Interrupting the Silence

Category: Theology

  • Becoming an Icon of Divine Blessedness

    If you seek after God with all your heart and all your strength, then the virtues of your soul and body will turn you into a mirror of the image of God within. You will be so merged in God, and God so merged in you, that each will endlessly repose in the other. Such… Read more

  • A Blessing for All Saints

    May Almighty God, to whose glory we celebrate this festival of all the Saints, be now and evermore your guide and companion in the way. Amen. May God, who has bound us together in the company of the elect, in this age and the age to come. Attend to the prayers of his faithful servants… Read more

  • What is Blessing the Lord About?

    “Bless the Lord, O my soul.” The psalmist uses this phrase five times (Psalm 103:1, 2, 22; 104:1, 35). The blessing spoken of by the psalmist is more than just something we do to God. There is a relationship and connection between our innermost self and God (Kusher, The Book of Words, 103). That connection… Read more

  • We Do Not Believe in the Nicene Creed

    “One night the Master led his disciples into the open fields and a star-studded sky. Then, pointing toward the stars, he looked at the disciples and said, ‘Now concentrate on my finger, everyone.’ They got the point.” (Anthony DeMello, One Minute Nonsense, 135) In another story DeMello is less subtle about his meaning: “When the sage… Read more

  • Believing in the Giver of Life

    For most of us, I suspect, there are moments when the existential questions of life can no longer be answered, ignored, or denied by focusing on our careers, jobs, marriages, families, acquisitions, or accomplishments. Who am I? What is my purpose? What have I really accomplished? How will I be remembered? Will I even be… Read more

  • The Scandal of Being Human

    Every time we say the Nicene Creed we profess the world’s greatest scandal. God chose to become human. God chose to reveal himself through flesh and blood. God chose to enter this world in the usual way, to be born of a human mother the same as you and I were. God chose to live… Read more

  • Five Things We Believe About God

    “We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen.” With just twenty-one words the Nicene Creed describes God. Twenty-one words? That’s it? Surely there is more that can be said about God. I suspect there is. Maybe, however, that’s not the question. Maybe the better question… Read more

  • Communal Believing – The Nicene Creed, Part 3

    Someone once asked an old hermit, “Is Jesus your personal Lord and Savior?” “No,” he said. “I prefer to share him with others.” There is wisdom in the hermit’s words. The Christian life is not about “me and my Jesus.” That’s too small, too easy, and too risky. It can quickly degenerate into “Sheilaism.” In… Read more

  • Who Believes? The Nicene Creed, Part 2

    The following article was originally written for Reflections Online and published by the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas. It is the second in a series on the Nicene Creed. Part 1 may be found here. The earliest creedal statements were short professions of faith, often reflected local concerns, and were not necessarily concerned with uniformity… Read more