Anglican Ascetic

In the audio provided, both lessons are read, and then followed by a homily by yours truly.A Lesson from the Gospel According to S. Luke, 5.1While the crowd was pressing in on Jesus to hear the word of God, Jesus was standing by the lake of Gennesaret, and he saw two boats by the lake, but the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. Getting into one of the boats, which was Simon’s, he asked him to put out a little from the land. And he sat down and taught the people from the boat. And when he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” And Simon answered, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” For he and all who were with him were astonished at the catch of fish that they had taken, and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men.”A Lesson of Commentary by the Ven. S. BedeThe Lake of Gennesaret is called by the Greek word, “Gennesar, (meaning) its water is not spread out flat like a pool, but is stirred by frequent breezes, sweet to taste, and good for drinking. This lake or sea signifies the present age, the Lord standing by the sea, when, after overcoming the mortality of fleeting life in that flesh in which He suffered, He entered upon the stability of eternal rest. The assemblage of crowds is an allegorical figure of the nations rushing together to Him in faith, as Isaiah says, And all nations shall flow to it, and many people shall go, and say: Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Is 2:2-3). The two ships placed by the lake symbolize circumcision and lack of circumcision. Jesus is well said to have seen them, because among both people the Lord knows who are His, and he conveys their heart from the billows of this age to the calm of future life, by seeing them as it were coming towards the firmness of the shore, that is, by seeing them with the mercy of His heart. The fishermen are the preachers of the Church, who convey us are caught in the net of faith, and brought up from the deep to the light, like fish to the shore, and so to the land of the living. For like the nets of the fishermen, certain sayings of the preachers are complex in order not to lose those whom they have caught in faith. When Peter says, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets,” we see that unless the Lord illuminates the heart of the pupils [disciples], the teachers labours [useless] in the night. Unless the tools of disputation are let down at the word of divine grace, the preacher hurls the javelin of his word in vain, because the faith of the people springs not from the wisdom of logical terminology, but from the gift of a divine calling. When Our Lord says, “from now on you will be catching men,” the Lord explains that just as now he catches fish with nets, so in the future he will catch men with words. And the Lord also explains that the whole order of this action shows what is done daily in the Church.If you find this edifying, please consider (if you haven’t already) becoming a paid subscriber. Your support goes directly to supporting the ministry of Akenside Institute for English Spirituality, a project I started 12 years ago to help to rebuild the Anglican tradition. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Saint Luke tells us that after Saint Peter saw the great catch of fish, he fell down at the knees of Jesus. And in falling down, Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man.” Luke tells us that Peter was astonished. And who, brothers and sisters, would not be astonished? Peter was an experienced fisherman, surrounded by many such fishermen. They know the waters; they know when it is time to fish, and time to call it a day. But after Jesus had ceased speaking, Christ said to Simon, “Put out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch.” Peter here does not openly resist or debate Jesus. He follows Our Lord’s command, but not before saying, “Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” Peter has faith: calling Him “Master,” and doing what Our Lord commanded. Perhaps Peter said these words to save face in case no fish were caught; that the other fisherman knew the command to let down the nets came from Jesus, and not from Peter. Peter’s faith in Jesus is growing (for how many of us would be comfortable calling anyone “Master” in public?”) yet a garden-variety self-centeredness is still at play. And we would expect this of him, and of all the disciples. They are still learning about Jesus, and they are still learning how He fulfills the Law, and fulfills Scripture. Jesus never expects His followers to understand everything about Him immediately; He knows we have to grow in knowledge of Him, and through growing in knowledge, growing in faith.Yet also, there are moments described in the Gospel that show Christ’s power; that show Him teaching with such authority unseen by anyone before: and this was one of them. Upon His Word, a great shoal of fish was brought in, so much so that their nets were breaking. And what’s more, all the fish filled two boats, and they began to sink. Just as the new wine of the Gospel would make old wine skins explode, and therefore need new containers, the tried and true boats were not sufficient to handle the fruits of the Gospel: a new boat would be needed, which is the Church, the ark of salvation. And so it was in witnessing all this, that Peter was astonished, and he was moved to fall down at the knees of Jesus and say, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Yet what, we must ask, is the reason that Peter says he is sinful? Where specifically was his sin? Was it distrusting Jesus? But Peter did trust Jesus. Was it being still a prisoner of self-centeredness? Maybe, but it was not a serious case of self-centeredness. And, realistically speaking, would the self-recognition of this drive Peter to say “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord?” It would drive us more plausibly to say, “Lord, forgive me.” “Lord, I am sorry.” Or something more to scale. “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” is way out of scale, given the faith and obedience demonstrated by Peter. What is really going on in Peter and his reaction?The answer is that, as what happened to Saint Paul at his conversion, Peter is starting to perceive the Divine Majesty of Jesus Christ. This upends Peter’s life and mindset. This is the same realization that Saint Paul had at his conversion. Or Isaiah when he saw the seraphim singing, “Holy, Holy, Holy.” When Jesus confronts us with Himself, the Truth frees us, but in freeing us, it also disorients they way we live and the way we think. Paul was so disoriented that he was blind until his baptism, and then spent three years in the Arabian desert lands to find a new orientation entirely in Christ. Peter is experiencing the same thing; whereas Paul went blind and numb, Peter with a different personality than Paul, was repentant in its primary sense: experiencing awe before the King of Creation and His miracles. The miracles of Christ are signs of divine power, and they are to teach, not merely astound. The nets were full of fish because creation is a continuous process of love, not a system of infallible laws, and the Creator incarnate in Christ has the right to change the process as the artist, and only the artist, has the right to alter his own picture: prayer controls matter. It has been revealed that Christ transfigures reality, and because of that, Christ makes all of creation sacramental. Christ redeems creation, and we know that because Christ offers to God material objects … that they may become part of Christ’s sacrifice, that, being offered to God, they may be transformed by the divine acceptance. Here Christ offers fish and nets and boats, so that for us to see our Master at work, we may be drawn into awe at Christ’s Divine Majesty, and drawn into new life and new mindset of thanksgiving: the life and mindset which is eucharistic, because “eucharist” means thanksgiving.The eyes of the heart of Peter, like the eyes of the heart of Paul, were being enlightened by Jesus. The Light of Christ was blinding them both, overwhelming them both, and throwing them both into awe and wonder. And so it was for this reason that Peter said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Peter was overwhelmed, he needed to be alone; he was truly starting to understand what his brother Andrew had first told me: “We have found the Messiah (which means Christ).” Peter had heard this, but was now inwardly digesting that Jesus is the Savior. As we receive the Eucharist this morning, let us do so knowing that what we inwardly digest is Jesus Christ, through Whom all of creation is made and recreated. We offered bread and wine to God so that He would transform them: God takes the bread and wine, and He recreates, redeems, and restores the bread and wine, and returns them to us as Jesus Christ, the King of Creation, the Eternal Word, the only-begotten Son of God: Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

O God, the protector of all that trust in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us Thy mercy; that, Thou being our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we finally lose not the things eternal: Grant this, O heavenly Father, for our Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.In my sermon today during our midweek liturgy, I preached on this pericope from St Matthew 17:11-18:And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things. But I say unto you, That Elijah is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist. And when they were come to the multitude, there came to him a certain man, kneeling down to him, and saying, Lord, have mercy on my son: for he is lunatick, and sore vexed: for ofttimes he falleth into the fire, and oft into the water. And I brought him to thy disciples, and they could not cure him. Then Jesus answered and said, O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him hither to me. And Jesus rebuked the devil; and he departed out of him: and the child was cured from that very hour.And during my preaching, I referenced this teaching from the 12th century Church Father, S. Hugh of St Victor, who is pictured below: “The good Word and wise Life that made the world is perceived when the world is contemplated. The Word itself cannot be seen, but the Word both made what can be seen and is seen through what He made.” (On the Three Days, 1.1) Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

“Judge not, and you will not be judged.” Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ teaches this to us. In teaching this, Christ gives us a commandment about life in eucharistic community—how to live in community—a community the nature of which is people in prayer and celebrating the Eucharist: that we are not to judge. While it may not seem the case, in fact this is a teaching shrouded in the mystery of God: for this teaching seems contrary to the actions of Him Who, for example, drove the money changers out of the Temple for their inappropriate behavior, having, it seems, judged them to be unfit for worship in the community. And so, because of this seeming contradiction, continuing our reflections in Trinitytide on the “eucharistic life,” we look at the mystery of life in eucharistic community.“Judge not, and you will not be judged.” It is short; it has a ring to it. Yet, despite its brevity, is its meaning straightforward? Are we to turn a blind eye to sin committed by others? Such as in our parish family, are we to pretend someone sinning is not in fact sinning? Or that, despite the fact that certain persons in a community are sowing dissension and discord in the congregation, it is all good? Or that what such a person is doing is their business, and not for us to take mind about? It seems like it could be about that, does it not? Judge not this person’s sinful behavior, and you will not be judged, seems like what Jesus is teaching. Judge not and you will not be judged sounds like accept and tolerate and look the other way.Yet we see in the teaching of Saint Paul, who because of the gifts given to him by God has always been recognized by the Church as proclaiming the Gospel and sharing true teachings not of himself but of Christ, that Paul had no patience for people sinning within the parish community. We need look no further than Paul’s first epistle to the church in Corinth. In it he clearly called to task all sorts of misbehavior: anyone sowing divisions within the parish; persons engaging in sexual immortality; appealing to a secular court instead of settling disputes within the parish community; disunity at the celebration of the Eucharist; speaking in tongues, and more. Paul is calling out sinful behavior, and he is calling out unacceptable behavior, of this there can be no question. Furthermore, respecting sexual immortality, Paul writes in 1 Cor 5:4-5, “In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, along with my spirit, within the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus.”Does Paul teach us to accept, tolerate, and look the other way? Clearly Paul is not. Does this conflict with Jesus’s commandment, to judge not? It seems to, but in fact, there is no conflict. What Paul teaches is to discern sinful behavior. To see it for what it is. Discern sinful behavior: meaning to perceive, to recognize, to distinguish and discriminate between sinful behavior and godly behavior. The Devil wants us to accept, tolerate, and look the other way. To discern sinful behavior is not to judge, but rather to see clearly, by the light of Christ and His virtuous life which we are to imitate. Without the light of Christ, we cannot distinguish right from wrong, instead relying on whether something is legal or illegal according to civil law, or simply our personal opinion and personal morality. We are to look to Christ, for He reveals the life of virtue, the life of godly behavior. And when a person not only falls short of that, but chooses to fall short, choosing to sin–knowing what the life of Christ is and choosing to live contrary to His life—we are to recognize this, and we are not to ignore it. We are to not pretend it is not happening, but make it known in the community in appropriate ways.Judging a person is something different than all this. We are not to judge. Judging people is not Christian, according to our Master Jesus Christ. The act of judging happens when, after having discerned a person’s behavior is unholy, we then pile on with pronouncements and condemnations, whether out loud or silently in our heart. We see such a person as inferior to us, that is, we imitate the Pharisee instead of the tax collector. We put ourselves in the place of God. As Saint James writes in his epistle: “There is one lawgiver and judge, He who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you that you judge your neighbor?” It is very often the case that when we judge another person, we have projected our own sins and inadequacies onto the other person, and in judging that person, we therefore judge ourselves. We have not taken the log out of our own eye; we have not confessed our sins to God and received sacramental absolution.It takes restraint and it takes faith to live in Christian community with our eyes open. Ultimately we are commanded by Christ to trust God entirely despite witnessing sinful behavior in the community. And this is a mystery, the mystery of life in community. We are to suffer, in community, knowing that we are sinners and every person in the parish is a sinner; suffering that we sometimes sin, and they sometimes sin; we are to endure the faults and sins of others. The Church is a hospital for sinners, not a club for the spiritual elite.Jesus said, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” Because of His voluntary sacrifice of Himself on the Cross, which is love in perfect expression, ultimate expression, we have the Eucharist to feed us, to love us, and to give life to our community. All of the baptized are fed and loved by Christ in the Eucharist, so that being in communion with the baptized through Holy Communion, His relationship with us is profound and intimate. Because of the Eucharist, God can become our life, and all of our life can become His life lived through us and through our body. In community, we must ever remember that God already knows everyone’s sins, that God already knows everyone’s heart. In community we must ever remember that God is at work in the heart and mind of every person to bring them to repentance, to confession, to humility and honesty before Him. Within the mystery of God is the mystery of trusting Him that He is in control, that unto Him all hearts are open, all desires known, and from Him no secrets are hid. An open secret in parish life is that there are never easy answers to people who habitually act poorly in a parish community. While we are to discern what this behavior is, and never approve of it or condone it, we are not to do God’s work of judgment, but instead abide in the mysterious work of God, which happens in community through the community’s life of prayer and thanksgiving to God: that is, through its eucharistic life. In the words of the prophet Jeremiah: “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning.” Because Christ’s mercies upon sinners never cease, nor should ours. “I came that they may have life,” Jesus said, “and have it abundantly”—through the same Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

I am pleased to report that the 2026 Breck Conference on Martin Thornton was a great success! Attendance was high—the most attendees of any Breck Conference to date. The pre-conference, which I co-led, delved deeply into aspects of Martin Thornton’s life and pastoral and ascetical writing. The conference had superb presentations by the speakers, focusing on matters pertaining to four Thornton texts: English Spirituality, The Purple Headed Mountain, Pastoral Theology, and Christian Proficiency. The conference concluded with a robust panel discussion between the speakers and the attendees. All the while the gathering worshiped according to the Prayer Book pattern: daily Matins, Mass, and Evensong, with fellowship at meals and elsewhere. My own talk looked at the text English Spirituality, but that was preceded by a long look at Martin’s biography, which is about 2/3rds of the talk. Besides covering the major touch-points of his life, I also looked at his "Beech Tree Experience” of God in his late 20s, and took a deep dive into its significance for his Christian identity, his priesthood, and his writing. The rest given to the theological context of English Spirituality and aspects of the book itself: how to understand the book in terms of purpose and genre, how to use the English school of spirituality, the significance of Margery Kempe to this school, and Thornton’s proposal for devout experiment to synthesize the ascetical teachings of Margery Kempe, Jeremy Taylor, and Hugh of St Victor.I am grateful to Father Greg Peters, the Breck Conference Chair, for his leadership and for co-leading the pre-conference with me. Likewise I am grateful to Bishop Stephen Scarlett, Father Cole Hartin, and Father Thomas Buchan for their talks. The conference papers will be published in a book that is aimed to be released by the end of 2026. There you will be able to find and read the final text of my talk and those of the other speakers. Meanwhile, let us continue to learn from Martin Thornton, the great Anglican theologian—Let us pray that, if it be God’s will, the fama sanctatis (reputation for holiness) of Martin Thornton grow by His grace, that the Church may one day more fully recognize what the faithful already sense in their hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

