Jesus is Lord. He is our God and King. It is a privilege to know Him and to serve Him.

Chimay

Thanks to Spec's for providing us with boxes for the move. Stopped by there today for some, and ended up leaving with more. Belgian Trappist monks brew a very good beer -- Chimay. They had a special package there today -- 3 beers and a glass (Chimay on it), and a small pamphlet introducing the reader to the Trappists in Belgium -- who they are, their prayer and service, and the history of, and why they brew beer. Of course, I enjoyed one of the bottles this evening. I also picked Shirley up a funny card and white chocolate candy bar (her favorite) there, as we are enjoying quite a bit of stress lately.

We've prepared inserts for the invitations -- they have a map to the church where the wedding will be held, and an email address to r.s.v.p. We cut those tonight and are praparing them to be mailed this evening.



Pax,
Br. Francis

Comments

I want to let you know--if you'd like to comment on any of the posts here, feel free to do so. While I don't want theological debate, or debate about anything really, your thoughts are welcome. Please feel free to comment. If you disagree or want to add something, feel free. All I ask is that you do it in a kindly manner. There are places on the web to discuss and debate the current Anglican crisis (I read them!), and obviously they have their place. Any dialogue we have here, I'd like it to be positive. So, again--post a comment if you'd like. Had a brother post a while back, and I enjoyed talking with hm. I welcome fellowship here on the web.

Pax Christi.



Br. Francis

Hermitage of St. Francis in the Woodland Heights

Spent part of the morning packing and throwing stuff out. Stacked the boxes of packed books back in the closet, ready to be moved. Got about a quarter of the books packed. Will have to spend a couple of days this next week getting the rest done and ready to move the first load to OKC. Shirley has a lot packed, but more yet to do. We would appreciate your prayers as we try to get everything done before the wedding and move. The stress levels have been getting pretty high. But our God has it all in His hand.

Oklahoma City. Jerusalem. Mecca. God's Country. THE place to be. OK, I'm having a little fun here, but truthfully--wherever God calls you, that is the best place in the world. He has called us there. And, while we enjoy Him and see His hand here, we are excited about getting there and seeing Him move there. It's coming pretty quickly.

As I looked around the hermitage this morning while I was packing, I grew a little nostalgic. God has been very good to me here. It has been my favorite place of all the places I've lived. I've enjoyed the Presence of my Lord Jesus here for four years. And yet, the time I have much-anticipated is finally here: the move to OKC to be with my Order. What I wonderful surprise that Shirley is now with me. What a sweet gift from our God. I was settled in the idea of celibacy. But God had other ideas. I am very thankful that he brought Shirley into my life, and that we get to share our life together.


So -- Oklahoma, here we come. Abraham, we follow behind you, our brother.



Br. Francis

Mercy House 2

I am very happy with what the Lord has provided for us. The house that will be our new hermitage has a large living room and kitchen (make that ROOMY kitchen--two people can easily move around it it). It has a room that we think will work for a Music Room/Library (yeah!) and three bedrooms. It also has a storm shelter and a shed in the backyard. (Storm shelter bcause we'll be in Tornado Country. Was the Van Halen song in the "Twister" movie "Humans Being"? I think so. The line in the song is -- "Shine on, shine on!" That's what we want to do when we get there.)

I am very humbled and thankful tonight as I consider where God is leading us.


Br. Francis

Mercy House

The Lord directed last weekend, and we have found in OKC what will be our new home--Mercy House hermitage. We have been packing, but now we've stepped it up, and are packing in earnest now!

So, how is the planning coming? Invitations are about to go out (finally...!). One more meeting with the wedding folks at the church. Need another usher. Waiting for the musician to get back with me. Finally getting back with the travel agent about the honeymoon. Lotta stuff, and I have felt pretty stressed from time to time. Yet, our God is good. And He is blessing. We are happy and excited.


Br. Francis

Catholic

People have asked me a few times in the past few years, "Why would you call yourself 'catholic'? Don't catholics believe in salvation by works, and worship Mary and the saints? You don't believe in all that, do you?"

