and action. We all have them, and often our vices are so deeply rooted that we have a very difficult time uprooting them. We are plagued by vice, and we are plagued by sin. Sin is where we knowingly act, whether in deed or even in action of our mind, in a way contrary to God’s will. We all sin, and often our sin is a product of the vices we have, our unholy habits. To be sober about our selves is to be reality-based, and being reality-based is one of the definitions of humility. As Saint John so piercingly wrote: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And, he could have added, “If we say we have no vice, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” But Saint John immediately adds, “If we confess our sins, God Who is faithful and just, will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
This is why we are given the Parable of the Vineyard on this first Sunday of Pre-Lent. There is much symbolism to it. The vineyard symbolizes the task of following God’s commandments. The labour symbolizes our present life. The labourers represent people that in different ways are called to the fulfillment of God’s commandments. And by different ways, is meant are called in different times of their life: some recognize their call early in their life; some in the middle of their life; and others closer to the end of our life. The grumbling that is described as coming from the mouths of those hired first represent the vices of indignance, of envy, of jealousy, and the like; all of which are related to pride and forms of it. These are very ordinary vices, and these are common to the experience of the Christian life. The vast majority of Christians do not suffer from spectacular vice and sin; rather, the vast majority of Christians are very unspectacular and boring in the pride.
As the Venerable S. Bede teaches, “Among the works of faith humility reigns in a special way.” What counters pride and prideful vice is faith in God and trust in His goodness, trust that His goodness will deliver us, will save us, from our vice and sin. With our faith in God strong and our trust in Him full, our life in Christ becomes humble, recognizing that we depend on God for everything: our very life, all good things that we do, even every breath we take—all depends upon God and on Him alone. To know this is humility. What counters pride and prideful vice is loving Christ, and seeing Him as our strength: seeing Him as our rock: seeing Him as our defense: seeing Him always as our Saviour, Jesus Christ, Who always hears our voice, for He is God, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 there was a great calm.
To them were revealed more of the truth of Jesus of Nazareth: to those who show faith in Christ, to those who show they believe in Him, Christ has power over creation. The storm is stilled because creation itself is a continuous process of love, not a system of infallible laws, and the Creator incarnate as the right to change the process as the artist, and only the artist, has the right to alter his own picture: prayer controls matter.
After all, all of creation, all the things of creation, which we call creatures both great and small, both macrocosmic and microcosmic, all things have been made through Christ. It was from His mouth that it was said “Let there be light.” And likewise, “Let there be a firmament; Let there be water; Let there be dry land; Let there be grass and trees; Let there be lights for illumination; Let there be water creatures, and creatures of the sky; Let there be creatures of the land.” As is sung in the well-known hymn: All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.
And yet how much more has God made through Christ? As we hear from the account of blessed and righteous Job, the divinely-made creation includes the measurements of the foundation of the earth; the bases upon which it rested, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God (that is, the angels) shouted for joy; shutting in the sea with doors; making clouds for garments; commanding the morning; causing the dawn to know its place; even creating the gates of death, and so much more of the expanse of the earth.
Those words spoken by God to Job and Job’s companions with their tremendous meaning are summed up in the first line of the Nicene Creed: “I believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible” as well as the first verse of Scripture in Genesis: “In the beginning God made heaven and earth” and echoed in the first verses of the Gospel according to Saint John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was nothing made.” All things, including the wind and the sea and the laws of creation.
We ask God in our Collect to grant to us such strength and protection, as may support us in all dangers, and carry us through all temptations. We do this with the knowledge that comes first not by kneeling down and closing our eyes but with standing up and opening them very wide, much wider than we generally do. All our prayer, worship, devotion and love, all our religion, is based upon, and begins with creation, with being in the world and getting to know, understand, and love, not only the material and immaterial things of creation, but recognizing as a habit that all the material and immaterial things of creation are made by God, through His Son Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour.
When we recognize all this as a habit, we recognize the divine presence everywhere, and see all things, including ourselves and all human beings, as created and sustained from moment to moment by the love of God. This sense of God’s omnipresence in things, of their, and our, absolute dependence on Him, this childlike sense of wonder, is one of the most potent weapons against the root sin of pride. By wondering at the majesty and glorious beauty and astonishing sophistication of God’s creation, we are made humble, which destroys pride. All because of the love revealed to us through Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
[Certain sentences are adapted from the classic text, The Purple Headed Mountain, by Father Martin Thornton. You can purchase the text here.]
