An Episcopal Priest's Sermons, Prayers, and Reflections on Life, Becoming Human, and Discovering Our Divinity
In a previous post I wrote about theosis as the human vocation. Theosis, was a central concept and theme within the early church and remains so today in Eastern Orthodoxy. Was theosis lost by the west in the East-West schism of…
Read More Theosis in the Episcopal Church
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. We are, to paraphrase the opening of St. Augustine’s Confessions, restless until…
Read More Theosis, the Human Vocation
"'Let us make the human being according to our image and according to our likeness' [Gen. 1:26]. By our creation we have the first, and by our free choice we build the second. In our initial structure co-originates and exists…
Read More Artisans of the Likeness of God – The Feast of St. Basil the Great
My guess is that most priests, when speaking of their seminary training, would say that very little, if any, time was spent in teaching or forming them to be a successful chief executive officer or business manager. This is certainly…
Read More Nickels and Noses – What Do We Value and Measure in the Parish?
The collect and readings for Christmas may be found here. Every one of us could probably tell the Christmas story. We know it well. A young virgin named Mary conceives a child by the Holy Spirit. She and her betrothed,…
Read More The Manger Is Not In Bethlehem – A Christmas Sermon On Luke 2:1-20
Today a strange mystery has been fulfilled; for nature has been renewed and God has become human. Yes, he remains ever the same, divine, but has now taken on to himself what he had not before, humanity. The two, divinity…
"Free will succeeded in making Adam’s beauty ugly, for he, a man, sought to become a god. Grace, however, made beautiful his deformities and God came to become a man. Divinity flew down to draw humanity up, for the Son…
Read More St. Ephrem – The Deformities Made Beautiful
In a previous post I wrote about ecstasy; that God is ecstatic and we are called to respond to his ecstasy with our own ecstasy. This double movement of God to humanity and humanity to God underlies the doctrine of…
Read More Incarnation, Theosis, Ecstasy
The collect and readings for Christmas Eve may be found here. The appointed gospel is Luke 2:1-20. In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken…
Read More The Cradle of Birth and New Life – A Sermon for Christmas Eve
"The Son of the Most High came and dwelt in me, and I became His Mother; and as by a second birth I brought Him forth so did He bring me forth by the second birth, because He put His Mother's garments on,…
Read More Hymns on the Nativity – St. Ephrem
Interrupting the Silence 