June 7, 2012 at 11:45 pm

Finally said, “written,” outloud. Amen, amen, amen, what does Stoic morality got to do with the Gospel!? Only God is αγαθος, we are called to be what we were created to be and ever have been in God’s sight, καλός! Your post makes me sing.

Delightful. Couldn’t have put it any better!

There’s no shame in that; we’re not in competition for God’s love. It’s just that some learn by asking and other by answers – and of course we all learn by listening. Fr. Stephen seems to be the director of a heavenly choir of thoughts. This is a treasure.

I should have thought, at least on the face of it, that “putting on Christ” has an extrinsic quality about it, by analogy with putting on one’s overcoat on a rainy day rather than developing one’s own oily waterproofing in the manner of a duck. But it isn’t clear how one puts off one’s old nature except by choice, aided by grace, let alone puts it to death.

While you obviously have many theological disagreements with Saint Augustine, your sense of God’s transformative and regenerative presence, as well as your abiding wonder at creation and existence, are indeed reminiscent of the great bishop of Hippo. Many of your more introspective pieces remind me of The Confessions.