A journal of byzantine digressionS
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O Key of David
O Key of David and sceptre of the House of Israel; you open and no one can shut; you shut and no one can open: Come and lead the prisoners from the prison house, those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death. What is happening here? After yesterday’s particularity, the coming Christchild is…
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O Root
O Root of Jesse, standing as a sign among the peoples; before you kings will shut their mouths, to you the nations will make their prayer: Come and deliver us, and delay no longer. At the heart of the story of the Incarnation is one family, one mother, one Child. We can see this: God…
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O Lord
O Adonai, and leader of the House of Israel, who appeared to Moses in the fire of the burning bush and gave him the law on Sinai: Come and redeem us with an outstretched arm. The first antiphon spoke of the Wisdom of God which can seem abstract, unless you know the Wisdom Literature of…
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O Wisdom
OWisdom, coming forth from the mouth of the Most High, reaching from one end to the other, mightily and sweetly ordering all things: Come and teach us the way of prudence. Sapientiatide, the last 8 days before Christmas (9, if you’re Anglican) is possibly the best season of the Church Year. It’s 8 days of…
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Indefectibili Foedere
The Readings for the 3rd Monday in Advent (A2) Numbers 24:2-7, 15-17A Matthew 21:23-27 Dixit auditor sermonum Dei, qui visionem Omnipotentis intuitus est, qui cadit, et sic aperiuntur oculi ejus :The utterance of one who hears what God says, and knows what the Most High knows, of one who sees what the Almighty sees, enraptured,…
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Gaudete
The Readings for the Third Sunday of Advent (A2) Isaiah 35:1-6A, 10 James 5:7-10 Matthew 11:2-11 Tu es, qui venturus es, an alium exspectamus?Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another? You know what? Life is not like we post it on Facebook. It’s ugly. The vast majority sees the world…
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I wish we’d all been ready.
The Readings for the 1st Sunday of Advent Isaiah 2:1-5 Romans 13:11-14 Matthew 24:37-44 Induamini Dominum Jesum Christum, et carnis curam ne feceritis in desideriis. Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences. In case you’ve missed it, I’ve been on a diet. After trying several…
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Kerygmy way or the highway
At the beginning of this series of posts, I mention that many of the religions in the world overlap in a way that CS Lewis calls the Tao. In recent posts I tried to show what we all have a sense of this Tao, even if we don’t believe in God. I’ve also tried to…
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Hot Takes
This is a list of all the near-rants that I could have written, but I didn’t. The Novus Ordo in Latin shows the continuity of V2 with everything else and this is why people don’t like it. Catholic Trad is beautiful. Tradnuts, however, are a Roman Parallel to what we used to call in Orthodoxy…
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God’s Mercy and Yours
When a person is brought to enter the Dominican Family, he or she kneels or prostrates before the person who is to receive them – the local or regional superior – as well as before the rest of the community. The superior asks, What do you seek of God and his Church? The response is,…
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Yes! He! Can!
As the Class Clown (1972), George Carlin asks a sarcastic question probably already old at that point, “If God is all-powerful, can he make a rock so heavy that he, himself, cannot lift it?” It was funny in the right context but some folks actually offer it as a serious question, intending by the illogic…
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Every Fire Burns Differently
The Readings for the 33rd Sunday, Tempus per Annum (c1) Malachi 3:19-20A 2 Thessalonians 3:7-12 Luke 21:5-19 Et morte afficient ex vobis : et capillus de capite vestro non peribit. They will put some of you to death…but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. Our readings today are from very apocalyptic texts.…
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Pray. Rest. And a Fig.
The Readings for the 32nd Thursday, Tempus per Annum (C1) Wisdom 7:22-8:1 Luke 17:20-25 Est enim in illa spiritus intelligentiae, sanctus, unicus, multiplex, subtilis, disertus, mobilis, incoinquinatus, certus, suavis, amans bonum, acutus, quem nihil vetat, benefaciens, humanus, benignus, stabilis, certus, securus, omnem habens virtutem, omnia prospiciens. In Wisdom is a spirit intelligent, holy, unique, manifold,…
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Like Hanukkah in November
The Readings for the 31st Sunday, Tempus per Annum (C1) 2 Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 2 Thessalonians 2:16-3:5 Luke 20:27-38 Parati sumus mori, magis quam patrias Dei leges praevaricari.We are ready to die rather than to transgress the laws of God, received from our fathers. Here are sons of whom a Mother can be rightfully proud!…
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Orate Pro Nobis
O God, you have been pleased to enrich the Order of Preachers with a countless offspring of saints, and have gloriously crowned in them the heroic merits of every virtue; grant us so to tread in their steps, that as today we honor them with one solemnity on earth, we may at length be united…
Orthoparadoxy 