A journal of byzantine digressionS
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The Opposite of Acedia
Readings for 7th Wednesday after Easter (C2) Acts 20:28-38 John 17:11b-19 I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the Evil One. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is…
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Excursus: Yoke
IN JESUS’ WORLD, righteousness is man’s answer to the Torah, acceptance of the whole of God’s will, the bearing of the ‘yoke of God’s kingdom,’ as one formulation had it.” (Jesus of Nazareth p 17) Jesus says “Take my yoke upon you” seemingly out of the blue. But it is part of a wider rabbinic…
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Lord of the Sabbath
The assignment: Your essay will address two questions: Who is Jesus of Nazareth? What insights are gleaned from his words and deeds: his baptism, his temptations in the wilderness, his Sermon on the Mount, the Lord’s Prayer, his “I AM” sayings, etc.? What can we understand about Christian discipleship in light of the person and…
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I Make All Things New
EVERY YEAR, BY UNSPOKEN tradition, churches get specific phone calls at certain times. In the Catholic Church, two expected phone calls are, “What time is Midnight Mass?” and “What times are you giving out ashes?” In the Russian Orthodox Church, one expected phone call in Holy Week was, “What time is the Wise Thief?” The…
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What’s Love Got To Do With It (2)
ST THOMAS AQUINAS says that God is the one in whom essence and existence are the same. “Ipsum Esse Subsistens” (Summa Theologiae, I, q. 4, a. 2) is the phrase in Latin. It’s part of a larger discussion where St Thomas is discussing the absolute simplicity of God: there is no part or “smaller portion”…
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What’s Love Got To Do With It? (1)
GOD IS LOVE. We know this. We don’t often follow it to a logical conclusion though: you did something I don’t like therefore I must remind you that God is love. We may never get around to exploring that the Love spoken of is always in the 1st person: it’s not something that we demand…
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Pascal Hours
FROM THE EASTERN RITE Tradition, these prayers are said during Bright Week. I like them for “waking up” and “Going to Bed” prayers all during the Easter Season. Even the forty-fold “Lord Have Mercy” seems celebratory. +Through the prayers of our holy fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us. Amen. +Christ is…
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To the Garden
MY BELOVED has gone to the gardensinging hymns sadnessin darkness weepingand he fallsand he cries outand I run from himBleeding sweat Another kisses him Taking him away My beloved has gone to the gardenSeeing him hangingbetween the treesand he gaspsand he cries outand I dare not go to himstrange fruit hangingAnother pierces himand goes away…
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7LW: Unneeded Substitution
Today you will be with me in Paradise. TODAY WAS A BIT of a rough one for me: it began at 4AM with the news that my mom was in the hospital (but somewhat ok as compared to last night). Getting to work I was alerted to the news that one of seven speakers I…
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7LW: שמע
Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. WITHIN THE JEWISH TRADITION the last prayer one says before dying is called the Shema (or Sh’ma) : שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יי אֱלֹהֵינוּ יי אֶחָֽד Hear, Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one. The recitation of this line of scripture, along with some other passages of…
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7LW: What’s Finished?
This essay is an edited version of last year’s post. I seem to be. on the same track this year. It is finished. Perelandra Is CS Lewis’ brilliant and engaging meditation on the Fall. It takes place on Venus in the 1940s where God is making a new race of persons and they are again…
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7LW: MOAR
I thirst. T HIS SIMPLE REQUEST of Jesus pulls many into theological arabesques. What is Jesus thristing for? For our faith! For our love! For souls to heal and bring to heaven! None of that is in the text, of course: they arise from meditation on the text as does this essay. Jesus, having hung…
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7LW: Woman
Woman, behold your son.Behold Your Mother. WE HAD A GUEST show up at our homeless ministry. It was her first time. She seemed a little out of it. She seemed more than a little confused. We fed her. Then we closed our doors, as we do at a certain time, and folks left. Guests usually…
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7LW: Feelings
My God, My God why hast Thou forsaken me. CAN GOD FORSAKE HIMSELF or can he be forsaken by himself? It always seems that this verse gets called out to prove that Jesus didn’t see himself as God – or that the earliest Christians didn’t see him as God. Then, sometimes, this verse gets thrown…
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The Face of God
FIRST DAY IN CHRISTOLOGY CLASS was hard because too much thinking! Dr Turek teaches in a way that leaves you thinking for hours after it’s all over. I’m still digesting it today, Monday, but it seems less like “thinking too much” and more like we were praying. Contemplata aliis tradere, and all that: You get…
Orthoparadoxy 