There are few days on the liturgical calendar that bring together two figures as different from one another as Peter and Paul.
The Nativity of John the Baptist: A Rookie Anglican Guide
John the Baptist, in his wonderful birth, stands as an icon of life. In fact, the Church liturgically remembers the earthly birth—rather than death—of only three people: the Virgin Mary, Our Lord himself, and John.
Today in the Spirit: Proper 8A
It is still hard going in this early stage of Pentecost Year A. Through the collect and readings assigned for Proper 8A, the church calls for worship, yielding faith in the face of opposition, even judgment of end-time proportions. The assigned Gospel reading, Matthew 10:34-42, brings us to the third and final section of Jesus’…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 7A
The major themes of Jesus’ teaching discourse to the disciples as they prepare to go on mission are the priority of proclaiming the gospel in Christian service and the inevitable resistance all messengers of the gospel will face. It is no wonder, then, that the messaging of the church in these early weeks of Pentecost…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 6A
Still at the beginning of the Pentecost season, as we come to the readings and collect for Proper 6A, we continue to receive in our worship revelation from God for day-to-day life, walking with Christ in the fellowship of the Spirit. The Gospel reading, Matthew 9:35-10:15, takes us into Matthew’s second major teaching discourse by…
Today in the Spirit: Proper 5A
At Proper 5A, the church moves us, in our worship, to contemplate, from the Gospel of Matthew, the events and teachings of Jesus’ early ministry in Galilee after the Sermon on the Mount. (Much of the Sermon on the Mount itself is covered on Sundays during Epiphany Year A and then later in the numbered…
Today in the Spirit: Trinity Sunday A
Trinity Sunday is the only principal feast in the Prayer Book assigned in recognition of a church doctrine. So central is the church’s confession of God as one in three persons, and so hard-won in its early history, that the appointment of the first Sunday after Pentecost as Trinity Sunday became a fixture in the…
Today in the Spirit: Pentecost Sunday A (Whitsunday)
“Pentecost Sunday already!?” While this might well be our reaction to the arrival of this feast day on the church calendar every year, we can only imagine how the disciples felt who were ordered by Jesus to go to Jerusalem and wait until you are clothed with power from on high (Luke 24:49). As they…
Pentecost: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Pentecost commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles in Jerusalem fifty days after Easter. The Spirit descended as tongues of fire, empowering the apostles to proclaim the gospel in every tongue. The result was the conversion of people from many nations and the baptism of thousands of families. Pentecost thereby fulfilled the…
Ascension Day: A Rookie Anglican Guide
Ascension Day commemorates Jesus’ Ascension from earth to heaven on the 40th day after his Resurrection.
Today in the Spirit: Easter 7A (Sunday After Ascension)
The Sunday after Ascension Day is the seventh Sunday of the Easter season (just as Pentecost Sunday is the eighth Sunday of Easter). Titling the Sunday as such in the BCP 2019 is a return to the tradition of earlier Anglican Prayer Books, which distinguished Ascensiontide (the ten-day period from Ascension Day to Pentecost) from…
Today in the Spirit: Easter 6A
Easter 6 Sunday is the last before Ascensiontide, the ten-day period between the remembrance of Jesus’ ascension on the Thursday following this Sunday and Pentecost Sunday. From earlier prayer books, the BCP 2019 has restored the title “Rogation Sunday” to this day. Rogation comes from the Latin rogatio which means “asking.” This Sunday precedes the…
