“The day was bittersweet,” said the Rev. Tripp Jeffords, Rector of St. Paul’s, Summerville, speaking of the Renewal of Vows Service held at the Cathedral of St. Luke and St. Paul, Charleston, May 18, 2021. “Knowing this was the last renewal of vows under the fine leadership of Mark Lawrence brought with it a bit of sadness.”

The service, which is held annually, will be the last one at which Bishop Mark Lawrence, who has served as the Diocesan Bishop since 2008, will preside. He will be retiring early next year.

At the same time, the service was joyful. For many, this was the first-time since the COVID-19 pandemic began in which those vaccinated were able to gather without masks or social distancing.

“It was an amazing day of worship for me,” said Jeffords. “To see fellow clergy and laity all together, singing to the glory of God, gave me chills.”

“It was great to be back together,” adds the Rev. Canon Todd Simonis, Diocesan Canon for Church Planting, and Associate Rector at St. Helena’s, Beaufort. “You get used to seeing people virtually for so long it was great to be able to give them a hug.”

In his sermon, the Bishop reflected on the encounter between Elijah and Elisha in 2 Kings 2:1, 6-14 where prior to Elijah being taken up to heaven Elisha asks for a “double-portion” of Elijah’s spirit. During the encounter Elisha picks up the cloak which had fallen from Elijah as he was taken up to heaven.

Read it all and take the time to listen to the sermon audio when you can.

#SouthCarolina #Anglican #Clergy Gather in Person for the Renewal of Vows Service, the last time with Bishop Mark Lawrence https://t.co/razMpelYI8 #parishministry #religion #lowcountrylife #scripture #history #worship #encouragement pic.twitter.com/bGRlmV0A0K

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) May 25, 2021

Probably every writer making a secondary world, a fantasy, every sub-creator, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it. If he indeed achieves a quality that can fairly be described by the dictionary definition: “inner consistency of reality,” it is difficult to conceive how this can be, if the work does not in some way partake of reality. The peculiar quality of the ”joy” in successful Fantasy can thus be explained as a sudden glimpse of the underlying reality or truth. It is not only a “consolation” for the sorrow of this world, but a satisfaction, and an answer to that question, “Is it true?” The answer to this question that I gave at first was (quite rightly): “If you have built your little world well, yes: it is true in that world.” That is enough for the artist (or the artist part of the artist). But in the “eucatastrophe” we see in a brief vision that the answer may be greater — it may be a far-off gleam or echo of evangelium in the real world. The use of this word gives a hint of my epilogue. It is a serious and dangerous matter. It is presumptuous of me to touch upon such a theme; but if by grace what I say has in any respect any validity, it is, of course, only one facet of a truth incalculably rich: finite only because the capacity of Man for whom this was done is finite.

I would venture to say that approaching the Christian Story from this direction, it has long been my feeling (a joyous feeling) that God redeemed the corrupt making-creatures, men, in a way fitting to this aspect, as to others, of their strange nature. The Gospels contain a fairy-story, or a story of a larger kind which embraces all the essence of fairy-stories. They contain many marvels—peculiarly artistic, beautiful, and moving: “mythical” in their perfect, self-contained significance; and among the marvels is the greatest and most complete conceivable eucatastrophe. But this story has entered History and the primary world; the desire and aspiration of sub-creation has been raised to the fulfillment of Creation. The Birth of Christ is the eucatastrophe of Man’s history. The Resurrection is the eucatastrophe of the story of the Incarnation. This story begins and ends in joy. It has pre-eminently the “inner consistency of reality.” There is no tale ever told that men would rather find was true, and none which so many sceptical men have accepted as true on its own merits. For the Art of it has the supremely convincing tone of Primary Art, that is, of Creation. To reject it leads either to sadness or to wrath. Every fairy tale we tell has at it’s root a core element of the ultimate story but the thing which makes the gospel so compelling is that it like a fairy tale sounds too good to be true but unlike a fairy tale is true.

“It is not difficult to imagine the peculiar excitement and joy that one would feel, if any specially beautiful fairy-story were found to be “primarily” true, its narrative to be history, without thereby necessarily losing the mythical or allegorical significance that it had possessed. It is not difficult, for one is not called upon to try and conceive anything of a quality unknown. The joy would have exactly the same quality, if not the same degree, as the joy which the “turn” in a fairy-story gives: such joy has the very taste of primary truth. (Otherwise its name would not be joy.) It looks forward (or backward: the direction in this regard is unimportant) to the Great Eucatastrophe. The Christian joy, the Gloria, is of the same kind; but it is preeminently (infinitely, if our capacity were not finite) high and joyous. But this story is supreme; and it is true. Art has been verified. God is the Lord, of angels, and of men—and of elves. Legend and History have met and fused.”

— J.R.R. Tolkien on Fairy Stories, cited by yours truly on this past Sunday’s Pentecost sermon.

JRR Tolkien, 1911 pic.twitter.com/7bjctLoHgX

— Chris Mason (@mason4922) May 23, 2021

Prof. Carol Zaleski’s recent lecture for the Thomistic Institute at UCLA and UC Santa Barbara — “C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien: Faith and Reason in a World under Siege” — is now available on our podcast.

