Bishop Stephen Smuts

Bishop (Coadjutor) Traditional Anglican Church,
Military Chaplain ♱ | Ⓥ 🌱 | PhD Candidate | 🇿🇦
Views are prayerfully my own.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

A Friday in Trinitytide. Morning Prayer sets before us the opening of St. John’s first Epistle— that which was from the beginning, heard, seen, touched. The Incarnation is testimony. And at the heart of it: God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.
We are not called to perfection before we come to Christ… We are called to walk as He walked, trusting the Advocate who stands for us before the Father.
A quiet word for a Friday morning: “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” — 1 St. John 1:7.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

“The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.”

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

50 years ago today, the children of Soweto walked out in their school uniforms in protest against injustice and were met with lethal violence.
Their sacrifice changed South Africa forever.
We remember them with gratitude and with reverence.
In every generation, the youth remind us that hope is not yet spent.
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth.” — Ecclesiastes 12:1.

🇿🇦 #YouthDay

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

2nd Sunday after Trinity (BCP)

“We know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren.” (1 John 3:14)

The feast is ready. The excuses?

Land.
Oxen.
Family.

“And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.” (Luke 14:23)

In a divided world, God’s table is open to ALL. Don’t make excuses.

The feast awaits. Will you come?

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

Today is the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua, OFM, (d. 1231).

Beloved across Christendom as the patron of lost and stolen things.

Yet the real Antony was concerned with something far more important: lost souls.

A gifted preacher, teacher, and doctor of the Church, he spent his life pointing people back to Christ.

Perhaps his deeper message is this: that nothing and no one is truly lost to God.

“Actions speak louder than words; let your words teach and your actions speak.”
- Saint Anthony of Padua

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

O Sacred Heart of Jesus…
Today many of our Roman Catholic brethren observe the The Sacred Heart of Jesus—a devotion not observed in the Anglican Catholic tradition, yet one whose profound symbolism speaks across the divides of Christendom.
At the centre of all things is not impersonal power or cold necessity, but the burning, self-giving love of God made flesh. Not a distant, unmoved deity, but the Crucified and Risen Lord who poured out His life for the salvation of the world.
In that Heart we find refuge: the same Lord who still says to every weary soul, in every age and tradition,
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (St Matthew 11:28)
May Thy Sacred Heart draw all Christians closer to Thee, and through Thee to one another, in the unity of faith and love.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

Today the Church keeps the Feast of St. Barnabas the Apostle.

His name was Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus. The Apostles called him Barnabas: “Son of Consolation”.

His very first act in the pages of Scripture is to sell his land and lay the whole price at the Apostles’ feet. No portion kept back. Everything.

When Saul of Tarsus came to Jerusalem after his conversion, the Church was afraid of him. Barnabas was not. He brought him in.

When the Gospel began to take root among the Gentiles at Antioch, it was Barnabas who was sent to investigate, and who, finding the grace of God already at work, simply rejoiced. He went to fetch St. Paul, and together they gave a year of their lives to that young church.

When they parted over Mark, Barnabas took the young man with him and did not give up on him. Paul would later ask for Mark by name. That was Barnabas’s gift to the Church.

He died at Salamis, in the island where he was born, a martyr.

St. Luke’s epitaph for him is as simple as the man himself: a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.

Blessed Feast of St. Barnabas.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

The Church began with remarkably little…. No cathedrals. No endowments. No political influence. No place in the corridors of power.

What she did have were men and women convinced that Jesus Christ had risen from the dead…

That conviction carried them through persecution, imprisonment, exile, and martyrdom. It carried the Gospel from Jerusalem to the ends of the known world…

I sometimes wonder whether we spend too much time worrying about what the Church lacks, and too little time remembering what she possesses.

The same Lord.

The same Gospel.

The same faith once delivered unto the saints.

“Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

Today, 9 June 1549, was Whit Sunday (Pentecost).

On this day, for the very first time, congregations across England opened a single book and prayed together in their own tongue: Thomas Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer came into use throughout the realm.

477 years later, Traditional Anglicans still do.

“…and grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them…”

Some things are worth keeping.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

On this First Sunday after Trinity, the Gospel of the Rich Man and Lazarus bids us set not our affections upon the fleeting riches and honours of this world, but upon the enduring treasures of the Kingdom of God. Though the faithful may bear trials and sorrows in this present life, yet they are sustained by the sure hope of everlasting glory in Christ.

The Collect (BCP)

“Lord, we beseech thee, the world is deceived with vain shadows; grant that we may not be led away by them, but may ever seek those things which endure for ever; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

Today we give thanks unto Almighty God for the most blessed Sacrament of the Altar, even the Holy Communion, which we this day commemorate as Corpus Christi.

For our Lord Jesus Christ Himself did institute and ordain this holy Mystery, wherein heaven and earth are joined together, the faithful are fed with His most precious Body and Blood, faith is strengthened, and His people are knit together in blessed fellowship with Him, their Saviour and their God.

“The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ?” (1 Cor. 10:16)

Unto Him, therefore, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, be all honour, glory, and worship, world without end. Amen.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

“Though the fig tree does not blossom,
            and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails,
            and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold,
            and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
            I will exult in the God of my salvation.”

— Habakkuk 3:17-18

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

On Trinity Sunday we worship the One God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity: Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Not three gods, but one God in three Persons: eternal in majesty, equal in glory, and united in love.

The Collect:

“Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that thou wouldest keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities; who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.”

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

On this Ember Day, the Church calls us to fast and pray, while letting the embers of the Holy Ghost refine our souls and prepare us for what God asks of us.

Today we especially remember Saint Joan of Arc. Burned at the stake on this very day in 1431, she faced death with faith, having followed the voice of God with courage well beyond her years.

Her life and witness call us back to the same radical obedience:

“I am not afraid; I was born to do this.”
– St. Joan of Arc

May her courage inspire our devotion, and may this Ember Day remind us that true strength is found not in power, but under the faithful banner of obedience to God.

[LifeSiteNews @LifeSite]

Pope Leo invites the world to join him in a Rosary for peace on May 30

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

Remembering the Venerable Bede today, that faithful monk and historian whose love for Scripture still challenges us. On his feast day, Lord, give us hearts hungry for Your truth.

[Bishop Stephen Smuts @BishopSmuts]

If you’re going to read anything extra today, let it be this…

[Pope Leo XIV @Pontifex]

Humanity, created by God in all its grandeur, is today facing a pivotal choice: either to construct a new Tower of Babel or to build the city in which God and humanity dwell together. In Jesus Christ, this humanity in its grandeur becomes the Way, the Truth and the Life, opening the path for each of us to grow toward fullness. #MagnificaHumanitas
https://t.co/6i9MWs6LJl