Anglicans stand on “One canon reduced to writing by God himself, two testaments…”
James Hodges wears many hats for his local community. He is an assistant pastor at his congregation, where he leads the elementary-age children in worship every Sunday. He is a husband to his wife, Anna, and a daddy to their two children, Lilabet and Ambrose. He is a fifth-grade math teacher at his local elementary school, and a doctoral candidate at Liberty University. He writes regularly for Anglican Compass on devotional matters and on his Substack, Sacramental Thinking, where you can find his musings on life, creation, and even a book he is serially publishing. You can see more at https://sacramentalthinking.substack.com/.
Vesper Light: Reflections on the Evening Canticles
Evening is when one of two things can happen to us as fallen children of Adam. We either thank God for the day’s victories or dread the onset of the night’s terror. We watch as the sun goes to its rest, mirroring us, or we fidget and search for ways to keep the lights on….
Let Us Sing Unto the Lord: Reflections on the Venite
Augustinian monk-turned-Magisterial Reformer Martin Luther once called the Psalms a miniature Bible. It was remarked that a Christian could find his entire life experience on display in them. This has been found true throughout the ages, and it is one of the many reasons Archbishop Cranmer thought it fit that Christians should journey through the…
Blessed be the Lord: Reflections on the Benedictus
The Daily Office of the Anglican tradition is known for many things. It has elements of rhythmic consistency and lines of beautiful prose. Part of this extraordinary heritage is the use of canticles/songs. These are either said or chanted at different times in Morning and Evening Prayer; many of them come from the very words…
My Spirit Rejoices: Reflections on the Magnificat
Our God is a God of music. He does not sit in his high and noble tower, eternally contemplating his own existence, as some philosophers have hypothesized. He is, rather, always engaged in the drama of his own glory, bursting into the human world with shards of joy that inspire souls to sing out in…
We Praise You, O God: Reflections on the Te Deum
The Early Church has furnished us with a wellspring of liturgical resources. Studies in this area have seen a minor renaissance as modern Christians, particularly Evangelicals, have expressed a desire for a living tradition to hold on to. [1] They desire for this tradition to not simply be the accepted beliefs and practices of those…
When Two or Three Are Gathered: Reflections on the Prayer of St. John Chrysostom
Introduction Few preachers in the Patristic Church are as admired and enduring as John Chrysostom.[1] Born in A.D. 349, John developed a love for the written word that his mentor, Diodore, heavily influenced. In response to the rising trend of allegorical interpretation, Diodore and his apprentice emphasized that the Bible should be taken in its…
Emotional Stability in the Daily Office
Stability is required in any relationship. This is no less true for our Divine relationship than it is for our human ones. Just as marriages fail if fueled only by emotional highs, so Christians who live their lives seeking ecstatic experiences soon burn out. As a teenager and young man, I was seeking these Divine…
