There are many reasons we don’t pray. Likely you’re familiar with the common ones: I don’t have time, I forget, I find it boring, I get distracted, I don’t know what to say. And by describing them like this, I don’t mean to dismiss them. These are significant barriers for some. Another reason not to…

Let [a bishop] therefore, if it is possible, be well educated; but if he be unlettered, let him at any rate be skilful in the word, and of competent age. Apostolic Constitutions, II.1 (~375AD). From the Complete Ante-Nicene & Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Collection, Kindle edition, loc. 138659. It was apparently not considered essential,…

I just finished Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written in 731 by the Venerable Bede, who was a Northumbrian monk. (Don’t forget to read the primary sources!) Michael Haykin considers Bede as the last of the Church Fathers. This is the first of a few thoughts on Bede and his History. Uniformity of practice.…

I have found as a tutor in English Literature that if the average student wants to find out something about Platonism, the very last thing he thinks of doing is to take a translation of Plato off the library shelf and read the Symposium. He would rather read some dreary modern book ten times as…

Collects are the beautiful, short prayers most associated (at least in the English-speaking world) with the Book of Common Prayer. I’ve been praying this one over the last few days. I’d really recommend delving into the BCP and incorporating some of the collects into your prayer life. Grant, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy…