Texanglican

"The Preachers chiefly shall take heed that they teach nothing in their preaching, which they would have the people religiously to observe and believe, but that which is agreeable to the Doctrine of the Old Testament and the New, and that which the Catholick Fathers and Ancient Bishops have gathered out of that Doctrine." A proposed canon of Elizabeth I, 1571

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Location: Bedford, Texas, United States

I am a presbyter in the diocese of Fort Worth, Texas (Anglican Church in North America). I serve as Chaplain at St. Vincent's School and as a canon of St. Vincent's Cathedral Church in Bedford, Texas. In addition to my parish duties and teaching Religion classes in the school I am also the Middle School Social Studies teacher.

Saturday, August 06, 2005

The Transfiguration of our Lord

"And so on the mountain he showed his Apostles the glory of his divinity, concealed and hidden by his humanity. For they saw his face bright as lightning and his garments white as light. They saw two suns; one in the sky, as usual, and one unusually; one visible in the firmament and lighting the world, and one, his face, visible to them alone. His garments white as light showed that the glory of his divinity flooded from his whole body, and his light shone from all his members. For his flesh did not shine with splendor from without, like Moses, but the glory of his divinity flooded from him. His light dawned and was drawn together in him. Nor did it depart somewhere else and leave him, as if it came from another place and adorned him, nor was it for his use. And he did not display the whole depth of his glory, but only as much as the limits of their eyes could encompass.


‘And there appeared to them Moses and Elijah talking with him’. And the words that they said to him were such as these: they were thanking him that their words and those of all their fellow Prophets had been fulfilled by his coming. They offered him worship for the salvation which he had wrought for the human race; and that he had fulfilled in reality the mystery they had only sketched. There was joy for the Prophets and the Apostles by this ascent of the mountain. The Prophets rejoiced when they saw his humanity, which they had not known. The Apostles also rejoiced when they saw the glory of his divinity, which they had not known, and heard the voice of the Father bearing witness to his Son; and through this they recognized his incarnation, which was concealed from them. And the witness of the three was sealed by the Father’s voice and by Moses and Elijah, who stood by him like servants, and they looked to one another: the Prophets to the Apostles and the Apostles to the Prophets. There the authors of the old covenant saw the authors of the new. Holy Moses saw Simon the sanctified; the steward of the Father saw the administrator of the Son. The former divided the sea for the people to walk in the middle of the waves; the latter raised a tent for the building of the Church. The virgin of the old covenant saw the virgin of the new: Elijah and John; the one who mounted on the chariot of fire and the one who leaned on the breast of the flame. And the mountain became a type of the Church, and on it Jesus united the two covenants, which the Church received, and made known to us that he is the giver of the two. The one received his mysteries; the other revealed the glory of his works."

Ephrem the Syrian, On the Transfiguration 8-9. The image is Fra Angelico's fresco Transfiguration (1439-1443) in Cell 6, Convent of San Marco, Florence.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for posting the quote from Ephrem the Syrian. I had a partial quote and was looking for the whole thing for a class I'm teaching tomorrow. Many thanks!

I'm a Postulant in the Diocese of Mid-Anerica in the Reformed Episcopal Church.

God bless,
Jonathan Trebilco

9:53 PM  
Blogger Texanglican (R.W. Foster+) said...

Very good, sir. I hope your class goes well. Do stop by the main blog sometime. You will notice that the most recent post reports on the good news that my diocese and the REC are moving ever closer together. I have high hopes for a restored, orthodox Anglican province in North America before the new year is much underway! May God bless the deliberations of our leaders and bringer closer to being one, and Christ and the Father are one.

10:24 AM  

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