Photo of the Week

He will cover you with his feathers,
and under his wings you will find refuge;
his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.

You will not fear the terror of night,
nor the arrow that flies by day.

- Psalm 91:4-5

Quote of the Week

Truth, Lord: my conscience 

meriteth damnation, 

but no offense equals Thy compassion. 

Spare me therefore; 

because it is not unbefitting Thy justice, 

nor unwonted to Thy mercy, 

nor difficult to Thy power, 

to spare the penitent.
Blot out the number of my crimes, 

renew the multitude of Thy compassions. 

More canst Thou remit, than I commit; 

more canst Thou spare, than I offend. 

However unclean, Thou canst cleanse me;
however blind, enlighten me; 

however weak, restore me; 

yea, though dead, raise me. 

Of what kind soever I am, be it good or bad,

I am ever Thine.

- from the private devotions of Lancelot Andrewes, an Elizabethan-era British clergyman and scholar, and one of the translators of the KJV Bible

Part 2 of the Evangeliad Now Available!

I'm happy to announce that Part 2 of my Evangeliad (Come and See: Jesus Begins His Ministry) is now available in book form. It can be purchased from Amazon.com, as can the book form of Part 1 (To Love and to Save: The Story of the Nativity), which I released last year. Click the pictures below to be taken to the Amazon pages for each book.

 

A Two-Week Break from Blogging

I'm taking a two-week break from blogging while I produce the second installment of my Evangeliad in book form (available in early December). I'm also plugging away on a self-published re-release of my Hidden Kings trilogy. The normal schedule of blog posts will resume here on Monday, November 26.

Saturday Synaxis

Our God, may we lay hold of thy cross, as of a staff that can stand unshaken when the floods run high. It is this world and not another, this world with all its miseries - its ruin and its sin - that thou hast entered to redeem by thine agony and bloody sweat [...] O holy, merciful, all-forgiving redeemer, teach us more worthily to repent of the terror and horror of our fall, by the memory of that innocent gladness with which we should have gone with thee to the altar of God, to offer there [...] the unshrinking homage of a spotless heart! Amen.

- Henry Scott Holland

Photo of the Week

Full of kindness and compassion,

Slow to anger, vast in love,

Thou art good to all creation;

All Thy works Thy goodness prove.

- Verse 3 of "God My King, Thy Might Confessing," Hymn #191 from The Augustine Hymn Book, 1866

Quote of the Week

"It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and good people who have learned the great secret of life. They have found a joy and a wisdom which is a thousand times better than any of the pleasures of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are Christians…and I am one of them."

- Cyprian of Carthage, an early church father

Saturday Synaxis

Almighty God, maker of all things, thou hast placed thy creatures necessary for our use in diverse lands: grant that all peoples and nations, needing one another, may be knit together in one bond of mutual service, to share their diverse riches; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

- Anonymous prayer from the 16th century