Jim Naughton – Page 169 – Episcopal Cafe

The practice of “thank you”

June 8, 2011 14 Comments

For the past two weeks each night after I set the alarm and just before putting my bedside light out, I’ve journaled a short litany of specific “thank you’s.” Literally I begin each night’s journal page – “thank you God for…” and then simply make a new list, thank you’s for eight or ten specific things I’ve experienced or done or seen that day. I’m looking to remember that my life is blest, that all life is blest.

Source of light

June 8, 2011 No Comments

St. Paul’s theory of evangelizing a province was not to preach in every place in it himself, but to establish centres of Christian life in two or three important places from which the knowledge might spread into the country round.

Heaven at hand

June 7, 2011 No Comments

The ascension of Jesus Christ into heaven does not separate him from us; rather, it involves us with him in the same destiny and the same way. For though he left the world, he did not leave his human nature. There is humanity in heaven now. This is the extraordinary thing which we are compelled to affirm again and again on this great festival.

What business is your congregation in?

June 6, 2011 3 Comments

Many congregations would produce answers to this question that reflect what they do today – such things as sermons and hymns, committee meetings, church buildings, members, pledges, organ music. They have been so resistant to change that I can only guess that they firmly believe these ways of doing things to be their “business.”

Bad theology leads to bad art

June 6, 2011 No Comments

I’m convinced that bad art derives, like bad literary theory, from bad theology. To know God falsely is to write and paint and sculpt and cook and dance Him falsely. Perhaps it’s not poor artistic skill that yields bad Christian art, in other words, but poor Christianity.

Adventures with Bishop Yellow Belly

June 6, 2011 4 Comments

Bishop Yellow Belly runs into Miss Young Person. Testiness ensues.

How a smartphone can be a holy thing

June 6, 2011 2 Comments

Getting used to having a smartphone-easier for some than for others. I have to take it slowly, partly because I am temperamentally wary of gadgets. But I also have to take time to figure out how it can be a holy thing. Holy things are friends to our souls, we have an intimacy with them, they become part of the meaningfulness of our lives.

Reverent and joyful

June 6, 2011 No Comments

From 1925 when the Brotherhood began Ini ruled it for 15 years, and no Brother ever questioned his absolute authority, not because he was the Founder, but because of the force of his personality. What things stood out in his character? First, I think his spirituality: prayer was a very real thing with Ini:

The church for people who live outside

June 5, 2011 1 Comment

https://episcopal.cafe/video/CommonCathedral.jpg

That they may know you

June 5, 2011 No Comments

In what does eternal life consist? His own words tell us: “That they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Is there any doubt or difficulty here, or any inconsistency? It is life to know the true God. But the bare knowledge of him does not give life. What then, does he add?

The Archive

Author: Jim Naughton