Listen on Spotify, SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts! pic.twitter.com/MQAtgYBVkO

— Thomistic Institute (@ThomisticInst) April 8, 2021

Human beings are both like and unlike Pavlov’s dogs. Yes, sweet or savory food can make us salivate. But we also can react to complex stimuli like the prospect of going to the gym. How do we come to feel positively about the gym? It is not merely by talking to ourselves about it. It is also by experiencing the gym—perhaps through personal fitness or being part of the gym community. Experience can form our desires.

In Summa Theologica, Aquinas emphasizes that our emotions respond directly to concrete objects and that we learn experientially from these objects. For example, we learn fear of burns by touching a hot stove. As a result, our emotional formation depends partly on our actions and partly on our thinking.

Our words frame our experiences, and our experiences give our words emotional content. Telling myself The spider is not dangerous is not enough to change my emotion about it. My emotion changes when I act on that belief by picking the spider up without harm. Experiences teach us.

As a pastor, I need to remember that the lessons people learn by experience may be wounding or healing. For example, experience may have taught a church member that men or fathers or pastors are not to be trusted. This member may react to your shepherding in ways that are consistent with her past experience and have little to do with you. Understanding the wounds of experience can open up a pastor’s compassionate curiosity toward the sufferer.

Read it all.

My CT article is on the front page today:https://t.co/syfbF98VBi

— Matthew A. LaPine (@matthewalapine) May 25, 2021

There is both an audio and a video option.

Filming a new @RidleyInstitute course with Ashley Null and Bishop Fitz Allison @standrewsmp @The_ACNA pic.twitter.com/oEsXJp0fcy

— Bishop Steve Wood (@revstevewood) May 7, 2019

Cuthbert was present at Bede’s deathbed, and this is how he describes his death.

For nearly a fortnight before the Feast of our Lord’s Resurrection he was troubled by weakness and breathed with great difficulty, although he suffered little pain. Thenceforward until Ascension Day he remained cheerful and happy, giving thanks to God each hour day and night. He gave daily lessons to us his students, and spent the rest of the day in singing the psalms so far as his strength allowed. He passed the whole night in joyful prayer and thanksgiving to God, except when slumber overcame him; but directly he awoke, he continued to meditate on spiritual themes, and never failed to thank God with hands outstretched. I can truthfully affirm that I have never seen or heard of anyone who gave thanks so unceasingly to the living God as he.

O truly blessed man! He used to repeat the saying of the holy Apostle Paul, ‘It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God’, and many other sayings from holy scripture, and in this manner he used to arouse our souls by the consideration of our last hour. Being well-versed in our native songs, he described to us the dread departure of the soul from the body by a verse in our own tongue, which translated means: ‘Before setting forth on that inevitable journey, none is wiser than the man who considers – before his soul departs hence – what good or evil he has done, and what judgement his soul will receive after its passing’.

Read it all.

An eyewitness account of the death of Bede, whose feast is kept today: https://t.co/TW85xak6zh

'All who saw and heard of the death of our father Bede declared that they had never known anyone end his days in such deep devotion and peace.' pic.twitter.com/iDGNmy6Wbk

— Eleanor Parker (@ClerkofOxford) May 25, 2020

Heavenly Father, who didst call thy servant Bede, while still a child, to devote his life to thy service in the disciplines of religion and scholarship: Grant that as he labored in the Spirit to bring the riches of thy truth to his generation, so we, in our various vocations, may strive to make thee known in all the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Today is the feast of St Bede, historian and the only English Doctor of the Church. The young saint taught by St Benedict Biscop in 1990s glass by Goddard & Gibbs at St John, Felixstowe, and writing his history in Moira Forsyth's 1964 Benedictines window in Norwich Cathedral. pic.twitter.com/FFX7Jhq6an

— Simon Knott (@last_of_england) May 25, 2021

O Almighty God, who hast fulfilled thy word of promise, and from thy heavenly throne hast poured out upon thy Church the gift of the Holy Spirit: Open our hearts, we pray thee, to receive the fullness of his grace and power; that our lives may be strengthened for the service of thy kingdom, and our souls be conformed more and more to the image of thy Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Unsurprisingly, the Scriptures locate Mary with the Apostles at Pentecost. Already, she fulfills the mission given her shortly before at the Cross: "Woman, behold your son" (Jn 19:26). From Calvary, through the Upper Room, Mary extends her maternal care to all. #MaterEcclesiae pic.twitter.com/fatgdfyWqM

— Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, OP (@FrAquinasOP) May 24, 2021

Now the tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to hear him. And the Pharisees and the scribes murmured, saying, “This man receives sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it? And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ”˜Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep which was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek diligently until she finds it? And when she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, ”˜Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

–Luke 15:1-10

Come, Holy Spirit. #Pentecost pic.twitter.com/ZdUtjcC2U8

— Marlene T. Diaz (@academicknight) May 23, 2021