We keep forgetting the world is going to end (e.g. in this scenario) which is an ignoring of what Jesus often said. That prospect of the imminent end of life - no one knows the day or the hour, said Jesus - gives bite to Lent which began yesterday. Last night I was part of a wonderful joint Anglican-Roman Catholic service in the Catholic parish church of Bryndwr, sharing with Anglicans from my Bryndwr parish and from our neighbouring Fendalton parish.
Fr Rick Loughnan set the tone for our Christian service, welcoming us all from our respective Christian communities, and praying that the service would enable a deeper conversion of our hearts. Mark Chamberlain (V of Fendalton) preached a wonderful sermon with the memorable image within it that our Lenten disciplines are training for the disciplines required of us through the whole year, in the same way that training for a marathon (which he has run) involves running - no one turns up to the beginning of a marathon relying on visualisation of victory and inspiring words from a coach to get them through. To run a marathon one has to run in preparation. Thus we came to the ashing and those wonderful words of our joint commitment to Christ,
'Turn from sin and be faithful to the gospel.'
Now to the implementation of those words over the next forty days!
When time permits, I will return to Romans 14 and 15 and my I-never-intended-it-to-be-so-comment-generating meandering through Paul's subtle theology therein.
“Everything in this life passes away — only God remains, only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching.” ― Seraphim Rose
ReplyDelete"Life sucks - but in a beautiful kind of way." - Axl Rose
ReplyDeletePeter, I wonder how useful it can be to many of us who look in on your web-site to be greeted with recurrent quotations, by would-be commentators - from other sources? Is this the place to advertise outsider's publications, that may have no bearing on your subject headings?
ReplyDeleteJust asking?
I wouldn't publish them, Ron, if they were not germane to the thread in question. they can be ignored by those who do not want to read them, and read by those who like to widen their knowledge of the subject at hand.
ReplyDeleteQuoting those who have gone before us in the Faith seems a perfectly good thing to do, and a practice that surely an Anglo-Catholic would agree with.
ReplyDeleteBlessed Seraphim Rose is considered a saint by many in the Orthodox Churches, and the particular quote seemed very apt for Lent.
I have no opinion on Axl Rose ;)