On these Sundays after Trinity, I will be reflecting on the Eucharist. We are eucharistic people, we are part of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church because the Eucharist is necessary to our life in Christ; because the Eucharist is never considered optional, but required of all Christians to receive who are able to do so. Over the Sundays after Trinity I will be looking at the Eucharist from different angles, always looking for perspectives on the Eucharist that edify us, that is, build up our house, our heavenly house—for we, as Saint Paul teaches, are living Temples of the Holy Ghost our Comforter.I concluded my preaching last Sunday with these words: The Eucharist must always remind us of Christ’s love; and in receiving the Eucharist, we are fed so as to be able to continue to live in His love made available to us—in our heart and soul—which is fully realized and received when we imitate Christ and love others. The Eucharist is a heavenly banquet. In receiving the Eucharist we are participating in heaven, because we are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ, Who has ascended to heaven; Who shares Himself with us from His ascended and heavenly existence. What we are to imitate of Christ is His love, His Divine love. And it is divine love that is shown on the Cross of His Crucifixion. As Saint John writes in our Epistle: “By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.” Christian life, which is life in liturgical community that worships Christ at its center, which is fed by Him Who is our daily Bread, being rooted in Christ known through the power of the Holy Spirit, is rooted in Christ’s revealing of love through the Cross. This is why Saint Paul teaches that “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Because the Cross of Christ is love in perfect form, our receiving of the Eucharist truly happens when Christ’s love shows forth from us towards others.Notice the how Saint Paul regards the Eucharist. “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup,” he says, “ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” In speaking about the Lord’s death, Paul is describing the essential and highest truth of Christianity: that the Cross of Christ is glory, is salvific, and transcends the conditions of time and space. And with this transcendent truth, Paul associates the Eucharist. The glory of the Cross is associated with the truth of the Eucharist, the fact of the Eucharist, the meaning of the Eucharist. Certainly the Eucharist is a Sacrament of Christ’s Love, but we can also speak of the Eucharist as the Sacrament of Christ’s Death, which reveals His love. Notice what Paul does not say. He does not say “For as often as you hear a sermon, you do show the Lord’s death.” Some people might think preaching is more important that the Eucharist; Paul would disagree. Nor does Paul say, “For as often as you simply attend Mass, you do show the Lord’s death.” Some people might think the most important thing is simply being present at a church service; Paul would disagree. Nor does Paul say, “Whenever you decide to receive the Eucharist on your own personal schedule, you do show the Lord’s death.” Some might think that receiving the Eucharist is something they do every once in a while, whenever they feel like it, whenever they do not have a better offer; Paul would disagree.And so does Christ. We heard His parable today about the great banquet. We heard the excuses people made in the parable: “I must go out and see my new field”; “I am going to look at my oxen”; “I just got married”–what great reasons, obviously, to not receive the gift of the great banquet that was prepared for them. The clear inference of Christ’s parable is that the heavenly banquet should be the highest priority of the people invited to attend. Should celebrating the perfect expression of love which is the Eucharist ever be less than the highest priority for us? This is why Paul teaches what he does. The Eucharist can become our highest priority when we see it intimately tied into Christ’s sacrificial and voluntary offering of Himself for us our of His love. We show the Lord’s death–which is His perfect love–when receiving the Eucharist through the channel of the Church becomes the source and summit of grace in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage. In this episode, we look at chapters 15. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!If you like this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions go a long way towards supporting my online ministry. Click below to subscribe! Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Having worshipped through Pentecost, completed on its Octave Day, Trinity Sunday, we have now finished the portion of the liturgical year which celebrates of the events in the life of Our Lord Jesus Christ that make up the greater part of the Creeds: the Apostles’ Creed and the Nicene Creed: these the Liturgy has lived into. For what the Liturgy starting in particularly in Advent sets before us in an orderly manner are the highest Mysteries of our Redemption by Christ on earth, till the day He was taken up into Heaven (Christ’s Ascension), with the sending down of the Holy Ghost from the Father, through Christ, at Pentecost. Having reflected and adored the Blessed Trinity, the Liturgy now proceeds through the Sundays after Trinity in a way that seeks to edify us, that is, build our house up—for we, as Saint Paul teaches, are living Temples of the Holy Ghost our Comforter. The liturgy in this season of Trinitytide seeks to provide us, and make known and available to us, Christ’s Gifts and Mercies; that having oil in our lamps, we may be made more ready to meet the Bridegroom at His Final Coming, and be allowed by Him to enter the heavenly banquet. Throughout the Liturgy of Trinitytide (the green season) we are provided echoes and reflections upon the Mystery of Pentecost (the life of the Spirit): because Christian experience is a continual initiation into fact of Pentecost.The Christian life is life in community with Christ present among us as He was in the Upper Room Church of Jerusalem with the 120 apostles after His Ascension. Christ’s Ascension gives us the divine knowledge that Christ is everywhere all the time. He is everywhere, generally, because Christ abides in us, the Holy Spirit Who dwells in us makes the Divine Majesty of Christ known, makes us aware of Christ’s presence and majesty, indeed recognizing Christ means the Holy Spirit has revealed Him to us. This is all very personal; Christ is known through our inner perception by the eyes of the heart, the ears of the heart, the taste of the heart, the touch of the heart, even as fragrance perceived by, one might say, the nose of the heart.Yet we know that Christianity is life in community. Saint John says to us today: “Beloved, love one another.” We cannot love another in isolation; we cannot love the poor man Lazarus from a distance; we cannot love Lazarus (who is always symbolic of people poor in knowledge and love of Christ) if we live in such a way that we separate ourselves from his world. Not only can we not love Lazarus alone, but we cannot learn humility when we are alone and isolated—and humility is the primary Christian virtue: the queen of virtues. It takes participation in a Christian community to learn humility; it takes participation in a Christian community to love Lazarus with the love from God, the love by which we are reborn as children of God. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, so that in dying on the Cross, the true nature of love would be revealed: “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” The glory of the Cross is that it is an icon of love: love that gives life—as Saint John says, “God sent His Son into the world, that we might live through HIm.” We live in Christ’s love; without it, we are spiritual corpses, without light, without salvation. Without Christ’s love, we are the pitiful Rich Man in a life of torment in Hades.Christian life in community, being rooted in Christ known through the power of the Holy Spirit, is rooted in Christ’s revealing of love through the Cross. This is why Saint Paul teaches that “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” Life in community, fed by Christ our daily Bread through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread—is life in eucharistic community, for we receive life in Holy Communion. But this life is Christ’s love revealed on the Cross. We show the Lord’s death in and through our love for others. The Eucharist must always remind us of Christ’s love; and in receiving the Eucharist, we are fed so as to be able to continue to live in His love made available to us—in our heart and soul—which is fully realized and received when we imitate Christ and love Lazarus with the love He showed on the Cross: Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for—not the world, not “humanity” in the abstract, but Lazarus: the poor man laid at the gate before us covered with sores and desiring to be fed. To ignore him is to ignore Christ; to feed him, and clothe him, and care for him and love him is to love the very Christ Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

O God, Who in a wonderful Sacrament hast left unto us a memorial of Thy Passion: Grant us, we beseech Thee, so to venerate the sacred mysteries of Thy Body and Blood, that we may ever perceive within ourselves the fruit of Thy redemption. Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever, one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage. In this episode, we look at chapters 13-14. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!If you like this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions go a long way towards supporting my online ministry. Click below to subscribe! Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

We beseech Thee, O Lord, to grant unto us Thy servants the gift of Thy heavenly grace: that as the Child-bearing of the Blessed Virgin was unto us the beginning of salvation, so the devout observance of her Visitation may avail for the increasing of our peace; through Jesus Christ Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Our Lord Jesus speaks cryptically. And He speaks cryptically to Nicodemus today, saying, “Unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Paul said that the Kingdom of God is within us, so unless someone is born again, one cannot see truly within, it seems. But not having that teaching, Nicodemus is confused by this teaching. I think we would have to admit that all of the disciples, besides I think Blessed Mary, would also be confused. Jesus does clarify His teaching when He adds, “Unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Jesus further adds that being reborn is being born of the Holy Spirit. And so we have from our Lord a teaching about the power of the Holy Spirit and about life in the Holy Spirit. And this accords with ancient doctrine of the Church: that we worship the Father, through Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit produces the Christian life.The predominant character of the Coming of the Holy Ghost on the Day Pentecost is one of explosive spiritual energy—truly divine power—coming upon the 120 disciples in the Upper Room in Jerusalem through the unity of their prayer which treasured in the words of Jesus in their hearts as He revealed Himself actually present to them through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread. This is the birth of the religious life of the Church, celebrated last Sunday and completed today on Trinity Sunday, the Octave Day (that is, eighth day) of Pentecost. The womb of the Upper Room went boom, and the boom of the explosive spiritual energy of the Coming of the Holy Ghost is so strong that nearly two thousand years later in an area of the world over ten thousand miles away from Jerusalem the religious life in our parish is enabled and lit up by the same Upper Room energy of the Holy Ghost.We, as the 120 apostles two thousand years ago, seek a personal relationship with Jesus in our hearts; we seek to follow Him; we seek to serve Him; we seek to be transformed by Him. We, as the Upper Room apostles, are enabled by the Holy Spirit to recognize His presence in Scripture proclaimed; we know Him in Holy Communion and receive Him in Holy Communion; and we, like them, like all Christians, seek to order our lives around the Mystery of Christ—ordering our lives personally and domestically, and also ordering around Him our interpretation of the world, our relations with the world and the people and creatures in it. There is no fundamental difference between what we do in our parish and what the Upper Room church did in Jerusalem. They are our contemporaries in the Christian life, as we all live as one Body in Christ on the Day of the Lord. The Church is really a continuous Pentecost, and the life of a Christian is a continual initiation into the reality of Pentecost which is the Church.The Coming of the Holy Ghost lit a fire in the hearts of men and women, and the fire in their hearts is the fire in our hearts. And this fire is love for God, a burning heat for Jesus Christ. The Coming of the Holy Ghost causes the hearts of people to seek Christ crucified and resurrected, to look for Him, to yearn for Him. And all of this amounts to living life in such a way so as, in the words of Saint Paul the Apostle, to be led by the Spirit of God. In all things, Christians are able to be led by the Spirit of God, because His very nature is to lead into Truth, Who is Christ. Human beings are by our nature drawn toward what is good, what is true, and what is beautiful; and all that is good, all that is true, and all that is beautiful is of God.Where we go wrong, and where humans have always gone wrong, is we often have the habit of defining what constitutes the good, the true, and the beautiful in selfish and self-centered ways. The name for this in the Church is concupiscence, which is the tendency towards appetite for personal, carnal satisfaction. This is what Saint Paul refers to in his epistle to the Romans by the technical and scriptural phrase “living according to the flesh.” To live selfishly, to live self-centeredly, to live as if you are in charge and control of things. To live pridefully is to live according to the flesh. To need to be in control is to live according to the flesh. This way of living leads to spiritual death—and many of us know firsthand what living according to the flesh means, and the dead-ends, depression, and confusion that ensue. It very much feels like slavery, to use Saint Paul’s term: bondage, to our own frailties, our own temptations, our own stupidity.To this comes the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His Gospel is a message of hope; the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a promise of freedom whereby the chains of self-centered concupiscence are unshackled from our heart, and because of being freed from what enslaves us, our hearts learn to beat with the heart of Blessed Mary in His Church. To live with this hope is to constantly be born again, and reborn in the Holy Spirit of God the Father through Jesus Christ, by Whom we reinterpret our lives, reinterpret our priorities, reinterpret the situations in which we make choices–the life produced by the Holy Spirit.As our Lord Jesus Christ ever teaches us, God loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. Being led by the Spirit of God is how we come to receive the testimony of Christ, to receive the Gospel—not in superficial ways, but receiving the Gospel that our heart is transformed, illumined, and on fire for Him that the fire that warms us, we can share with others in the world, that they might share in the transforming heat of Jesus Christ, who is the Light of the world, and Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, the blessed and most glorious Holy Trinity, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

This is unedited audio of my parish’s Saturday morning class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is currently reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage. In this episode, we look at chapters 10-12. I take a close-reading approach to the text, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way. Enjoy!If you like this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions go a long way towards supporting my online ministry. Click below to subscribe! Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Almighty and everliving God, Who through the Book of Common Prayer hath restored the language of the people in the prayers of Thy Church: Make us always thankful for this heritage; and help us so to pray in the Spirit and with understanding, that we may worthily magnify Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

O God, Who by the learning of blessed Bede, Thy Confessor and Doctor, hast made Thy Church illustrious: mercifully grant unto Thy servants, that we may ever be illuminated by his wisdom and aided by his merits; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

