So much of my world has become new.  My brain is still masticating all this newness.  In the midst of such grand adventure, I have found sanctuary in the “old” or “ancient.”

Maybe this sanctuary has found me.

Grant unto me, my Lord, that with peace in mind I may face all that this new day is to bring. Grant unto me grace to surrender myself completely to Thy holy will. Instruct and prepare me in all things for every hour of this day. Whatsoever tidings I may receive during the day, do Thou teach me to accept them calmly, in the firm conviction that all eventualities fulfill Thy holy will. Govern Thou my thoughts and feelings in all I do and say. When things unforeseen occur, let me not forget that all cometh down from Thee. Teach me to behave sincerely and reasonable toward every member of my family and all other human beings, that I may not cause confusion and sorrow to anyone. Bestow upon me, my Lord, strength to endure the fatigue of the day and to bear my share in all its passing events. Guide Thou my will and teach me to pray, to believe, to hope, to suffer, to forgive, and to love. Amen. -portion from Orthodox morning prayer

These past few weeks have been spent in the uncomfortable limbo of joy and sorrow. Joy for whats ahead mixed with the pain of leaving good things behind. Saying goodbye has been the theme of these “brief hours and weeks.”

Goodbye Des Moines. Family and friends are what made you my home.

“A gentleman may be forgiven for having spilled a bit of soup on his tie at supper. He may be excused for having grown a bit too wide for his summer slacks. But he may never forgive himself for wearing a pair of scuffed shoes — especially if he wears them to a crucial job interview or to a cocktail reception where he intends to make his best impression.

…. He may not have absolute control over the splashing of his soup or the size of his waistline, but his shoes, he knows, can always be fixed. They are there to carry him, in more ways than one, through the marbled corridors, over the cobblestones, and across the polished dance floors of life.”

–  John Bridges & Bryan Curtis,  A Gentleman Gets Dressed Up

Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest. Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor shoes: and salute no man by the way. And into whatsoever house ye enter, first say, Peace be to this house. And if the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon it: if not, it shall turn to you again. And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the labourer is worthy of his hire.

–  Luke 10: 2 – 7a

“…we can trust this God who is love, because He is changeless in His loving, and His entire will is engaged in love. God cannot be a tyrant because true love is not tyrannical. To deny this one true God is to deny love and to embrace hate as a way of life. Sin is mankind’s choice of hate over love, an imitation of that other fallen creature, the Devil.”

“The only cure for hate is to replace hate with love. This replacement is the work of God in the world since the fall of man into hate and sin. The perfect love and obedience of the Son of God, Jesus Christ, is the undoing of the Fall.”

-  An Outline Of An Anglican Life, Dr. Louis R. Tarsitano

A rather quick thought here.

Genesis 1

¹In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

²And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

³And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

⁴And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

⁵And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

The Lord God raised dust from the newly formed earth, forming His image, and then breathed life into his lungs. Through the Word, Man is created, birthed within the confines of time. This limitation seems a strange cradle, as God exists outside of time. We, being in time, cannot understand anything outside of it.  Before the heaven and the earth were created, God is.

Consider music.  This creation of  the Lord has meter, and yet in Heaven the four beasts sing  Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come (Revelation 4:8b). Imagine music without the institution of time. What would this canticle sound like, if the ear didn’t receive music as a sort of rhythm (vibration)?

I am reaching outside of my reading list with this back-yard-pipe-in-hand pondering.

I have accrued a reading list within the past two months. Yes this list is in order. Yes I am intimidated by City Of God.

-I Believe, Alister McGrath

-An Outline Of An Anglican Life, Louis R. Tarsitano

-A Rationale Upon the Book Of Common Prayer, Anthony Sparrow (online)

-Evangelical Is Not Enough, Thomas Howard

-Genuine Godliness and True Piety, Peter Toon.

-English Spirituality, Martin Thorton.

-Recalling the Hope of Glory, Dr. Allen Ross.

-A House For My Name, Peter Leithart.

-Confessions, Saint Augustine

-City Of God, Saint Augustine

Also, if you would like  a concise taste of Lent:

Drowned In Living Waters , Nicole de Martimprey.

Hear, Lord, my prayer; let not my soul faint under Thy discipline, nor let me faint in confessing unto Thee all Thy mercies, whereby Thou hast drawn me out of all my most evil ways, that Thou mightest become a delight to me above all the allurements which I once pursued; that I may most entirely love Thee, and clasp Thy hand with all my affections, and Thou mayest yet rescue me from every temptation, even unto the end.

-Confessions, Saint Augustine

It has been said that God’s “glory” is the organized space around His throne, a picture of which we have in the scriptures. The Church’s liturgy is modeled after the ebb and flow of worship there, a place that is not merely a holy vapor, but rather has definition.

I have just returned from a two-week trip to Dallas, Texas.  More on that soon. For now,  I welcome you to this nearly new forum. If nothing else,  it will be a deposit for my thoughts as I venture forward with — as a dear friend of mine has put it — an excitement for “the Church and the Sacraments in a new way,” and  an excitement “about our God in a revived way.”

Welcome.