In the audio provided, both lessons are read, and then followed by a homily by yours truly.

A Lesson from the Gospel According to S. Luke, 5.1

While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”

A Lesson of Commentary by the Ven. S. Bede

The Lake of Gennesaret is called by the Greek word, “Gennesar, (meaning) its water is not spread out flat like a pool, but is stirred by frequent breezes, sweet to taste, and good for drinking. This lake or sea signifies the present age, the Lord standing by the sea, when, after overcoming the mortality of fleeting life in that flesh in which He suffered, He entered upon the stability of eternal rest. The assemblage of crowds is an allegorical figure of the nations rushing together to Him in faith, as Isaiah says, And all nations shall flow to it, and many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Is 2:2-3). The two ships placed by the lake symbolize circumcision and lack of circumcision. Jesus is well said to have seen them, because among both people the Lord knows who are His, and he conveys their heart from the billows of this age to the calm of future life, by seeing them as it were coming towards the firmness of the shore, that is, by seeing them with the mercy of His heart. The fishermen are the preachers of the Church, who convey us are caught in the net of faith, and brought up from the deep to the light, like fish to the shore, and so to the land of the living. For like the nets of the fishermen, certain sayings of the preachers are complex in order not to lose those whom they have caught in faith. When Peter says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets,” we see that unless the Lord illuminates the heart of the pupils [disciples], the teachers labours [useless] in the night. Unless the tools of disputation are let down at the word of divine grace, the preacher hurls the javelin of his word in vain, because the faith of the people springs not from the wisdom of logical terminology, but from the gift of a divine calling. When Our Lord says, “from now on you will be catching men,” the Lord explains that just as now he catches fish with nets, so in the future he will catch men with words. And the Lord also explains that the whole order of this action shows what is done daily in the Church.

If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago to help to rebuild the Anglican tradition.

My conversation with Austin Suggs on his excellent podcast, Gospel Simplicity, is now live. It was published on 15 June, 2026. He wanted to ask me about Anglican spirituality, Martin Thornton, and related subjects.

It was a blessing to speak with Austin. You can find the entire episode here:

Saint Luke tells us that after Saint Peter saw the great catch of fish, he fell down at the knees of Jesus. And in falling down, Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Luke tells us that Peter was astonished. And who, brothers and sisters, would not be astonished? Peter was an experienced fisherman, surrounded by many such fishermen. They know the waters; they know when it is time to fish, and time to call it a day. But after Jesus had ceased speaking, Christ said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.”

Peter here does not openly resist or debate Jesus. He follows Our Lord’s command, but not before saying, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter has faith: calling Him “Master,” and doing what Our Lord commanded. Perhaps Peter said these words to save face in case no fish were caught; that the other fisherman knew the command to let down the nets came from Jesus, and not from Peter. Peter’s faith in Jesus is growing (for how many of us would be comfortable calling anyone “Master” in public?”) yet a garden-variety self-centeredness is still at play. And we would expect this of him, and of all the disciples. They are still learning about Jesus, and they are still learning how He fulfills the Law, and fulfills Scripture. Jesus never expects His followers to understand everything about Him immediately; He knows we have to grow in knowledge of Him, and through growing in knowledge, growing in faith.

Yet also, there are moments described in the Gospel that show Christ’s power; that show Him teaching with such authority unseen by anyone before: and this was one of them. Upon His Word, a great shoal of fish was brought in, so much so that their nets were breaking. And what’s more, all the fish filled two boats, and they began to sink. Just as the new wine of the Gospel would make old wine skins explode, and therefore need new containers, the tried and true boats were not sufficient to handle the fruits of the Gospel: a new boat would be needed, which is the Church, the ark of salvation. And so it was in witnessing all this, that Peter was astonished, and he was moved to fall down at the knees of Jesus and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

Yet what, we must ask, is the reason that Peter says he is sinful? Where specifically was his sin? Was it distrusting Jesus? But Peter did trust Jesus. Was it being still a prisoner of self-centeredness? Maybe, but it was not a serious case of self-centeredness. And, realistically speaking, would the self-recognition of this drive Peter to say “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord?” It would drive us more plausibly to say, “Lord, forgive me.” “Lord, I am sorry.” Or something more to scale. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” is way out of scale, given the faith and obedience demonstrated by Peter. What is really going on in Peter and his reaction?