Of course not. What I do believe is that, in the early Church, you were either catholic or a heretic. Catholic then meant believing in Christ for salvation, saved by his grace, and in the teachings of the apostles (what they wrote in our Bibles). It also meant keeping the traditions that the apostles taught (also recorded in Scripture)--of a weekly Eucharist, fellowshipping, praying prayers and breaking bread from house to house (which included the agape meal and a liturgical Eucharist). By that definition, I am catholic.

I have a friend who is an orthodox, evangelical believer, who would not call himself catholic. We have talked often about the word "catholic." I have maintained in our discussions that "catholic" also means "interdenominational". Now, follow me here. According to our definition above, all baptized, orthodox (doctrinally) believers in every branch of the Church are catholic, whether they would call themselves that or not. So by that, we can see that catholic and interdenominational are synonymous.

The word "catholic" was defined by Vincent of Lerins as what has always been believed, by all, everywhere. The apostolic teaching. The basic beliefs of our faith that we all believe.

I am a part of that family of the catholic Church that we call "Anglican" or "Anglo-catholic"--that branch of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church that developed in the British Isles. (Most of our churches in the U.S. came out of that part of the Church--and retain part of it in their life today, in varying degrees.)

I don't normally walk around and tell everyone that I am catholic--they would naturally understand me as saying that I am Roman Ratholic, which I am not. I usually answer that I am a Christian--and hope and pray that they see it in my life. And I hope and pray the same for you.

What's important, I think, is not that we label ourselves--or hopefully not have an inordinate amount of pride in our denomination (or lack of one)--but that we believe in Jesus, and live our lives for Him, believing in what is recorded in Scripture. We should not allow our differences in what we believe--whether we can lose our salvation, in gifts of the Spirit, eschatology, structure of the Church, and etc.--to keep us from sharing the life that is in Jesus, fellowshipping, worshipping, and serving Him together.


Blessings,
Br. Francis

Woohoo! and church stuff

7 weeks from now, Shirley and I will make covenant with our Lord and receive the Sacrament of Marriage. We are excited, but at the same time we're tired from wedding planning. We have one meeting left with the wedding coordinator and the food person, still have the honeymoon to plan (waiting for the travel agent to call me back...!), and invitations to mail. We're working on getting housing and work in OKC, as well.

Our small monastic church there is called the Chapel of St. Francis, and Shirley and I are looking forward to weekly worship there. If you are in the OKC area, we welcome you. We are a small, friendly group, centrally located, and dress is casual. We also have a parish in the Tulsa area. Please feel free to call or email Abbot Jim for service times and locations.

We are evangelical--the Blble is God's Word to us, inerrant and infallible, and to be read, taught, and obeyed. Jesus Christ is our Lord and God, He is the way, the truth, and the life, and worthy to be worshiped and for us to fully give our lives to. His suffering and death on the cross and resurrection made the way for us to have relationship to Himself (salvation!) and we are to share Him with the world, in our words and lives.

We are a charismatic church--we believe in the life of the Holy Spirit (see the book of Acts) and His gifts. We believe the gifts are here now as they were in the New Testament, and that the Spirit, as Paul wrote, gives gifts to whom He wills. (We don't believe a person has to speak in tongues to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Some would call us "mildly charismatic.")

We are a liturgical and sacramentalchurch--we worship with a written order of service, which is commonly called a "liturgy," and believe in the sacraments of the early Church.

"Liturgy" means "the work of the people," i.e. the "work" we do in worshipping God. Ancient Israel, the Lord Jesus, and the early Church worshipped using a written liturgy. We have used liturgies for Eucharist from the 1928 and 1979 prayer books, the New Zealand Prayer Book, and from the ancient Hippolytus liturgy. For Morning and Evening Prayer we have used the '28 and '79, and now use the St. Augustine Prayer Book for public and private prayer. Arguments have been presented against using a written liturgy--that it stifles the flow of the Spirit. The early Church enjoyed the flow of the Spirit while using a written liturgy, and liturgy with spontaneous prayer and praise is a beautiful combination.

The early Church believed in and practiced seven sacraments. A "sacrament" is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace of God, and a means by which He brings that grace into our lives (from the definition by St. Augustine). Two main--Baptism and the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, as it was called ("Eucharist" means "thanksgiving.")

