For some readers the Liturgical Calendar like the prefix "St." is scary and reminscent of the Inquisition, Clerical sex-scandals, and everything they hate about religion in general. However, in years past, more and more people with that initial gut reaction have been rethinking their own positions, and have warmed to words like "Lent" and "Advent". I remember first … [Read more...]
St. Irenaeus of Lyons
Today is the feast of St. Irenaeus of Lyons, one of the most important early Christian writers. He was an apologist for the faith and wrote a famous work called "Against Heresies". This lengthy work is very early and so many apologists of modern confession positions (Catholics & Protestants) use it to prove their own system. Just look at one section. In Book III, … [Read more...]
St. Cyril of Alexandria
Today Christ's Church commemorates the feast of St. Cyril of Alexandria, leaving many to ask: Who was St. Cyril? Where is Alexandria? Why do weird popish - baby dunking - Christians like Andrew celebrate him? Besides the obvious reason that he's slavishly devoted to men in robes, candles, and chants. Well: -St. Cyril expelled the Novationists from Alexandria. What's a … [Read more...]
Church of Finland
Today a great spiritual father of my church said farewell and was heading back to Finland. In light of this, I'd thought it worth doing a little research into the history of Finnish Church and see what interesting stories lay hid. I found it fascinating that until 1889 there were laws against Nonconformity in matters of religion, everyone had to be a member of the Lutheran … [Read more...]
Childermas / Feast of the Holy Innocents
St. Stephen is called the protomartyr, meaning first martyr, but today's feast day seems to call that into question.I first read about today's feast day in Charles Dicken's "Hard Times" (which I only got to about p. 10 in... but I'm still doing good in that course) it's today (according to my Liturgy of the Hours book), and I found it a fascinating feast.It is in commemoration … [Read more...]