Book of Common Prayer
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Confession
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8 min read
“We don’t do confession.” I remember the conversations I used to have as a child about church. And it was usually how we do things differently or what is an E-piss-co-palian? Which always was accompanied with laughter. This childhood was in Alpena, a small city in the northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan. Alpena was largely Polish, then;…
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Word obsessed
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2 min read
Lately, though, words have begun to mean even more to me. Not simply because I write, teach, and preach as a priest or as a sentry posted to defend orthodoxy from the heretics. [That’s all nonsense to me, by the way.] But because our faith keeps coming back to words. Simply words. Having words. Words…
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Which is the real Easter: a day or a season?
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1 min read
In this week’s Question + Response for St. Paul’s, I explore the pressing question of what is Easter, really: that one Sunday, the season, or is it something way bigger than that? Easter is our favorite. Many of us like Christmas, too. But Easter takes the cake. A born Jesus is nothing compared with a…
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The Messy History of the Sacraments in 6 Questions
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5 min read
[This is the second of three posts about the sacraments. Check out the first and the third.] As we explored yesterday, our Sacraments, primarily Holy Eucharist and Holy Baptism, are a physical and spiritual means of receiving grace. Today, we’ll have a small taste of the messiness around the living out of the Sacraments. There is…
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What is a Sacrament?
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3 min read
[This is the first of three posts about the sacraments. Check out the second and third.] What do we mean when we call something a Sacrament? According to the Book of Common Prayer (pp. 857-8): The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by…
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For My Son: Changing the Lord’s Prayer
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3 min read
Right off the bat. I have to confess that I am predisposed to the modern Lord’s Prayer. Even better are some of the rewrites I’ve heard in the last year or so. Some really good praying is happening. Tonight, I’m now all in. Here’s why. Praying with my son. I used to argue that we…