The answer is that, as what happened to Saint Paul at his conversion, Peter is starting to perceive the Divine Majesty of Jesus Christ. This upends Peter’s life and mindset. This is the same realization that Saint Paul had at his conversion. Or Isaiah when he saw the seraphim singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” When Jesus confronts us with Himself, the Truth frees us, but in freeing us, it also disorients they way we live and the way we think. Paul was so disoriented that he was blind until his baptism, and then spent three years in the Arabian desert lands to find a new orientation entirely in Christ. Peter is experiencing the same thing; whereas Paul went blind and numb, Peter with a different personality than Paul, was repentant in its primary sense: experiencing awe before the King of Creation and His miracles.

The miracles of Christ are signs of divine power, and they are to teach, not merely astound. The nets were full of fish because creation is a continuous process of love, not a system of infallible laws, and the Creator incarnate in Christ has the right to change the process as the artist, and only the artist, has the right to alter his own picture: prayer controls matter. It has been revealed that Christ transfigures reality, and because of that, Christ makes all of creation sacramental. Christ redeems creation, and we know that because Christ offers to God material objects … that they may become part of Christ’s sacrifice, that, being offered to God, they may be transformed by the divine acceptance. Here Christ offers fish and nets and boats, so that for us to see our Master at work, we may be drawn into awe at Christ’s Divine Majesty, and drawn into new life and new mindset of thanksgiving: the life and mindset which is eucharistic, because “eucharist” means thanksgiving.

The eyes of the heart of Peter, like the eyes of the heart of Paul, were being enlightened by Jesus. The Light of Christ was blinding them both, overwhelming them both, and throwing them both into awe and wonder. And so it was for this reason that Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Peter was overwhelmed, he needed to be alone; he was truly starting to understand what his brother Andrew had first told me: “We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).” Peter had heard this, but was now inwardly digesting that Jesus is the Savior. As we receive the Eucharist this morning, let us do so knowing that what we inwardly digest is Jesus Christ, through Whom all of creation is made and recreated. We offered bread and wine to God so that He would transform them: God takes the bread and wine, and He recreates, redeems, and restores the bread and wine, and returns them to us as Jesus Christ, the King of Creation, the Eternal Word, the only-begotten Son of God: Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

You can find the entire episode here:

Here is my second conversation with Deacon Jonah Saller on his excellent podcast, The Mere Catholicity Podcast, published on his podcast on 25 April, 2024.

He wanted to ask me about various aspects of the orthodox-catholic life. It was a blessing to participate again in his podcast. You can find the entire episode here:

I was blessed to be interviewed by Benjamin Boyce on his CALMversations Podcast, on August, 2025. It was a wide-ranging conversation—too wide-ranging to summarize—so you will have to listen!

You can find the entire episode here:

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O God, the protector of all that trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy; that, Thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

In my sermon today during our midweek liturgy, I preached on this pericope from St Matthew 17:11-18:

And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.

And during my preaching, I referenced this teaching from the 12th century Church Father, S. Hugh of St Victor, who is pictured below:

“The good Word and wise Life that made the world is perceived when the world is contemplated. The Word itself cannot be seen, but the Word both made what can be seen and is seen through what He made.” (On the Three Days, 1.1)

“Judge not, and you will not be judged.” Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ teaches this to us. In teaching this, Christ gives us a commandment about life in eucharistic community—how to live in community—a community the nature of which is people in prayer and celebrating the Eucharist: that we are not to judge. While it may not seem the case, in fact this is a teaching shrouded in the mystery of God: for this teaching seems contrary to the actions of Him Who, for example, drove the money changers out of the Temple for their inappropriate behavior, having, it seems, judged them to be unfit for worship in the community. And so, because of this seeming contradiction, continuing our reflections in Trinitytide on the “eucharistic life,” we look at the mystery of life in eucharistic community.

“Judge not, and you will not be judged.” It is short; it has a ring to it. Yet, despite its brevity, is its meaning straightforward? Are we to turn a blind eye to sin committed by others? Such as in our parish family, are we to pretend someone sinning is not in fact sinning? Or that, despite the fact that certain persons in a community are sowing dissension and discord in the congregation, it is all good? Or that what such a person is doing is their business, and not for us to take mind about? It seems like it could be about that, does it not? Judge not this person’s sinful behavior, and you will not be judged, seems like what Jesus is teaching. Judge not and you will not be judged sounds like accept and tolerate and look the other way.

