Baptismal Identity, Purpose, and Destiny
“Grant that we may share the divine life”
These words of spiritual wisdom are offered for your reflection. They join earlier postings on The Psalms and the Parish Church. Our friend Zoe is being baptized today. We invite you to pray for her as she enters into the fullness of life. May our Lord give her an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love God, and the gift of joy and wonder in all Gods works.[i]
Our vocation is not simply to be, but to work together with God in the creation of our own life, our own identity, our own destiny-to work out our own identity in God, which the Bible calls 'working out salvation " is a labor which requires sacrifice and anguish, risk and many tears. -Thomas Merton
“For stability means that I must not run away from where my battles are being fought, that I have to stand still where the real issues have to be faced. Obedience compels me to re- enact in my own life that submission of Christ himself, even though it may lead to suffering and death, and conversatio, openness, means that I must be ready to pick myself up, and start .all over again in a pattern of growth which will not end until the day of my final dying. And all the time the journey is based on that Gospel paradox of losing life and finding it...my goal is Christ.” – Esther deWaal
“The Lord has himself given us the time and space necessary to learn and put into practice the service love that He continues to teach us. In this school of His let us hope that following faithfully his instructions nothing distasteful or burdensome will be demanded of us, but if it has to be so in order to overcome our egoism and lead us into the depths of true love, let us not become disheartened nor frightened and so ignore the narrow path in spite of its tight entrance-that path which leads directly to the fulness of life”.- St. Benedict
“There is nothing a Christian can claim of personal significance. Everything that I am, that I do, everything that I have ultimately is corporate. ..If you stand out in a crowd it is only because you are standing on the shoulders of others.” - Desmond Tutu
To see thee is the End and the Beginning
Thou carriest me and thou goest before
Thou art the Journey and the journey’s End.
-Attributed to King Alfred
We never outgrow the need for forgiveness. We return to God over and over, and find an infinite wellspring of divine mercy awaiting us. By repeatedly jumping into this ocean of love, we become so saturated with divine compassion that we are able to “forgive those who sin against us” as we ourselves have been forgiven. - Julia Gatta
“You are sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ's own for ever.” - Book of Common Prayer
Many promising reconciliations have broken down because while both parties come prepared to forgive, neither party come prepared to be forgiven. - Charles Williams
Here once more we exhort our sons to take an active part in public life, and to work together for the benefit of the whole human race, as well as for their own political communities. It is vitally necessary for them to endeavor, in the light of Christian faith and with love as their guide, to ensure that every institution whether economic, social, cultural or political, be such as not to obstruct but rather to facilitate man's self betterment, both in the natural and in the supernatural order. And yet, if they are to imbue civilization with right ideals and Christian principles, it is not enough for our sons to be illumined by the heavenly light of faith and to be fired with enthusiasm for a cause; they must involve themselves in the work of these institutions, and strive to influence them effectively from within. -John XXIII
“When the Church baptizes a child, that action concerns me, for that child is thereby connected to that which is my head too, and ingrafted into that body whereof l am a member…No man is an island, entire of itself; every many is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…any man’s death dimishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” - John Donne
For the fully Christian life is a Eucharistic life: that is, a natural life conformed to the pattern of Jesus, given in its wholeness to God, laid on His altar as a sacrifice of love, and consecrated, transformed by His inpouring life, to be used to give life and food to other souls. -Evelyn Underhill
“Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.” - Baptismal rite, Book of Common Prayer
Thus the vocation of the baptized person is a simple thing: it is to live from day to day, whatever the day brings, in this extraordinary unity, in this reconciliation with all people and all things, in this knowledge that death has no more power, in this truth of the resurrection. It does not really matter exactly what a Christian does from day to day. What matters is that whatever one does is done in honour of one’s own life, given to one by God and restored to one in Christ, and in honour of the life into which all humans and all things are called. The only thing that really matters to live in Christ instead of death’. -William Stringfellow
‘The beginning and end of … life …….is in the waters of baptism and the power of God. It is a life shared with the whole people of God. A life that ties us to creation, history, death and resurrection. A life dependent on the Lord who delivers from sin and death, opens hearts to grace and truth, fills with the Spirit, keeps us in the holy Church, teaches us to love, sends us in witness, and brings us to the fullness of his peace and glory. We live in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This life we share with all his servants is a new life, a transformed life that is sustained in the Holy Spirit and offers us an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to persevere, a spirit to know and to love the Lord and the gift of joy and wonder in the Lord's works. This community is grounded in the reality of and commitment to the fullness of the ministry of all baptized people. All of this is a sharing in the eternal priesthood of Christ. It gives us, individually and corporately, our identity, purpose and destiny.” - Rule of the Order of the Ascension
Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees, takes off his shoes – The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries -Elizabeth Barrett Browning
“O God, who wonderfully created, and yet more wonderfully restored, the dignity of human nature: Grant that we may share the divine life of him who humbled himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” -Collect for the Second Sunday of Christmas, Book of Common Prayer
This abides,
Brother Robert, OA
The First Sunday of Advent, 2024
About Brother Robert, OA & Sister Michelle, OA
[i] Adapted from the Baptismal Rite, BCP