I've finished my latest book, Praying Like the Early Church (though when I say "finished" that just means I've sent in the manuscript to the publisher - at some point I'll get it back from them with some suggestions for edits). This book will come out in the spring, I believe.
In the book, I've got a chapter on making the Sign of the Cross as a prayer. It's amazing how this thing that is perceived to be so Catholic (though Anglicans do it too) goes back to the earliest centuries of the Church. And even after finishing the book, I keep running across earlier and earlier references to it.
This morning I was reading in a document called the Odes of Solomon, which is a kind of poetry, originally Jewish, but with early Christian layers. And there, too, there are references to the Sign of the Cross, and Christians who prayed by standing with arms outstretched in a cruciform position. (This was not the norm, but some people did it).
It just goes to show how even scholars fall for the myths - for example at one time I believed the myth that the Church did not use the cross as a symbol until after the time of Constantine. That could not be further from the truth. And yet, every day some Christian professor is out there telling his or her students these things. The moral of the story is - question the assumptions, and always ask for the evidence. Don't just believe what they say because they tell you that everyone agrees with them. That is almost never true.
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
This was for March 24th, recorded for the Ascension App
Thanks for your patience - here is our next installment of The Journey - it's session # 96, but I'm also calling it PART 1 of a "miniseries" on John chapter 6.
Whoever watches it first, please let me know if it looks good or if there are any problems with it - I get through the first two sections of the text on the feeding of the 5,000.
Enjoy!
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