The actions of the Holy Spirit are always powerful when He is acting. He is always dwelling in the baptized, but His power may or may not be working. But when He manifests His power, things explode: and so the womb of the Upper Room went boom. To those that believe in Christ, to those who abide in Him, to those who keep His commandments, Jesus said “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” The hearts, and mind, of the Upper Room apostles were full of the Holy Spirit, full of Christ, full of the Father. They had all become like Blessed Mary at the Annunciation: full of grace because their souls were overshadowed, their hearts illumined by the Holy Spirit, because in their nine days of religion in the Upper Room with one accord having devoted themselves to prayer, they had conceived the holy Jesus in their hearts, they had bore Christ in their mind. Having been told by Jesus to wait in the Upper Room to receive the Holy Spirit, on Pentecost He came in all power: in staggeringly explosive energy: the womb of the Upper Room had done gone boom.The Holy Spirit is the promise of the Father, and proceeds from the Father: proceeds, that is, from the He Who is the maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. The Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life at Pentecost comes and gives life to the Church. Without the Holy Spirit, there is no Church, for without Him we walk not in light, but in darkness, confusion, and alienation. As S. Paul says, it all depends on what our mind is set: to set the mind on the flesh is death, Paul says; but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. Because with the Holy Spirit, through His life and peace, we can see Christ, see Who He is, see the Father in Him, see His Victory over Satan, proclaim His Holy Name, and be remade inwardly by Him into His image.This is all an incredible marvel, and absolutely astounding. With the Holy Spirit, the life of the Church is revealed publicly. This Church is not some mere social assembly of persons who share common social interests, but rather is the Body of Christ, animated by the Holy Spirit, called to manifest divine love in the world. And this Body it is that Christ ordained to continue what began in Him: He ordained them to continue to do the works that Christ does, His ministry of reconciliation; to continue His ministry of transformation through repentance and illumination; to continue His ministry of drawing all people to Himself. This Body: the 120 apostles of the Upper Room Church, which, through the nine days together in one accord in prayer, were born into the world. And this Body proclaims, as Saint Peter did in his Pentecost preaching, that Jesus Christ the Crucified One is also Jesus Christ the Resurrected One, and that this Jesus is Lord and Christ, the one revealed through the opening of Scripture and the breaking of bread.Pentecost is described in the 110th Psalm: “In the day of Thy power shall Thy people offer themselves willingly with a holy worship: Thy young men come to Thee as dew from the womb of the morning.” That womb of the morning is the Upper Room, endued with the anointing oil of the Holy Spirit, the 120 apostles and then the 3,000 souls baptized that day given the power of the Holy Spirit to offer themselves willingly with a holy worship to Christ. To find Pentecost itself described in the Old Testament itself is a great wonder that unwinds chronological time. Finding Christ in the Old Testament (in Scripture) and finding Him in the Breaking of Bread is what the Church does because Jesus taught His Church this very thing; eating Christ in Word and Sacrament fundamentally defines the Christian Church, and gives the Church its identity.Stating these as necessary fundamentals is no overstatement: it is seen in the New Testament directly from Saint Luke’s hand. That at Pentecost, the life of the Church was revealed, and that life is continuing in what began in the Upper Room: continuing, that is, steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers. Christianity is this religion. Christianity is Pentecost, and Jesus Christ, Who in giving His life for us trampled down death by death and upon those in the tomb bestowed life, expects of His Bride to continue in His abundant, pentecostal life through the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, the breaking of bread, and in the prayers.The Church is really a continuous Pentecost, and the life of a Christian is a continual initiation into the reality of Pentecost which is the Church. The Day of Pentecost is the Day in which we live and move and have our being within the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit constitutes the Church as the Body of Christ, and thereby bears witness to and makes known through the opening of Scriptures and breaking of bread Jesus Christ the Crucified and Resurrected One; so that the Father can be revealed through Christ and only through Christ. And so to receive the Holy Spirit is to be continually inspired by His power shown through the Upper Room Saints, to our all our worship as joining into theirs, and through communion with them (by their guidance and example) growing in holy fear which is the beginning of wisdom, embracing the religion revealed on Pentecost as the means by which we yearn for the spiritual milk of the Word – to receive the Holy Spirit happens as we allow our hearts to dwell always in the Upper Room: to receive the Holy Spirit and be filled ever-more by Him; that our sense of Christ’s ascended presence is transparent, unmistakable, and living. And that we not merely say, but truly know, ourselves to be led by the Spirit of God, and hence truly Sons of God, who yearn for the spiritual milk of Christ, that our illumined hearts may truly be on fire; on fire because of Our Lord Christ Jesus dwells in us: He Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Father Fraser graced me with the opportunity to preach in this pulpit many times as a seminarian, and I think once or twice as a Deacon before we left for my first parish, downstate in Pekin and Morton. The first homily was for the Baptism of Christ by the hand of S. John the Baptist, aka the Theophany. I believe that morning I said everything that could possibly be said about the momentous event. The homily lasted over 29 minutes, and if you are really lucky this eulogy just might come in just under that.My family and I were parishioners at St Paul’s, Riverside from Nov. 2009 through June 2016. We started just days after my daughter Marla was born. Father Fraser was my mentor from the first time I set foot in St Paul’s through even his final days before he died. He texted me less then four weeks before he died. Pardon me while I say this directly: Father Fraser taught me everything about Christian life: how to be Christian, how to be Catholic and Benedictine, how to be Anglican, and what it means to be an Episcopalian; how to be a laic, a priest, a rector. When I started at St Paul’s, I was in significant ways in the wilderness, and within a short time, I became (in the words of my daughter Marla) a “hard-core Anglican.”Father Fraser mentored me on all channels: directly, through the formation class he taught “Adult Theology Class,” which was for other parishioners weekly over two years (or so he said); for us it was weekly over four years; pastorally, through regular spiritual direction; liturgically, through the very holy manner in which he celebrated the Mass and preached; and less formally in the hundreds of conversations we had, during coffee-hour and, in many cases, over the phone. He taught me what it means to be God-centered in all things. He taught me what devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and the Saints means. He taught me what it means to be a Priest, in terms of pastor, liturgist, sacramentalist, and teacher; and he taught me what it means to be a Rector, both administratively and pastorally, as he saw the Anglican Rector as a contemporary adaptation of the Benedictine Abbot.He taught me about the glories of the Anglican tradition and the glories of the Episcopal Church, as well as the current troubles that plague both and make life in the contemporary Episcopal Church as an orthodox-catholic a challenge. He taught me how to see the Anglican tradition as part of the Church: part of, that is, the historic, sacramental, apostolic Church that naturally finds its places alongside the Roman and Orthodox traditions; thus he taught me how to be at peace as an Anglican–how like Elijah to see the wind, the earthquake, the fire outside of the cave, but through it all, how as an Anglican to hear the still small voice of God. He taught me about English change-ringing, because of the set this parish possesses. He taught me about the brilliance of Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, which all of my children have gone through, and which we have started at my current parish. He understood the parish also from the perspective of organizational dynamics, and shared much wisdom about how to recognize and handle different dynamics common to parish life. He taught me about the central importance of parish culture. He also taught me about the 7 Ecumenical Councils, holy icons, monasticism, and many aspects of spirituality.He welcomed my aspiration to priesthood–when I first told him, only after three months at the parish, he said, “Matthew, do you think that I am surprised?” He encouraged me to start theological study, first at Catholic Theological Union (in Chicago) and then, also, Nashotah House, guiding me successfully through both master’s programs, which I did concurrently. He helped us discern God’s calling to my first cure in Pekin, Illinois, helping us to overcome the unknown and our resistance to leaving Chicago. His words “You never go home” still ring in my soul. He advised me when I was discerning God’s call to my current parish in Florida. He also strongly encouraged my study of Martin Thornton. He called me a “Martin Thornton junkie.” This parish here exemplifiesMartin Thornton’s vision of a godly parish, and Father Fraser encouraged me, as a budding adult catechist, to follow Thornton’s idea of “devout experimentation” in the classes I started very early to teach her. Besides preaching and teaching, he encouraged me to be a lector, altar server, thurifer, member of the altar guild, scheduler for the liturgical ministers, and bell ringer. My seven years here was the closest I got to a curacy, and it was often intense.In short, Jesus Christ, by the power of His Holy Spirit operating through the Rector of this holy house, Father Fraser helped me see God’s purpose for my life; he helped to turn my life around, and that of my wife as well, and tilled the soil for my children to grow up as devout Anglican Christians. His spirit is active in my life to this day, and in my family. He was a force of nature.I have been asked many times why I chose the Episcopal Church. And I have said, many times, that I did not choose the Episcopal Church. God drew me to St Paul’s Parish in Riverside, Illinois–only God, and Him alone. I grew up ELCA, and upon heading to college, began a 17-year wilderness period before God led me to St Paul’s. I had never heard of “the Episcopal Church” nor “Anglicanism.” The Holy Spirit led me there through my wife’s inquiry as we walked by it one day in 2009, “Have you ever checked that place out?” I looked at the sign, which read, in large letters, “Saint Paul’s Parish” and in smaller letters “Anglican/Episcopal - Benedictine.” I said, “No, and I don’t know what any of those words mean, either.” It is my absolute, firm conviction that God, by means of the then-anonymous guiding of the Holy Spirit, led us to this very hold and unique Episcopal parish as part of my, and our, vocation.What led us to stay was the sense of holiness that pervaded the liturgy, community, church grounds, and buildings. I was looking for God, and I and my family found Him here, and were here found by Him. To paraphrase Saint Paul in 1 Cor 14, we we began worshipping here, instead of finding a church assembled and speaking in tongues–for we had visited many churches prior to St Paul’s and found nothing but people speaking in tongues (let the reader understand)–instead of that, we found the church, it was assembled and speaking prophetically. Christians in this place spoke freely about how God was present in their lives; people like Helen Jablonski, of blessed memory, and many others. And so coming here, we fell on our face (me literally), and we worshipped God, and we declared, and continue to declare, that God is really here among us.I will say a couple more things. Father Fraser, unsurprising to many, encouraged my family’s devotion to icons, as well as nurtured the interest in Gregorian plainsong that I already had. Yes it was the icons installed in the nave and sanctuary. Perhaps more importantly, it was the parish’s tradition of giving an icon to every household annually on All Saints’ Day that was the seed. Today my family has over 100 icons in our house, and my eldest daughter is studying iconography with the foremost iconographer in the western world, Aidan Hart. Even our two youngest children, Martin and Hildegard, 8 and 3, have a devotion to icons. Martin loves St George, and whenever Hilda sees an icon of the Theotokos, she points and says “Mama.” As far as plainsong, I already had a devotion to plainsong before joining St Paul’s; but the commitment there to plainsong in the liturgy and Father Fraser’s encouragement, greatly increased that. My family has chanted Matins and Evensong daily in the home, and has for nine years. We do so several times a week in services in our current parish. This is owing in large measure to Father Fraser.Finally, while I knew him for only 16 years (one says “only” when one is talking about a man who was rector of a parish for 42 years, and started four months before I was born; something Father Fraser never failed to allow me to forget), I think two factors are central to understanding the trajectory of his life. One is that his father was an Episcopal Bishop, and the other is that during seminary his dogmatic theology professor was Anglican Father John Macquarrie and his ascetical professor was Orthodox Father Alexander Schmemann. The first, his bishop dad, exposed Father Fraser to an awareness of the Church that few have: seeing it from the perspective of a bishop gave him much wisdom and instinctual brilliance, which Father Fraser regularly imparted to me, quite intentionally he said. And, the traumatic childhood he had, which was not his fault, wounded him so deeply that he had a significant, and often hurtful, and occasionally nasty, temper throughout his adult life. This is not my story to tell. But according to what his priest in Raleigh preached at the funeral, Father Fraser was deeply aware and deeply regretful for all the bridges he burned throughout his life. If we know nothing else about his condition at this moment, we can know that all the fear that he lived with his whole life has by Christ been taken away; divine healing for him, and, perhaps divine healing for us. The other factor–the two seminary professors he had at the height of their own theological brilliance–without question enlightened the eyes of his heart, and did so in mystical ways. Both priests, as well as their teaching, imprinted Father Fraser’s sensibility with a profound holiness which was palpable to most everyone that met him, and especially members of this church, and was I think the primary influence the holiness of his liturgical celebration and his commitment to Benedictine spirituality. He was a man brilliant (and a man tortured) and his own devoutly experimental model for the Anglican parish so that survives and thrives in a secular era is prophetic, and as this parish continues to show, is attainable, and let us hope, reproducible in all corners of the Anglican world. Thomas Augustus Fraser the third, today we pray for you. We ask as well that, as you are in the nearer presence of Christ in paradise, that you pray for us. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Our liturgical celebration today is again a “station liturgy”—the station of the Sunday after the Ascension of Jesus, that is, day three of nine that the 120 apostles were in the Upper Room before Pentecost, we are drawn into the Upper Room, as if were are among the 120 apostles worshiping, as Saint Luke says at the end of his Gospel account, “with great joy, continually in the temple praising and blessing God.” It was liturgy, it was fellowship—as it is in every Christian temple ever since, including our Christian temple, under the patronage of S. Paul here. This is how we put ourselves into the Upper Room, by recognizing in a very deep way what we are doing here is what they were doing there; and in fact, continue to do with us: praise and bless God in liturgy and fellowship, participating in the Holy Ghost Who gives life to liturgy and fellowship.We know the Holy Ghost was present, because Jesus said He would be. Jesus said, “When the Helper comes, Whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about me.” The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, and through the Son, and the primary activity of the Holy Ghost is to bear witness to Jesus. To the Church in the Upper Room, to the church in New Smyrna Beach, the Holy Ghost reveals Christ to us. The Holy Ghost makes Christ known. Without the Holy Ghost, we cannot know Christ as anything but a man in history. To know Christ not merely as man but as God, as the Eternal Word of the Father, the only-begotten of the Father, before all ages—to know Jesus as the Christ, as Lord, as the Son of the living God, to have ourselves a living relationship with Christ: all of this requires the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost establishes the Church, because without the Holy Ghost, there is no Christ to be found in the Church, because Christ is only known by the presence and power of the Holy Ghost. Where the Holy Ghost is, there is the Church. Where the Holy Ghost is, Christ is known.If Christ is known in a Christian community such as ours, then we speak rightly of Christ being among us. And if He is among us, then we recognize Christ’s existence as a living existence, all through the working of the Holy Ghost. This is why Jesus so often spoke of Himself using the phrase “I am”—I am the vine; I am the good shepherd; I am way, the truth and the life; I am the bread of life, and so on; in Scripture God also is recorded to have spoken this way, such as when Moses learned that God’s name is “I am whom I am.” The gift of eternal life through Christ, the goal of which is to behold God face to face, transfigured along with Him, our own being within Christ’s transfigured Self: the revelation of Christ is a participation in His I Am-ness, a participation that begins really and actually in this life in the Holy Ghost, and happens through the Sacraments liturgically celebrated, and continues into the next, whereby we are invited to continually grow in God’s love and service. Each eucharist we celebrate is like another rung up the ladder to our goal, the divine reality in community with the triune God. Each Eucharist we receive allows us to become what we receive more and more, that we say with Saint Paul, “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.” “Yet,” he adds, “not I, but Christ liveth in me.”This is the mystery of the Upper Room Church of Jerusalem, that of 120 souls who began to dwell in Christ, and He dwelling in them. How this happened is that they prayed with one accord in the sacred space Jesus appointed them to after His glorious Ascension. We are told that they prayed together with one accord—meaning, firstly, liturgically, and secondly with one heart, with one central purpose: adoration of Jesus Christ the Son of the Living God. We are told that they were full of joy, indeed full of grace. The simplest way to understand ‘one accord’ is to see that the Upper Room Christians had all taken on the heart of the Theotokos: that the beating of her heart became the beating of their one heart.Blessed Mary was with the Church in the Upper Room. And as the 120 began to share together in the joyful recognition that Jesus is their light, Jesus is their salvation, and that the I Am-ness of Jesus is with them in the Upper Room, with them wherever two or three are gathered, with them in their heart whenever they call upon His most holy Name for mercy, with them in Holy Communion, with them through Scripture and the preaching of their brother and sister apostles (preeminently in the preaching of the Twelve)—as they began to share together in the joyful knowledge that Jesus is the Way, is the Truth, is the Life, every word of Mary (the bearer of God, or in Greek: the Theotokos) shined with the glow of her Son Jesus Christ, her Saviour and ours. For who can doubt that in the Upper Room, as all the other apostles looked to her as Mother, that she shared about her Son, especially the profoundly mysterious moments early in the life (the Annunciation, her Visitation with Elizabeth, the Nativity, the Presentation, and the losing and then finding of Jesus in Temple). Who can doubt that her stories had transfiguring power upon them, for the very reason that they had experienced His blessed Passion and precious Death, His mighty Resurrection and glorious Ascension. The key for them to eternal life is the key for us: having in daily remembrance of the presence of Christ everywhere and ordering our lives—ordering our every day—around Jesus and His most holy Name, for this is how the Church renders unto Jesus most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by Him.This unfathomable recognition, indeed the true Mystery of Christ, is summarized by Saint Peter: for he said, “The end of all things is at hand.” For us, Christ showed Himself holy (which is His end), that we might become holy through Him (that is, that we might attain our end, which is in Him). And the Christian living with her end in Christ, and living with Christ’s end, was Mary. She understood that all of what He revealed to the world during the years of His most holy human life was, and is, for our sakes. All that He reveals is Christ’s gift to us: to serve one another, and that in everything we do, God may be glorified. Christ’s gift is to us, that we might be transformed, our hearts illumined and on fire, with true knowledge of Christ’s presence everywhere and in all places that, as Saint Paul teaches, we may rejoice evermore, pray without ceasing, and in every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning us. This is why our Lord ascended: that in seeking Him, we might find Him, and find Him everywhere, that as we behold the face of every human being, we might see a face being made into the image of Christ, into the image of Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that since we do believe Thy only begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to have ascended into the heavens; so we may also in heart and mind thither ascend, and with Him continually dwell, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

This is unedited audio of my Saturday parish class in which we study Scripture with the help of the Church Fathers. This class is reading On the Lord’s Prayer by S. Cyprian of Carthage. I take a close-reading approach to this kind of study, and I read aloud every word of the text. It is found in this volume which I suggest you purchase if you want to follow along in the most effective way.In this episode, we look at chapters 7-9. Enjoy!If you like this content, please consider becoming a paid subscriber. Paid subscriptions go a long way towards supporting my online ministry. Click below to subscribe! Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