Yet we see in the teaching of Saint Paul, who because of the gifts given to him by God has always been recognized by the Church as proclaiming the Gospel and sharing true teachings not of himself but of Christ, that Paul had no patience for people sinning within the parish community. We need look no further than Paul’s first epistle to the church in Corinth. In it he clearly called to task all sorts of misbehavior: anyone sowing divisions within the parish; persons engaging in sexual immortality; appealing to a secular court instead of settling disputes within the parish community; disunity at the celebration of the Eucharist; speaking in tongues, and more. Paul is calling out sinful behavior, and he is calling out unacceptable behavior, of this there can be no question. Furthermore, respecting sexual immortality, Paul writes in 1 Cor 5:4-5, “In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, along with my spirit, within the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”

Does Paul teach us to accept, tolerate, and look the other way? Clearly Paul is not. Does this conflict with Jesus’s commandment, to judge not? It seems to, but in fact, there is no conflict. What Paul teaches is to discern sinful behavior. To see it for what it is. Discern sinful behavior: meaning to perceive, to recognize, to distinguish and discriminate between sinful behavior and godly behavior. The Devil wants us to accept, tolerate, and look the other way. To discern sinful behavior is not to judge, but rather to see clearly, by the light of Christ and His virtuous life which we are to imitate. Without the light of Christ, we cannot distinguish right from wrong, instead relying on whether something is legal or illegal according to civil law, or simply our personal opinion and personal morality. We are to look to Christ, for He reveals the life of virtue, the life of godly behavior. And when a person not only falls short of that, but chooses to fall short, choosing to sin–knowing what the life of Christ is and choosing to live contrary to His life—we are to recognize this, and we are not to ignore it. We are to not pretend it is not happening, but make it known in the community in appropriate ways.

Judging a person is something different than all this. We are not to judge. Judging people is not Christian, according to our Master Jesus Christ. The act of judging happens when, after having discerned a person’s behavior is unholy, we then pile on with pronouncements and condemnations, whether out loud or silently in our heart. We see such a person as inferior to us, that is, we imitate the Pharisee instead of the tax collector. We put ourselves in the place of God. As Saint James writes in his epistle: “There is one lawgiver and judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?” It is very often the case that when we judge another person, we have projected our own sins and inadequacies onto the other person, and in judging that person, we therefore judge ourselves. We have not taken the log out of our own eye; we have not confessed our sins to God and received sacramental absolution.

It takes restraint and it takes faith to live in Christian community with our eyes open. Ultimately we are commanded by Christ to trust God entirely despite witnessing sinful behavior in the community. And this is a mystery, the mystery of life in community. We are to suffer, in community, knowing that we are sinners and every person in the parish is a sinner; suffering that we sometimes sin, and they sometimes sin; we are to endure the faults and sins of others. The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a club for the spiritual elite.

Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Because of His voluntary sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, which is love in perfect expression, ultimate expression, we have the Eucharist to feed us, to love us, and to give life to our community. All of the baptized are fed and loved by Christ in the Eucharist, so that being in communion with the baptized through Holy Communion, His relationship with us is profound and intimate. Because of the Eucharist, God can become our life, and all of our life can become His life lived through us and through our body. In community, we must ever remember that God already knows everyone’s sins, that God already knows everyone’s heart. In community we must ever remember that God is at work in the heart and mind of every person to bring them to repentance, to confession, to humility and honesty before Him. Within the mystery of God is the mystery of trusting Him that He is in control, that unto Him all hearts are open, all desires known, and from Him no secrets are hid.

An open secret in parish life is that there are never easy answers to people who habitually act poorly in a parish community. While we are to discern what this behavior is, and never approve of it or condone it, we are not to do God’s work of judgment, but instead abide in the mysterious work of God, which happens in community through the community’s life of prayer and thanksgiving to God: that is, through its eucharistic life. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” Because Christ’s mercies upon sinners never cease, nor should ours. “I came that they may have life,” Jesus said, “and have it abundantly”—through the same Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

I am pleased to report that the 2026 Breck Conference on Martin Thornton was a great success! Attendance was high—the most attendees of any Breck Conference to date. The pre-conference, which I co-led, delved deeply into aspects of Martin Thornton’s life and pastoral and ascetical writing. The conference had superb presentations by the speakers, focusing on matters pertaining to four Thornton texts: English Spirituality, The Purple Headed Mountain, Pastoral Theology, and Christian Proficiency. The conference concluded with a robust panel discussion between the speakers and the attendees. All the while the gathering worshiped according to the Prayer Book pattern: daily Matins, Mass, and Evensong, with fellowship at meals and elsewhere.

