"The Anglican Communion has no peculiar thought, practice, creed or confession of its own. It has only the Catholic Faith of the ancient Catholic Church, as preserved in the Catholic Creeds and maintained in the Catholic and Apostolic constitution of Christ's Church from the beginning."
- Geoffrey Fisher, 99th Archbishop of Canterbury
Bishop Polycarp of Smyrna, martyred for Christ in 156
"O happy fault! If we weren't sinners and didn't need pardon more than bread, we'd have no way of knowing how deep God's love is."
- Louis Evely
"Avoid, like the plague, a clergyman who is also a businessman."
- St. Jerome
"Slander is worse than cannibalism."
- St. John Chrysostom
"Tradition is the living faith of the dead. Traditionalism is the dead faith of the living."
- Jaroslav Pelikan
"The Jesus of Suburbia is a lie."
- Green Day
"It's true romance is dead I shot it in the chest and in the head"
- Fall Out Boy
"Don't just adore the Eucharist, enact it."
- William Cavanaugh
"If you can be talked out of your faith, you probably should be."
- Roger Ward
"Don't ever deny someone the luxury of being human or broken. That is not a luxury you yourself can afford to lose."
- Sarah Cunningham
"It is better that the United States be liquidated than that she survive by war."
- Dorothy Day
"Wherever the Psalter is abandoned, an incomparable treasure vanishes from the Christian Church. With its recovery will come unexpected power."
- Dietrich Bonhoeffer
For my own Lenten discipline - as I've said - I want to shift more into a "listening" posture. To that end, I'm determined to do the "contemplative prayer" thing with greater frequency, pray the office, and attempt to attend morning Mass three times each week. I'm also going to pick up Miroslav Volf's Free of Charge: Giving and Forgiving in a Culture Stripped of Grace. It's the Archbishop of Canterbury's Lenten book, and Bill Bean is selling it at a nice price, by the way.
I don't say this to sound "spiritual;" to paraphrase someone else, I require this practices because I am "unspiritual." I'm also a student, so I get to structure my time any way I wish. I think it's an appropriate practice to "waste" time with Jesus, anyway. I've also used some "soft language" in a very intentional fashion: I'm attempting these disciplines, not so I can say that I have done them, but for the sake of being with Jesus more and listening more. If I don't do everything I'd like in just the way I'd like, it's not the end of the world, and Jesus isn't going to get all upset. We shouldn't get all upset either, and we'd do well to remember that.
Praying the Office takes about 15 minutes twice a day, and 5-10 minutes in the evening. If you'd like suggestions on getting started, please ask.
You can find short, basic instruction on Centering Prayer here.
So what's everybody else doing to keep a Holy Lent? Don't worry about sounding humble, you won't impress me (wink). What practices have you found helpful in the past? Will this be your first Lenten season? Do you choose not to keep it? Have a chat back at me.
Update: theological nitpicking: when I said "attend mass," I mean, "celebration of the mysteries" or "performance of the Eucharist." There, that's better. We don't watch it, we do it. I was getting all vexed in my righteous soul on that one.
The wife and I are going to read through St. John of the Cross's "Dark Night of the Soul" together. My second time. Her first time. I'm also going to read St. Theresa of Avila's "Interior Castle."
I did contemplation last year with some moderate tenacity. I prefer to read mystical theology for Lent.
I think it's "neat" to "do Lent" after growing up in a Church that didn't even do Advent.
Haha! Raised dispie... we hated catholics and anything to do with the christian church.. I mean... So, I am new to this whole church calender thing. I 'll try to keep up this time.
Kyle, I'm gonna get on board with the reading through the church fathers plan, just so you know. Maybe we can compare some notes, who knows, maybe even do a podcast? Peace you terrier
Kyle Potter, MTh (Oxon)
Catechist for Adult Formation,
Saint Patrick's Church
Missioner to Georgetown, Kentucky
Anglican Mission in the Americas E-mail me
Library Technician for Research Assistance & Cataloging
Department Liaison for Religion, Philosophy, Sociology & Theatre
Instructor of Christian Theology
Ensor LRC, Georgetown College
"The Church claims to be the most comprehensive human society there is - the new human race in embryo. And it claims this because of its belief that it is established not by any human process grounded in and limited by events, cultures and so on, but by God's activity." - Rowan Williams
9 Comments:
The wife and I are going to read through St. John of the Cross's "Dark Night of the Soul" together. My second time. Her first time. I'm also going to read St. Theresa of Avila's "Interior Castle."
I did contemplation last year with some moderate tenacity. I prefer to read mystical theology for Lent.
I think it's "neat" to "do Lent" after growing up in a Church that didn't even do Advent.
Haha! Raised dispie... we hated catholics and anything to do with the christian church.. I mean... So, I am new to this whole church calender thing. I 'll try to keep up this time.
Peace
Kyle,
I'm gonna get on board with the reading through the church fathers plan, just so you know. Maybe we can compare some notes, who knows, maybe even do a podcast?
Peace you terrier
Thanks, Josh. I hope you both find it edifying.
Mike, I got your back. :0)
A., I think we can definately do ourselves a podcast at some point. It would be really interesting to discuss our reflections on all of that.
Maybe even a communal blog? Though I would be glad to get on the podcasting band wagon and do readings of the passages.
Given my low church/charismatic background I've never really gotten into Lent all that much but I'm determined to get stuck in this year.
So Lent is on Wednesday. Does anyone want to do a communal blog or a community thing? Lets here some voices.
Sorry man, I'm sure it would be great, but it's not for me.
Next year, Ben.
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