The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort...St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church.

- Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, Homily on the Occasion of his Formal Institution as Ordinary

Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Christ and Hanukkah (Did Jesus Have a Dradle?)




From the Advent 2005 issue of Anglican Embers (Volume 1, Number 8) comes this Bible study by Mark J. Kelly, one of the founders of the Anglican Use Society, on the revelation of Christ during the Jewish Festivals, and particularly during the Feast of the Dedication as related in the tenth chapter of St. John's Gospel. Here the light of the world points to himself as the true Temple, the true home of the Shekinah of God.

"John wants us to look at Christ with new eyes. He would have us behold the glory of Christ who came to the people of his day. Jesus shone as a light that drew people to Him, like a moth to a warm and glowing flame on a long winter vigil. St. John delights to play with verbs of sight in his Gospel. There are over 170 uses of such simple but crucial words (many occurring in the first chapter) as “look, see, revealed, manifest, behold etc.” These plain but pivotal verbs set a tone and preach their own message in the theological Gospel of John. In other words, John is a Gospel of vision, and new sight."

Read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest: http://www.anglicanuse.org/AE_0I_08_Kelly-Hannukah.pdf

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