An Older Way of Doing Things: The modern world is slowly waking to a renewed appreciation for an older way of doing things. Pastimes once though to be quaint are now perceived through a more appreciative lens. The wisdom and experience of long-gone generations somehow manages to take us by surprise, but it shouldn’t. Back before there were 24-hour news cycles and click-bait culture, people knew how to breathe deep and focus. Spending time with an idea or a personRead more ..read more

Strange Times: These are strange times. The rapid spread of COVID-19 and its global impact seems almost surreal. A sudden emergency state with imposed isolation has many of us reeling. Surely this is a dream. We have never experienced anything like this before. It defies all forecasts, plans and expectations. And what now? If we have been workaholics, we may find ourselves at home without work to distract us. If we have been social butterflies, we may find that ourRead more ..read more

The Fortieth Day of Lent: Holy Saturday An excerpt from “Reliving the Passion” by Walter Wangerin, Jr.: Mark 15:47: “Mary Magdalen and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.” Stone cold. And the stone is closed. Where do I go from here? Nowhere. Back to the city. Which is a nowhere now. The Master isn’t there. The Master is not. Everywhere is nowhere. There’s nowhere to go. What do I do? I don’t know what to do.Read more ..read more

“The Crucifixion” by Steve Turner: You were one with the Father. Then the Father turned his back on you. You felt forsaken, hanging there between heaven’s thunder and the dank spittle of earth. For that moment you belonged nowhere. You were love, cut off from love; truth nailed down by lies. You must have wanted to explode, to disintegrate, to disappear into a void. But that was forbidden. And that was the test. Your blood burst through your skin andRead more ..read more

A choral arrangement of Psalm 51: This is probably my favourite choral piece, period. If you’ve never heard Allegri’s “Miserere,” then prepare for something exquisite. The piece is a choral setting of Psalm 51, a psalm that was penned by King David, expressing deep remorse for his sin. It is traditionally sung during the penitential season of Lent, a beautiful meditation that invites us to confess our own sins to God. The text appears below the video in both EnglishRead more ..read more

Every year it’s the same. Once Thanksgiving and Halloween have passed, retailers and advertisers are intent that the world should think “Christmas” (and shopping). Suddenly the festive décor is up, carols are heard everywhere, and strangers greet one another with seasonal cheer. To many of us these are welcome changes, no matter how early they appear. What believer wouldn’t prefer to see wholesome ads featuring families by firelight, rather than images that appeal to baser desires? But in the rushRead more ..read more

What are you leaving out? Have you ever prayed the Litany? Traditional churches often say it twice annually, but not too long ago it was common to pray the Litany every week. This fell out of fashion around the same time that churches became wary of focusing on spiritual realities that might be perceived as “negative.” Well, if the Litany is not part of your church experience you may well be wondering what I’m going on about. The Litany isRead more ..read more

(The BCP Readings for this Feast Day can be found here) The Gospel according to the Doctor The four Gospel accounts tell us the story of how Jesus entered human history. Four very different men were inspired by the Holy Spirit to each write an account of what they’d seen and heard. Their names were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and their written accounts are found in our Bible’s New Testament. Together these Gospels form a rich, layered narrative thatRead more ..read more

More than a holiday: What we usually think of as “Thanksgiving” is a holiday peculiar to the U.S. and Canada. It calls to mind the gratitude of Protestant colonizers for the blessings of the harvest as they forged new lives in a new land. But there is more to the heart of the holiday than a full belly. Thanksgiving acknowledges that we are dependent on the land to yield food. But it further acknowledges that God is sovereign over theRead more ..read more

Four Collects for Advent from The Book of Common Prayer: The Collect for Advent 1: Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, and put upon us the armour of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious Majesty, to judge both the quick and the dead,Read more ..read more