People generally quarrel because...

"People generally quarrel because they cannot argue. And it is extraordinary to notice how few people in the modern world can argue. This is why there are so many quarrels, breaking out again and again, and never coming to any natural end. People do not seem to understand even the first principle of all argument: that people must agree in order to disagree. Still less so their imaginations stretch to anything so remote as the end or object of all argument; that they should disagree in order to agree." 

(G. K. Chesterton, The Illustrated London News, March 9, 1929)

A collect for our times

My vicar and I are reading through 2 Chronicles at the moment during Morning Prayer. This morning we came across a simple yet pointed prayer which seems so relevant for today's times and battles, that we Christians face: Here is the prayer:

LORD, there is no-one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O LORD our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O LORD, you are our God; do not let man prevail against you.

Wonderfully simple and yet full of incredible confidence. Following this prayer, the LORD brought Judah a mighty victory, totally destroying her enemies and I am confident, that sometime in the next few hundred years those opponents of Christ's Church (both within and without) will be strewn all over the pages of history. You've been warned!

Children love fat mothers

“...They like them because while any mother is a diagram of place, a picture of home, a fat one is a clearer diagram, a greater sacrament. She is more there. I can think of no better wish to all the slender swans of this present age than to propose them a toast: May your husbands find you as slim as they like; your children should always remember you were fat.”

From the mostly charming and sometimes wacky Robert Farrar Capon in his great book Bed and Board 

CWT is not an optional extra

Christian worldview thinking is not an optional add-on extra. We must know and understand the gospel of John, of course, and the book of Romans, certainly. But we must also know what to do with rap music, sitcoms, neckties, tattoos, secular universities, sports cars, and eye liner. If we are steeped in Scripture, but cannot read the world, we are helpless. If we are steeped in the world, but do not know what the Bible says, then we are just worldlings, plain and simple.

Via: Reading the world

What to say, to the "I've prayed about it" brigade

For example, when a Christian woman is (somehow!) granted that coveted spiritual exception to marry an unbeliever and when challenged by her friends, says: “I prayed about it.” Or when a well-established Christian is startled to hear the Spirit say a resounding “YES, you can move in with your girlfriend,” or “YES, you can leave your spouse, because, after all, I want you to be happy.”

How would you respond? Find the answer here

Prayer for the Bishops at Synod

O GOD, our heavenly Father, We beseech thee to send down upon all thy Bishops, the Pastors of thy Church, the abundant gift of thy Holy Spirit, that they, being endued with power from on high, and ever walking in the footsteps of thy holy Apostles, may minister before thee in thy household as true servants of Christ and stewards of thy divine mysteries; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Adapted from today's collect for the commemoration of Stephen Langton (c. 1150-1228), Archbishop of Canterbury from 1207