Reflections of a Canadian Churchman

Starting at the Beginning: The Dedicatory Preface St. Luke’s Gospel begins with a short dedicatory preface, which it might be easy to skip over as we move into the interesting words of the infancy narratives of John the Baptist and Jesus. However, I suggest that we will miss something very important if we make such a premature leap, for the opening prologue tells us some very important things about the purpose of Luke’s writings and why he chooses to set out the story of Jesus as he does. First and foremost we realize that Luke is probably writing under the patronage of a benefactor. In ancient times (as in the present day), it is no small thing to devote the time and energy to write a book. Where we have scholarly and artistic grants or literary prizes, the ancients relied on wealthy patrons. Luke addresses his work to one named Theophilus (his name literally means “one who loves God,” probably not a real name, but one assumed at baptism). We do not know who this person was but as we

A New Weekly Online Study: Last year, I hosted a successful online study of the Gospel of Mark, entitled The Gospel of Mark Challenge . As we prepare to move into Year C in late November (the liturgical year in which St. Luke’s Gospel is read), I felt it might be appropriate to host a sequel to last year’s challenge. The first aspect of “The Challenge” was to read a half chapter of the Gospel of Mark each day. The Gospel According to St. Mark is only sixteen chapters long, whereas St. Luke’s is twenty-four chapters. I suppose this means that this year’s challenge will require a bit more persistence than last year’s. That being said, at a the rate of about a half chapter per day, one could read through the entire Gospel of Luke in forty-eight days – a little longer than a month and a half. The second aspect of “The Challenge” is to read the text as part of a discipline of prayer and devotion. Last year, I suggested using a form of the Daily Office such as Morning Prayer , Eve

As October approaches, I realize that this blog, Reflections of a Canadian Churchman, will soon be two years old. When I began writing online, I had only a small idea of what I wanted this blog to be about. It seemed clear to me that a blog could be used as an outreach tool to connect with those in the parish family on both a broader and deeper level. Since then I have begun to realize that a site operates in two ways. The first way is as a tool of communication. Thus, I have used this site (and its sister sites - Sermons of a Canadian Churchman and Book Reviews of a Canadian Churchman ) to communicate information, or more precisely, to proclaim the Christian message. This was always the primary goal in writing these online reflections and in posting my homilies. What emerged, though, was the discovery of another function of such a site, the building of relationships. Through this site I have had the opportunity to get to know, converse with (and yes even argue with), and to for