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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 this tells us is how important the Baptism of Jesus Christ by the hand of Saint John the Baptist is to the Christian faith.
The season of Epiphany weaves together several events of Christ’s life: His Nativity, the visit of the Magi, the beginning of His public ministry, the manifestation and revelation of God as Trinity, finding of Jesus in the Temple at age 12, the miracle at the wedding of Cana – in a grand sequence of liturgical celebration. These events have in common the one radical change that had come upon the world: God had united Himself to mankind to show mankind how He has overcome the dominion of evil and death and to give to mankind the Holy Spirit. And the Church does regard Our Lord’s baptism as a kind of beginning. Evidence of that includes the fact that S. Mark’s Gospel account in effect begins with the Baptism; that His Baptism is the first earthly event described in S. John in his Gospel; and that S. Peter declares in the Upper Room after the Ascension, in Acts 1, that witnessing the Baptism is necessary to be considered to be the replacement of Judas in the ministry of the Twelve Apostles.
This importance of the event in the River Jordan is shown also because, historically, the event is named the Theophany, the showing-forth of God. It is the first public revelation of God as Trinity. Jesus of Nazareth, proclaimed by the Father to be His beloved Son, with the Holy Spirit alighting upon Christ as a dove and anointing Him, all before the eyes of the ever-enlightening heart of Saint John the Baptist. Hence the ministry of John Baptist includes being the bearer of the truth of the most holy Trinity.
Perhaps the aspect of the Baptism most pregnant with significance is that of the Holy Spirit. For one, the Holy Spirit affirms that Jesus is in fact the Christ, the prophesied Messiah. Anointing in the Old Testament brought about the descent of the Spirit of the Lord to consecrate someone as a prophet, priest, or king. In 1 Sam. 16, Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed David in the presence of his brothers, and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David.
Secondly, the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ like a dove. A dove is a gentle, soft, tender bird. In the Song of Solomon the lover associates her beloved with the dove, as beautiful, lovely, perfect, flawless. The dove is also associated with innocence; it is guileless. In Christ’s own words: “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as a dove.” Thus to associate the Holy Spirit’s descent with a dove at Christ’s baptism says much about the nature of His coming messianic ministry. It can be seen to describe the tone of Christ’s whole ministry upon earth. He will not be a military commander, conquering the occupying Romans with force as so many contemporary Jews expected the Messiah to do. Instead, Christ is being anointed to conquer with love, and ultimately, with His own sacrifice on the Cross.
Another aspect of the dove is that it was one of the creatures that Jews were allowed to offer for sacrifice at the Temple. Thus the descent of the Holy Spirit like a dove hints at the future sacrifice of the Messiah, though not for Himself, nor only for the Jewish people, but for all. He is both the Sacrifice and He who sacrifices.
Another is that a dove brought to Noah the olive branch as evidence that the waters of the great flood were subsiding and therefore that salvation and a new world were at hand. This tells us that Christ’s coming was to usher in a new life, a new creation, a new way of being. Just as Noah and his family entered a world full of grace, so do Christians through Baptism.
Lastly the Spirit remained upon Christ, something John the Baptist saw with his eyes. John the Baptist says that it had been revealed to him that he could identify Christ as the one upon whom he would see the Spirit not only descend but also remain: in John 1.33: “The one who sent me, to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.” In the Old Testament, the Spirit would descend upon the prophets to inspire them temporarily, but in the New Covenant, the Holy Spirit comes to dwell permanently within Christians.
Let us therefore, dear brothers and sisters, celebrate this great event of spiritual revelation, the public coming-forth of Christ, the Theophany of God the Trinity, and the descent of the Holy Ghost, in Whom we live and move and have our being, all in praise of our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, to Whom belongs all glory, dominion, and power, and Who reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
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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 that nowhere in the whole course of Old Testament Scripture do we find that angels appeared with light, though they frequently appeared to human beings; but this privilege was properly kept for this day, when “unto the godly there ariseth up light in the darkness; the Lord is merciful, loving, and righteous” (Ps 112.4). But so that the authority of a single angel should seem small, after one angel taught the mystery of the new birth, at once there was present a multitude of the heavenly host, who sang “Glory to God on high,” even as they proclaimed peace to human beings. The angelic choir clearly demonstrates that through this Nativity human beings were to be directed toward the peace of one faith, hope, and love, and to the glory of divine praise.