My own talk looked at the text English Spirituality, but that was preceded by a long look at Martin’s biography, which is about 2/3rds of the talk. Besides covering the major touch-points of his life, I also looked at his "Beech Tree Experience” of God in his late 20s, and took a deep dive into its significance for his Christian identity, his priesthood, and his writing. The rest given to the theological context of English Spirituality and aspects of the book itself: how to understand the book in terms of purpose and genre, how to use the English school of spirituality, the significance of Margery Kempe to this school, and Thornton’s proposal for devout experiment to synthesize the ascetical teachings of Margery Kempe, Jeremy Taylor, and Hugh of St Victor.

I am grateful to Father Greg Peters, the Breck Conference Chair, for his leadership and for co-leading the pre-conference with me. Likewise I am grateful to Bishop Stephen Scarlett, Father Cole Hartin, and Father Thomas Buchan for their talks.

The conference papers will be published in a book that is aimed to be released by the end of 2026. There you will be able to find and read the final text of my talk and those of the other speakers. Meanwhile, let us continue to learn from Martin Thornton, the great Anglican theologian—

Let us pray that, if it be God’s will, the fama sanctatis (reputation for holiness) of Martin Thornton grow by His grace, that the Church may one day more fully recognize what the faithful already sense in their hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

On these Sundays after Trinity, I will be reflecting on the Eucharist. We are eucharistic people, we are part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church because the Eucharist is necessary to our life in Christ; because the Eucharist is never considered optional, but required of all Christians to receive who are able to do so. Over the Sundays after Trinity I will be looking at the Eucharist from different angles, always looking for perspectives on the Eucharist that edify us, that is, build up our house, our heavenly house—for we, as Saint Paul teaches, are living Temples of the Holy Ghost our Comforter.

I concluded my preaching last Sunday with these words: The Eucharist must always remind us of Christ’s love; and in receiving the Eucharist, we are fed so as to be able to continue to live in His love made available to us—in our heart and soul—which is fully realized and received when we imitate Christ and love others. The Eucharist is a heavenly banquet. In receiving the Eucharist we are participating in heaven, because we are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, Who has ascended to heaven; Who shares Himself with us from His ascended and heavenly existence.

What we are to imitate of Christ is His love, His Divine love. And it is divine love that is shown on the Cross of His Crucifixion. As Saint John writes in our Epistle: “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Christian life, which is life in liturgical community that worships Christ at its center, which is fed by Him Who is our daily Bread, being rooted in Christ known through the power of the Holy Spirit, is rooted in Christ’s revealing of love through the Cross. This is why Saint Paul teaches that “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Because the Cross of Christ is love in perfect form, our receiving of the Eucharist truly happens when Christ’s love shows forth from us towards others.

Notice the how Saint Paul regards the Eucharist. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup,” he says, “ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” In speaking about the Lord’s death, Paul is describing the essential and highest truth of Christianity: that the Cross of Christ is glory, is salvific, and transcends the conditions of time and space. And with this transcendent truth, Paul associates the Eucharist. The glory of the Cross is associated with the truth of the Eucharist, the fact of the Eucharist, the meaning of the Eucharist. Certainly the Eucharist is a Sacrament of Christ’s Love, but we can also speak of the Eucharist as the Sacrament of Christ’s Death, which reveals His love.

Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say “For as often as you hear a sermon, you do show the Lord’s death.” Some people might think preaching is more important that the Eucharist; Paul would disagree. Nor does Paul say, “For as often as you simply attend Mass, you do show the Lord’s death.” Some people might think the most important thing is simply being present at a church service; Paul would disagree. Nor does Paul say, “Whenever you decide to receive the Eucharist on your own personal schedule, you do show the Lord’s death.” Some might think that receiving the Eucharist is something they do every once in a while, whenever they feel like it, whenever they do not have a better offer; Paul would disagree.

And so does Christ. We heard His parable today about the great banquet. We heard the excuses people made in the parable: “I must go out and see my new field”; “I am going to look at my oxen”; “I just got married”–what great reasons, obviously, to not receive the gift of the great banquet that was prepared for them. The clear inference of Christ’s parable is that the heavenly banquet should be the highest priority of the people invited to attend. Should celebrating the perfect expression of love which is the Eucharist ever be less than the highest priority for us? This is why Paul teaches what he does. The Eucharist can become our highest priority when we see it intimately tied into Christ’s sacrificial and voluntary offering of Himself for us our of His love. We show the Lord’s death–which is His perfect love–when receiving the Eucharist through the channel of the Church becomes the source and summit of grace in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage.

