Famously, during Roman persecuation (ca. 63 to 313 AD) Christians worshiped in catacombs. These were subterranian burial grounds with passageways off of which were the various vaults containing the sacred remains of the martyrs. While it was mostly funeral masses that were offered there catacomb worship has come to mean any Christian worship which must take place ins secr...

Christians, remember that Christmas is a 12 day celebration. Let us now put aside all earthly care and focus on the joys that Christ won for us by his incarnation, death and resurrection. Eternal joy in heaven, and a steady supply of strength and consolation along the way. I liked this article on the 12 days of Christmas and so I pass it on to you. This sermon, on the Chr...

As in the Collects for Advent 1 and 2 this Collect is an urgent prayer for Christ our Lord to "stir up his power." To rouse from sleep and come to save us. Here the church is like the disciples on the boat in the stormy sea when Jesus was sleeping, and they feared they would all perish. They urgently woke the Lord and said: "Lord save us for we are going to drown." (Mt. 8...

A surface reading of this gospel (Mt. 11:2-15) might confuse a person. Did the Great John suddenly get confused or lose faith? There is a line of reasoning that says yes; and then finds comfort in it to this wise: if the great John could lose faith momentarily, then we should not feel so bad if we do. But if we go beyond the surface we find that a very different story ob...

In keeping with my theory that much of Scripture is out and out liturgy I present the alternate gospel for Advent 1 (Series A) in the liturgical format it might have been given by St. Matthew. Here Ipicture the dominical words in the form of antiphonal prayer. V =Verscicle; R=Response. This is interspersed with commentary by a liturgist (the unmarked portions). I can env...

Christians, if you are going to send Christmas cards this year give serious thought to sending cards with a Christian message, and not holiday cards or post cards with pictures of your pets or children. The chatter in the church for the last 50 years is that every member must be a missionary. That is non-sense of course. The individual mission of every Christian is encaps...

Though today is Thanksgiving I did my usual early morning routine which is to get breakfast at an area restaurant and work on my sermon for the upcoming Sunday. This is my "happy hour". Following happy hour I spent some time in the 1st District visiting with officers and wishing them a Happy Thanksgiving. They are always grateful for the chaplain's presence which they, ri...

The notion of biblical poetry is the invention of 18th centry Anglican Bishop Robert Lowth. To read something as sweepingly magnificent as Isaiah 2:1-5 (OT lesson for Advent 1 Series A), and to name it poetry neither means anything nor advances anything, but only nominalizes Scripture. But to call it what it is, liturgy, is to say a mouthful. To consider the Scriptures t...

There are four scripture readings assigned for each Sunday but we only hear three of them read aloud. Each week we hear a reading from the Old Testament, one of the epistles (usually St. Paul), and of course the crown of all Scripture the Holy Gospel for which we stand, sing alleluia and cross ourselves on forehead, lips and heart. But the other reading, the orphan if you...

What should we do with the bible? Study it? Believe it? Live by its precepts? Yes. But let us not put the cart before the horse. The first thing every person must do is hear Scripture! Hearing comes first. Every Christian, whether converted by infant baptism, or later via catechesis, first heard Scripture and was blessed with faith fulfilling the Lord's own word. "Blessed...