O Lord, from Whom all good things do come: Grant to us Thy humble servants, that by Thy holy inspiration we may think those things that be good, and by Thy merciful guiding may perform the same; through Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. MARK 11:22-26Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against any one; so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.” Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Today concludes this sermon series reflecting on Christ’s taking of a Body, that is His “incarnation”: a word that means “becoming bodily.” This past week, this Thursday Scripture Study class completed its study of the First Book of Moses, commonly called Genesis. It was an exhilarating study for many reasons, and the study of this single book of Scripture took us fifteen months. Yes, we proceeded through the text slowly, but even as we finished this past week, there was a desire for it to have taken longer. The reason the study lasted so long is that we were reading Genesis the way Christ taught us to. That teaching is found in Luke 24.27, that the Church is to read Scripture to find Christ, because everything in Scripture is about Him, given to us so that we know Him more and more. This means Christ insists that we read Scripture (the Old Testament) spiritually, that is, according to the Holy Spirit, for as Jesus said in John 15.26: “the Holy Spirit will testify of Me” and in John 14.26: “The Holy Spirit will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you” and in John 16.13: “The Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth … and will glorify Me.” Reading Scripture the way Christ taught us demands patience, reflection, and openness of heart. Whereas read the news to be informed; we read Scripture to be transformed by the Holy Spirit Who helps us to see what, on the surface, does not seem to be there: Christ in Scripture (the Old Testament).One of the patterns of Genesis we noticed is that the text speaks of a figure which is called “the Angel of the Lord.” On the surface it seems to be an Angel such as Gabriel who speaks with the Blessed Mother in Luke’s Gospel. But a deeper reading suggests the Angel of the Lord is something else. In Scripture, the word “angel” simply means messenger. “Angel of the Lord” means “Messenger of God” or “He Who brings the message of the Father.” So in Genesis 16.7, the Angel of the Lord finds Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness. Hagar is the maid of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Hagar bemoans being rejected by Sarah, and the Angel of the Lord responds by saying “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude. Hagar calls Him the “God Who Sees Me.” Hagar speaks of God, and this Angel of the Lord Himself speaks of powers that only God possesses (“I will greatly multiply your offspring”) and indeed these are words similar to those spoken to Abraham by God a chapter earlier.The Angel of the Lord appears again in Genesis 18. The three men, so we are told, who visit Abraham and Sarah at Mamre. Yet the text quickly shifts to referring to two of the men as Angels and one as the Lord, and to the Lord is attributed words that indicate the same divine powers that only Christ possesses–making Abraham a great nation, destroying Sodom, and more. This Angel of the Lord is described as walking and eating. He stands near to Abraham and Abraham stands near to Him.In Genesis 22, the Angel of the Lord again calls to Abraham from heaven, to keep Abraham from slaying his son Isaac. The text reads: “The Angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time and said ‘By Myself I have sworn, says the Lord, because you have done this, and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will indeed bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven” and so forth. An Angel swearing to himself would be meaningless, an Angel swearing upon God carries heavenly meaning. The Angel of the Lord says “By Myself I have sworn.” This hints at Christ quite clearly.In Genesis 31, the Angel of the Lord says to Jacob “I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to Me.” Notice “a vow to Me.” And there are many more appearances of the Angel of the Lord outside of Genesis: in the Book of Joshua to Joshua, in Judges to Gideon, to young Samuel in 1 Kings, and others. Isaiah (in the Greek Septuagint) speaks of the “Angel of Great Counsel” (Is 9:6). Perhaps the climactic appearance of the Angel of the Lord is in Exodus 3.2-6, Moses at the Burning Bush. The text says, “The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of fire out of the midst of the bush” and short while later, “When the Lord saw that Moses turned aside to see, God called to him out of the Bush . . . and he said, “I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” The Angel of the Lord says “I am the God of your fathers.”What this all points to is that the Angel of the Lord revealed in Scripture is Christ. As one Church Father wrote in the fifth century: “The whole passage at the Burning Bush shows that it was God Who appeared to Moses. But Moses called Him an “angel” [that is, “messenger”] in order to let us know that it was not God the Father Whom Moses saw, but the only-begotten Son.” More specifically, it points to Christ having a body and showing Himself to Hagar, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to Moses: that (in the words of a contemporary theologian) Christ “stood, walked, interacted with humans face to face, had conversations with them, touched them with His hand, and even ate with them.” These comprise a different kind of bodily appearance than that of Christ’s taking flesh from Blessed Mary for thirty-three years. Yet what is remarkable is that the bodily appearances described in Scripture, while very different from those in the Gospel in human flesh, are quite similar to those appearances of Christ in His Resurrection, during the forty days of Easter up to and including His Ascension. As Christ did in Scripture cryptically, Christ did with the disciples in His Resurrection, also cryptically and mysteriously: In His Resurrected and Glorious Body, He stood, walked, interacted with humans face to face, had conversations with them, touched them with His hand, and even ate with them. And the Resurrected Body looked different than the physical body than He had during His thirty-three years in flesh, and thus His presence was a mysterious presence that only the Holy Spirit made known and revealed to the disciples, such as in the breaking of bread in Emmaus, by the name “Mary” spoken to Mary Magdalene, and so on. Thus the Resurrection of Christ is, to paraphrase that contemporary theologian, the final fulfillment of a long series of bodily appearances in Scripture, and His fleshly life through His crucifixion. As the disciples of the New Testament were filled with the Holy Spirit, they came to understand Jesus as the Anointed One, as the Messiah, as the Christ, Who was seen and spoken with throughout Israel’s history, and Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

I began last Sunday a sermon series on the Incarnation of Christ, which I continue today and will conclude next Sunday. It is a deep dive into the fact, revealed in Genesis 1.27, that humanity is made in the image of Christ, Who Himself is the image of the invisible God, as Saint Paul teaches (Col 1.15); knowing as well that, as Paul taught in Hebrews 13.8, that “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.” Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is He Who revealed to Moses that His Name is “I Am,” also translated as, “The Existing One.” And where that led us is to the consideration that Christ, the I Am, the Existing One, same yesterday and today and for ever, always had a body–that His Nativity of the Virgin Mother was not the first instance of Christ having a human body. Paul calls Jesus Christ the Last Adam–last in the line of Adam (remembering that the word Adam means also humanity itself), so the finished revelation of humanity as a project of God that began in Genesis 1 with the making of the first, or initial humanity in Adam and Eve (Eve, whose name means “Life,” as she the mother of the living). Thus, we can say, following the teaching of Paul and what is revealed in Scripture, that God’s project of making the human being is framed on one hand by the making of the First Adam, and on the other by the completion and perfection of humanity which is Jesus Christ on the Cross; that God’s project reached its completion and perfection is what Christ means when He says in one of His final words, “It is finished.” Finished, completed, fulfilled is the revelation of humanity in its fullest and most sacred form: Christ on the Cross as the divine embodiment of love: of everything that can be in this world, Christ is on the Cross.So we have a line or lineage, a sacred lineage, of God’s project begun in Genesis and completed on the Cross (in John 19.30): First Adam (God’s first sketch of humanity) to the Last Adam (God’s full color and high-resolution image of Himself as Christ’s voluntary sacrifice: for Christ shows us what it is to be God by the way He dies as a human being; and God is love, and greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. God’s project begun in Genesis 1.27–“Let Us make man in Our image”–in the Father’s project of revealing Himself in Christ: of revealing Himself in Christ Who is the completed and perfected human image of God the Father Who is invisible. And it is a project that we see unfolding in Holy Scripture. Saint Luke points to it in the lineage he provides in Luke 3.23-38. Luke gives it to us starting at Christ, and working backward through time. 77 names from Jesus of Nazareth (the Last Adam) back to the First Adam. It is appropriate to tell the lineage backward because Christ is the starting point for understanding humanity, because in Him humanity is revealed in its fullness. The image of Christ, however, is imprinted upon the entire lineage. Adam was stamped in the image of Christ, but so was Seth, his son Enosh, then Cainen, and onward many generations, through Noah, his son Shem and onward; through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Judah and onward, through Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David, and onward–all are being made, being created, being fashioned in the image of Christ. The names on the lineage of course are not the only holy people in all of human history: one of the holiest human beings in Scripture was Joseph, one of the twelve sons of Jacob, that is, of Israel. Perhaps more than any human described in Scripture, Joseph leads a holy life of moral purity, forgiveness, wisdom and leadership, faith in God’s promises, all of which are enabled by God’s favor and presence in his life. He is not listed in the holy lineage, and for that matter neither is Blessed Mary Theotokos, the Mother and bearer of God. Many other holy people are not in the lineage, because the point of Luke’s lineage is not to create a list of holy people (for some of the people on the list, starting with the First Adam, and including David and Judah and several more) had significant moral failings and serious sin). God’s project is His work in progress from Adam through many figures, and therefore through many eras and ages of time. God gives us freewill, which means that having the image of Christ in human bodies is not enough: there must exercise choices to achieve the likeness to Christ, to go along with the image. Because we are made in the image of Christ, we can speak of unity with Christ from our first breath of life. It is only through our choices to live according to Christ and seek to walk in His footsteps that we can conform to the likeness of Christ–that is, acting like Him, thinking like Him, and most importantly, loving like Him.All of this is to say, yes, Christ did have a body before His nativity: all human beings, by virtue of being stamped in His image, are His Body, although quite imperfectly, and in many humans at best only barely. But it is always barely, and never less, never nothing. As I said last Sunday, Christ’s incarnation, His taking of a Body, can be seen to be happening in the making of man in the image of Christ. This making starts with the image of Christ in all human beings, and by the Cross this making is made available to us because we can choose to love God and love our neighbor, the more we choose to do, the more we accrue mercy in our flasks: blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy, taught our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, so that we can grow and be transformed by grace into the likeness of Him Who is the image of the invisible God, and Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

I am going to begin a two sermon series today reflecting on the fact that we are made in the image and according to the likeness of God. It such a rich and profound topic. Firstly I want to bring to our mind one of the characteristics of Jesus Christ that we must always remember is taught to the Church by Saint Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews. It comes in the thirteenth chapter, verse 8: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.” I say we must always remember this, for a specific reason. And that reason is that we are prone to forget it, or to not consider the profound implications of Paul’s teaching. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Jesus Christ is both God and man yesterday and today and forever. Jesus Christ is dying on the Cross yesterday and today and forever. Jesus Christ is being born yesterday and today and forever. Anything we say about Jesus is true of Him yesterday and Him today and Him forever. The list here could be very long.This is captured cryptically in what Jesus said to Moses at the Burning Bush: Moses said, “When I go to the children of Israel and say to them, The God of your fathers sent me to you, and they ask me, What is His Name? what shall I tell them? Jesus said in response: I am Who I am; which is also translated, I am the Existing One. He told Moses to say to the children of Israel, “The Existing One sent me to you.” He always exists, in the wholeness of Himself, as He was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.I said this has profound implications. One of which is this, that Christ has always had a human body, has a human body now, and will have a body forever. And so, Jesus Christ’s Incarnation is the same yesterday and today and forever. His taking of human flesh has been from all time, is happening now, and will happen forever. This flies against the common understanding that Him having a body was only for the relatively short time that He walked on earth, usually construed to be thirty-three years. Before He was born of Mary, the common thinking goes, He had no body but was divine, fully God in heaven with the Father and Holy Ghost; then for thirty-three years He had a human body, which died on the Cross; and since His entombment and His resurrection and ascension, He again has no body. But His resurrection appearances were in a body which ate and drank and was able to be seen and touched and heard; it even had the wounds from His crucifixion on the body. All that is from the resurrection accounts in the Gospel. He had a Body then. Did He have a Body before His Nativity?Saint Paul calls Christ the “Last Adam,” and speaks of the man created in Genesis 2 as “the First Adam,” we would have to say, Yes He had a Body before His Nativity. And we know that the First Adam, along with Eve, was created in the image and according to the likeness of Christ. In their humanity, in their body, they were stamped in Christ’s image. A rubber stamp imprinted an image in ink onto paper, and the image comes from the design of the rubber die that the ink attaches to and by the force of the stamp is left on the paper. Adam and Eve, in fact all of humanity, are stamped in the image of the rubber die. The image is of Christ, so it must be that He exists, and that He has a Body, and that Body is imprinted upon Adam, else there would be no design on the rubber die to replicate. Christ’s incarnation, His taking of a Body, can be seen to be happening in the making of man in the image of Christ. Christ’s image is an image both divine and human. This was imprinted on Adam and Eve, and is imprinted on each one of us. In the words of Origen, century Church Father, “It is our inner man, invisible, incorporeal, incorruptible, and immortal which is made ‘according to the image of God.’” What this points to is the deep spiritual revelation that, because each of us bears Christ’s image, that starting with our baptism, Christ begins to be born in us. All humans bear Christ’s image, as our inner world in our body. Being baptized, being born again, begins the process of reclaiming the likeness to Christ, which is our likeness to His holy virtue, which through discipline we learn to follow the blessed steps of His most holy life. This is what Our Lord is after in His teaching in the Gospel when He says, “When a woman has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.” This squarely aligns with the beginning of John’s Gospel, when John says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His Name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”In Baptism, we are taken into Christ, and therefore, Christ enters into us. We are made in His image in our inward body, and in Baptism He begins to grow in us, for He is born in us, that the life we live conforms in likeness to the image we are made in. We conceive the holy Jesus in our heart, and bear Him in our mind. We are His Body; He in us and we in Him. It is His Church and its members. For He is growing in each Christ’s heart and mind: growing, maturing, and thereby transforming us. Jesus, the true human being, the finished, perfected and completed human being, lives in us and feeds us sacramentally that we might grow into His fullness, into His completeness, into likeness with His sacred humanity: a humanity of sacrificial love that voluntarily lays down its life for others. This is the joy of being a human being in Christ, Who is the last human being, the perfected human being, the completed human being. He Who is the same yesterday and today and forever lives in us, that we can live in Him Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Our Lord Jesus speaks to us today. He says, “I am the good shepherd.” And it is a message that is particularly suited to Eastertide, and our celebration of Christ’s resurrection; that He has trampled down death by death, and upon those in the tomb, bestowing life. “I am the good shepherd,” He says. This is truly the good news of our religion: that Jesus is our Good Shepherd: that we can know Him, and that He always knows us. In the words of the Anglican priest Isaac Williams, “He that died for us, and gave us that proof of His love, has not gone away, and departed, and left us in the wilderness, but is even now with us as the good Shepherd.” As a Good Shepherd, our resurrected Lord is tender and affectionate with us; He guides us; He wants nothing but the best for us; He cares for us, so much so that when we are lost, He seeks us out, and rejoices when we find Him in His resurrected and glorified Body, and we are found by Him.“I am the Good Shepherd” is one of the seven statements by Jesus that are called His “I am statements.” These have that name because they follow the same form—I am the bread of life; I am the light of the world; I am the resurrection and the life; I am the way, the truth, and the life; I am the true vine; I am the door of the sheep; and I am the good shepherd. All of these I am statements are an echo of how God announced Himself to Moses at the Burning Bush: “Moses said to God, ‘Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, “The God of your fathers has sent me to you,” and they say to me, “What is His name?” what shall I say to them?’ And God said to Moses, ‘I AM WHO I AM’” Another, more literal translation is, “I am the Existing One.” Throughout scriptural history, there is a small, still voice that speaks—a voice of profound presence, of authority, of creativity—a voice that tells us who we are, a voice that teaches and guides, a voice that beckons us toward what He would have us do. A voice that has spoken through the prophets.The disciples who heard Jesus say He is the Good Shepherd are themselves devout Jews, and thus soaked in imagery of a “shepherd,” which is resonant throughout Scripture. Of course it is in the 23rd Psalm—our Good Shepherd makes us lie down in green pastures and leads us besides still waters, reviving our soul. In the centuries before the Incarnation of Christ, the People of God sang, “We are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand,” a verse from the 95th Psalm which has carried over into the daily Christian Liturgy of Matins for two thousand years.Still deeper were they soaked in the image of the Shepherd through the Book of Ezekiel. This book of oracles, of prophetic preaching, was enormously influential from its inception, influencing other prophetic books as well as the New Testament Book of Revelation. It is from Ezekiel that we have the image of the four evangelists and their allegorical faces—Matthew the angel, Mark the lion, Luke the ox, and John the eagle. It was published during the exile, the Babylonian captivity. Its primary themes include the defiling effect of sin by the people of God and God’s subsequent abandonment. That is a pattern the disciples recognized—how sin leads to feelings of abandonment by God—how sin crucifies Jesus, and Jesus had died and, it seemed, left them. Yet Jesus taught the Church to find Him in the opening of Scripture and breaking of bread. So the Church strives to receive the Eucharist properly and to search the scriptures with new eyes and ears of faith.The 34th chapter of Ezekiel has been powerful for the Church to understand Christ as our Good Shepherd. In Ezekial 34 are four oracles about shepherds, one after another. The first describes evil shepherds. The second describes the nation’s restoration with God as the true shepherd. The third again has to do with evil shepherds, and the final part predicts restoration under a new Davidic shepherd. Let me read portions of that fourth part:“I will save my flock, they shall no longer be a prey; and I will judge between sheep and sheep. And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd. . . .I will make with them a covenant of peace . . . And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing. And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. . . . And they shall know that I, the Lord their God, am with them, and that they, the house of Israel, are my people, says the Lord God. And you are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, says the Lord God.”Through this passage and the others, Jesus Himself speaks. The Church recognizes Christ the Good Shepherd in the prophecy of Ezekiel. They heeded His voice, for Christ speaks in and through Ezekiel – knowing truly they were the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand. As are we.This is how our hope is strengthened. Despite the distortions of a fallen world surrounding us, and even the distortions of our own sinful ways, the voice of our shepherd calls to us. He makes known to us His grace, His love—that our lives are always in His hands. He died for us, and rose to eternal life for us—so that we with confidence can die daily to our sin, that as we seek to put off the old man of our unholy habits and desires, and put on the new man of Christ’s holy garments and thereby rise by Him, with Him, and in Him. And we rise as we receive the bread of angels, the food of heaven—given for our sake to actually make Him present again: present in the most Holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist, by which the Holy Shepherd of our souls feeds our souls with Himself: Christ our daily bread, Who lives and reigns with the Father and the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