In this episode, we look at chapters 15. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!

If you like this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions go a long way towards supporting my online ministry. Click below to subscribe!

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Having worshipped through Pentecost, completed on its Octave Day, Trinity Sunday, we have now finished the portion of the liturgical year which celebrates of the events in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ that make up the greater part of the Creeds: the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed: these the Liturgy has lived into. For what the Liturgy starting in particularly in Advent sets before us in an orderly manner are the highest Mysteries of our Redemption by Christ on earth, till the day He was taken up into Heaven (Christ’s Ascension), with the sending down of the Holy Ghost from the Father, through Christ, at Pentecost.

Having reflected and adored the Blessed Trinity, the Liturgy now proceeds through the Sundays after Trinity in a way that seeks to edify us, that is, build our house up—for we, as Saint Paul teaches, are living Temples of the Holy Ghost our Comforter. The liturgy in this season of Trinitytide seeks to provide us, and make known and available to us, Christ’s Gifts and Mercies; that having oil in our lamps, we may be made more ready to meet the Bridegroom at His Final Coming, and be allowed by Him to enter the heavenly banquet. Throughout the Liturgy of Trinitytide (the green season) we are provided echoes and reflections upon the Mystery of Pentecost (the life of the Spirit): because Christian experience is a continual initiation into fact of Pentecost.

The Christian life is life in community with Christ present among us as He was in the Upper Room Church of Jerusalem with the 120 apostles after His Ascension. Christ’s Ascension gives us the divine knowledge that Christ is everywhere all the time. He is everywhere, generally, because Christ abides in us, the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us makes the Divine Majesty of Christ known, makes us aware of Christ’s presence and majesty, indeed recognizing Christ means the Holy Spirit has revealed Him to us. This is all very personal; Christ is known through our inner perception by the eyes of the heart, the ears of the heart, the taste of the heart, the touch of the heart, even as fragrance perceived by, one might say, the nose of the heart.

Yet we know that Christianity is life in community. Saint John says to us today: “Beloved, love one another.” We cannot love another in isolation; we cannot love the poor man Lazarus from a distance; we cannot love Lazarus (who is always symbolic of people poor in knowledge and love of Christ) if we live in such a way that we separate ourselves from his world. Not only can we not love Lazarus alone, but we cannot learn humility when we are alone and isolated—and humility is the primary Christian virtue: the queen of virtues.

It takes participation in a Christian community to learn humility; it takes participation in a Christian community to love Lazarus with the love from God, the love by which we are reborn as children of God. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, so that in dying on the Cross, the true nature of love would be revealed: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The glory of the Cross is that it is an icon of love: love that gives life—as Saint John says, “God sent His Son into the world, that we might live through HIm.” We live in Christ’s love; without it, we are spiritual corpses, without light, without salvation. Without Christ’s love, we are the pitiful Rich Man in a life of torment in Hades.

Christian life in community, being rooted in Christ known through the power of the Holy Spirit, is rooted in Christ’s revealing of love through the Cross. This is why Saint Paul teaches that “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Life in community, fed by Christ our daily Bread through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread—is life in eucharistic community, for we receive life in Holy Communion. But this life is Christ’s love revealed on the Cross. We show the Lord’s death in and through our love for others.

The Eucharist must always remind us of Christ’s love; and in receiving the Eucharist, we are fed so as to be able to continue to live in His love made available to us—in our heart and soul—which is fully realized and received when we imitate Christ and love Lazarus with the love He showed on the Cross: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for—not the world, not “humanity” in the abstract, but Lazarus: the poor man laid at the gate before us covered with sores and desiring to be fed. To ignore him is to ignore Christ; to feed him, and clothe him, and care for him and love him is to love the very Christ Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

O God, Who in a wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of Thy Passion: Grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of Thy redemption. Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage.

In this episode, we look at chapters 13-14. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!

If you like this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions go a long way towards supporting my online ministry. Click below to subscribe!

