I am reading for the third time since mid-July a book by Alister McGrath, the Christian theologian and apologist who holds two doctorates from Oxford University and occupies the Chair of Professor of Science and Religion and directs the Ian Ramsey Centre (sic) for Science and Religion at Oxford. The book, one of many by Dr. McGrath, is titled Mere Discipleship: Growing in Wisdom and Hope and many of his observations dovetail nicely with the two cartoons in The Chalice. Professor McGrath also relies heavily on the wisdom of the ages past and following are several citations for you and me to ponder this week and beyond, to “read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest.” I offer them for you to consider far beyond the limits of this morning's sermon; I have already placed them with my prayer list so that I will hold them before me each day.

1.  “The mind needs to be enlightened by light from outside itself, so that it can participate in truth, as it is not itself the nature of truth. You will light my lamp, Lord.”--Saint Augustine, Confessions

2.  “It is only with the heart that one sees rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.”--Antoine Saint-Exupery, The Little Prince

3.  “We see through the Church of Christ as a man sees through the telescope to the stars.”--Austin Farrer, The End of Man

4.  “Alonso of Arragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears best in four things: the old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”--Francis Bacon, Aphorisms and Apothegems

5.  “The only true voyage of discovery is not to travel to new landscapes, but to possess other ages, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others.”--Marcel Proust, The Prisoner

The summer begins to draw to a close so I invite you to make or to continue with me on a :journey into freedom,” into the freedom of looking through a different lens, the lens of Christianity, and see the world in sharper focus and increased depth. Try on the spectacles of C. S. Lewis and enter into that realm that Father Duncan has cited so often: “I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not because I see it but because by it I see everything else.” It's good to be home.

All blessings,

Fr. John+