Of all the old festivals, however, that of Christmas awakens the strongest and most heartfelt associations. There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality, and lifts the spirit to a state of hallowed and elevated enjoyment. The services of the church about this season are extremely tender and inspiring….
(Friday Hours of the Compassion—Terce) in The Hours of Catherine of Cleves, vol. M, p. 87 Seasoned scenes release their power in yellow. Toward the end the sunset folds away all Footpaths to the city. A pale opossum Lumbers by as if the night will always Fall. There’s a lid—it looks some like a door—laid…
The title of this essay asks a question. But it is really three different questions, depending on where the emphasis falls. Why did we edit the 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition? Why did we edit the 1662 Book of Common Prayer: International Edition? And why did we edit the 1662 Book of Common…
Once I had a friend with a rollicking head of hair and shining eyes and an air of mischief that came from the turned-up nose and the near-laughter look on her face. Maeve saw no reason not to love and be loved, and she once confided in me that she had been pregnant seven times…
Job was a righteous man who had it all, that is, until Satan was given full access to Job to test his faith. At his lowest moment–without family, health, or home–was Job blessed or cursed? Simple answers are simply inadequate. It is obvious that Job was blessed in the beginning and end of the narrative,…
AN HOMILY OR SERMON CONCERNING THE NATIVITY AND BIRTH OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST Among all the creatures that God made in the beginning of the world most excellent and wonderful in their kind, there was none, as Scripture beareth witness, to be compared almost in any point unto man; who, as well in body…
Introduction My plan is to discuss in order the elements of Anglican Spirituality that I presented in Tracts 7 and 8, beginning with Holy Baptism. However, it occurs to me that to lay a foundation for a discussion of baptism, I should first offer a discussion of Anglican biblical interpretation. Not only is such a…
i. Through November’s arterial horizon traffic flickers. Mountain bare but for a bent cloud clipping the ridge. What would it mean to see clearly— to know nothing’s there other than what is. ii. A clearing between scrub and birches peeling (white sheets flagging) where sunset sparks. And those hollow tones: geese gathered at the river’s…
The Prayer Book tradition prescribes no particular Advent fast — that is, there is no prescription for Anglicans to engage in an extended period of fasting during the season of Advent. In this way, Advent is distinct from Lent — the 1662 and 1928 give the ‘Forty Days of Lent’ (in the 2019 Book of…
As we near the end of a surreal year of turmoil and disruption, it may be a little harder for Americans to give thanks this year (other than for a temporary cessation of political advertising). But of course God’s people have been commanded to give thanks for thousands of years, whether Noah’s family after the…
