Author: Adam
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First Stop – Reims
Reims was the first stop on our cathedral pilgrimage as we journeyed counterclockwise around the Île-de-France. Reims is the birthplace of Christianity in France. Around the year 500 A.D. Clovis, king of the Franks, was baptized here by Saint Remi, the Bishop of Reims. This started the tradition of the kings of France being crowned…
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Preparing for a Pilgrimage
Once we decided to do a cathedral pilgrimage we had to choose the location and extent of our journey. Columbia University’s Mapping Gothic showed us that our task would not be an exhaustive one. We were going to have to be selective. Since the Gothic style was invented in the Île-de-France (the region surrounding Paris)…
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A Cathedral Pilgrimage
A pastor once told me that his ministry was becoming less liturgical and traditional which was allowing him to be more sensitive to the Holy Spirit’s work. As a protestant monastic community our journey has been the exact opposite. We have tried to plumb the depths of the Christian tradition, taking on a more liturgical…
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Reconciliation – God is reconciled to us
“Reconciliation, a central theme in the New Testament, primarily has to do not with our attitude toward God but with God’s attitude toward us and our wrongdoing.” John Goldingay What’s interesting about Goldingay’s quote and his work on reconciliation is that it’s so relational. The finished work of Christ is finished because God has overcome the…
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Tension and Release
In Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov, the youngest brother, Alexey, is a novice in the local monastery serving as an aid to the revered monk, Father Zossima. From his long hours attending Father Zossima, Alexey compiles notes of the saint’s reflections and life story. Before becoming a monk, Zossima served as an officer in…
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Lived their way into a new kind of thinking
“Christian leaders assumed that people did not think their way into a new life; they lived their way into a new kind of thinking.” Alan Kreider, in his excellent two books, The Change of Conversion and the Origin of Christendom and The Patient Ferment of the Early Church, shows us that early church leaders focussed…
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Bodies
The following is from our friend and mentor, Alec Brooks. You can read more about Alec and his work at Charis International. At the last supper, Jesus says to the disciples as he gives them the bread, “This is my body which is given for you.” It is interesting to note that he did this…
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Wedding Message
Recently, we celebrated the wedding of my oldest son and his girlfriend, both members in our community. I was privileged to give this homily on that wonderful day. Trier, Germany, a city with an ancient history is situated on the banks of the Moselle river in the important Moselle wine region and is located near…
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The Revelation of God is the Cross
“The revelation of God is the cross. This is the image in which we are to be transformed and this can only take place in the context of relationships.” – Alec Brooks
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Haikus
One tenet of our membership covenant is: Uphold the standard of a Christ-honoring environment On one of our previous retreats we focussed on this tenet. As an exercise we came up with haikus to capture the meaning of it. Here are few of them: With entertainment Proactivity is key Think through your choices – Margie…