We have here in the north and south walls of the nave of the Stations of the Cross. There are fourteen in all. Through each one we follow Christ in His Passion. We accompany Him through the sacramental action of the prayer sequence, one station at a time. As we pray, we participate in the experience of the inward and spiritual grace of Our Lord’s Passion: His holy walk of voluntary sacrifice, all the way to the Cross, through His death on the Cross, and being laid in the Tomb.Our Liturgy in Holy Week and Easter proceed in the same way. We proceed by Stations. We started at the death of Lazarus and his resurrection. We continued to the Station of our Lord’s entrance into Jerusalem upon the back of a donkey. Then to Maundy Thursday and our Lord’s institution of the Sacraments of the Eucharist and Holy Orders. The next station was the Garden of Gethsemane in watching with Our Lord at the Altar of Repose and His arrest. Then on Good Friday, we were with our Lord as He was on the Cross, His dying on the Cross – these were during the Three Hours service. Then to His entombment, in our Tenebrae service. Finally to the Station of His resurrection through the Easter Vigil, which represents the finding of the tomb empty by the Holy Myrrh-bearing Women still in the dark of night, and this carries forth into Easter Day and the wider celebration of His resurrection by the apostles and disciples. Through it all, we were truly with Jesus and with His disciples, by means of the New Testament accounts, the Scriptural accounts, the Liturgy, the hymns and Sacraments.Today we continue to the next station. That next station is our Lord meeting the disciples in the Upper Room. He came to them on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. And so let us put ourselves again into the story–or, rather, allow the Holy Ghost to lead us deeper into Christ’s mystery. We are in the Upper Room. We share the fear of what the chief priests might do next. We are confused, disoriented, and uncertain what even to do. And yet, we are in truly holy space, holy space like this nave, with this sanctuary. We have been here before: at the Last Supper and the teachings of Christ’s farewell discourse. This is Christ’s house; this is His Father’s house; this is a house of prayer. But … what to do? How to pray?Jesus enters. He came and stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” Our Lord’s first words to them after His mighty resurrection were “Peace be with you.” This was the exchange of peace; the very same we exchange in Mass. He bestowed upon the Church His peace. This peace of heaven; this peace which passes all understanding; this peace spoken by Christ in His resurrected and glorious Body, a Body in which His hands and His side bore the wounds of His Crucifixion. And He said “Peace be with you” a second time. And He said, “As the Father has sent me, even so am I sending you.” To be sent is to become an apostle. The Greek word for apostles is ἀπόστολος, and it means a messenger, one sent forth. This moment, this Station, is beholding Our Lord and Savior commissioning the Apostles. Thus it is fitting for Jesus, in commissioning the Apostles, breathes on them and says to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” They are to be bearers of the Holy Spirit. They are made full of the Holy Spirit so that they can proclaim the Gospel to the world: to the Jews and to the Gentiles; their inspired voices to go forth into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world. They are made full of the Holy Spirit as Blessed Mary the Virgin Mother was full of the Holy Spirit, as Saint Elizabeth and Saint John the Baptist were full of the Holy Spirit, as Simeon and Anna were full of the Holy Spirit. They were truly born not of the flesh nor of the will of man, but born of God, and thus sharers in Christ’s victory over death and the Devil. Christ Himself was alive and resurrected in the Apostles, thus were they able to proclaim the Gospel: forgiveness of sins, and the Gospel about eternal life in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.It was because they were full of the power of the Holy Spirit that Saint Peter’s preaching on Pentecost, which our first reading picks up just after Peter finished, was able to draw three thousand souls to be baptized on the day of Pentecost. The power of the Holy Spirit is to draw people to Christ, to life abundant in Him. And the power of the Holy Spirit drew the three thousand not only to Baptism but to life in Christ’s Body the Church: hence, the three thousand souls joined in with the liturgical prayer life of 120 Upper Room disciples. Saint Luke captures this when he writes, “They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers”–to those three modes of prayer: of life in community sharing the revelation proclaimed by the Apostles, of the Eucharist, and of the daily liturgy (that is, “the Prayers”). By this threefold pattern, called in Anglican tradition the threefold regula, we participate in the peace Christ bestows on His Church; we receive the peace that keeps our heart and mind nourished by the knowledge and love of God, of His Son Jesus Christ; by this pattern, this model, this rule or regula, the Holy Spirit is kept among us, that He, with the Father and Son, always remains with us, and in us, and we in Them.This is life in Christ, this threefold pattern of prayer: life in Him Who died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. He rose again, that is, so that we could be capable of partaking in the divine nature, in the words of Saint Peter. Because of Christ’s Passion and Resurrection, the dry land of our sinful and unholy life can become the green earth of the life of new spiritual creation in Christ. By this life in Christ, we put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, and serve Christ in pureness of living and truth. Thanks be to God for the witness of the Apostles, their courage, their fortitude, and their generosity in showing us what life of prayer in Christ looks like, that we can ever join them and the angel in their prayer and in their holy song; that through the threefold life of liturgical and sacramental prayer and fellowship, we can do all such good works as Christ has prepared for us to walk in; to be in Him, and He in us: Christ Jesus our Lord and Saviour, who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

It is a great joy to share with you all in the heavenly peace brought into the world by Jesus Christ, on this the day of His resurrection. I want to welcome especially our visitors to this holy space on this most holy of occasions. It is a blessing to have you with us. You are always welcome to pray with us in worship of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we invite you to pray for us, and to join us every week in worship and fellowship, as this church in joy and humility continues to carry out the mission that God is calling us to perform in Volusia County. Our Lord’s Easter, our Lord’s Passover, in Greek His “Pascha,” is to us the feast of feasts and festival of festivals, as far exalted above all. Beautiful indeed last night were our splendid array and procession of light, which united us all together, lighting up the dark night with plentiful fires. The spreading of light from the Paschal Candle to everyone’s personal candle is a symbol of the great light, both the heavenly light that makes signals from above, shining on the whole world in its own beauty, and equally the light above the heavens, in the angels, in the Saints. It is the great light that seeks to enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we may always know that Christ is Risen.The Church as a whole—all two billion plus of us Christians alive today, along with the great cloud of witnesses of the Saints, along with the faithfully departed in Paradise, along with the countless Christians yet to be come—is always on mission. Our mission is to proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus Christ to the Right Hand of the Father—in the words of Saint Paul, to “seek the things that are above, where Christ is.” We seek, again following Saint Paul, “to set our minds on things that are above,” and “to put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator God.” Our mission indeed is to be alive to God in Christ Jesus — alive to God as He lives and moves and has His being in and through all of His creatures, both great and small. And alive to Him, our mission is to love Him, and love Him as well as He lives in all people.Because He has ascended to the Father, He is available to us always and everywhere, to be praised, adored, worshiped and followed. He is available to us during our best moments, our “peak” moments on the mountaintop of joy and gladness. He is available to us in our darkest moments of pain, grief and anxiety, our “valley” moments when we feel the lowest of the low. And He is available to us in our every-day, mundane moments of normal life and normal routine and normal responsibilities and challenges. Indeed available to us so that in seeking Him, we may find Him, always and everywhere.Today indeed there is harmony in the world, for over these last 24 hours or so, the Resurrection has been experienced the world over, from one end of God’s world to the other, timezone by timezone, diocese by diocese, church by church, altar by altar. The whole earth has been trembling—first at the crucifixion of Christ on the cross, because we were there when we crucified Him. And now the earth is trembling not in pain and grief but in joy and harmony at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of God in Christ, who searches us out, and knows us: our holy God Who knows our downsitting and our uprising, and Who understands our thoughts long before we do.The stone has been taken away from the tomb. Brothers and sisters, the stone has been rolled away from the tomb not so Jesus can get out, but so that we might enter in. That we might enter more deeply into the mystery of Jesus Christ, the Word of God made flesh, given to Him by the Virgin Mary, the holy mystery of Jesus Who is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. Let us enter this mystery of the empty tomb through compassion for Saint Mary Magdalene, even imagining ourselves with her as she stood weeping outside the tomb—indeed a flood of tears. A man she supposes to be a gardener—indeed it is Jesus not yet known to be resurrected yet in His great love tending to His garden of disciples—says, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?”—words that echo Jesus’s first words recorded by Saint John in the first chapter of his Gospel spoken to John the Baptist and other disciples, and words that have been echoing around the mind and memory of the Church ever since. “Whom do you seek?” Whom do we seek?And to the weeping, sorrowful Mary, filled with desolation that comes from loving Jesus yet not yet made aware of His presence, indeed like the two disciples on the road to Emmaus in Saint Luke’s gospel, “kept from recognizing Him,” Jesus speaks tenderly, clearly and profoundly as only He can. He said to her, “Mary,” and she recognized Him. She recognized Him because He reminded her of who she was, saying her name as only He could. He only said a word, and her soul was healed.Jesus tells us who we are, as well. He only speaks a word, and we are healed. We are healed in Him, thus we are people of His resurrection. We are born, not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. We are baptized into His body, to be forever members of His body. Brothers and sisters, let us ask for the intercessions of Saint Mary Magdalene, that we too might proclaim by word and example, indeed proclaim in all our lives, the simple, life-changing truth: “I have seen the Lord.” For only by Him are our lives made whole.For nothing is like the wonder of our salvation in Christ, mine and yours: all of us in Christ, all of our lives in Christ,, and Christ in all of us, in each baptized person Christ lives and moves and has His being, He through Whom all things are made and remade: Jesus Christ our Lord, Who lives and reigns with the Father Almighty in the unity of the Holy Ghost; ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

It was the women who had come with Jesus from Galilee who went into the tomb. The stone was rolled away, but they did not find the body. What they found was new and utterly unfamiliar. And they were perplexed. And why wouldn’t they be? The mystery of their Master, their and our loving Lord Jesus Christ, took yet another turn. Jesus had lived and taught in such mystery—always confronting His followers with their own shadows, yet confronting always with love and presence that to not follow Him felt empty and wrong. It was the women who treasured and kept and abided in the words of Jesus—the women before the men for the most part. They had been taught, it seems, by Our Lord’s most blessed and chaste Mother: Mary, who was named by the angel full of grace. She too was perplexed when she was confronted by God’s truth: that He had made her the fullness of grace, and that she, who had known no man, would conceive in her womb and bear a son, and would call His name Jesus—He who would reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of Whose kingdom there shall be no end—that she would be the Mother of Son of God. At hearing this she was greatly troubled, we are told by Saint Luke. She too had entered into the new and utterly unfamiliar, a mystery of the same order as the cave on Easter Sunday morning. Since then the Church has been imprinted with this pattern which we have learned from God: when we are confronted by His presence, He very well might manifest Himself in the new and utterly unfamiliar. In some sense, this should be how we expect God to come to us—expecting, it seems, the unexpected, but also expecting to be perplexed, even troubled, and to have to grapple with something we feel ill-equipped to handle.What we should never be is scared; because we are always in God’s hand, and He is ever-watching over His flock like the Good Shepherd. Our job is to be faithful as God works the newness of His creation through His Son and through us. Our job is to be faithful: faithful in prayer and worship, in giving of ourselves to God and His Church, in giving of ourselves to others, for God lives in all those who are made in His image—and all people are made in His image, and so we are to give ourselves to whomever God calls us to serve, and do so with the joyful action of love. God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son—that in giving Him to us on the Cross, we might be taught what true humility looks like: for our loving Lord Jesus is for all times the sacrament of humility, even so in the way we receive Him today in the most ordinary form of bread and wine: ordinary, simple, accessible: so humble as to be vulnerable, for we so easily forget that He is always with us in the Tabernacle. He became so vulnerable in His humility that He allows Himself to be forgotten in the Tabernacle, where He rests all but two days of the year.Brothers and sisters, let us always remember Him as He rests in perfect peace in our Tabernacle, consecrating this space as sacred, heavenly—everywhere there is a Tabernacle with the Blessed Sacrament, there is the holy land, there is the new Jerusalem. Remembering our Lord allows us to be formed by Him. This was the first teaching given to the women early on that first Easter Sunday morning: remember. Remember the words of Jesus, remember what He told you, remember—in other words, keep all the words of Our Lord in our heart, treasuring them, pondering them, like Blessed Mary taught the early Church to do.Brothers and sisters, it is a blessed Easter! Our Lord—truth Himself, truth incarnate— has overcome the sharpness of death, and has did open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. He opened the tomb not so that He could get out, but so that we might enter in: entering in by faith in Him, abiding in His words, that we might dwell in Him, and He in us. And abiding in us, fill us with hope, with peace, and with direction. He told the women to proclaim the Resurrection to the men. Let us be so emboldened to proclaim the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in our loving and merciful actions to every person we meet—that the joy of Christ may be in their hearts; the joy of Him Who lives and reign with God Almighty, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end . Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

