Heroes

Last semester I led two Bible studies. In one I followed Dr. Tim Gray's study on 1 Corinthians and the other was a study written by Curtis Martin, called Boys to Men. During this new semester, I lost a few Bible study members to graduation and a couple to study abroad programs, so I consolidated into one larger Bible study this semester with 8 men.

Last semester I realized I was quite uneducated about the early Church. Names of heresies would come up and I felt I should know more about their circumstances and what Church fathers combated them. I talked to John Junghans, one of my disciples about it, and we thought it might be fun to do a Bible study on heresies. I felt the opportunity was to learn about the process of refinement of Church doctrine. I took the ideas into Christmas break to do some research.

After pondering the options for studying heresies, it became apparent that it might be difficult to make that the center of our study. A better direction seemed to be study of the Church Fathers and through them to learn the heresies they dealt with. So, this semester I've been having a great time writing this Bible study, immersing myself in the teachings of the Fathers. I decided to call the study "Heroes". We started with Clement of Rome and Ignatius of Antioch, then had a great study on St. Polycarp. Next we looked at St. Irenaeus and his dealing with Gnosticism, then Tertullian on the life of the early Christian communities. Last night we had some very good discussion on the Eucharist and some selections from St. Cyril of Jerusalem and St. Ambrose. To accompany these texts from the Tradition of the Church, we look at the topics' scriptural nature as well.

I ask all these holy figures for their intercession over our Bible study as we study their teaching, and I'd like to ask for your prayers too as we continue to look back into our Church's history for inpiration and courage as we strive to live holy lives in the 21st century.