Tag Archives: disciplines

The Jesus Creed 1

By Scott | Published: August 9, 2010
Since I just finished posting my reflections on one of Scot McKnight’s books, Praying with the Church, I decided to go ahead and post my series of reflections on the first of his books that I read, The Jesus Creed: Loving God, Loving Others. I’ve read the book a number of times over the years [...]
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Praying with the Church 11 – Following Jesus Daily, Hourly, Today

By Scott | Published: August 6, 2010
These are reflections on Scot McKnight‘s book, Praying with the Church, that I wrote and shared with a small circles of friends in 2006. I’ve decided to publish them here only lightly edited. Since they are four years old, they don’t necessarily reflect exactly what I would say today, but they do accurately capture my [...]
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Four Hundred Texts on Love (Second Century) 14

By Scott | Published: July 8, 2010
39.  The person who has come to know the weakness of human nature has gained experience of divine power. Such a man, having achieved some things and eager to achieve others through this divine power, never belittles anyone. For he knows that just as God has helped him and freed him from many passions and [...]
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Four Hundred Texts on Love 22

By Scott | Published: May 18, 2010
79.  Almsgiving heals the soul’s incensive power; fasting withers sensual desire; prayer purifies the intellect and prepares it for the contemplation of created beings. For the Lord has given us commandments which correspond to the powers of the soul. This text is interesting to me on several levels. For those who don’t often engage with [...]
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Evangelical Is Not Enough 4

By Scott | Published: February 5, 2010
The fourth chapter of Thomas Howard’s book, Prayer: Random or Discipline?, is devoted to his encounter with the Christian discipline of corporate set prayers that began when he returned to the University of Illinois for graduate studies. He began attending the daily Office of Evening Prayer at a small chapel across the street. He describes [...]
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The Didache 34 – Watch For Your Life’s Sake

By Scott | Published: July 14, 2009
This series is reflecting on the Didache if you want to read it separately. Today we reach the end of the Teaching and the conclusion of this series. Watch for your life’s sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ready, for you know not the hour in which our [...]
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Not the Fast I’ve Chosen – Part 6

By Scott | Published: May 13, 2009
This post in the series should wrap up the meandering thread I’ve been tracing through the story of my life. For no discussion of encounters with fasting communities could ever be complete without discussing Orthodoxy. Somehow, in all my wide-ranging study, modern Orthodoxy still managed to catch me off-guard. Like many, at least in the [...]
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Not the Fast I’ve Chosen – Part 5

By Scott | Published: May 12, 2009
As my efforts to understand this Christian faith within which I found myself continued, I kept reading both the Holy Scriptures and patristic writings from the first millenium. Nowhere could I find a change from the core communal practices of fasting, set prayer, and care for the sick and poor (at the very least through [...]
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