Just wanted to share because I like the photo of me.
preaching …
everything
Everything! I have never liked “me”. I would not say I hate me, but I do not like me. If I were to meet me, I would most likely think I am aloof, prickly, and just plain weird. I am also socially and physically awkward, like to rant about completely random stuff, and am a poor dresser. I should say that I am working on it, but that would be a lie.
pietism?
Every one is very willing to be a servant of Christ; but no one will consent to be His follower. And yet He says: “If any man serve me, let him follow me.” (John 12:26). Hence, he who truly serves and loves Christ, will also follow him; and he who loves Christ, will also love the example of His holy life, His humility, meekness, patience, as well as the cross, shame, and contempt which He endured, although the flesh may thereby suffer pain.
Johann Arndt
… to be a contemplative
To be a contemplative Church means:
Diocese of Oxford
- To be deeply rooted in Christ as a branch in the vine, through prayer and worship, word and sacrament;
- To be sustained in joy and hope in the midst of a suffering world;
- To seek the continual grace and renewal of the Holy Spirit in our lives;
- To value deep wisdom and offer meaning;
- To take our theology seriously as dialogue with God as well as talk about God;
- To live in healthy rhythms of prayer and rest and work and be fully human;
- To be good news in an over active and busy world;
- To offer the gift of silence, still places and moments of encounter with the living God;
- To listen deeply to ourselves, to the world in which we live and to one another;
- To discern God’s call to us as individuals and communities;
- To wrestle with God;
- To surrender our doing in order to make space for stillness and dwelling, that God might be free to do and act within us.
morning!
I am most definitely a morning person. I like to get up early, before sunrise, and enjoy the silence and solitude. I do all meaningful writing, thinking, and praying in the morning. It is also cooler in the morning, which I prefer. If I interact with people, it has to be in the morning. Medical appointments and shopping are for the morning.
I am no good after 3 p.m. My mind simply stops working. I like to relax by reading novels or listening to audiobooks. Sometimes I watch a little TV. No people after 3 p.m.! In fact, I use the “screen time” on my phone to limit access after that time. And I go to bed early – with the sunset in winter and a little before in the summer.
scapular
My absolute favourite thing to wear is my scapular. It reminds me that I carry Jesus everywhere I go, and perhaps much more importantly, it reminds me that Jesus is with me always. It is not an Anglican thing to do and often confuses people, but it is meaningful to me. I also like to wear “suspenders.” Since I have no hips, they keep my pants from falling down. See picture!!!
phone!
Have you ever wondered what we did when we only had “landlines”? How did we survive? And before that, when people communicated by hand-written letter? And, guess what, we survived.
So, what technology would I be better off without? My “smartphone”! It serves no purpose. I do not receive calls, texts, DMs, or iMessages from anyone. Yet, somehow, I feel I should carry it everywhere with me. And check! Check if someone has emailed. I listen to music, but I could do that a different way. I spend way too much time looking for it or worrying about it.
sleep
If you didn’t need sleep, what would you do with all the extra time?
To be honest, I would probably sleep! I love sleeping and try to do it as often as I can during the day. And as long as I can during the night. Personally I think there is nothing better.
fasts and abstinence
I was thinking about the table of fasts and abstinence in the 1662 Prayer Book. Since nothing like it exists in modern Prayer Books, I assume that it still stands. So, I was wondering what the Prayer Book required of me. I found these PRECEPTS OF THE CHURCH by Bishop John Cosin:
- To observe the Festivals and Holy Days appointed.
- To keep the Fasting Days with devotion and abstinence.
- To observe the ecclesiastical customs and ceremonies established, and that without frowardness or contradiction.
- To repair unto the public service of the Church for Matins and Evensong, with other holy offices at times appointed, unless there be a just and unfeigned cause to the contrary.
- To receive the Blessed Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ with frequent devotion, and three times a year at least, of which Easter to be always one. And for better preparation thereunto, as occasion is, to disburthan and quit your consciences of those sins that may grieve us, or scruples that may trouble us, to a learned and discreet priest, and from him to receive advice, and the benefit of Absolution.
It needs a little re-jigging but I think it is a workable Rule of Life. What thinkest thou?
the community is not Christ
Christianity is no doctrine; all talk of offense with regard to it as doctrine is a misunderstanding, is an enervation of the thrust of the collision of offense, as when one speaks of offense with respect to the doctrine of the God-man, the doctrine of Atonement. No, offense is related either to Christ or to being a Christian oneself…. No, Christ’s life here on earth is the paradigm; I and every Christian are to strive to model our lives in likeness to it, and this is the primary subject of preaching, since it is to serve this—to keep me up to the mark when I want to dawdle, to fortify when one becomes disheartened. — … But Christendom has abolished Christ; yet, on the other hand, it wants—to inherit him, his great name, to make use of the enormous consequences of his life. Indeed, Christendom is not far from wanting to appropriate them as its own merits and to delude us into thinking that Christendom is Christ.
Christianly, struggling is always done by single individuals, because spirit is precisely this, that everyone is an individual before God, that “fellowship” is a lower category than “the single individual,” which everyone can and should be. And even if the individuals were in the thousands and as such struggled jointly, Christianly understood each individual is struggling, besides jointly with the others, also within himself, and must as a single individual give an accounting on judgment day, when his life as an individual will be examined.
Practice in Christianity
a fool and his prayer book 