spirituality

The idea of storytelling has come up more than once in this series so far. The Gloria for example worships God through an overview of salvation history. And we’ve seen how even the form of the service itself in some traditions is way of telling the story of Jesus. But nowhere is the liturgical storytelling … Continue reading How We Tell Our Story: Anaphorae

Across all historical Christian liturgical traditions, the Eucharistic celebration is divided up into two sections, the liturgy of the Word (focused on reading and teaching of the Scriptures), and the liturgy of the Eucharist itself. And across all of these traditions, since at least the third century, the Eucharistic rite has been prefaced with the … Continue reading Hearts Lifted High: The Sursum Corda

The other year when I was writing my series on the Sermon on the Mount, an idea that came up was that Christianity is an anti-religion. That is to say, religion as a phenomenon seems to tend towards behaviour-control, legalism, finger-pointing, and self-righteousness. This seems like something of a built-in default setting in our bruised … Continue reading God’s Sabbath Will: A Reflection on John 9

When I wrote last week about the prayer of general confession found the Book of Common Prayer’s Morning Prayer service, I mentioned an interaction I had with a  woman who used it for her justification for preserving Morning Prayer over the Eucharist as the primary Anglican liturgical service. While it is indeed a beautiful prayer, … Continue reading Thought, Word, and Deed: General Confession, Holy Eucharist

One of the things I enjoy about older forms of liturgy is how they are designed to tell the Christian story, through both their words and their actions. Nowhere is this better demonstrated in my experience than in the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which is the main Eucharistic liturgy used in the Eastern … Continue reading Blessing and Blessed: The Antiphons