Filed under: Anglicanism, Quotes | Tags: Anglicanism, Nicholas Lossky, Theosis, Deification, Grace, Nature, Lancelot Andrewes, Church of England
“If grace ‘perfects’ nature, it is not in some way superadded to it, as one might add a supplementary stage to a rocket (if such a modern image can be forgiven). Grace perfects nature by thoroughly impregnating it and, by the submission of man’s liberated will to the will of God, nature and grace are so intimately united that in some way they are no longer anything but one, not indeed ontologically, but existentially.”
Nicholas Lossky, Lancelot Andrewes, The Preacher (1555-1626): The Origins of the Mystical Theology of the Church of England, 267-68.
Filed under: Quotes | Tags: Anglicanism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eucharist, Lord's Supper
“The once for all character of the work of Christ has been emphasized without any corresponding emphasis being given to the continuing work of the Spirit. As a result the work of Christ has come to be seen more and more simply as an event in the past. Its eternal dimensions have been lost to view. And that event in itself has been thought of more in terms of salvation from than salvation for. Good Friday has come to overshadow Easter. This can bee seen in the way in which in Catholicism and Protestantism alike, the mass, the Lord’s supper, has been thought of almost exclusively in terms of Christ’s sacrificial death. The understanding of the Eucharist as the perpetual presence of Easter in the Church, the constant renewal of Pentecost, is a rediscovery of the last forty years. It is a striking fact that in the recent growth of agreement and understanding about eucharistic doctrine, the increased appreciation of the presence and activity of the Holy Spirit in the sacraments has played a crucial role.”
A.M. Allchin, Participation in God: A Forgotten Strand in Anglican Tradition, 20-21.
Filed under: Quotes | Tags: Church, Holy Spirit, John Paul II, Theotokos, Virgin Mary
“The Church perseveres in prayer with Mary. This union of the praying Church with the Mother of Christ has been part of the mystery of the Church from the beginning: we see her present in this mystery as she is present in the mystery of her Son. It is the Council that says to us: “The Blessed Virgin…overshadowed by the Holy Spirit… brought forth…the Son…, he whom God placed as the first-born among many brethren (cf. Rom 8:29), namely the faithful. In their birth and development she cooperates with a maternal love”; she is through “his singular graces and offices…intimately united with the Church…. [She] is a model of the Church.” “The Church, moreover, contemplating Mary’s mysterious sanctity, imitating her charity,…becomes herself a mother” and “herself is a virgin, who keeps…the fidelity she has pledged to her Spouse. Imitating the Mother of The Lord, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, she preserves with virginal purity an integral faith, a firm hope, and a sincere charity.”
Thus one can understand the profound reason why the Church, united with the Virgin Mother, prays unceasingly as the Bride to her divine Spouse, as the words of the Book of Revelation, quoted by the Council, attest: “The Spirit and the bride say to the Lord Jesus Christ: Come!” The Church’s prayer is this unceasing invocation, in which “the Spirit himself intercedes for us”: in a certain sense, the Spirit himself utters it with the Church and in the Church. For the Spirit is given to the Church in order that through his power the whole community of the People of God, however widely scattered and diverse, may persevere in hope: that hope in which “we have been saved.” It is the eschatological hope, the hope of definitive fulfillment in God, the hope of the eternal Kingdom, that is brought about by participation in the life of the Trinity. The Holy Spirit, given to the Apostles as the Counselor, is the guardian and animator of this hope in the heart of the Church.”
Given in Rome, at St. Peter’s, on May 18, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1986.
For the full text, go here.
“True, it is always necessary to revalue the truths which the Church affirmed in the past in order to meet the needs of the present. But this revaluation is never a devaluation. It is the restatement of the value of that which was said in a different epoch under different historical circumstances.”
Vladimir Lossky, In the Image and Likeness of God, 72.
