StBACC

Visit us at: www.stbarbarasacc.com Apart from Holy Tradition, when it comes to the Blessed Virgin Mary being Ever-Virgin, support of this doctrine also comes from the Jewish understanding of what it means to be set aside for a divine purpose. For example, the Jewish Midrash commentary discusses how husbands would become separated from the marital bed once they became great prophets. This is seen in the Book of Numbers when it is reported to Moses that Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp, and in response, the commentary claims that Moses’s wife Zipporah, said: “Woe to the wives of these…they are called to prophecy and will be separating from their wives just like my husband separated from me.' If it is true that a great prophet like Moses would be called to celibacy after the sacred duty of bringing the Law, despite being married, then it stands to reason, and would actually be quite unusual, if the greatest of all Saints, the Blessed Virgin Mary, was not also called to celibacy after the most holy task of being the Mother of God and bringing Christ through the Incarnation.

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Lent (12 March 2023)

Sermon for the 21st Sunday after Trinity (06 Nov. 2022)

Sermon for the First Sunday in Lent (26 Feb. 2023) God tells us in Leviticus 17:14: “Since the life of every creature is its blood…You are not to eat the blood of any creature, because the life of every creature is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.” When God is speaking of life in the blood, He is referring to the spirit – the animating life giving spirit that God breathed into animals and man at creation. In accordance with the ruling of the First Council in Jerusalem as recorded in Acts 15, and reconfirmed at the 4th and 7th Ecumenical Councils, the command for Christians to always abstain from eating blood is a moral and permanently binding precept. Zechariah 9:7: “I will remove the blood from their mouths and the abhorrent things from between their teeth. Then they too will become a remnant for our God; they will become like a clan in Judah”.

Sermon for the 4th Sunday after Epiphany (29 Jan. 2023) Homepage: https://www.stbarbarasacc.com In Revelation 10 we see the culmination of Jesus Christ’s victory over the waters, and how His Kingdom unites both Israel and Gentile nations when it describes Jesus as “standing one leg on the sea and one leg on the land raising His right hand to heaven” (Rev. 10:5). The land representing Israel and the sea the Gentile nations, here Christ is standing atop His kingdom as He puts all enemies under His feet, swearing an oath to the Ancient of Days as a divine Witness to the New Creation and the New Covenant, a creation and covenant that unites all things in Him. Revelation 15 also shows that those of us in Christ also stand over the sea as part of the heavenly choir. Like Peter, who when he had faith could walk on the water with Christ, those of us who remain faithful can stand above the waters, above Satan and our sins and in dominion of the nations under Jesus’ Kingship. Scripture verses & Quotes: Numbers 12:13 2 Kings 5:7 Matthew 8:24-27 Job 9:8 Psalms 89:9 Amos 4:13 Micah 7:19 Isaiah 17:12-13; 57:19-21 Revelations 13:1 Isaiah 23:11; 27:1; 43:15-16 Matthew 13:47-48 Revelations 10:5 “This peace, though, is not the absence of hostilities. Peace with God means warfare with the enemies of God. Christ made it clear that allegiance to Him meant a sword of division, as He divides order from chaos and the wheat from the tares. In a sinful world, some warfare is inescapable. We must therefore pick our enemies: God or sinful man? If a man is at peace with sinful men, he is at war with God”. - J.R. Rushdoony. “The Institutes of Biblical Law”. Page 781. If I could close with a word of encouragement from that Pillar of the Church – St. Athanasius the Great, who at one time had to stand against the world in defense of Trinitarianism – he wrote: “Worship, then, the Savior "Who is above all" and mighty, even God the Word, and condemn those who are being defeated and made to disappear by Him. When the sun has come, darkness prevails no longer; any of it that may be left anywhere is driven away. So also, now that the Divine epiphany of the Word of God has taken place, the darkness of idols prevails no more, and all parts of the world in every direction are enlightened by His teaching.” - St. Athanasius. “On the Incarnation of the Word”. Chapter 8, Refutation of the Gentiles (55)

Sexagesima Sermon: 12 Feb. 2023 Visit us: http://www.stbarbarasacc.com While Scripture does indeed contain all things necessary for salvation, it can also be said that it does not contain everything Christ did or taught to the Apostles. That’s not to say the Scriptures are deficient it just means that this written Word was meant to be coupled with the Living Word and Holy Traditions of the Church. St. John wrote: “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which, if every one of them were written down, I suppose not even the world itself could contain the books that would be written”. Likewise, Paul in 2Thess wrote: “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter”. As St. Cyprian, an early bishop of Carthage wrote: “No one can have God as their Father who does not have the church as their Mother”.

Sermon for the 3rd Sunday after Epiphany (22 Jan. 2023) Homepage: https://www.stbarbarasacc.com It is interesting to note that the very first place, or very first event on earth, where Christ decides to begin His miraculous ministry is at a wedding. If we go back to the very beginning of creation, what is one of the first interactions God has with mankind – it is the joining, or marriage, of Adam and Eve. Then, if we go to the very end of the Bible, how is Christ pictured as completing His work - it is by describing the Church as the New Jerusalem being delivered to Him as a bride, ‘the wife of the Lamb’ (Rev. 21:9). Moreover, everywhere in between, the way God chooses to picture or describe His covenantal relationship with first Old Covenant Israel and then later New Covenant Israel, which is the Church; it is as a marriage covenant. So, it is probably pretty safe to say that God considers marriage very important. Indeed, quite essential to our relationship with Him. The appreciation of marriage in this light is one of the things that makes our present-day society’s treatment, or rather disdain, of it even more painful. Scripture Verses: Revelations 19:7; 21:9 Mark 10:6-9 Romans 8:5-7 Ephesians 2:10