Historically, the Church has believed that Baptism brings an infant or young child into the Church and into covenant relationship to God and His people, and brings His grace and forgiveness to work in the child's life (see Acts 16 for two examples of household baptism when one parent becomes a believer). The parents publicly promise, with the help of God and His Church, to bring the child up in the Lord--then the child must choose: receive the Lord into his/her life and live for Him, or reject the Lord and the faith he/she was baptized in and brought up in. If a believing child, teen, or adult, Baptism is a profession of faith--a public promise to live for the Lord. Receiving Christ brings His life, forgiveness and grace into our lives, and Baptism officially and publicly completes that initial faith in Christ, bringing His grace and forgiveness, as well.

Eucharist is a sharing in the life of Jesus, in His Body and Blood. Historically, the Church has taught the apostolic teaching of the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist. Over the centuries, there have been many debates as to how that specifically works. We don't have an official position--other than to say that it is more than a memorial or symbol (it is both of these--yet more)--in some way we are receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. We receive Jesus into our lives, and have His life in us, and also receive Him in a different and special way in the Eucharist. The first-century Church offered it often--at the minimum weekly each Sunday, and often during the week, as well. Most of the Church today believes we enjoy His Presence in a special way when we partake, and are strengthened in our faith and our life in Him. The Scriptures or the early Church didn't require confession of sins to a priest before partaking, and neither do we. It is always an option, but what is required is confession to the Lord and receiving His forgiveness before we partake. It is part of our liturgy to pray together a General Confession, at which time we may silently confess any known sins to the Lord, and then receive absolution from the priest--a declaration and assurance that our sins our forgiven by the Lord. We believe in our spiritual lives being centered around the Eucharist, which we receive often, and daily Morning and Evening Prayer.

Confirmation is God's grace in the filling of the Spirit and giving His gifts, based on the practice of the apostles to lay hands on the newly-professed believers--as we see in Acts. We see there that the apostles ensured the uniform beliefs of those Christians, and prayed for them to be filled with the Spirit, which imparted and/or stirred up gifts in those believers. The apostles handed the practice to the bishops they ordained, and bishops confirm today in accord with that ancient teaching and practice. The bishop prays for the believer to be filled with and strengthened in the Spirit, it is a public profession of faith for that believer, and it is normally the final step for the initial receiving of the believer into the full life of the Church (faith, baptism, confirmation). Today there is instruction in the basics of the faith before the bishop confirms--churches call this catechism class, new member class, discovery class, confirmation class, etc.

Reconciliation/Forgiveness is God giving His forgiveness and grace to a repentant believer, either in public worship, or in private confession to a priest.

Unction/Healing is God's grace to heal and restore mentally, physically, or spiritually. It is often given when someone is near death, but also at any time when healing is needed.

Holy Matrimony or Marriage is God's grace to a man and woman for them to live together in a covenant relationship with Him and each other. Marriage has always been, Scripturally and historically in the Church, between a man and a woman only. We believe that Christ offers forgiveness--so that a believer who caused a divorce, even if they committed adultery, if that person is repentant, may be forgiven by Christ and restored to full life in His Church (including receiving Eucharist), and allowing that believer to remarry.

Holy Orders/Ordination is grace from God for men and women to minister in specific functions in His Church--bishops, priests, and deacons. After academic preparation (seminary or "reading" for Orders under a bishop), a person is ordained (set apart) by a bishop through the laying on of hands. We ordain men as bishops, priests, and deacons, and women as deacons, according to Scripture and apostolic practice.

We believe in apostolic succession--in an unbroken line of ordinations back to the apostles, and the grace that comes through that ordination. The apostles themselves taught this in Scripture--they wrote of ordaining faithful men who would then teach and ordain faithful men, unsuring the correct faith being taught and perpetuated. Those ordained by the apostles, and those they ordained and so on in the next couple of generations (we call these the "Church Fathers"), wrote of this and practiced it, as well. Simply put, it is the ordination of the faithful by the faithful so that the apostolic faith may be carried to the next generation. What do we say about ministers not believing in or ordained in apostolic succession? Unfortunately, ordination in apostolic succession doesn't atomatically guarantee Scriptural teaching or a holy life from those ordained--we see examples of this in Church history and today. After the Reformation, many groups rejected apostolic succession due to this, and/or from their perspective that they don't see it in Scripture. We understand that, and recognize as ministers those ordained in every faithful branch of the Church, and pray for God's blessing on them as they minister to the Church and to the world.

