I cannot recall how many times, growing up, I heard people saying that Sicily is one of the most enchanting places on earth. The recent celebrated TV series White Lotus has reminded everyone of this and apparently, as a result, an increasing number of people are now choosing it as a destination for their holidays. […]
Sermon Topic: Holiness
Heroes of Holiness
In the Name of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Ghost. Amen. At the root of today’s festival is the word, holy. First there is the uncreated, eternal holiness of God: the absolute purity of his nature, his goodness and righteousness through and through. Second is the derivative holiness of all […]
Being Born Again, Again
In the Name of the one, triune God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. Consider Nicodemus. There isn’t a lot to consider. We only hear about him a few times in the New Testament. We know a little bit. He was a Pharisee. In the first century this would have made him a religious leader, […]
The Hard Road to Holiness or Perfection
Leviticus is not everybody’s favorite bedtime reading book from the bible with its emphasis on the details of ritual laws and its strange fixation on body parts and bodily fluids, but by failing to take it seriously, we risk failing to fully understand the Torah or Law; and if we fail to understand the Torah […]
"Tradition is the living faith of dead people; traditionalism is the dead faith of living people."
When I was an undergraduate at Durham University where Professor McGuckin (the orthodox priest who preached for us back in January) was also studying, I had the wonderful opportunity of experiencing the liturgy according to different traditions. I regularly sang in a choir for the late Archbishop Lefebvre of the Tridentate Mass Society, and for […]
Checking our Sainthood
In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. In our Baptismal Covenant we profess in the ancient Baptismal Creed the words: “I believe in… the communion of saints, … the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting.” (Book of Common Prayer, page 304), and today we make those words a tangible reality […]
A Prayer for Others
Collect for the Second Sunday in Lent
O God, whose glory it is always to have mercy: Be gracious to all who have gone astray from thy ways, and bring them again with penitent hearts and steadfast faith to embrace and hold fast the unchangeable truth of thy Word, Jesus Christ thy Son; who with thee and the Holy Spirit liveth and […]
Holy People and Holy Places
One of the things that people frequently tell me they want in sermons is that they have contemporary relevance. We do not just want to hear about the events of the past, I have heard, or what so-and-so said about such and such. Make it contemporary, I hear. Make it about the present, they say. […]
Unbind him and let him go.
“Unbind him and let him go”. The story of the raising of Lazarus is not just a miracle. If it were simply about raising the dead then we could feel cheated; it just doesn’t happen that often – if at all – our own loved ones are rarely brought back from the dead. I don’t […]
A Pattern of Holiness, Simplicity and Self-Denial
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Mt 16.24 Once, I attended a service of ordination for a priest, where I heard a sermon that likened those sitting in the congregation witnessing the ordination to a crowd […]
