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Sermon for St Teresa of Avila

Sermon for St. Teresa of Avila The Rev. Conor M Alexander Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church Matthew 5:13-16 October 15, 2009 I’m always amazed at how much history repeats itself. I feel like the times we are living in today are wrought with a lot of the same problems that existed during the last reformation in the 15th and 16th centuries. When I see Churches filing lawsuits against one another, I wonder if we value our power and authority more than we value charity and love. When I attempt to pray the Daily Office, I realize how far we’ve strayed from Archbishop Cranmer’s original vision of simply reading through the Bible once per year. And when I hear senior clerics preaching that it doesn’t matter what you believe, so long as you’re working for justice, I really have to wonder what happened to the faith that has made such a difference in my life. St. Teresa faced a lot of these same issues in her time. When she first entered the convent at age 20, she realized how lax the

In Persona Chriti

I'm always delighted to come across another theological concept that I haven't considered. Lately it's the doctrine of "In Persona Christi" or "In the Person of Christ." In it's most basic sense, when a Catholic Priest celebrates the sacraments, he is not celebrating as himself, but in the person of Christ - that is, Christ is speaking through the priest during the Sacraments. In his sermon for the Holy Chrism Mass in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI expanded this concept and used it to describe the ministry of all the Baptized. For it is through our baptism that we exchange our old selves and put on Christ. This time the Holy Father uses the metaphor of clothing to describe the change that's affected when we become a member of God's family - the sacred exchange. God gave up all of God's glory to become human, so that we, in our humanity may obtain that glory through grace. How much more of an insult is it when we fail to put on that glory - God e

Developing Flow and Christianity

This post sparked a nice discussion on the RMAX forum.  I wanted to share it here. Developing Flow and Christianity I'm always intrigued with Eastern traditions like Shaolin that integrate their physical and martial arts practices with their religion. It makes me a little envious since I'm not aware of a similar tradition within Christianity. If there is I'd really be interested in hearing about it. In Medieval times people participated in bodily mortifications, but they were more intended to damage the body in order to bring it's passions under control. What I'm working on now is a way of developing a healthy body in a way that consistent with the Gospel message. The biggest impact recently on this endevor came when I read N.T. Wright's "Surprised By Hope." Wright, a Bishop in the Church of England, challenges us to rethink the point of Christianity. He maintains that it's not, "Going to Heaven when you die," but rather that at the secon