I see us as a welcoming and friendly group. Because we have the monastic base, I think we feel more like family than just a church. If you haven't found a church in which to be a part, come worship with us. You are welcome wherever you are on your spiritual journey. We welcome you to worship and pray with us while we're still here in Houston, and in OKC if you're in that area.

And wherever you are, we're here to pray with and for you, help you along on your spiritual journey, help you to bring monastic practice into your life should you wish, and introduce you to the Order of St. John the Beloved, should you believe you are called. We have Oblates (friends of the order, unvowed), and vowed monks and nuns--single, celibate, and married.

Let's share the life of the Lord Jesus Christ together.


Br. Francis

OKC move

As I've shared before here, the calling of the Lord is for Shirley and I to move to Oklahoma City after the wedding. Although the intention of the Order is to eventually buy property in which we'll be able to have a monastic community, the core of our order currently lives in OKC. So we are looking for rental property there, in the Warr Acres area, preferably near N. Portland Ave.

If you have, or know someone who has a duplex, house, or 3-bedroom apartment for rent in that area, please email and let me know. Thanks. br.francis@yahoo.com


Br. Francis

October music

I "retired" from the band Stage Dive on the 1st of September, so Shirley and i would have all the itme we needed to prepare for our wedding. They had a good show last week at the 19th Hole in the Woodlands, with their new drummer Joe. I'm hearing he's a good drummer (have seen some video-he is a good drummer) and has well-learned our music. And I, of course, wish him and the band all the best.

But I already miss playing with them. I am not currently playing at church either, so I am really missing playing. I remember the Chariots of Fire movie when Eric Liddel said, "When I run I can feel His pleasure." There is something similar that happens when a musician plays his/her instrument(s). It is truly a spiritual experience -- a sacramental thing, if you will. Now note that I did not say it WAS a sacrament--an outward and visible sign of the grace of God, and a way by which He gives that grace to us. We, like the ancient Church, believe there are 2 main sacraments--baptism and the Eucharist; and 5 others, confirmation, forgiveness, healing, marriage, orders (ordination). But anything in Creation can be sacramental, i.e. there is something about that thing or action that, while we are enjoying or doing that thing, we feel closer to the Lord, and feel His strength, joy, and peace. Music is that way for me, especially playing it.

Was on Kerry Livgren's and KANSAS' web sites last night--really love their music. I enjoy the mix of rock and classical.

When we get to OKC, I am looking forward to putting together a new musical effort.


Br. Francis

Close

We nearly have everything ready for the wedding. I was thinking today just how close we are. The wedding and OKC is around the corner. It's a great feeling to know that you are doing what the Lord has asked you to do. I've done both--either said no or not now, and yes. Saying no or not now eventually catches up with us. We cannot expect the full blessing from the Lord when we know He has led us to do something, and we find all kinds of excuses to not do it. I'm thinking about Moses when the Lord called him to lead Israel to the Promised Land. Talk about excuses! Our God answered each one. I especially like it when Moses said that he had a stuttering problem, and the Lord answered that Aaron would go with him, and help him speak. I grew up with a huge stuttering problem, and always had a dream of being a disc jockey. I never would share that with anyone, because I figured I would be laughed at. Back in the early 80's, I began at a college radio station. When I began, I had to carefully plan what I would say on the air--I had incredible difficulty beginning a sentence with words that began with certain letters. But the Lord used radio to heal me of stuttering, and now I can say pretty much anything. I have done radio for 24 years this Fall, and God has blessed my time with opportunities to work in a few different formats. Just now I presented a child over the air who needed a sponsor, for Compassion International, and a listener called in to sponsor that child. It's a great feeling to be used of the Lord in that.

Let me encourage you--if you have a dream, or a skill--and you feel or hear the Lord call--step out and begin to do it, or begin the preparation that is neceassary to do it. I will continue my studies toward ordination when we get to OKC, and God called me when I was 14. We may not immediately obey, but He will bless when we do.

under the mercy,
Br. Francis