Light Sidebar
How Could Satan Be So Foolish?
- February 21, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
Jesus was surely tempted by Satan – tempted to turn stones into bread, tempted to cast himself down from the top of the temple, and tempted to receive the kingdoms of the world. Yet Jesus overcomes Satan’s temptations.
We can sin when offered good things, too. This is the point of Lent after all, that too much of a good thing becomes a bad thing.
Sermon Text – The First Sunday in Lent. (1928 BCP)
The Gospel. St. Matthew iv. 1.
THEN was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness...
Persecution of Christians in India (Zoom Discussion)
- February 20, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
On Tuesday, February 23rd, I’ll be presenting on “Hindutva” as part of an online Zoom discussion on the persecution of Christians in India.
“Hindutva” is a very dangerous socio-political ideology that combines a xenophobic version of Hindu extremism with a militarized and violent nationalist political ideology. Scholars on Indian politics refer to it as “Saffron Terror” and it is associated with Hindu nationalist organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The BJP/RSS ideology entered mainstream Indian politics in 2014 after the...
My First 7AM Mass
- February 18, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
I’ve put myself into a strange schedule for Lent. I’ve decided to, “say mass” (or as we typically describe it in Anglicanism “celebrate Holy Communion”) every day during Lent.
We have 46 days in Lent – six of them are Sundays where we have normally have our weekly communion service. Monday through Saturday in Lent 2021, I’ll be offering a daily 7 AM Holy Communion service.
Today was my first one. I got up and set up the church in a dark silence. My first task was trying to remember...
Anglican Christians without Canterbury?
- February 03, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
Dr. Charles Erlandson’s book, Orthodox Anglican Identity: The Quest for Unity in a Diverse Religious Tradition (Wipf and Stock: 2020) is a well thought through effort to mark out a meaningful definition for theologically orthodox Anglicanism. (Buy on Amazon) Erlandson recognizes the increasing difficulty in defining Anglicanism and acknowledges the existence of various and often insufficient answers provided throughout the fractured global Anglican Communion. Erlandson posits his narrowed definition of orthodox Anglicanism as a response to a “naturalistic and man-centered worldview” found in the theological liberalism of the modern Episcopal...
Books I Read in January 2021
- February 01, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
In January 2021, I finished 10 books. Here’s what I’ve been reading:
Greenlights
by Matthew McConaughey
Link: https://amzn.to/3j8Jqwf
The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation
by Rod Dreher
Link: https://amzn.to/3rhJMDz
Benedict’s Way: An Ancient Monk’s Insights for a Balanced Life
by Lonni Collins Pratt, Daniel Homan
Link: https://amzn.to/3tkQLgW
Mark for Everyone (The New Testament for Everyone)
by NT (Tom) Wright
Link: https://amzn.to/3aoK44D
The Story of Monasticism: Retrieving an Ancient Tradition for Contemporary Spirituality
by Greg Peters
Link: https://amzn.to/3cy4JWC
Orthodox Anglican Identity: The Quest for Unity in a Diverse Religious Tradition
by Charles Erlandson
Link: https://amzn.to/2YGD4dL
How the Irish Saved Civilization:...
How Benedictine Spirituality Came to Celtic Christianity and the English Church
- January 29, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
The formalization of religious monasticism into the fabric of Christian identity coincided with the collapse of the Roman Empire. Historians mark the year 476 AD as its end when its last emperor Romulus Augustus was deposed. It is in crisis where monasticism takes on a truer sense of its own Christian identity.
Reflecting on the impact of monastics, Archbishop Rowan Williams writes:
“The life that Augustine, Aidan, Hilda and others lived was one that offered a new future to those around – a new level of mutual care, but also a...
Prayerbook Asceticism
- January 22, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
The Anglican Book of Common Prayer reintroduces a monastic identity to the Church in England in two significant ways.
First, it’s nearly the same narrative of St. Benedict’s own Rule. When the way of the ancient monastery had become overly complicated by long and difficult to follow rules, St. Benedict introduced a simple plan for balance. Cranmer follows the same example in offering the Daily Office as a simplified monastic rite.
Secondly, Cranmer also maintains the integrity of Benedict’s three-fold order in pairing the daily office with both private devotion...
The Optimistic Ebb and Flow of Moorman’s History
- January 20, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
Dr. John R. H. Moorman’s book A History of the Church in England (A&C Black: 1953) outlines nearly two millennia of the Church’s history in the British Isles. Moorman traces the history of Christianity in England back to the early Christian accounts of men like Tertullian in the 3rd century and throughout its various Celtic, Roman, and Norman periods. More attention is given to the last several centuries as English identity embraces its own resentment of Papal authority from the 13th century onward and setting the stage for reform. The...
Jesus Heals a Deaf Man (St. Mark 7:31)
- January 19, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
Lower Chapel at Canterbury Christian School for January 19, 2021.
...
Monks and Monasticism in the Anglican Tradition
- January 18, 2021
- by
- Steve Macias
The bones of the monastic hours can certainly be found in Cranmer’s daily offices, but what influence did monasticism have on the development of Anglican theology? From St. Aidan’s Lindisfarne community to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries, asceticism played a significant role in the historical, political, and religious development of the theology of the Church in England. The Prayerbook assumes certain ascetic principles and abandons or ignores others. In this paper, I’d like to explore how early English monasticism reappears in the ethos of the prayer book and how...