PROPERS FOR HOLY WEDNESDAY (Bridegroom Services)MATINS: Lev. 16:2-24 | Jn 16 EVENSONG: Job 2:1-10 | Mt 26:6-16INTROIT. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.COLLECT: OF THE DAY. Grant, we beseech Thee, Almighty God: that we, who are continually afflicted by reason of our transgressions, may be delivered by the Passion of Thine Only-begotten Son: Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH (50:4-11). The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him that is weary. Morning by morning he wakens, he wakens my ear to hear as those who are taught. The Lord God has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, I turned not backward. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to those who pulled out the beard; I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been confounded; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me; who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment; the moth will eat them up. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God? Behold, all you who kindle a fire, who set brands alight! Walk by the light of your fire, and by the brands which you have kindled! This shall you have from my hand: you shall lie down in torment.TRACT. As the Lord was going to His voluntary Passion, He said to the Apostles on the way, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up, as it is written of Him. Come, therefore, let us also go with Him, purified in mind. Let us be crucified with Him and die through Him to the pleasures of this life. Then we shall live with Him and hear Him say: I go no more to the earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God, I shall raise you up to Jerusalem on high in the Kingdom of Heaven.GRADUAL. Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.THE HOLY GOSPEL ✠ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO S. JOHN (12:17-50). In those days, the crowd that had been with him when he called Laz′arus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead bore witness. The reason why the crowd went to meet him was that they heard he had done this sign. The Pharisees then said to one another, “You see that you can do nothing; look, the world has gone after him.” Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip, who was from Beth-sa′ida in Galilee, and said to him, “Sir, we wish to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew went with Philip and they told Jesus. And Jesus answered them, “The hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. If any one serves me, he must follow me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me, the Father will honor him. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify thy name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the ruler of this world be cast out; and I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to myself.” He said this to show by what death he was to die. The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Christ remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of man?” Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, lest the darkness overtake you; he who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” When Jesus had said this, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he had done so many signs before them, yet they did not believe in him; it was that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed our report, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” Therefore they could not believe. For Isaiah again said, “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and turn for me to heal them.” Isaiah said this because he saw his glory and spoke of him. Nevertheless many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: for they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. And Jesus cried out and said, “He who believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And he who sees me sees him who sent me. I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness. If any one hears my sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world. He who rejects me and does not receive my sayings has a judge; the word that I have spoken will be his judge on the last day. For I have not spoken on my own authority; the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life. What I say, therefore, I say as the Father has bidden me.”OFFERTORY SENTENCE. Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, but I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me.SECRET. We beseech Thee, O Lord, to accept these our oblations: and vouchsafe so to work in us, You Who show forth in a mystery the Passion of Thy Son our Lord, that we may by our devout affections receive the benefit of His redemption; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.COMMUNION SENTENCE. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom.2ND POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER. O Lord and Master of our life! Take from us the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servants. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant us to see our own transgressions and not to judge our brother, for blessed art Thou, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

EVENSONG: Job 1:13-22 | Mt 24:3-35INTROIT. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.COLLECT: OF THE DAY. O Lord God, Whose blessed Son, our Saviour, gave His back to the smiters and hid not His face from shame; grant us grace to take joyfully the sufferings of the present time, in full assurance of the glory that shall be revealed; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

PROPERS FOR HOLY TUESDAY (Bridegroom Services)MATINS: Wisdom 2 | Jn 15 EVENSONG: Job 1:13-22 | Mt 24:3-35INTROIT. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.COLLECT: OF THE DAY. O Lord God, Whose blessed Son, our Saviour, gave His back to the smiters and hid not His face from shame; grant us grace to take joyfully the sufferings of the present time, in full assurance of the glory that shall be revealed; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH (49:1-13). Listen to me, O coastlands, and hearken, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow, in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, “You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.” But I said, “I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity; yet surely my right is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God.” And now the Lord says, who formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength—he says: “It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nations, the servant of rulers: Kings shall see and arise; princes, and they shall prostrate themselves; because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen you.” Thus says the Lord: “In a time of favor I have answered you, in a day of salvation I have helped you; I have kept you and given you as a covenant to the people, to establish the land, to apportion the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, ‘Come forth,’ to those who are in darkness, ‘Appear.’ They shall feed along the ways, on all bare heights shall be their pasture; they shall not hunger or thirst, neither scorching wind nor sun shall smite them, for he who has pity on them will lead them, and by springs of water will guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, and my highways shall be raised up. Lo, these shall come from afar, and lo, these from the north and from the west, and these from the land of Syene.” Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the Lord has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his afflicted.TRACT. As the Lord was going to His voluntary Passion, He said to the Apostles on the way, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up, as it is written of Him. Come, therefore, let us also go with Him, purified in mind. Let us be crucified with Him and die through Him to the pleasures of this life. Then we shall live with Him and hear Him say: I go no more to the earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God, I shall raise you up to Jerusalem on high in the Kingdom of Heaven.GRADUAL. Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.THE HOLY GOSPEL ✠ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO S. MATTHEW (22:15-46; 23:1-39). The Pharisees went and took counsel how to entangle Jesus in his talk. And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Hero′di-ans, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true, and teach the way of God truthfully, and care for no man; for you do not regard the position of men. Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? Show me the money for the tax.” And they brought him a coin. And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” When they heard it, they marveled; and they left him and went away. The same day Sad′ducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection; and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother must marry the widow, and raise up children for his brother.’ Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married, and died, and having no children left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, to which of the seven will she be wife? For they all had her.” But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God, ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’? He is not God of the dead, but of the living.” And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sad′ducees, they came together. And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, to test him. “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.” Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question, saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “How is it then that David, inspired by the Spirit, calls him Lord, saying, ‘The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, till I put thy enemies under thy feet’? If David thus calls him Lord, how is he his son?” And no one was able to answer him a word, nor from that day did any one dare to ask him any more questions. Then said Jesus to the crowds and to his disciples, “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; so practice and observe whatever they tell you, but not what they do; for they preach, but do not practice. They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by men; for they make their phylacteries broad and their fringes long, and they love the place of honor at feasts and the best seats in the synagogues, and salutations in the market places, and being called rabbi by men. But you are not to be called rabbi, for you have one teacher, and you are all brethren. And call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven. Neither be called masters, for you have one master, the Christ. He who is greatest among you shall be your servant; whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because you shut the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither enter yourselves, nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you traverse sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘If any one swears by the temple, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind fools! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that has made the gold sacred? And you say, ‘If any one swears by the altar, it is nothing; but if any one swears by the gift that is on the altar, he is bound by his oath.’ You blind men! For which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? So he who swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; and he who swears by the temple, swears by it and by him who dwells in it; and he who swears by heaven, swears by the throne of God and by him who sits upon it. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you tithe mint and dill and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith; these you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. You blind guides, straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel! Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you cleanse the outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of extortion and rapacity. You blind Pharisee! first cleanse the inside of the cup and of the plate, that the outside also may be clean. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for you build the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, saying, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ Thus you witness against yourselves, that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell? Therefore I send you prophets and wise men and scribes, some of whom you will kill and crucify, and some you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from town to town, that upon you may come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of innocent Abel to the blood of Zechari′ah the son of Barachi′ah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. Truly, I say to you, all this will come upon this generation. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken and desolate. For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”OFFERTORY SENTENCE. Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, but I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me. SECRET. We beseech Thee, O Lord, to accept these our oblations: and vouchsafe so to work in us, You Who show forth in a mystery the Passion of Thy Son our Lord, that we may by our devout affections receive the benefit of His redemption; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.COMMUNION SENTENCE. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom.2ND POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER. O Lord and Master of our life! Take from us the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servants. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant us to see our own transgressions and not to judge our brother, for blessed art Thou, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

EVENSONG: Job 1:1-12 | Mt 24:36-26:2INTROIT. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.COLLECT: OF THE DAY: Almighty God, Whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the Cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

PROPERS FOR HOLY MONDAY (Bridegroom Liturgy)MATINS: Hos 13-14 | Jn 14 EVENSONG: Job 1:1-12 | Mt 24:36-26:2INTROIT. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.COLLECT: OF THE DAY: Almighty God, Whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first He suffered pain, and entered not into glory before He was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the Cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. A READING FROM THE PROPHET ISAIAH (42:1-9) Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him, he will bring forth justice to the nations. He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. Thus says God, the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread forth the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it and spirit to those who walk in it: “I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you; I have given you as a covenant to the people, a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison those who sit in darkness. I am the Lord, that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to graven images. Behold, the former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them.”TRACT. As the Lord was going to His voluntary Passion, He said to the Apostles on the way, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man shall be delivered up, as it is written of Him. Come, therefore, let us also go with Him, purified in mind. Let us be crucified with Him and die through Him to the pleasures of this life. Then we shall live with Him and hear Him say: I go no more to the earthly Jerusalem to suffer, but to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God, I shall raise you up to Jerusalem on high in the Kingdom of Heaven.GRADUAL. Thy bridal chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, and I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. But rouse yourself crying: Holy, holy, holy, art Thou, O our God. Through Blessed Mary Theotokos, have mercy on us.THE HOLY GOSPEL ✠ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO S. MATTHEW (21:18-43) In those days, as Jesus was returning to Jerusalem, he was hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside he went to it, and found nothing on it but leaves only. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be done. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you a question; and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, whence was it? From heaven or from men?” And they argued with one another, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we are afraid of the multitude; for all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. “What do you think? A man had two sons; and he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he repented and went. And he went to the second and said the same; and he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him. “Hear another parable. There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and set a hedge around it, and dug a wine press in it, and built a tower, and let it out to tenants, and went into another country. When the season of fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants, to get his fruit; and the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first; and they did the same to them. Afterward he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death, and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the scriptures: ‘The very stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.” OFFERTORY SENTENCE. Thy Bridal Chamber I see adorned, O my Savior, but I have no wedding garment that I may enter. O Giver of Light, enlighten the vesture of my soul, and save me. SECRET. We beseech Thee, O Lord, to accept these our oblations: and vouchsafe so to work in us, You Who show forth in a mystery the Passion of Thy Son our Lord, that we may by our devout affections receive the benefit of His redemption; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.COMMUNION SENTENCE. Behold, the Bridegroom comes at midnight, and blessed is the servant whom He shall find watching; and again, unworthy is the servant whom He shall find heedless. Beware, therefore, O my soul, do not be weighed down with sleep, lest you be given up to death and lest you be shut out of the Kingdom. 2ND POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER. O Lord and Master of our life! Take from us the spirit of sloth, despair, lust of power, and idle talk. But give rather the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love to Thy servants. Yea, O Lord and King! Grant us to see our own transgressions and not to judge our brother, for blessed art Thou, world without end. Amen. 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Almighty and everlasting God, Who, of Thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent Thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon Him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of His great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of His patience, and also be made partakers of His resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 1st Reading: A Lesson from the Gospel according to S. Luke 21.29Jesus told the disciples a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees; as soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away till all has taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But take heed to yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a snare; for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. But watch at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of man.”2nd Reading: A Lesson from His Commentary on the Gospel of S. Luke by the Venerable S. BedeHe who desires to stand before the Son of Man and to serve Him day and night in His temple in accordance with Apocalypse of Saint John, which says, “Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence,” and not to be cast off from His sight, cursed, into the eternal fire, ought not only to refrain from worldly allurements, but also to pray and to watch: and he should do this not on certain fixed days, but at all times, according to what the Psalm says: “I will bless the Lord at all times, His praise will always be in my mouth.” For truly in this way he will deserve to dwell in the house of the Lord and praise Him eternally. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Today we have gathered at the beginning of our liturgy outside in the Resurrection Garden to meet Christ on the Mount of Olives. Today He returns from Bethany, having raised Lazarus from the dead, and shared a meal with Saint Lazarus and Saint Martha and Saint Mary Magdalene, and been anointed by her with oil of spikenard. After this, He proceeds of His own free will toward His holy and blessed Passion, to consummate the mystery of our salvation. He who came down from heaven to raise us from the depths of sin, to raise us with Himself, we are told in Scripture, above every sovereignty, authority and power, and every other name that can be named, now comes of His own free will to make His journey to Jerusalem. He comes without pomp or ostentation. As Isaiah says: He will not cry or lift up His voice, or make it heard in the street. In His incomprehensible power, Our Lord is meek and humble; He makes His entry in pure simplicity.Let us strive with all our energy to accompany Him as He hastens toward His passion, and imitate those who met Him, not by covering His path with garments, olive branches or palms, but by doing all we can to open ourselves before Him in worship by humility and trying to live to please Him. Then we shall be able to receive the Word at His coming, and God, Whom no limits can contain, truly abides in us.In His humility Christ entered the dark regions of our fallen world which is held under the illusion of power by Satan. Christ is glad that He became so humble for our sake, glad that He came and lived among us and shared in our nature in order to raise us up again to himself. And even though we know that He has now ascended above the highest heavens – the proof of His power and divinity – His love for man will never rest until He has raised our earthbound nature from glory to glory, and made it one with His own in heaven. The Heavenly Man became man to make us heavenly.So let us spread before His feet, not garments or palm branches, which delight the eye for a few hours and then wither, but let us spread ourselves, clothed in His grace, indeed clothed completely in Him. We who have been baptized into Christ must ourselves be the garments that we spread before Him. Now that the crimson stains of our sins have been washed away in the saving waters of Baptism and we have become white as pure wool, let us present the Conqueror of death, Who is Christ, not with mere branches of palms but with the real rewards of His victory: our selves, our souls and bodies, spread before Him as reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto Him. Let our souls take the place of the welcoming branches as we join today in the children’s holy song: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Blessed is the king of Israel.Let us show Him honor, not with olive branches but with the splendor of merciful deeds to one another. Let us spread the thoughts and desires of our hearts under His feet like garments, so that entering us with the whole of His being, He may draw the whole of our being into Himself and place the whole of His in us. He is coming Who is everywhere present and pervades all things; He is coming to achieve in us His work of salvation. He is coming Who came to call to repentance not the righteous but sinners, coming to recall those who have strayed into sin. Let us not be afraid, for God is in the midst of us, and we shall not be shaken.My brothers and sisters, let us receive Him with open, outstretched hands, for it was on His own hands that He sketched you. Receive Him who laid your foundations on the palms of His hands. Receive Him, for He our human flesh in all ways except sin, to consume what is our sins in what is His. “Be enlightened, be enlightened,” as Isaiah trumpets, for the light has come to us: the glory of the Lord has risen over us.What kind of light is this? It is that which “enlightens every man coming into the world.” It is the everlasting light, the light inaccessible, the timeless light revealed in time, the light manifested in the flesh although hidden by nature, the light that shone round the shepherds and guided the Magi. It is the light that was in the world from the beginning, through which the world was made, yet the world did not know it. It is that light which came to its own, and its own people did not receive it.Brothers and sisters, the Cross of Christ is the glory of the Lord. He, the radiance of the Father’s glory, even as He said when He faced His passion: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him, and will glorify him at once.” This glory is His lifting up on the cross, for Christ’s glory is His cross and His exultation upon it, for He says: “When I have been lifted up, I will draw all men to myself.” Let us be drawn to Him this Holy Week. Let us answer the call to watch, to wait for the Bridegroom. That when He comes He finds us awake, with our flasks of oil full from love for Him. That when He calls, He admits us to the wedding banquet because, full of oil which is His mercy, Which He has given to those who are merciful, He knows and recognizes us, and wants us to live with Him forever: He Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.(Adapted from a homily by S. Andrew of Crete, d. 740.) Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Note: The liturgical celebration of the Raising of Lazarus is an ancient custom of the Church, preserved from the 4th century by the Orthodox Church. I have created “trial liturgy” for the adaptation, which I have used as “votive liturgy” over the past four years at my parish, always on the day prior to Palm Sunday. I have found it to be a remarkable liturgy to celebrate, and it is a perfect beginning to Holy Week, indeed an ideal complement to Palm Sunday, tomorow.Above is the sermon I preached for it this year (in fact, earlier today in morning liturgy). Below are the Propers for the trial liturgy. I share these in hopes of receiving public comment upon them; do note, I am aware that in Anglican Missal liturgy, the Gospel account from S. John about the Raising of Lazarus shows up for the Friday after the Fourth Sunday in Lent; so there is something of an overlap between that liturgy and the proposed Lazarus Sunday propers below.PROPERS FOR LAZARUS SATURDAYINTROIT. ANTIPHON. Ps. cxlii. Bring my soul out of prison, that I may give thanks unto Thy Name; which thing if Thou wilt grant me, then shall the righteous resort unto my company. VERSE. Ps. ibid. I cried unto Thee, O Lord, and said, Thou art my hope, and my portion in the land of the living. [all bow] Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. [all rise]Response: As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. The Celebrant repeats the Antiphon.COLLECT: OF THE DAYO Heavenly Father, Fountain of all life, wisdom and knowledge: as Thy Son Jesus didst come to Bethany and ask, Where have you buried my friend, Lazarus; and shedding tears of tender love, didst call to him in Thy compassion, and by His voice didst raise him to life; give us in the tomb the assurance of our resurrection and the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope in the joyful expectation of eternal life in Thy heavenly kingdom; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen.THE SECOND COLLECT: OF ALL LENTAlmighty and everlasting God, Who hatest nothing that Thou hast made, and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.A READING FROM THE EPISTLE OF S. PAUL TO THE HEBREWS (12:28-13:8)Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire. Let brotherly love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you also are in the body. Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled; for God will judge the immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have; for he has said, “I will never fail you nor forsake you.” Hence we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid; what can man do to me?” Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.GRADUAL: PSALM 85You have been gracious to your land, O Lord, *you have restored the good fortune of Jacob.You have forgiven the iniquity of your people *and blotted out all their sins.You have withdrawn all your fury *and turned yourself from your wrathful indignation.Restore us then, O God our Savior; * let your anger depart from us.Will you be displeased with us for ever? *will you prolong your anger from age to age?Will you not give us life again,* that your people may rejoice in you?Show us your mercy, O Lord, * and grant us your salvation.THE HOLY GOSPEL ✠ OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO S. JOHN (11:1-45)Response: Glory be to Thee, O Lord.Now a certain man was ill, Laz′arus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Laz′arus was ill. So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it he said, “This illness is not unto death; it is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by means of it.” Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Laz′arus. So when he heard that he was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go into Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any one walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. But if any one walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” Thus he spoke, and then he said to them, “Our friend Laz′arus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Laz′arus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” Now when Jesus came, he found that Laz′arus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary sat in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, he who is coming into the world.” When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying quietly, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. Then Mary, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled; and he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus wept. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb; it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you would believe you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. I knew that thou hearest me always, but I have said this on account of the people standing by, that they may believe that thou didst send me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Laz′arus, come out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him.The Gospel of the Lord.Response: Praise be to Thee, O Christ.OFFERTORY SENTENCE. Ps. cxxx. Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice. I look for the Lord; my soul doth wait for Him; in His word is my trust. SECRET. O Lord, Who sufferest us to be partakers of Thy wondrous mysteries: grant, we beseech Thee, that by Thy mercy we may be absolved from all our iniquities, and defended against all adversities. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.COMMUNION SENTENCE. S. John xi. Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Laz′arus, come out.” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with bandages, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”2ND POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER.O Lord our God, Who hast fulfilled us with the bounty of Thy heavenly gifts: grant, we beseech Thee, that we may ever live by the partaking of the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

