Did you get to the end of vacation last year and wonder why you were disappointed? Big expectations of adventure and rest swallowed up by Angry Birds and email? Time think ahead, even though Memorial Day is weeks away. Classes are over for the semester (though a two-week Doctor of Ministry intensive is looming). Time to think about Summer before […]
Want a Simple, Focused Christian Life? — St. Anthony of Egypt
Today is the memorial of St. Anthony of Egypt (c. 251-356), aka “Anthony the Great,” the prototypical “desert father.” I wanted to share a story about him that shows his character and priorities. Someone asked Abba Anthony, ‘What must one do in order to please God?’ The old man replied, ‘Pay attention to what I […]
Really?
This was in my in-box just now from the mother house of the Benedictine order. Maybe all that blogging about Benedict’s Rule paid off… Frankly it is a little surreal: I’m being followed by a 1500 year old monastery? If they are willing to read a Presbyterian seminary professor blogging about their remarkable founder they […]
Feast Day of St. Benedict of Nursia
I was about to set off to university. My friends and I headed north for a week of camp sponsored by Young Life — it was at the extraordinary Malibu Club on Princess Louisa Inlet in British Columbia. They called the camp “College Prep” and the message was clear: We’d been Christians in high school, […]
What Kind of Relationship Defines Community?
The church was spending weeks and weeks on new mission and vision statements — documents intended to guide their life as a community for the next long while. What should define their life together? I talked to them about biblical pictures of the Church. You know them too: we are Christ’s body, as interconnected as […]