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Our Lord Jesus speaks cryptically. And He speaks cryptically to Nicodemus today, saying, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Paul said that the Kingdom of God is within us, so unless someone is born again, one cannot see truly within, it seems. But not having that teaching, Nicodemus is confused by this teaching. I think we would have to admit that all of the disciples, besides I think Blessed Mary, would also be confused. Jesus does clarify His teaching when He adds, “Unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Jesus further adds that being reborn is being born of the Holy Spirit. And so we have from our Lord a teaching about the power of the Holy Spirit and about life in the Holy Spirit. And this accords with ancient doctrine of the Church: that we worship the Father, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces the Christian life.

The predominant character of the Coming of the Holy Ghost on the Day Pentecost is one of explosive spiritual energy—truly divine power—coming upon the 120 disciples in the Upper Room in Jerusalem through the unity of their prayer which treasured in the words of Jesus in their hearts as He revealed Himself actually present to them through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread. This is the birth of the religious life of the Church, celebrated last Sunday and completed today on Trinity Sunday, the Octave Day (that is, eighth day) of Pentecost. The womb of the Upper Room went boom, and the boom of the explosive spiritual energy of the Coming of the Holy Ghost is so strong that nearly two thousand years later in an area of the world over ten thousand miles away from Jerusalem the religious life in our parish is enabled and lit up by the same Upper Room energy of the Holy Ghost.

We, as the 120 apostles two thousand years ago, seek a personal relationship with Jesus in our hearts; we seek to follow Him; we seek to serve Him; we seek to be transformed by Him. We, as the Upper Room apostles, are enabled by the Holy Spirit to recognize His presence in Scripture proclaimed; we know Him in Holy Communion and receive Him in Holy Communion; and we, like them, like all Christians, seek to order our lives around the Mystery of Christ—ordering our lives personally and domestically, and also ordering around Him our interpretation of the world, our relations with the world and the people and creatures in it. There is no fundamental difference between what we do in our parish and what the Upper Room church did in Jerusalem. They are our contemporaries in the Christian life, as we all live as one Body in Christ on the Day of the Lord. The Church is really a continuous Pentecost, and the life of a Christian is a continual initiation into the reality of Pentecost which is the Church.

The Coming of the Holy Ghost lit a fire in the hearts of men and women, and the fire in their hearts is the fire in our hearts. And this fire is love for God, a burning heat for Jesus Christ. The Coming of the Holy Ghost causes the hearts of people to seek Christ crucified and resurrected, to look for Him, to yearn for Him. And all of this amounts to living life in such a way so as, in the words of Saint Paul the Apostle, to be led by the Spirit of God. In all things, Christians are able to be led by the Spirit of God, because His very nature is to lead into Truth, Who is Christ. Human beings are by our nature drawn toward what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful; and all that is good, all that is true, and all that is beautiful is of God.

Where we go wrong, and where humans have always gone wrong, is we often have the habit of defining what constitutes the good, the true, and the beautiful in selfish and self-centered ways. The name for this in the Church is concupiscence, which is the tendency towards appetite for personal, carnal satisfaction. This is what Saint Paul refers to in his epistle to the Romans by the technical and scriptural phrase “living according to the flesh.” To live selfishly, to live self-centeredly, to live as if you are in charge and control of things. To live pridefully is to live according to the flesh. To need to be in control is to live according to the flesh. This way of living leads to spiritual death—and many of us know firsthand what living according to the flesh means, and the dead-ends, depression, and confusion that ensue. It very much feels like slavery, to use Saint Paul’s term: bondage, to our own frailties, our own temptations, our own stupidity.

To this comes the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His Gospel is a message of hope; the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a promise of freedom whereby the chains of self-centered concupiscence are unshackled from our heart, and because of being freed from what enslaves us, our hearts learn to beat with the heart of Blessed Mary in His Church. To live with this hope is to constantly be born again, and reborn in the Holy Spirit of God the Father through Jesus Christ, by Whom we reinterpret our lives, reinterpret our priorities, reinterpret the situations in which we make choices–the life produced by the Holy Spirit.

As our Lord Jesus Christ ever teaches us, God loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Being led by the Spirit of God is how we come to receive the testimony of Christ, to receive the Gospel—not in superficial ways, but receiving the Gospel that our heart is transformed, illumined, and on fire for Him that the fire that warms us, we can share with others in the world, that they might share in the transforming heat of Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world, and Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the blessed and most glorious Holy Trinity, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage.

In this episode, we look at chapters 10-12. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!

