with Fr. Alban Waggener
“Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” Heb 12:1
The Saints are a living part of our life in the mystical Body of Christ. They are integral members of the Church, some of whom, as I often put it, have merely changed their address in the Kingdom. Continue reading “Reflections on All Saints”
“that we, being ready both in body and soul; may cheerfully accomplish those things that thou wouldest have done.”
The Church takes care to remind us that our eternal destiny is the matter of greatest importance; to hold before us the necessity of readiness to give our solemn account before the dread judgment seat of Christ; to impress us with the great value of being peacefully and penitently ready to make our last and most important journey. We are to take the business of dying seriously; to be “deeply sensible of the shortness and uncertainty of human Iife”. Continue reading “Reflections on the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity”
Now that Inquirers classes have begun again in earnest at my parish, one of the most frequent questions I am posed is “what is the wrath of God”? As I consider Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon to be a modern-day Father of the Church, I will let him answer here with some quotes from his excellent book Christ in the Psalms. (I am convinced that Fr. Patrick has a photographic memory, and that he never sleeps.) These are from his comments on Psalms 5 and 6. I have included his concluding thoughts on Psalm 6, which deal with sin, death and Satan – all enemies of our souls and bodies. And ending on a note of faith and hope. Continue reading “Reflections On the Wrath of God”
Having arrived late Friday afternoon, we were shuttled from the Keflavik airport (about 30 miles from Reykjavik) to the bus station and schlepped our luggage about a mile and a half to our hostel, looking forward to heading out Saturday morning on the “Classic Golden Circle Tour”, an 8-hour guided bus tour. Even got to practice my Welsh with a Welsh woman at the bus stop! – she said my pronunciation was excellent- a elli di’i gredu?) First stop was at the largest lake in Iceland – Thingvallavatn. Continue reading “Reflections on Pilgrimage to Holy Britain (and Iceland) – Part 4”
We began our existence as humans in Paradise with a commandment from God. It was a simple commandment which involved a fast. Thou shalt not eat of the fruit of this tree. The man and woman who had been created in the image of the Word and Son of God, were intended to gain their knowledge through obedience and a simple ascetical commandment. Continue reading “Reflections on the Eighteenth Sunday After Trinity”