Saint Luke records that “when the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened.’ And, Saint Luke adds, ‘they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.’” The shepherds hastened with happy joy to see what they had heard about, and because they sought it with a burning love, they were worthy to find immediately the Saviour Whom they sought. By their words as well as their deeds, they showed the future shepherds of spiritual flocks (that is, bishops and priests) and, moreover, all faithful Christians, with what diligence of mind they too ought to be seeking Christ. “Let us go over,” it is as if they said, “to Bethlehem, and see this Word which has come to be.”
Let us also, therefore, my beloved brothers and sisters, go over in thought to Bethlehem, the city of David, and let us also recall it with love; let us celebrate Christ’s Nativity according to the flesh. Having cast aside fleshly concupiscence, they us go over with the whole desire of our mind to the heavenly Bethlehem, that is, the house of living bread, not made by hands but eternal in heaven, and let us lovingly recall that the Word which was made flesh has ascended in the flesh to where He sits at the Right Hand of God the Father. Let us follow Him to that place with the whole urgency of our virtues, and let us take care that we may deserve to see reigning in His Father’s chair the One they saw crying in the manger.
“And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger,” Luke tells us. The shepherds came hurrying and found God born as a human being, and at the same time they found those who were ministering to His Nativity. We also should hurry, my brothers and sisters, not by steps of our feet, but by progress in good works, to see this same glorified humanity with these same ministers. Let us hurry to see Him shining in divine majesty, which is the Father’s and His own. Let us hurry, I say, for such blessedness is not to be sought with idleness and sluggishness, but Christ’s footsteps must be followed briskly. Let us follow more quickly with the steps of virtues so that we may be worthy to walk in His ways.
When the Shepherds saw the Holy Child shining in divine splendor, and those ministering to Him, they made known the Word that had been told them concerning this Child. All who heard the Word wondered at what they heard, and who they heard it from. Then Luke tells us, “But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Mary wished to divulge to no one the secret things which she knew about Christ, but she reverently waited for the time and place when He, her Son, would wish to divulge them. However, although her mouth was silent, in her careful, watchful heart she weighed these secret things.
Indeed, she weighed those acts which she saw in relation to those things which she had read were to be done. She saw that herself, who had arisen from the stock of Jesse, had conceived God’s Son of the Holy Spirit. She had read in the prophet Isaiah, “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.” She had read in Micah, “But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days.” She saw that she had given birth in Bethlehem to the Ruler of Israel, Who was born eternal from the Father, God before the ages. She saw that she had “conceived as a virgin, and given birth to a Son, and called His Name Jesus.” She had read, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” She had read, “The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib.” She saw the Lord lying in a manger, where an ox and an ass used to come to be nourished. She remembered that it had been said to her by the angel “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.” She had read that the manner of His Nativity could be recognized only by the revelation of an angel, in accordance with Isaiah’s saying, “Who will tell of his generation?” She had read in Micah, “And you, O tower of the flock, hill of the daughter of Zion, to you shall it come, the former dominion shall come, kingship for the daughter of Jerusalem.” She knew that the Lord had come in the flesh, Whose power is one and eternal with the Father, and He would give to His daughter the Church the kingdom of heavenly Jerusalem. Mary was pondering these things which she had read were to occur with those which she recognized as already having occurred, and she kept them in her heart.
Finally, Luke records, the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. So let us learn, my beloved brothers and sisters, how to be turned from contemplation of the Lord’s most benevolent divinely-arranged plan, by which He deigned to come to our aid, to giving thanks always from His kindnesses. For if they, who as yet only knew about His Nativity, went back glorifying and praising God in everything which they had seen and heard, we who know about the whole progress of His Incarnation in succession, and who are imbued with the Sacraments of His Life, are all the more obliged to proclaim His glory and praise in everything, not only in words but also in deeds, and never to forget that the reason why God was born as a human being was so that He might restore us through our being born anew to the image and likeness of His divinity.
The reason He was baptized with water was so that He might make the flowing of all waters fruitful for the cleansing of our wicked deeds. The reason He was tempted in the desert was so that by being victorious over the temper He might bestow upon us knowledge and power to make us victorious through Him. The reason He died was so that He might destroy the sovereignty of death. The reason He rose and ascended to heaven was so that He might present to us a hope and an example of rising from the dead and reigning perpetually in heaven. Having “gone back” to gaze upon His most benevolent divinely-arranged plan, let us for the sake of each of these actions glorify and praise God Himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.
(adapted from Gospel Homily I.vii of the Venerable S. Bede)
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