Brian’s Reflection: Sunday, November 25, 2007


Love must Act, as Light must Shine, and Fire must Burn.

- James O. S. Huntington, OHC, founder,
The Order of the Holy Cross, who died on
this day, 1935


Well, I got “lazy” over Thanksgiving ………. So here’s the "guilty" Sunday Reflection.

Fr. Huntington is acknowledged as the Founder of the Order that I was a member of for 15 years. The Religious Life established itself in the Episcopal Church in the mid-19th century, an outgrowth of the re-flourishing of the Catholic tradition in the United States and other Anglican churches. Still many Episcopalians don’t know that there are monks and nuns in the Episcopal Church. It’s s fascinating part of the story.

Fr. Huntington wrote these words in the Rule of the Order. And I have remembered them all these 40 years. To me, they are a perfect, simple, and poetic stating of a profound human truth. Jesus emphasized it in a powerful way when He said, “There is no greater love than this, that a man should lay down his life for a friend”.

Talk is cheap. And God knows there is a lot of cheap talk in American (and other) life about Love. Especially in nauseous music - though I have to admit in my old age that Bing Crosby or Cole Porter being nauseous about it sounds a whole lot better to me than rappers.

Love must act ………. or it isn’t. Like dark light or dead flame.

What Life requires is us to be Act-ors in the great game of Love. Let’s be creative!

Brian+