A journal of byzantine digressionS
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Our Suave God
OSapientia, quae ex ore Altissimi prodiisti, attingens a fine usque ad finem, fortiter suaviterque disponens omnia: veni ad docendum nos viam prudentiae.O Wisdom which camest out of the mouth of the Most High, and reachest from one end to another, mightily and sweetly ordering all things; come and teach us the way of prudence. –…
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Vero Cras
Generally, during the period from 15 November until 20 December, I have posted meditations (every 5 days or so) on the Great O Antiphons, including the 8thg Antiphon tradition in the Sarum Rite (O Virgo). I have been lax in recent years because Western Advent does not begin on the 15th of November (as it…
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Preparing for Prayer
ON THE DOMINICAN Calendar today is the Feast of St Albert the Great, Bishop and Doctor of the Church. It is ranked as a Memorial in other places. Since it is a Feast it has its own readings from the propers of the Order. The following, On preparation for prayer from the treatise On the Manner…
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The Blogpost of the Paper of the Book of the Prophet Haggai
By way of introduction the paper below was presented to the class with a few added jokes – including the bad pun in the above header image. At about the half-way point in writing the paper, I had a realization about the content and had to do a rewrite. I presented this to the class…
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Our Accidents, Ourselves
Know yourself is one of the maxims of Delphi, γνῶθι σεαυτόν gnothi seauton, which has come down to us by way of Socrates and others: Know Thyself. Finding seems to be the first step to knowing. So, “find yourself” (a la the 1960s) and then “come in and know me better,” says the Ghost of…
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The Oneness of God
The readings for the 31st Sunday Tempus per Annum (Year B): – Deuteronomy 6:2-6 – Hebrews 7:23-28 – Mark 12:28b-34 שְׁמַע יִשְׂרָאֵל יְיְ אֱלֹהֵינוּ יְיְ אֶחָֽד Hear Israel the Lord Our God, the Lord is One. (Please note that LORD indicates the divine name was used in the Hebrew text.) Reading the Gospel we are…
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Eros Envisioned Beatifically
Several things presented themselves to your host this morning for contemplation and synthesis. They span several decades in terms of life experience, wrapping themselves around a playlist called “sacred heart”, wherein we avoid the sentimentality of many “Jesus is my boyfriend” praise and worship songs by going right for the eroticism of popular love songs.…
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Kingdom Walking
IT’S A NEW GAME TO PLAY with the whole holy family: Kingdom Walking. Get outside, walk your neighborhood, and pray. Use a rosary or read a litany, say the Jesus Psalter or the Divine Mercy Chaplet. Get a prayer rope and say the Jesus Prayer. Take on the Rule of 150 Beads if you want…
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Reflection on Balaam’s Praise
מַה טֹּבוּ אֹהָלֶיךָ, יַעֲקֹב; מִשְׁכְּנֹתֶיךָ, יִשְׂרָאֵל How fair are your tents, 0 Jacob! How fair your dwellings, Israel! – Numbers 24:5 (Jerusalem Bible, 1968) The chant “Ma Tovu, Ohehlecha Yacov” is often used at the beginning of the Friday Evening synagogue service. The congregation chants slowly and gently, as if chewing on a text for…
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Psalm 7×7
Sicut Patres Nostri– of Huw, A Lament sitting on the dock of the Bay AS OUR FATHERS before usSo we sit by the watersAs by Babylon of oldby the waters of the BayDo you remember us, Lord? The Saints have told usOf your faithfulness, your loveYour powerYou came with them to defeat their enemiesYou swept…
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Prayer of the Heart
THE WAY OF A PILGRIM is a classic text of 19th Century Russian Orthodox spirituality, carrying forward the tradition of the Jesus Prayer or “the prayer of the heart”. I read the text once, as a new convert to Orthodoxy, because that’s what you do, but I was troubled by many words that seemed to…
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In the Glory of the Cross
FROM the Office of Readings for the Blessed Virgin Mary on Saturday: The cross is our trophy raised against the demons, our sword against sin and the sword Christ used to pierce the serpent. The cross is the Father’s will, the glory of the only-begotten, the joy of the Spirit, the pride of the angels,…
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Mediation… and you
At the end of Messiah Handel composed a four minute long Amen that fugues its way through some classic baroque forms and progression ending, finally, with five very firm Amens presented as 3 and 2, with a break of four beats in total silence between them. Listening to the entire piece, it seems that silence…
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Danse Macabre 2021
ALL HALLOWS EVE enchanted darkA stroll I took in chillTo see the children on their larkAnd thus a pipe to kill The sunset orange watching passAnd night on coming strongWhen deep from Mission hill and grassI heard a haunted song Then followed I this tunèd curseUntil I found the sourceAnd deep beneath Dolores firsI saw…
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Bicameral Minds on Perelandra
JULIAN JAYNE’S EPIC 1976 WORK, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind argues that the human mind had a major evolutionary change as recently as 3,000 years ago: that the left and right brains used to talk to each other and that this conversation could be perceived as an external voice,…
Orthoparadoxy 