On Christ's Ascension

On Loving Poor Lazarus

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 [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

On the Eucharist Proclaiming Christ's Death

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 [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

S. Cyprian on the Lord's Prayer

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 [https://www.amazon.com/Tertullian-Cyprian-Vladimirs-Seminary-Patristics/dp/0881412619] 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 [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

On the Joy, Surprise, and Peace of the Gospel

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 [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

On the Holy Ghost Producing Christian Life

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 [https://frmcdallman.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]