with Fr. Alban Waggener
There is a wonderful verse in Hosea which is part of the service of Lauds on Holy Saturday morning in the third part of the Tenebrae service.: “O death, I will be thy plagues: O grave, I will be thy destruction.”
If there is one thing most human beings fear, besides tax day, it is death. A consiousness of death can be a very beneficial thing to our spiritual life.
Continue reading “Memento Mori”Metanoia, the word generally translated “repentance” is both temporary and, in its final stage, permanent. Temporarily, it can happen at any moment of the day or night, when we correctly discriminate in that moment between the back-to-front truth of the world, which sees us being and doing, and the gospel truth, which recognizes that Being and Doing belong to God.
Continue reading “Reflections on Ash Wednesday”On our final Sunday before we begin the Lenten pilgrimage, we have an Epistle about divine Charity and a Gospel which contrasts the new sight of a formerly blind man and the lack of spiritual insight of the disciples who
“understood none of these things, and this saying was hid from them.”
Lent is given us by the Church as a sort of 40 day desert experience, a time to focus our lives on God and seek to look deep within ourselves that we may begin to discern the ways of our own hearts.
Continue reading “Reflections on Quinquagesima”Jesus explains to His disciples why He teaches in parables. It is so that those who are merely curious and not real seekers after the truth, who have denied the hunger for God within themselves, would only hear stories, not discerning the spiritual content and truth in them. The disciples, and the spiritually hungry would move beyond the surface to begin to grasp the spiritual meaning within the stories. Jesus knew whom He was calling, and as we reflect on the call accounts, we notice that these men are described as immediately leaving their occupations and their families to follow Him. The hunger in them, the spiritual character in them, was already known to Jesus when He called them, and they responded without hesitation. Not that they wouldn’t face the trials of doubt and discouragement, but even after abandoning their Lord in the garden, they would all, save Judas, repent and return and become those God used to turned the world upside down.
Continue reading “Reflections on Sexagesima”The owner of the vineyard came to the marketplace, the appropriate place to hire workers. He came there early in the morning, in the middle of the morning and at noon. He came again in mid-afternoon and even in the late afternoon to hire anyone who was still there. He combed through that place again and again and rightly knew that had anyone been there all day, he would have seen him on one of his frequent visits.
Continue reading “Reflections on Septuagesima”After a year of posting these reflections, I have decided to “fast” from blog entries for Lent this year. I offer this Litany I found as a suggested prayer/meditation for your Lenten pilgrimage.
A Litany for Humility
Continue reading “Reflections on Reflections”The Collect for this Sunday weaves together the 1st and 2nd Advent themes of the Epistle and Gospel with phrases taken from each of these readings. As such, it is a fitting conclusion to the Epiphany season, and focuses on the final great epiphany or manifestation of our Lord at His second coming.
Continue reading “Reflections on the Sixth Sunday after Epiphany”On this fifth Sunday of Epiphany we hear the parable of the wheat and the tares.
There are many spiritual interpretations to be found in the father’s commentaries. Some write about the mixture in the Church, some about the application to the human soul. But interestingly, if we look beyond our text to v.36f, we have Jesus’ own interpretation of the parable, given to his disciples in response to their question as to its meaning. His explanation is very straightforward. (37-43)
Continue reading “Reflections on the Fifth Sunday after Epiphany”In today’s epistle portion, St. Paul discusses the Christian’s relation to the state. His premise is that the source of civil government, indeed of all authority, is God, for He alone is sovereign. Therefore, St. Paul says, we are to be subject to these powers – but it is sometimes tricky.
Continue reading “Reflections on the Fourth Sunday after Epiphany”The 12th Ch of Romans from which our epistle readings have come over the Sundays after Epiphany is the chapter of the consecrated life of the Christian disciple and the law of love.
In our portion this morning, St. Paul says we are to enter into one another’s desires and aims – not to aim at a high place or honor for ourselves, but to be content with the humble duties that come our way.
Continue reading “Reflections on the Third Sunday after Epiphany”