I assure you there is fire in that chalice, divine fire, the very blood of God who was made Man. There are angels all around this altar standing in awe at the great miracle. That the Glorified Crucified Lord of Heaven and Earth is with us not just Spiritually but bodily and we take him into ourselves, we eat his flesh and drink his blood and we do not even realize what we do but with some measure of fear and trepidation and joy we do it in faith.

The enemy offers a faux power, it is a power which destroys and tears down and leads to emptiness and annihilation. The power of the Spirit creates and builds up and makes something out of nothing. You have received the Eternal Spirit as your friend and comforter he who hovered over the waters in the beginning and formed the structures and order of the cosmos is in you in the most intimate way. Do you not think He is capable of ordering your life? Of making something beautiful? Is your sin and dysfunction so great that the One who set the boundaries of the seas cannot make something of your life?

Not only priest and victim He is also King and Ruler of all. And all of this as God made Man, as your elder brother as your new and true Father-Adam in whom your humanity is ransomed, crowned, and fulfilled.

How important is faith? Without it you cannot be pleasing to God. Faith is what compels you to go search for God because you believe that He exists and that He will reward you with delectable delights if you chase Him down and catch Him.

Jesus endured His cross was glorified, made immortal and went home to majesty while we remain in the polluted world that killed him and wants to kill us. This could be taken as a negative but Jesus says it is for our good and to our advantage that He go away so that He might send another comforter who will not only be with us but in us and be the instrument that will enable us to follow Jesus thru the cross into resurrection-immortality-eternal glory-union with God.

Your potential for Joy or despair depends on one thing and that is how close you are to Jesus. He has made Himself known to us in various ways, there is a way, a door, to Him if we avail ourselves. But we must also realize that there is an insidious enemy which seeks to prevent us from passing thru that door, this enemy above all else wants to keep us from being close to Jesus.

“You were sheep gone astray but now are returned to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.”

The image of shepherd and sheep is a life defining metaphor for St. Peter. As he writes the words no doubt St. Peter has in mind his encounter with the Risen Christ some 30 years earlier. It was an early morning on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, an encounter St. Peter would never forget.

Easter I, 2019

Good Friday 2019

Maundy Thursday 2019