A journal of byzantine digressionS
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Now, Daddy! Now!
✙ JMJ The Readings for Thursday in the 12th Week Tempus Per Annum: Genesis 16:1-12, 15-16 Matthew 7:21-29 Thus, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, his wife Sarai took her maid, Hagar the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his concubine. First, Abram didn’t quite follow…
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Act of Resignation
✙JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in the 12th week of Ordinary Time (C1) Genesis 13:2, 5-18 Matthew 7:6, 12-14 Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents, so that the land could not support them if they stayed together; their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together. There were quarrels between…
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Coming to a Dimble
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Solemnity of the Most Holy Body & Blood of Christ: Genesis 14:18-20 I Corinthians 11:23-26 Luke 9:11b-17 For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the death of the Lord until he comes. Saturday, yesterday, was the Feast of St Thomas More and St…
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Go Ask Og and Sihon.
✙JMJ There is, from time to time, a sense of God’s love, perhaps even one that we can feel. At other times this feeling is gone and we may have a head- or even a heart-knowledge that the Love is still there, albeit sans feeling. Still, again, there may be times when we’ve done something…
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Pimento Cheese!
✙JMJ Pimento Cheese is a Southern thing, or so I thought. The Fanny Farmer Cookbook from 1952 is filled with interesting recipes like this from the “Boston Cooking School”. Folks in the Fifties seem to worry about flavor though: a finely minced half clove of garlic is a common addition. Mayonnaise is a good addition to…
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Arthur Dent and Titus Pullo
✙JMJ The Readings for Monday in the 11th week of Ordinary Time (C1) II Corinthians 6:1-10 Matthew 5:38-42 But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil… If anyone wants to go to law with you over your tunic, hand him your cloak as well. Should anyone press you into service for one…
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Abolish or Fulfill? Abolish or Fulfill?
✙JMJ The Readings for Wednesday in the 10th week of Ordinary Time (C1) 2 Corinthians 3:4-11 Matthew 5:17-19 Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill. There are no answers in this blog post. Some of us will hear a sermon…
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A Lullaby
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church Monday in the week after Pentecost (C1) The 10th week of Ordinary Time Genesis 3:9-15, 20 John 19:25-34 Behold your mother…The Magnificat is sung every night at Vespers in the western liturgy. It is sung at Matins in the East. This can mean 9AM in a parish church, but properly sung, it is well before dawn…
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Pancakes!
JMJ Old cookbooks are a passion of mine – not antique ones, but rather old ones. Something written in 1640 will have lots of silly ingredients that may be of some interest to historians, but if the stuff can’t be purchased at Safeway and prepared easily in a modern kitchen, it’s not worth my while…
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Standing outside the fire.
The Apostles and St Paul, window at St Dominic’s, SF. ✙ JMJ The Readings for Pentecost Sunday: Acts 2:1-11 1 Corinthians 12:3B-7, 12-13 John 20:19-23 The doors were locked where the disciples were for fear. This is how I know this is all true: the disciples were locked in a room in fear and in just 30 years they…
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Before Communion
JMJ Other than the Domine Non Sum Dignus, the Roman Rite (OF/EF) has few pre-communion devotions in the liturgy itself – although the EF also has the Confiteor recited before Communion. If you haven’t any others, the following, taken from Anglican and Eastern Orthodox traditions, are very useful to fill in this gap. There’s usually…
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A Trick of the Tongue
✙ JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in the 7th Week of Easter: Acts 22:30; 23:6-11 John 17:20-26 Paul was aware that some were Sadducees and some Pharisees, so he called out before the Sanhedrin, “My brothers, I am a Pharisee, the son of Pharisees; I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.”…
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Dear Prudence
✙ JMJ Today is the feast of St Boniface, the Apostle to Germany. In the office of readings for this morning we find the following passage from the writings of the martyred bishop: I would gladly give up the task of guiding the Church which I have accepted if I could find such an action…
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Are you a hacker?
✙ JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in the 7th Week of Easter: Acts 20:17-27 John 17:1-11a What will happen to me there I do not know, except that in one city after another the Holy Spirit has been warning me that imprisonment and hardships await me. Yet I consider life of no importance to me, if only I may finish my…
Orthoparadoxy 