We beseech Thee, O Lord, pour Thy grace into our hearts, that, as we who have known the incarnation of Thy Son Jesus Christ by the message of an Angel, so by His Cross and Passion we may be brought unto the glory of His resurrection; Who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

I spoke last Sunday in very high ways about the Eucharist. For example, I said that because Jesus Christ is the source and summit of our life, so the Eucharist, the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, is the source and summit of our life. The Eucharist is Christ, and Christ is Himself the Eucharist. I also said that no matter what our feelings may be on a given Sunday, or a given Liturgy of the Eucharist on a weekday, the very nature of the Eucharist is that it is Christ’s most precious Body and Blood. The Eucharist heals us because Christ heals us, and He is the Eucharist. The Eucharist strengthens us because Christ strengthens us, and the Eucharist is Christ. The Eucharist showers us with heavenly love because Christ is Love, Who became man in holy sacrifice for us.That kind of understanding of the Sacrifice of Christ is central to a right knowledge about Jesus. He took our flesh so that He could dwell among us. He became flesh to dwell among us as the Eucharist, as the Blessed Sacrament. The Eucharist is the Sacrament of His Passion, indeed the Sacrament of His Sacrifice. Yet understanding that Christ indeed voluntarily sacrificed Himself took the Church time to realize. Really until Paul started writing his holy epistles–that is when the nature of Christ’s Sacrifice became widely known and widely understood. Yet, there are small hints that the disciples sensed, or better, glimpsed, some of this during Christ’s human life. Saint Peter said to Jesus, “To Whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life!” Peter also said of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Certainly the Blessed Virgin Mary had a strong sense of Who her Son was, and Who He always will be. Saint Mary Magdalene and the other holy myrrh-bearing women had some kind of sense, as well. Saint John the Apostle, the beloved disciple, shared this sense with the holy myrrh-bearing women. Yet most of the disciples fled the Cross when Jesus was nailed to it; they would not have fled if they knew that the Passion of Christ was the most glorious sacrifice possible. They were confused and uncertain Who Jesus was, and uncertain of what His death meant. But somewhere, amid their confusion, there was a seed growing in them. This is how God works: He plants seeds in our heart that are intended to grow in us, so that we are able to conceive the holy Jesus in our hearts, and bear Him in our minds. It takes time, but the power of God’s seed is infinite. It always grows in good soil.In our Gospel account from Saint Matthew, the Mother of Saint John and Saint James, the sons of Zebedee, named by Jesus as the “sons of thunder,” speaks to Jesus. She is doing so because her sons asked her to. They had seen the Transfiguration of Jesus and it opened the eyes of their heart, and began to transform them. Seeing Jesus transfigured–this most glorious and mysterious event–meant a seed of glory was planted in the hearts of James and John. In seeing Him transfigured they also witnessed Elijah and Moses appearing, one on the right of Jesus and one on the left. They heard a voice from the cloud which overshadowed them, say, “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him!” And they were told by Jesus, as they came down from the mountain after the Transfiguration, to tell no one the things they had seen, until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. What they saw left a mark on their soul. This is the seed that was planted. Direct experiences of Christ plant a seed in us.They wanted to be at the right hand and at the left hand of Jesus as He entered His kingdom. Why? Because they saw Moses at the right hand and Elijah at the left hand of Jesus as He appeared to them in His transfigured glory. That seed which was planted started to grow. They were filled with zeal, they were filled with a strong desire to be with Jesus. They wanted to imitate Moses and Elijah, two Saints of the Church, and to be able to speak with Jesus in His glory as Moses and Elijah spoke with Jesus. James and John, in other words, wanted what we should all want. They had zeal which we should all have. They were filled with desire that we all should be filled with. And even us more so than them, because unlike them, we have the benefit of the New Testament writings and two thousand years of the prayer of Holy Church, and they did not. We have the Eucharist, and at that time, they did not.And because of this, we know something very important, that had yet to be revealed to John and James: to enter into the glory of Christ and be with Him requires that we choose to be with Christ in His Passion. We must choose to be voluntarily with Christ as He voluntarily offers His Body and Blood in holy sacrifice: doing so both as the Sacrifice and the High Priest Who offers the Sacrifice which is Himself. The new covenant is the covenant made with Christ’s Body and Blood shed in His Passion, which is the beginning of all creation. As Paul says, every time we receive the Eucharist, we proclaim Christ’s death. When we receive the Eucharist, we proclaim the Gospel, for Christ’s death means forgiveness of sins, salvation, and eternal life–and this is the Gospel. Christ’s death, His Passion, is the source of all new creation, and the summit of earthly existences: for Christ is the Light of the world, through Whom all things are made, and all things through Him are remade. This is why the Eucharist, which is Christ, heals us, strengthens us, and showers us with heavenly benediction. Because of the Passion of Christ, He is able to live in us, and we are able to live in Him, Christ the King of all Creation, Who lives and reigns with the Father, in the unity of the Holy Ghost: ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Every Lent, my parish—Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach—offers what we call “Lent Friday Worship.” The weekly festivity begins with Plainsong Evensong, and then is followed by Stations of the Cross, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, then to the parish hall for a community meal, and Rector Forum given by yours truly.This year I am focusing on the Epistle of Saint James. The aim is, by the end of Lent, to go through all of it, line by line, offering my reflective commentary along the way. And to aid the commentary I offer, I will also be consulting and sharing the commentary on this Epistle by the Venerable S. Bede, the great English Church Father.This final Session looks at James 4:7-end. Those verses are below.7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.11 Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge. 12 There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. Who are you to judge another?13 Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit”; 14 whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.” 16 But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.17 Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.CHAPTER 51 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! 2 Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. 3 Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. 4 Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. 5 You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. 8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.9 Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door! 10 My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience. 11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord—that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.12 But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath. But let your “Yes” be “Yes,” and your “No,” “No,” lest you fall into judgment.13 Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing psalms. 14 Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. 16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. 17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. 18 And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.19 Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

In our Epistle, Saint Paul speaks of our freedom. He says, “The Jerusalem above is free, and she is our Mother.” And he says at the end of the epistle, “Freedom in Christ as set us free.” In speaking of freedom, Paul means freedom from sin. He means freedom from sinful ways, sinful habits which are called passions. Paul means freedom from being a slave to sin, or a slave to the world. In the holy doctrine of Paul, when we are in Christ we are a new creation. In Christ the eyes of our heart see above the firmament into the heavenly places. In Christ the dry land of our sinful existence, the dry land of spiritual darkness becomes earth, becomes capable of growth, becomes capable of redemption, of being made right, because of the Holy Cross. Dry land cannot grow grass which bears seed; dry land cannot grow fruit trees bearing seeds in the fruit. When we are slaves to sin, we are in darkness, the darkness of the abyss. Christ brings us out of the darkness, because Christ is our light. And God parts the sea, He gathers together the waters so that dry land appears. And He calls us the dry land earth; He calls us “earth” and desires that we are good soil: this is the freedom we have in Christ, that being free, we can spiritually grow, that on the earth, which is to say in our heart, we can bear fruit and have seeds within ourselves, indeed that our heart can contain the seeds of all good works and virtues, that we can perform works of love and works of mercy, which are brought forth from the good treasure of our heart.Our Collect invites us to be comforted by the grace of Christ, that in our suffering we may be relieved by the mercy of Christ. And what can comfort us more than Christ Himself? Who can provide grace to us but Christ Himself? Who may bestow mercy upon us to relieve us from our suffering, our wounds, our hurts but He Whose very nature is mercy, Jesus Christ Himself? Our Lord Jesus gives us the peace which passes all understanding, and He does so by His presence. He does so personally for each one of His children. He does so personally for each of his parish churches as a Body, because we are His Body. We are in Him, and He is in us.And to His Body the Church He gives His Body and Blood in the Blessed Sacrament, in the most holy Sacrament of the Altar, the Eucharist. Saint John teaches us that Jesus Christ distributes Himself to those who were seated. The image of being seated most powerfully is given us in the image of Saint Mary Magdalene, seated at the feet of Jesus. In being seated at the feet of Jesus, she offers herself as a living sacrifice to God. In being seated at the feet of Jesus, she adores Christ, listens to Christ, and puts all of her focus on Christ. In being seated at the feet of Jesus, her heart is centered on Christ and His Sacred Humanity. In being seated, she is fed by Christ, as He fed the five thousand who were seated.In feeding us within Himself, Christ transforms us. We are transformed because the Sacrament of Christ’s Love, which is the Eucharist, fulfills its purpose in us. Receiving into our bodies Christ’s Body and Blood, we are drawn to become that which we receive: and we receive He Who is Love, so that we are drawn out of darkness, out of being merely dry land, to become fertile earth upon which the seeds of the Gospel grow into large trees bearing fruit. Christ’s Gospel seeds grow in our heart and transform our heart. Christ’s love envelops us and covers us and protects us. Christ’s love heals us, cleans us, and feeds us. Freedom in Christ means the ability to grow up to the fullness of the stature of Christ. Christ’s love perfects us; makes us more and more perfected; makes us more and more like Him.Because Jesus Christ is the source and summit of our life, so the Eucharist, the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, is the source and summit of our life. The Eucharist is Christ, and Christ is Himself the Eucharist. Thus the Eucharist is itself the surest tradition, the one tradition on which we always can safely rely. Thus we adore the Blessed Sacrament. Thus we always allow the Blessed Sacrament to shower upon us heavenly benediction. No matter what our feelings may be on a given Sunday, the very nature of the Eucharist is that it is Christ’s most precious Body and Blood, which we receive irrespective of how we are feeling. The Eucharist heals us because Christ heals us, and He is the Eucharist. The Eucharist strengthens us because Christ strengthens us, and the Eucharist is Christ. The Eucharist showers us with heavenly love because Christ is Love incarnate, Who became man in holy sacrifice for us, and Who always lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Every Lent, my parish—Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach—offers what we call “Lent Friday Worship.” The weekly festivity begins with Plainsong Evensong, and then is followed by Stations of the Cross, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, then to the parish hall for a community meal, and Rector Forum given by yours truly. This year I am focusing on the Epistle of Saint James. The aim is, by the end of Lent, to go through all of it, line by line, offering my reflective commentary along the way. And to aid the commentary I offer, I will also be consulting and sharing the commentary on this Epistle by the Venerable S. Bede, the great English Church Father.This Session 3 looks at James 2:14 through 4:6. Those verses are below.14 What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.18 But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. 19 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? 21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? 22 Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? 23 And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called the friend of God. 24 You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.25 Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.CHAPTER 31 My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. 2 For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. 3 Indeed, we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. 4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things.See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? 12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. 14 But if you have bitter envy and self-seeking in your hearts, do not boast and lie against the truth. 15 This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. 16 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. 17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. 18 Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.CHAPTER 41 Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? 2 You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. 4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?6 But He gives more grace. Therefore He says:“God resists the proud,But gives grace to the humble.” Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Our patron, Saint Paul, has a word today about holiness. He teaches that God called us not to a life of impurity, but to a lift of holiness. That holiness is characteristic of our prayer life, indeed how we walk, so as to please God. Indeed, as David says in our Psalm: that we lift up our eyes to God, in Whom we put our trust: we are to lift up our eyes and gaze upon God that dwells in the heavens. Our lives ought be different than regular lives of non-Christians. So we will get into that more.We are to say unto the Lord: Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold. And how do we say this but in prayer? Prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, taught S. John of Damascus, 8th century Church Father. Lent is a holy season: because it demands prayer that is more intense; prayer that is more robust; prayer that is more regular, which is to say, more often and daily. Holiness makes up the Christian experience, and it must do so. Because as Saint Paul teaches in his epistle to the Hebrews, “Strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”This is one of the lessons our Lord seeks to teach us through the Gospel account from Saint Matthew. The thing to immediately notice in passage is the tension evident between the disciples and Our Lord Jesus. “Send her away, for she is crying after us,” they implore Jesus. But Jesus does not send her away, but rather listens to her, talks with her, and eventually praises her great faith, so much so that we are left with the impression that it was her great faith that healed her daughter from the demon, indeed exorcised her of the demon. The next thing to notice is the dialogue between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. After the disciples attempted unsuccessfully to command Jesus to send her away, He says “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” But she came and knelt before Him – she knelt, that is, she worshiped – and she said, “Lord, help me. And He answered, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” And she said, “Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus answers, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.” It sounds on a plain reading that Jesus is being unloving at first and is trying to exclude the woman. But if that were the case, it would violate basic doctrine about Jesus, that His very nature is love and that His Mission from the beginning is always for the salvation of all peoples. So what is actually going on here?It is not Our Lord who is being taught about compassion and love, but rather the disciples and their hardened hearts, and by extension, us and our hardened hearts. Both of the seemingly inflammatory statements by Jesus—the first, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and the second, “It is not fair to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs”—reflect the exclusionary attitude of the Jewish religion of Jesus’s day, as well as the centuries prior. The Jews had been looking for a political messiah to restore political power to them and allow them to complete the rebuilding of the Temple and thereby overthrow their occupiers, the Romans. The last thing they wanted was a Messiah for all peoples Whose very showing of divine power was to die on the tree of the Cross—and be a voluntary failure according not to the illumined eyes of the heart, but rather according to the closed and blind eyes of the world. But it was always the plan of Jesus to show the world what it means to be God by the way He died as a human being. It was always the plan of Jesus to show His disciples that His strength is made perfect in His weakness; that His strength is shown to be divine amidst what seems by worldly standards to be weak. Jesus shows His disciples what it means to be God by the way He died as a human being.In other words, Jesus used this moment with the Canaanite woman to teach not her but the disciples words He had taught to Isaiah centuries before: “Foreigners who join themselves to the Lord, to minister to Him, to love the Name of the Lord, and to be His servants, every one who keeps the Sabbath, and does not profane it, and hold fast My covenant—these I will bring to My holy mountain, and make them joyful in My house of prayer.” (Isaiah 56.6-8)And this is what holiness means: God is at work in all people, with no exceptions. He was at work in the prostitute Rahab in our first reading, so much so that through her faith, Joshua led the sons of Israel through the Jordan into the promised land. God was at work in the Canaanite woman, so much so that through her faith not only was her daughter healed, but all Christians are taught about real holiness and real faith. Recognizing that God is at work in all people means our heart and mind are holy, that they are partaking of the living water springing up into life eternal, indeed participating in the celestial water which is above the heavens. Such a heart and mind have been applied to lofty and exalted things, and able, as Saint Paul teaches, to regard no one from a human point of view, even to put on the mind of Christ, which we all are called to do – to love as Christ loves. All by the grace of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Every Lent, my parish—Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach—offers what we call “Lent Friday Worship.” The weekly festivity begins with Plainsong Evensong, and then is followed by Stations of the Cross, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, then to the parish hall for a community meal, and Rector Forum given by yours truly. This year I am focusing on the Epistle of Saint James. The aim is, by the end of Lent, to go through all of it, line by line, offering my reflective commentary along the way. And to aid the commentary I offer, I will also be consulting and sharing the commentary on this Epistle by the Venerable S. Bede, the great English Church Father.This Session 2 covers the Epistle of James, chapter 1 verse 11 through chapter 2 verse 13. Those verses are below.11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits.12 Blessed is the man who endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. 13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. 14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. 15 Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. 18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.19 So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; 20 for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God.21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.22 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.26 If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. 27 Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.CHAPTER 21 My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. 2 For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, 3 and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, “You sit here in a good place,” and say to the poor man, “You stand there,” or, “Sit here at my footstool,” 4 have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?5 Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? 6 But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts? 7 Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you are called?8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; 9 but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all. 11 For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

