Fr. Homer "Padre" Rogers, The Romance of Orthodoxy

07/29/2019

"We are told that man is created. Not only is he given the potentiality for interpersonal relationships with God, he is also given a number of the common attitudes of God. What man lost at the Fall was not the image of God, but the likeness. The result is that you and I are now born in the image of God, an image that is unimpaired, unmarred. We still have the potentiality of communion with God. Our task in this life is to acquire the likeness, to acquire enough of the common attitudes of God so that we will simply be like Him, have something in common with Him, and hence some basis for companionship." From chapter 5, Myth and Man

11/10/2014

"The thing that draws you to Christ is the Holy Spirit, that is, His charisma, the intrinsic beauty of His person, the attractiveness of Christ Himself. And similarly in our own evangelical and missionary activities, you can teach, and not do a cotton-picking thing about eliciting any response of devotion or dedication. I can give you all kinds of moral guidance, and that doesn't do anything at all. The only thing about you or me that is every going to attract anyone to Christ is Christ Himself living in us." (Chapter 17 Priesthood p. 321)

08/01/2013

The book can now be purchased through The Parish Press at http://theparishpress.hostedbywebstore.com/

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07/23/2013

"To begin with, contemplation is the exact opposite of concentration, or what is ordinarily referred to as concentration, an intense application of thought to an object. This is why, in the normal progression of the soul in prayer, we are taught that one sign of our readiness for contemplation, or that God is calling us to a higher state of mystical union with Himself, is the cessation of the effectiveness of that type of prayer called mental prayer or meditation." --Ch. 26, 'Contemplation,' p 433.

05/22/2013

"We might paraphrase the marriage vow thus: 'I, John, being os sound mind, appearances to the contrary notwithstanding, take thee, Mary, knowing full well that you may have many annoying personal habits, and that this will cost me my freedom and more money than I can ever hope to make, but knowing that this will make a man of me as nothing else can - not even the Marine Corps - therefore, I, John, take thee, Mary, to my wedded wife, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part, come hell or high water or in-laws to live with us -- and thereto I pledge to you I'm speaking the truth.'"
- Ch. 15, 'Marriage,' p 270

03/28/2013

"Now, one other thing. St. Paul says, 'as oft as ye eat this break and drink this cup ye do show the Lord's death till he come.' All the sacraments are a participation in the death and resurrection of Christ. We've already talked about the liturgy as offering; it is a passing over from this world into the next world, and a passing over of the next world into this one. What happens at the Eucharist is an aspiration, a rising up of this world to be united with Heaven, and a descent of Heaven to be united with this world. There is a coming together of time and eternity, of Heaven and earth, of God and man. And this, of course, is what happens when you die. You got to be with God. In the Eucharist you go to be with God." --Ch 14. Eucharist, pg 257-258.

02/28/2013

Some encouragement for your Lenten journey:

"It's true, we cannot reach Christ's fortieth day;
Yet to go part of that religious way,
Is better than to rest:
We cannot reach our Savior's purity;
Yet are bid, Be holy ev'n as he.
In both let's do our best."

Read the whole poem here:

Poems from THE TEMPLE (1633) by George Herbert with indexes by title, subject and image.

02/21/2013

"In Divine Worship there is a sphere of superfluity which is the very opposite of utility. All is voluntary and unnecessary, without compulsion or calculation...[This] accounts for the role of silence and rest during the Eucharist, the opposite of that idleness and boredom which causes restlessness and an incapacity of play. Leisure is a form of silence, silence which is the prerequisite of the apprehension of reality. Only the silent hear; those who do not remain silent do not hear. Leisure is a receptive attitude of mind, a contemplative attitude, and it is not only the occasion but also the capacity for steeping oneself in the whole of creation. That's essentially what the liturgy is." --Ch. 14 "Eucharist" pg. 241

01/26/2013

"The New Testament is the story of God's dramatic invasion of the world of time and matter, setting up a religion of crucifixes, candles, bright vestments, statues, as if people were not afraid of matter. And, horror or horrors, people behave reverently toward bread, and what's worse, wine.

"The idea that material things can have lasting spiritual values is the Christian ideal that keeps the fulcrum in the center and prevents mankind from going from one oversimplification to the other, from heresy to heresy. Heresies, as we have said, are always good half-truths."
--Ch. 2 "About God" pg. 25

01/12/2013

"Ceremony and ritual do tend to degenerate into formality. The young married couple will linger at their goodbye kiss when he goes off to work...Later in their marriage, if he kisses her at all, it's a domesticated peck on the cheek and off he goes. We tend to treat that sort of ceremony as mere empty formality, but the correction and cure for this empty formality is not to eliminate the ceremonial. The solution is to start embracing lingering again. The same is true of religious ceremony." From Ch. 5 Myth and Man