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The actions of the Holy Spirit are always powerful when He is acting. He is always dwelling in the baptized, but His power may or may not be working. But when He manifests His power, things explode: and so the womb of the Upper Room went boom. To those that believe in Christ, to those who abide in Him, to those who keep His commandments, Jesus said “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The hearts, and mind, of the Upper Room apostles were full of the Holy Spirit, full of Christ, full of the Father. They had all become like Blessed Mary at the Annunciation: full of grace because their souls were overshadowed, their hearts illumined by the Holy Spirit, because in their nine days of religion in the Upper Room with one accord having devoted themselves to prayer, they had conceived the holy Jesus in their hearts, they had bore Christ in their mind. Having been told by Jesus to wait in the Upper Room to receive the Holy Spirit, on Pentecost He came in all power: in staggeringly explosive energy: the womb of the Upper Room had done gone boom.

The Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father, and proceeds from the Father: proceeds, that is, from the He Who is the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life at Pentecost comes and gives life to the Church. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no Church, for without Him we walk not in light, but in darkness, confusion, and alienation. As S. Paul says, it all depends on what our mind is set: to set the mind on the flesh is death, Paul says; but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Because with the Holy Spirit, through His life and peace, we can see Christ, see Who He is, see the Father in Him, see His Victory over Satan, proclaim His Holy Name, and be remade inwardly by Him into His image.

This is all an incredible marvel, and absolutely astounding. With the Holy Spirit, the life of the Church is revealed publicly. This Church is not some mere social assembly of persons who share common social interests, but rather is the Body of Christ, animated by the Holy Spirit, called to manifest divine love in the world. And this Body it is that Christ ordained to continue what began in Him: He ordained them to continue to do the works that Christ does, His ministry of reconciliation; to continue His ministry of transformation through repentance and illumination; to continue His ministry of drawing all people to Himself. This Body: the 120 apostles of the Upper Room Church, which, through the nine days together in one accord in prayer, were born into the world. And this Body proclaims, as Saint Peter did in his Pentecost preaching, that Jesus Christ the Crucified One is also Jesus Christ the Resurrected One, and that this Jesus is Lord and Christ, the one revealed through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread.

Pentecost is described in the 110th Psalm: “In the day of Thy power shall Thy people offer themselves willingly with a holy worship: Thy young men come to Thee as dew from the womb of the morning.” That womb of the morning is the Upper Room, endued with the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit, the 120 apostles and then the 3,000 souls baptized that day given the power of the Holy Spirit to offer themselves willingly with a holy worship to Christ. To find Pentecost itself described in the Old Testament itself is a great wonder that unwinds chronological time. Finding Christ in the Old Testament (in Scripture) and finding Him in the Breaking of Bread is what the Church does because Jesus taught His Church this very thing; eating Christ in Word and Sacrament fundamentally defines the Christian Church, and gives the Church its identity.

Stating these as necessary fundamentals is no overstatement: it is seen in the New Testament directly from Saint Luke’s hand. That at Pentecost, the life of the Church was revealed, and that life is continuing in what began in the Upper Room: continuing, that is, steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. Christianity is this religion. Christianity is Pentecost, and Jesus Christ, Who in giving His life for us trampled down death by death and upon those in the tomb bestowed life, expects of His Bride to continue in His abundant, pentecostal life through the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.

The Church is really a continuous Pentecost, and the life of a Christian is a continual initiation into the reality of Pentecost which is the Church. The Day of Pentecost is the Day in which we live and move and have our being within the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit constitutes the Church as the Body of Christ, and thereby bears witness to and makes known through the opening of Scriptures and breaking of bread Jesus Christ the Crucified and Resurrected One; so that the Father can be revealed through Christ and only through Christ. And so to receive the Holy Spirit is to be continually inspired by His power shown through the Upper Room Saints, to our all our worship as joining into theirs, and through communion with them (by their guidance and example) growing in holy fear which is the beginning of wisdom, embracing the religion revealed on Pentecost as the means by which we yearn for the spiritual milk of the Word – to receive the Holy Spirit happens as we allow our hearts to dwell always in the Upper Room: to receive the Holy Spirit and be filled ever-more by Him; that our sense of Christ’s ascended presence is transparent, unmistakable, and living. And that we not merely say, but truly know, ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God, and hence truly Sons of God, who yearn for the spiritual milk of Christ, that our illumined hearts may truly be on fire; on fire because of Our Lord Christ Jesus dwells in us: He Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.