O Lord, Who for our sake didst fast forty days and forty nights: Give us grace to use such abstinence, that, our flesh being subdued to the Spirit, we may ever obey Thy godly motions in righteousness and true holiness, to Thy honour and glory, Who livest and reignest with the Father in the unity of the same Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

The conclusion of my sermon for last Sunday had these words: In hearing and reflecting upon the profound account given us about love in the example of Jesus Christ, we may well feel overwhelmed at our great lack of it, as we come to fathom what true love is, and measure ourselves by Our Lord’s perfect pattern. Our great relief now, in Lent, and all our days is to understand that we live in Him: so we with confidence and humility look to Christ in prayer; in prayer with regard to every particular of our daily short-comings; and what we derive from examining our vices and sins, and thus our falling short of Christ’s expectation of us. In Christ we have the assurance that if we are faithful in Him and genuine in our desire to follow Him, to put off our old man and put on the new garments of Christ, if we are like the blind man who simply cried out to Jesus and said, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” He will hear us. This is why Jesus entered into the wilderness for forty days and forty nights. He did this not for Himself, for He is the Sinless One. He did this for us, that we would always know that He hears us in prayer, and understands what we are going through in our lives. After all, Jesus is the Son of God; Jesus and the Father are One. And in being the Son of God, the Eternal Word of the Father, He made a clear-cut decision to go into the wilderness for a very definite purpose. Jesus took on the Devil in the wilderness because He sought the Devil out. There was no question as to who would win this battle. Christ had already won the war, because He is God and the Devil is not. The Devil had lost long ago, had lost to Archangel Michael and his holy Angels fighting under their general, Jesus Christ. The Devil and his angels were thrown down, that ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world – he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. This is what Moses described in Genesis chapter 1, verse 4: “God separated the light from the darkness,” the darkness that was over the face of the deep abyss of hell. The word “darkness” in Genesis 1 refers to the unholy angels of the Devil, and the Devil himself. They were separated from God’s grace by their own demonic pride, and now cover the face of the deep abyss of hell. Hence the Devil appears already in Genesis 2 to Eve and Adam, already the face of darkness, of temptation. Christ had already won the battle against the Devil, and so His entering into the wilderness was to show His disciples, to show us, that Jesus Christ conquers. And so do we, if we imitate the Archangel Michael and fight the devil under the banner of Jesus Christ.We do this in our prayer. The battle is unseen warfare in our heart. Our weapons are the weapons of righteousness as Saint Paul teaches in the Epistle: purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God. We must have these weapons of Christ. Without them, we stand no chance against the temptations of the Devil. These weapons of righteousness are weapons of Christ Himself. With these weapons, the darkness of the unseen warfare is brought into the light of Christ. From these weapons of righteousness flow grace, by which we are able to triumph over every evil. We are able to wield these weapons if we no longer live to ourselves, but unto Him Who died for us and rose again. Without Christ, the weapons are too heavy for our frail bodies of little strength. With Christ, He lifts them, He wields them, because Christ is our strength and our shield.We possess these weapons as the fruit of faith in Christ. He will use them through us because Christ always hears us if we call to Him in faith, in love, in zeal, out of our yearning for Him: His presence, His peace, His power. We know He hears us because in keeping His words and keeping His commandments, Christ dwells in us – for He taught this very thing, and taught it many times. And because He dwells in us, we dwell in His defense, under the defense of the Most High, under the shadow of the Almighty.Let us say unto the Lord: Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold. And how do we say this but in prayer? Prayer is the lifting up of the heart and mind to God, taught S. John of Damascus, 8th century Church Father. Let us truly pray, by lifting our heart and mind to God this whole season of Lent. This is what makes Lent a holy season: that our prayer is more intense, that our prayer is more robust, that our prayer is regular, which is to say, daily. Let us this Lent read and meditate upon God’s holy Word more than we usually do. Let us this Lent worship in the Liturgy more often than we usually do. By increasing the intensity of our prayer and the frequency of our prayer, by increasing our attendance and participation in Liturgy, we allow Jesus Christ to join us in our hearts, and transform us so as to win the battle against the Devil and his dragon-like angels: because our God is an awesome God, He is Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Every Lent, my parish—Saint Paul’s, New Smyrna Beach—offers what we call “Lent Friday Worship.” The weekly festivity begins with Plainsong Evensong, and then is followed by Stations of the Cross, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, then to the parish hall for a community meal, and Rector Forum given by yours truly. This year I am focusing on the Epistle of Saint James. The aim is, by the end of Lent, to go through all of it, line by line, offering my reflective commentary along the way. And to aid the commentary I offer, I will also be consulting and sharing the commentary on this Epistle by the Venerable S. Bede, the great English Church Father.This Session 1 covers the background of James and the Epistle, and then looks at the first eleven verses of chapter 11. Those verses are below.CHAPTER 11 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,To the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad:Greetings.2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. 7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.9 Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, 10 but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. 11 For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Almighty and everlasting God, Who hatest nothing that Thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of Thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

O Lord God, Who hast taught us that all our doings without charity are nothing worth: Send Thy Holy Ghost, and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of charity, the very bond of peace and of all virtues, without which whosoever lives is counted dead before Thee: Grant this for Thine only Son Jesus Christ’s sake, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

Last Sunday’s sermon finished with these words: In addition to the liturgical life and the Sacraments, the Church has always taught of the necessity of examining our conscience, and doing so regularly. Preparing for Lent is a time to examine our conscience. It is a time to take inventory about ourselves. It is a time to take inventory about our habits, and whether we have unholy habits, unholy vices, that keep us from being good soil. To borrow from Saint John: If we say we have no vices, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our vices, God who is faithful and just will uproot from us our vices, and cleanse us from the unrighteousness of our vices. Today, on the Sunday before Lent, the Church sets before us the subject of charity, the older translation of the more modern word “love.” The Church does this to remind us that all works of repentance, of turning to God, are not of Christ unless they begin and end in the love of God. This is why our Lord teaches us not to “pleasantly regard” God with all our heart, all our soul, all our mind, all our strength, but to love Him. And for holy doctrine on love, let us turn to our patron, Saint Paul, and 1 Cor. 13.It has been said that the thirteenth chapter of Saint Paul’s First Epistle to the Corinthians is the most important chapter of the Bible. The reason such a high claim is made about this chapter, which is our Epistle reading today, is that it teaches us two fundamental things. The first is that it teaches profoundly about Jesus Christ and Him Crucified. And the second is that it teaches us how to respond to Christ’s blessed Passion and precious Death. In understanding Paul’s holy doctrine of love, we know more about Christ and we know more about ourselves—more about our Saviour and about being His disciples—more about our King and about what it means to be crowned—about the Perfect Love of Jesus to which we aspire to imitate in our lives every day.We know that Paul’s doctrine of love teaches about Jesus Christ and Him crucified because, as Paul says of love, “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.” This describes perfectly our Lord, Who bore all our sins on the Cross, believed all that His Father had given Him, hoped for the salvation of all, and endured spitting, mocking, torture, and disbelief in Him all while keeping in Himself the peace which passes all understanding. In support of this, we have Saint John, who said, “God is love.” The Father is love, the Son of God is love, the Holy Ghost is love. And we know that Jesus is Himself the perfect pattern of love again from Saint John, who records our Lord saying, “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” We are His friends, because all that Jesus heard from His Father He has made known to us.As Paul’s doctrine on love teaches us about Jesus, his doctrine teaches us about ourselves as disciples of Jesus. Again our Lord’s commandment: “Thou shalt love the Lord Thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and … that Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” We are to love the Father and we are to love our neighbor. In both cases we are to imitate our Lord’s love for the Father and our Lord’s love for every human being. No matter what words we say, without love we are nothing. No matter what wisdom and knowledge we might have, without love we are nothing. No matter what we do, even if we give our body to be burned, if we do not have love, we are nothing. This is simply to say with with love we have life in the Holy Spirit, but without love we are spiritually dead, as if we never knew of Jesus, nor He us. Jesus told the five foolish virgins “I do not know you” and shut the door to them because they did not have love and perform acts of mercy, acts of love, in their life.In hearing and reflecting upon the profound account given us about love in the example of Jesus Christ, we may well feel overwhelmed at our great lack of it, as we come to fathom what true love is, and measure ourselves by Our Lord’s perfect pattern. Our great relief now, in Lent, and all our days is to understand that we live in Him: so we with confidence and humility look to Christ in prayer; in prayer with regard to every particular of our daily short-comings; and what we derive from examining our vices and sins, and thus our falling short of Christ’s expectation of us. In Christ we have the assurance that if we are faithful in Him and genuine in our desire to follow Him, to put off our old man and put on the new garments of Christ, if we are like the blind man who simply cried out to Jesus and said, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” He will hear us. Jesus Christ has taught us that all our doings without love, without charity, are worth nothing; with love we can move mountains. So Almighty Father and our God, send Your Holy Ghost upon us, and pour into our hearts the gift of Christ’s mercy, the gift of divine love, which is the true bond of peace and all virtues—strengthen Christ in our hearts, that we may continue to conceive in our hearts the Eternal Word of the Father, Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the same Father and the same Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe

We have heard the parable of the Sower and the Seeds many time. It bears asking, why does our Lord Jesus give us emphasis in His parable of the Seeds and the Sower to the material into which the seed is planted? He not only lists the different material in sequence – path, rock, thorns, and good soil – but He attaches specific symbolism to each one, which we see in His explanation to the disciples. Jesus is at pains to specify the differences in the material that receive the Word of God. Why is He at such pains? What is He after? Does He want the Word of God to be received on path, rock, or thorns? Clearly He does not. He wants the Seed to be received by good soil. So we need to think deeply on this.Towards doing so, let us remember that the purpose of the three Gesima Sundays is to prepare us for Lent. To prepare us to take on what Lent is all about. And what Lent is all about is the inner world of the heart, where unseen warfare happens between the Devil and the Holy Angels, even the Devil and Christ Himself.What the Gesima season invites us to recognize is that to fully attend to the unseen warfare, we must go on pilgrimage: indeed, that the spiritual life is a pilgrimage to the heart, and through the heart to Jesus Christ, and through Christ to the Father. The pilgrimage of Pre-Lent is a call to spiritual labor, through which we must love our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is our strength, our Saviour, our fortress. Hence we ask in our Collect, grant that by Thy power we may be defended against all adversity. It is Christ Who defends us. It is Christ Who shields us. It is Christ Who takes us under His wing and protects us.We must take comfort in Christ’s protection, my dear brothers and sisters. Who else can protect us? Who else by Christ has the words of eternal life which shield us from our adversaries? And it is through taking comfort in Christ’s protection that we can allow ourselves to be vulnerable before Him. Being vulnerable before Christ means we recognize our weaknesses – it means we recognize our failings – our shortcomings – our reliance on vices, what the New Testament writers call “passions,” and are our unholy habits of thought and action. It is because of our vices that we are led to commit sin. Vices lead to sins that we commit, either in the action of our mind or in outward deeds. This is how we must understand our weakness: unholy habits are rooted deeply in us, and we cannot help ourselves.We need Jesus Christ. Only a Saviour can rescue us. Only a Saviour can uproot our unholy habits by His grace and by His transforming Holy Spirit. To be a sinner is to be a person who is aware that he or she is in need of a Saviour. This is humility, this is being reality-based: we cannot save ourselves, we cannot uproot our unholy habits that lead to committing sin without Jesus Christ, Who is our only Saviour, and the Saviour of all who put their trust in Him and Him alone.To have that attitude, to have that outlook, to be reality-based as a way of life, is the attitude and outlook of humility and all Christians aspire to attaining this attitude and outlook. We do not start there after our Baptism. We must grow spiritually to attain that attitude, as our everyday attitude; we must grow spiritually after Baptism to attain that outlook, as our everyday outlook. Baptism is necessary as the first step towards dying to self and taking on the resurrected life of Christ as our own life, but we must be trained, disciplined, and made fit for true humility.This is what our Lord is after in His parable of the Seed and the Sower. We are all striving to be good soil. We are striving to be those who, after hearing the Word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience. The Church teaches we can get there in this life, we can become good soil through the liturgical and sacramental life of worship in the Church. But often we are not the good soil, but may be the thorns, who hear the Word, but as soon as they go on their way the are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, so their fruit does not mature. We may even be on the rock, who are joyful when they hear the Word, but because they do not have root, when they are tested by life they lose the Word and fall away from Him. We even might be on the path, who hear the Word, but the Devil comes and takes away the Word from their hearts, because they have not learned how to reject the Devil’s invitations, and have rather suffer from all sorts of vices that they have yet to ask God to remove.And so, in addition to the liturgical life and the Sacraments, the Church has always emphasized the importance of examining our conscience, and doing so regularly. Preparing for Lent is a time to examine our conscience. It is a time to take inventory about ourselves. It is a time to take inventory about our habits, and whether we have unholy habits, unholy vices, that keep us from being good soil. to borrow from Saint John: If we say we have no vices, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our vices, God who is faithful and just will forgive us our vices, and cleanse us from the unrighteousness of our vices. All of this through Jesus Christ, Who lives and reigns with the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost, ever one God, world without end. Amen. Get full access to Anglican Ascetic Podcast at frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe