When I survey the wondrous cross, On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. How can words express with greater clarity what God the Holy Ghost hath revealed in St. Matthew’s account of our Lord’s Passion? My words lack any insight, and…
After Richard Crashaw. Balaam’s donkey spoke but the Lord’s did not— And now I tell ya, I wandered long about that there, Pastor said, and this, his lips popped, is what I got. He pondered the difference, talked billy and mare, Then he stopped. His tongue clicked against his front teeth hard. Hardly looking for…
I was finally able to fulfill a longtime dream of mine to visit Germany. Bavaria, in particular. Me and my travel companions, of course, visited Neuschwanstein castle like the tourists we are, and then the small town of Fussen not far from it. As we walked around the old town, a time capsule of an…
Disclaimer: This poem contains adult themes. Reader discretion is advised. Now is it sanctity or is it fear That moves a man in public to declare Forgiveness? Is it love, and is it love? When bodies lie but scarcely cold, and words Are said, are we so holy, or are we Just ordinary, moved by…
The repentance of Theodosius I is one of the most treasured moments in Church history. The emperor’s humble obeisance, stripped of his finery, humiliated before the bishop is an icon of the church’s claims on the state. Less well remembered was Theodosius’ sin: the summary execution of some 7,000 Thessalonian attendees at the local circus…
At the Cross: Reflections on the Stations of the Cross. By Justin D. Clemente. Anglican Compass, 2024. xxiii + 148 pp. $14.95 (paper). A number of Lenten practices and observances—e.g., prayer, almsgiving, and fasting—are longstanding elements of the Christian tradition, yet may be unfamiliar for those who are newcomers to the Anglican way. One such…
O love, how deep, how broad, how high! How passing thought and fantasy, that God, the Son of God, should take our mortal form for mortals’ sake! When I was a teenager, I left the United Methodist Church (UMC), and after a period of wandering (quite literally, as I would drive around on Sunday mornings),…
The Toxic War on Masculinity: How Christianity Reconciles the Sexes. By Nancy R. Pearcey. Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 2023. 352 pp. $26.99 (hardcover). In Nancy Pearcey’s latest offering, The Toxic War on Masculinity, she takes on a subject ripe for cultural commentary: the attack on men in contemporary society. With her characteristic wit and rhetorical…
The Common Service: The English Liturgy of the Church of the Augsburg Confession. By James D. Heiser. Malone, TX: Repristination Press, 2022. 323 pp. $39.99 (hardcover). Acknowledging that liturgical study is not the favorite subject of everyone, why would an Anglican read this book? Why should an Anglican care about the Lutheran liturgy? The answer…
No hesitation, Lord, Do I, in sinning, feel In thought or deed or word. Keep back, I pray, my sin’s reward, Nor let me hesitation feel In repenting afterward.