Greg Peters, Anglican Spirituality: An Introduction. Cascade Book, 2024. 108 pp. For many of us, the look and feel of being Anglican is as attractive as anything else it has to offer. Prayer Book spirituality is marked by modesty and calm, and methodical ways of speaking and thinking. There is a commitment to a discipline…
The Great Litany: A Rookie Anglican Guide
In times of fasting or seasons of special need, Anglicans use an ancient form of responsive prayer called the Great Litany. This litany is extensive and encompassing, running across eight pages in the 2019 Book of Common Prayer (pp. 91-98). It includes prayers to the Trinity, prayers for protection against all manner of evil, petitions…
Humble Thanks: A Reflection on the General Thanksgiving
Thankfulness is one of many virtues we find hard to cultivate. We are “curved inward” thanks to sin, and our desires are disordered. We find it easier to complain about life and how difficult our situation is. When someone points out how others have it worse, we bristle like an animal caught in a trap….
Beyond Lent: Spiritual Disciplines for the Whole Year
For Anglicans and other liturgical Christians, Lent is the time we set aside each year to focus on the spiritual disciplines of prayer, repentance, almsgiving, and fasting. In the weeks leading up to Lent, it is not uncommon to encounter folks criticizing the Lenten practices as unbiblical. Typically, the criticism is that we should not…
Finding Rest by Singing the Psalter
Rest, Inc.: It’s So Hot Right Now! Contemporary society is increasingly marked by a pervasive sense of burnout. We are more developed, advanced, healthy, and connected than ever, yet we are weary. The yoke of modernity appears hard, and its burden is heavy. In this exhaustion lies a hunger for the rest of the Living…
Prayers for the Global Anglican Communion of Churches
As Anglican churches prepare this World Mission Sunday, I would like to propose that our prayers include a petition for the global Anglican communion of churches.
The General Thanksgiving: A Rookie Anglican Guide
The General Thanksgiving is an extended prayer of thanks to God and one of the riches of our Anglican tradition.
Praying for the Persecuted: The Anglican Persecuted Church Network
As Anglicans, we have been taught about the power of prayer in the Kingdom of God. But do we realize such prayer should focus on fellow Christians, and especially on those who are persecuted for their faith? It’s sobering, but also joyful, to learn about the persecuted church around the world. At the Anglican Persecuted…
46 Theses on Lectio Divina
There are many excellent books on Lectio Divina, the sacred reading of Scripture. The problem with these books is that they are books—long and easily divorced from the actual contemplative practice. Instead, I offer a list of 46 “theses” or “chapters” on Lectio Divina. Each thesis is short, distilling thoughts and quotations into a single…
What is Lectio Divina?
How do we read Scripture? What happens when we sit down with our Bibles and begin to pore over the wisdom God has given us through its ancient authors? In our rationalistic world, we often find it easy to study the Bible but not as easy to meditate upon and absorb it. We’re tempted to…
