Reflection for First Week of Advent–A time to prepare Advent is here. What a marvelous time in which to renew your desire, your nostalgia, your real longing for Christ to come – for him to come every day to your soul in the Eucharist. The Church encourages us: ecce veniet – he is about to  Read more …

I’m sure you’ve heard and read about how we are supposed to be giving people. While we may accept and agree with that, many of us have an inner dialogue that occurs when God asks us to give something. We wonder why God is asking us to give, especially if we don’t have much to  Read more …

A FORGIVING SPIRIT This Sunday’s gospel talks about the need for forgiveness, it talks about the reward of forgiveness, about the consequences of the lack of forgiveness. Forgiveness is something we all struggle with, have struggled with or will deal with at some point in our life. The difficulty lies in the understanding or the  Read more …

When Aaron built a golden calf for the Israelites to worship in Exodus 32, severe judgment came upon the people. Yet Aaron went on to serve as high priest. It hardly seems fair that he should escape punishment—he was the one who made the idol, after all—while others were judged. There are two possible responses.  Read more …

Wrestling Against Evil Speaking of the condition of man in the world, St Paul attests that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Today‘s Gospel tells a heartbreaking story of a nobleman, stripped down by life, but  Read more …

The doctrine of apostolic succession—central to the Anglican-Catholic Church’s identity with the Church founded by Jesus in the first century—involves there being an unbroken line of bishops from the beginning of Christian history to the present. Christ conferred upon his apostles the original task of shepherding the earthly Church in his absence. As the Church  Read more …

Christ, King of the Universe? What does that mean exactly? If to Christ our Lord is given all power in heaven and on earth; if all men, purchased by his precious blood, are by a new right subjected to his dominion; if this power embraces all men, it must be clear that not one of  Read more …

In the celebration of the Eucharist, the glorified Christ becomes present under the appearances of bread and wine in a way that is unique, a way that is uniquely suited to the Eucharist. In the Church’s traditional theological language, in the act of consecration during the Eucharist the “substance” of the bread and wine is  Read more …

How Far Will You Go For a Friend? The Gospel of Matthew 9:1 says Jesus came into his own city where there was a man sick of palsy, who obviously needed healing. While he could do nothing about it himself, his friends wanted to make sure the man received the touch he needed and carried  Read more …

Commenting on the often violent inhumanity of man to man, George Bernard Shaw in his play “Caesar and Cleopatra” sums things up this way: “And so, to the end of history, murder shall breed murder, always in the name of right and honor and peace, until the gods are tired of blood, and create a  Read more …