Blog Search Results

Fasting: A spiritual and physical discipline

...from the devil during His long fast (Matthew 4:1-11)! Learn to pray contemplative prayer to help keep your mind stilled and focused purely on God. Ps 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God!” This is an ancient type of Christian meditation which is the complete opposite to secular and Eastern religious meditation which aims to empty your mind. Christian meditation is about filling your mind with thoughts and reflections on and about God and Scripture – to really focus on a verse or passage of Scripture and to pray and wait on God in silence until you become aware of His presence and His voice (in whatever form that takes, ie. visions, pictures, wor...

Great Lent: The Season of Fasting

...from the devil during His long fast (Matthew 4:1-11)! Learn to pray contemplative prayer. Ps 46:10 – “Be still, and know that I am God!” This is an ancient type of Christian meditation which is the complete opposite to secular and Eastern religious meditation which aims to empty your mind. Christian meditation is about filling your mind with thoughts and reflections on and about God and Scripture – to really focus on a verse or passage of Scripture and to pray and wait on God in silence until you become aware of His presence and His voice (in whatever form that takes, i.e. visions, pictures, words etc.), and are filled with the Spirit who can reveal t...

Lent: Day 10 - Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans

...Day Ten: St. Ignatius of Antioch: Letter to the Smyrnaeans (full text) Who: Ignatius converted at a young age and later became Bishop of Antioch. A friend of Polycarp and fellow disciple of John, there is a long standing tradition that Ignatius was the child that Jesus held in his arms and blessed in Mark 10:13-16 What: A defence against the heresy of Docetism and an intriguing insight into the possible origins of evil spirits! Why: Ignatius wrote a series of letters to the churches in Asia Minor whilst en route to Rome to face martyrdom by wild beasts in the Colosseum around 108 AD. When: Around 107-108 AD The opening chapters of this letter pulls no punc...

Lent: Day 12 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 1-11

...maybe “evil rumours” which were doing the rounds. Justin argues that even with convicted criminals, they at least investigate the claims before punishing that person, but in the case of Christians, they only “receive the name as proof” against them, which is unjust. The Emperor’s sons were philosophers, which in Greek and Roman times was more like a profession, since it had its own clothing style to display this (similar to how you'd recognise a vicar today by the white dog collar). To this end, Justin argues that there are those who wear the “garb” of philosophers, but who “do nothing worthy of their profession”, yet not all philosophers ar...

Lent: Day 13 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 12-23

...e and the evil and wicked things they once did and loved, they now do the opposite of: …we who formerly delighted in fornication, but now embrace chastity alone … we who valued above all things the acquisition of wealth and possessions, now bring what we have into a common stock… But in case it would seem that he is “reasoning sophistically”, Justin wants to present quotes from Christ's teaching to prove that “He was no sophist, but His word was the power of God”! For clarity, since words have changed meaning over time or fallen into disuse, being a “sophist” and speaking “sophistically” was a form of teaching and arguing in Greek ph...

Lent Day 26: Athanasius: Life of Anthony: Chaps. 51-60

...s against evil thoughts, “thus fashioning ourselves we shall be able to keep the body in subjection, to please the Lord, and to trample on the devices of the enemy”. Miracles of healing that the Lord did through Anthony Anthony would spend a lot of his time praying with those who suffered, and sometimes those with illnesses would receive healing. But he taught not to boast if they were, and not to mutter if they weren’t, but to rejoice in all things and to be patient because “healing belonged neither to him nor to man at all, but only to the Lord” and God would do good to those he chose, when he chose to, and “those who were healed were taught not...