Filed under: Anglicanism | Tags: Anglo-Catholicism, Church of the Holy Communion, Oxford Movement
Here’s a short and simple, yet very helpful introduction to the beauty and heart of Anglo-Catholicism. Fr. Sanderson’s thoughts on moving away from a ‘taste’ or ’style’ based liturgy are most insightful.
In speaking of the liturgy that has been handed down to us over the ages, he wisely points out that “we are stewards of a treasure, not innovators who must tinker and experiment.”
For the full article, go here.
Filed under: Mysticism | Tags: Christian Mysticism, Jacob Böhme, The Spirit of Prayer, Union with Christ, William Law
The other dominant theme found in The Spirit of Prayer is union with God. This is first highlighted by his appreciation of the nearness of God and how this nearness enables our union with God. Developing this belief, Law says that “heaven is as near to our souls, as this world is to our bodies; and we are created, we are redeemed, to have our conversation in it.”35 Part of the reason why Law can so easily arrive at this belief in total union with God is because he sees all of humanity as already united, in some mystical sense, from the very beginning. He says that “we are all of us, by birth, the offspring of God, more nearly related to him than we are to one another.”36 This leads to a deeper evaluation of his view of the “seed” in the soul. (more…)
Filed under: Anglicanism | Tags: ACNA, Anglican Church in North America, Inaugural Assembly
Almighty and everlasting God, who by thy Holy Spirit didst preside in the Council of the blessed Apostles, and hast promised, through thy Son Jesus Christ, to be with thy Church to the end of the world: We beseech thee to be present with the Anglican Church in North America now assembled in thy Name. Save its members from all error, ignorance, pride, and prejudice; and of thy great mercy vouchsafe so to direct, govern, and sanctify them in their deliberations by thy Holy Spirit, that through thy blessing the Gospel of Christ may be faithfully preached and obeyed, the order and discipline of thy Church maintained, and the kingdom of our Lord and Saviour enlarged and extended. Grant this, we beseech thee, through the merits and mediation of the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
I’m writing an essay at the moment on Lewis’ commentary on the Psalms and his contribution to our understanding of Christian worship. Here’s another great quote I came across today while researching.
“…it is in the process of being worshipped that God communicates His presence to men. It is not of course the only way. But for many people at many times the ‘fair beauty of the Lord’ is revealed chiefly or only while they worship Him together. Even in Judaism the essence of the sacrifice was not really that men gave bulls and goats to God, but that by their so doing God gave Himself to men; in the central act of our own worship of course this is far clearer – there it is manifestly, even physically, God who gives and we who receive.”
C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms
Filed under: Quotes | Tags: Adam, Augustine, Christ, Church, cross, Death, Life, Psalm 127, resurrection, Sacraments
“When shall we rise? We are ordered now to sit: when will be our rising? When the Lord’s was. Look unto Him, who went before thee: for if thou heedest not Him, ‘it is lost labour for thee to rise before dawn.’ When was He raised? When He had died. Hope therefore for thine uplifiting after thy death: have hope in the resurrection of the dead, because He rose again and ascended.
“But where did He sleep? On the Cross. When He slept on the Cross, He bore a sign, yea, He fulfilled what had been signified in Adam: for when Adam was asleep, a rib was drawn from him, and Eve was created; so also while the Lord slept on the Cross, His side was transfixed with a spear, and the Sacraments flowed forth, whence the Church was born. For the Church the Lord’s Bride was created from His side, as Eve was created from the side of Adam. But as she was made from his side no otherwise than while sleeping, so the Church was created from His side no otherwise than while dying.”
St. Augustine, Exposition on the Book of Psalms.
“It seems to me appropriate, almost inevitable, that when that great Imagination which in the beginning, for Its own delight and for the delight of men and angels and (in their proper mode) of beasts, had invented and formed the whole world of Nature, submitted to express Itself in human speech, that speech should sometimes be poetry. For poetry too is a little incarnation, giving body to what had been before invisible and inaudible.”
C.S. Lewis, Reflections on the Psalms, 5.
