From the Archives: How I Found a Way Out of My Spiritual Desert

3rd October, 2016

Acedia

Over the centuries, Christians everywhere have experienced an apathy of body, mind, and spirit. From the monk who keeps checking the time until the day is over to the college student who aimlessly surfs the internet all day, this apathy can affect anyone, regardless of their spiritual maturity.

This spiritual and physical apathy is called acedia. Acedia isn’t quite depression, as there are a few differences. Some might call it a “spiritual desert,” but it feels deeper than that. First, acedia is a distinct lack of feeling anything. There’s no happiness, no sadness, no anger – just apathy, about everything. Second, there’s no apparent cause. With depression, a cause – either biology or trauma – can be found. The person who suffers from acedia doesn’t care about anything, doesn’t care that he doesn’t care, and often doesn’t care to find a solution.

From the Archive: Understanding Holiness

Zach Perkins

26th September, 2016

Theology

“Holiness is not simply righteousness, for which the righteous merit the enjoyment of blessedness in the Kingdom of God, but rather such a height of righteousness that men are filled with the grace of God to the extent that it flows from them upon those who associate with them. Great is their blessedness; it proceeds from personal experience of the Glory of God. Being filled also with love for men. Which proceeds from the love of God, they are responsive to men’s needs, and upon their supplication they appear also as intercessors and defenders for them before God.”¹St. John the Wonderworker

When I first read this, it helped me understand holiness a bit better. There’s a difference between maintaining an aesthetic of holiness versus actually being consumed by God and thus being made holy through union with Him. It is not of works that I may boast, but through the grace given to me through Jesus Christ. I am the chief of sinners and unworthy of such a gift from God, but He has allowed me to enter into it because He has reconciled me to Himself through Christ. It is the true aim of any Christian’s life, but we will not fully know it for ourselves until we are standing toe to toe with the Holiest of Holies.

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St. John the Wonderworker

The Lord’s Prayer: Relying on God

Adam Thrash

23rd September, 2016

Theology

Matthew 6:11

Give us this day our daily bread

Luke 11:3

Give us each day our daily bread

Perhaps one of the hardest parts of the Lord’s Prayer is the petition to God to give us our daily bread. This petition brings with it several troubling questions that, as far as I know, may not have answers that satisfy everyone. Given that the earlier parts of this series have attempted to establish reasons to trust God and have faith Him, there’s not much else to say about why we can trust Him for provision. We’ve already decided that we honor Him because of His past actions and desire His will because we have faith in His future actions.

The Lord’s Prayer: Desiring God’s Will

Adam Thrash

9th September, 2016

Theology

Matthew 6:10

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Luke 11:2

Your kingdom come.

There are many different wills in the world that we can desire. First and foremost, we can desire our own wills; I can decide that what I want is what is best for me to do. I can decide to follow the advice of those wiser than me, which is not always a bad idea. I can do what people around me do. Or I can desire that God’s will be done in the world and in my life. Why should we do that, beyond the simple answer of “because he’s God?”

The Lord’s Prayer: Honoring the Father

Adam Thrash

2nd September, 2016

Theology

Recorded in both Matthew and Luke, the Lord’s Prayer is the prayer given to the disciples by Jesus. In Matthew, the prayer is given as part of a larger teaching; in Luke, it is given in response to the disciples’ request that Jesus teach them how to pray. This prayer still unites Jesus’s disciples today. Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians all use it as part of their service. Every time they meet together, they pray the Lord’s Prayer together, as it was meant to be prayed. Notice that the Lord’s Prayer is not, “My Father” but “Our Father” – it’s meant to be prayed in community with other disciples of Christ.

My particular interest in the Lord’s Prayer comes from a saying of the Church – lex orandi, lex credendi, or as it is sometimes seen, lex orandi, lex credendi, lex vivendi. The first phrase roughly means “As we pray, so we believe.” The second phrase takes it one step further to say, “As we pray, so we believe; as we believe, so we live.” The Church has always understood prayer to have a formative effect upon the person who prays. That’s why there are prayers that are meant to be said again and again and again, like the Rosary. Repetition of prayers molds our minds, so that we can train our souls to pray. Much like we train our bodies and form our muscle memory, so do we teach our souls how to pray, even when we don’t feel like it.

From the Archives: Why I Pray the Lord’s Prayer

Arni Zachariassen

29th August, 2016

Theology

I don’t think I ever prayed the Lord’s Prayer until I was in my twenties.

I grew up in a church environment that wasn’t only non-liturgical, but was so self-consciously and deliberately. I won’t bore you too much with the details, but to a notable degree the Plymouth Brethren free church I grew up in developed and maintained its identity in more or less conscious opposition to the established Lutheran church across the road. What they did, we didn’t do.

Liturgy was one of the things we didn’t do. Liturgy, and the Lord’s Prayer. Thinking back over my almost 30 years in that church, I can only remember hearing the Lord’s Prayer recited once. And that guy was rebuked immediately after the service.

The Lord’s prayer was not something to recite; it was a pattern to be emulated and creatively employed. Every prayer should touch all the bases laid out in the Lord’s prayer: Praise, supplication, confession, and so on. Actually reciting it would go against what Jesus intended by teaching us the prayer. Recitation was empty words. Being Spirit-led meant being spontaneous and authentic. And unlike those Lutherans, we were Spirit-led.

Mariology: More Than an Assumption?

Jeff Shott and Collin Szatkowski

15th August, 2016

Theology

Preface

The knowledgeable Mr. Szatkowski and I are writing today in celebration of a most holy Feast day, that of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. In doing so, we hope to express—with the utmost respect and reverence—just why it is that Our Blessed Mother holds such a special place not only in our hearts, but in the hearts of millions of others, as well as in the doctrine of the Church (which, we feel, is based on much more than mere assumptions). This article will be formatted so as to first cover some introductory Mariological theory before moving on to discuss the benefits of Marian devotion as it relates to everyday practice. Part I will cover how it is that we find Our Lady revealed in Scripture, specifically how she was typologically prefigured in the Old Testament and what this means in the light of the New Testament. Then, in Part II, Mr. Szatkowski will delve into the importance and beneficial nature of devotion to the Virgin Mary as it applies to the daily life of a practicing Catholic. We thank those who take the time to read our work, and hope that it is found to be engaging and informative.

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