Sext on a Sunny Friday

No potty brain, I didn't make a typo. Sext, in the canonical hours, is a minor hour that precedes Vespers and follows Lauds and Terce. This roughly corresponds with the hour that Peter was recorded as being in prayer in Acts 10:9.

I've been giving time to the Epistle of Saint Jude these past days. This brief letter is tied with St. Paul's letter to Philemon as the 3rd briefest book of the New Testament. But we'd be out to lunch if we attributed its size with its significance. (In support of my point, try picking a fight with the short, stubby badger...) Far from insignificant, the epistle not only packs a magnum word for word load, it offers highly apropos counsel to be considered in this current Anglican struggle.

This renewed interest in the epistle was sparked on Tuesday evening after reading a post on Deacon Phil Snyder's blog, The Deacon's Slant. The good Deacon was commenting on the dual strategies of orthodox Anglicans within and without of the Episcopal Church. One of these comments had immediately brought the epistle to my mind. I visited the letter and was left in an acute state of gobsmack.

I suspect that the average person could read the Epistle of Jude (in most modern translations) in well under five minutes. Yet, we could spend hours and days meditating over, and considering this weighty letter to the Church universal.