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On the Surface of the Deep

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, November 20, 2016 The Reading from the Holy Gospel according to St. Luke. (10:38-42; 11:27-28) Last week we spoke of action, this week let’s talk about contemplation, the “Mary and Martha” of life. Knowing about Jesus and knowing Him are not the same. Being a Christian and following Christ are not synonymous. Who is it we are actually following? One of my dearest spiritual sons just returned

The Third Tuesday of Great Lent. The Beauty and Sanctity of All He Has Made

Sermon preached by Fr. Antony Hughes on Sunday, August 23, 2020 Forgiveness, offered, isn’t always accepted or passed on. The unforgiving servant is the New Testament version of the narcissist. Receiving extravagant mercy from his master and caring only for himself, he refuses it to his fellow servant. “Why ask forgiveness when I’ve done nothing wrong,” the narcissist asks? For such a person there are rarely second thoughts and no effective arguments. It is vain

Eastern Christianity: Trinity

Just as some Eastern fathers saw Christ’s human/divine nature as one dynamic unity, they also saw the Trinity as an Infinite Dynamic Flow. The Western Church tended to have a more static view of both Christ and the Trinity—more a mathematical conundrum than an invitation to new consciousness. In our attempts to explain the Trinitarian mystery, the Western Church overemphasized the individual names—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—but not so much the quality of the relationships

Sin: Symptom of Separation. The Myth of Transgression

First the fall, and then the recovery from the fall, and both are the mercy of God. —Julian of Norwich (c. 1343­­–c. 1416) [1] It is in falling down that we learn almost everything that matters spiritually. As many of the parables seem to say, you have to lose it (or know that you don’t have it) before you will really seek it, then find it, and fittingly celebrate (see all three parables of Luke 15).

The Tenth Day of Christmas. The Created Order.

The created order, according to Christianity, is not an illusion, not a vague representation of another perfect world, nor a dream that will one day vanish into oblivion when a sleeping deity awakens. No, it is a matter of something far more specific. God is the ground and basis of all reality—one might say that He is the ultimately real reality, alive and dynamic in everything that is. God provides the world and everything and

Christ is in Our Mists

Fr. Brendan Pelphrey As a graduate student specializing in western medieval mysticism, I became most interested in the fourteenth-century English visionary, Julian of Norwich. A recluse who had a near-death experience, Julian was the first woman to compose a book in English. In her book, A Showing of God’s Love (sometimes referred to as Revelations of Divine Love or just “the Revelations”), she describes seeing Christ and receiving sixteen distinct teachings about the surpassing love of God. Some of

The Eastern Fathers on the Trinity

Just as some Eastern fathers saw Christ’s human/divine nature as one dynamic unity, so they also saw the Trinity as an Infinite Dynamic Flow. The Western Church tended to have a more static view of both Christ and the Trinity–theologically “correct” but largely irrelevant for real life, more a mathematical conundrum than invitation to new consciousness. In our attempts to explain the Trinitarian mystery, the Western Church overemphasized the individual “names” Father, Son, and Holy

Heaven and Hell in the Scriptures

Recently, Anglican bishop and theologian N.T. Wright was interviewed on the Evangelical Protestant show “100 Huntley Street”, speaking about heaven and hell. As might be expected from someone of Wright’s stature, he was articulate, fascinating, and Biblical. He prefaced his brief remarks by saying that one day he was sitting in the Sistine Chapel facing an immense image of the Last Judgment, in which souls were departing after the Judgment and either ascending to heaven