In one of my books on the lives of saints, which I usually read in conjunction with the daily office, Mary Slessor was commemorated. She was a woman born into a working class Presbyterian family in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1848. In 1875 she went as a teacher to a mission in Calabar, Nigeria, where she served until her death in 1915. What struck me was a couple of phrases from Richard Symonds’ “Above Rubies” (about her life): ”Partly as a result of her lack of formal education, particularly in Presbyterian theology, Mary Slessor took a broad-minded view of local a beliefs and customs when she arrived in Calabar, and as a result acquired an unusual understanding of them.” ”Mary Slessor’s religion is quite as interesting as the work which it inspired. Although she recollected that as a girl ‘hell fire’ had driven her into the kingdom, she found it a kingdom of love and tenderness and mercy, and never sought to bring anyone into it by shock. ’Fear is not worship,’ she said, ‘nor does it honor God.’” (more…)
Saints
January 12, 2012
Saints and the spiritual walk
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Saints | Tags: Aelred of Rievaulx, by John Mangels, Daily Office, Mary Slessor, spiritual search, Urban T. Holmes III |Leave a Comment
November 9, 2011
All Saints’ Day Sermon
Posted by johnmangels under Communion, Personal, Saints, Sermons, St. George's | Tags: by John Mangels, Saints, Sermons, spiritual search |Leave a Comment
“… Do not go gentle into that good night
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”“Death be not proud, though some have called thee
Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so …
One short sleep past, we wake eternally,
and death shall be no more …”
I thought of these words, from Dylan Thomas and John Donne respectively, when my friend and colleague, Marcia, died just before this All Saints’ Day. I think they capture some of the tension I feel between my sense of loss and anger when someone dies and my belief in the promise of fullness of life with God in the communion of saints. (more…)
September 28, 2011
St. Michael and All Angels
Posted by johnmangels under Saints | Tags: by John Mangels, St. Michael and All Angels |Leave a Comment
So, it’s after dark, and I’m celebrating (the eve of) St. Michael and All Angels.
And the most useful thing I’ve read today comes from an old sermon of Gregory the Great (in Atwell and Webber’s Celebrating the Saints). He says: ”You should be aware that the word ‘angel’ denotes a function rather than a nature. (more…)
August 20, 2011
God in people and God in love
Posted by johnmangels under Saints | Tags: Bernard of Clairvaux, by John Mangels, Incarnation, Seeing God, William Porcher DuBose |Leave a Comment
Well, I continue to learn (or at least have my point of view challenged) by reading from and about the saints. (more…)
February 14, 2011
He is not in our calendar, but there really was a St. Valentine! Early sources, in fact, record two martyrs of this name, one claimed by Rome, one claimed by Terni, both martyred on the Flaminian Way. It seems likely we’re talking about the same person, and really only fighting about who gets to claim him.
There is no known association between Valentine and lovers. (more…)
January 24, 2011
Among the “Elect”?
Posted by johnmangels under Looking for God, Saints | Tags: by John Mangels, Grace |Leave a Comment
Read an excerpt from a commentary on Galatians by Augustine of Hippo this morning. In it, he talked about what it meant to be no longer under the law. (more…)
January 21, 2011
Agnes, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Redemptive Suffering
Posted by johnmangels under Saints | Tags: Agnes, Jr., Martin Luther King |Leave a Comment
Today is St. Agnes’ Day (and my wife’s birthday!). Guess which is more important to me? No contest! I do have to admit that honoring my wife’s birth on the day I also honor a consecrated virgin child’s martyrdom makes for odd juxtapositions in my mind. And I’ve always had some trouble getting behind St. Agnes. (more…)
September 29, 2010
St. Michael and All Angels
Posted by johnmangels under Church Year, Saints | Tags: by John Mangels, Saints, Sam Portaro, spiritual search, St. Michael and All Angels |[2] Comments
Do I believe in angels?
I found myself asking this question this morning as I prepared to read Matins in the church office. And I wasn’t sure I could answer the question.
Certainly I believe in angels in the root sense of the word, the idea that there are messengers from God. (more…)
September 27, 2010
Lancelot Andrewes
Posted by johnmangels under Saints | Tags: Lancelot Andrewes, Saints |Leave a Comment
Well, yesterday would have been the day we commemorate Lancelot Andrewes — if it had not been a Sunday. (more…)
September 3, 2010
Prudence Crandall
Posted by johnmangels under Saints | Tags: by John Mangels, Feminism, Inclusion, Prudence Crandall, Racism, spiritual search |Leave a Comment
Today we remember Prudence Crandall, who was born into a Quaker family in Rhode Island (and educated at a Friend’s boarding school since Friends believed in educating women). She started a school for girls in Connecticut attended by the daughters of the wealthy. Two years later, when she admitted Sarah Harris, a young African American girl, parents demanded that she be expelled. (more…)
