A journal of byzantine digressionS
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Stick a fork in me, I’m done.
✙ JMJ The Readings for Saint Charles Lwanga & Companions, MartyrsMonday in the 7th Week of Easter: II Maccabees 7:1-2, 9-14 Matthew 5:1-12 It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.The feast of…
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Image and Likeness
✙ JMJ Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension: Acts 7:55-60 Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20 John 17:20-26 …so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one…I made known to them your name and I will make it known, that…
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Now with 20% Less Mercy
John J McNeill – in need of a corrective. ✙ JMJ The Readings for Saturday in the 6th Week of Easter: Acts 18:23-28 John 16:23b-28 Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of God more accurately. Took him aside and explained… we nearly never do that these…
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I must go see my cousin
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Feast of the Visitation: Zephaniah 3:14-18 Luke 1:39-56 He has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.I’m going to pick this up where I left off last…
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Movin on Up!
+J+M+J+ The Readings for Ascension Day Acts 1:1-11 Hebrews 9:24-28; 10:19-23 Luke 24:46-53 …the new and living way he opened for us through the veil, that is, his flesh… On the calendar of some ecclesial Jurisdictions, today is the Ascension. Others will commemorate it on the Sunday within the Octave. Catholicism, like Orthodoxy, has calendar issues…
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Paul gets all up in the Pagan Air
No, no! That’s the wrong Damon… +J+M+J+ The Readings for Wednesday in the 6th week of Easter (C1) Acts 16:15, 22-18:1 John 16:12-15 I see that in every respect you are very religious… Paul’s word for “religious” is δεισιδαιμονεστέρους deisidaimonesteros. This is the only place in the Greek scriptures where it is used. It means…
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Authoritay
+J+M+J+ The Readings for Tuesday in the 6th week of Easter (C1) Acts 16:22-34 John 16:5-11 (Who proceeds from the Father…) I will send him to you. I’m not going to defend the Filioque clause with this essay except by accident. I’m continually asked why I left Orthodoxy for Catholicism traveling from east to west,…
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Overlap
JMJ I noticed an overlap in the Greek words used in Sunday’s EF and OF readings. In the OF Gospel Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever loves me will keep my word…” (John 14:23) Which in Greek is: άν τις γαπ με, τὸν λόγον μου τηρήσει. In the EF Epistle, St James says (in one…
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Neither fish nor fowl.
The Heavenly Banquet? +J+M+J+ The Readings for 6th Sunday of Easter (C1) Acts 15:1-2, 22-29 Revelation 21:10-14, 22-23 John 14:23-29 The city had no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gave it light, and its lamp was the Lamb. If you paid any attention to the passage from Revelation…
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It’s only a little pinch.
Bl. Stanley Rother, God’s Friend. +J+M+J+ The Readings for Saturday in the 5th week of Easter (C1) Acts 16:1-10 John 15:18-21 I have chosen you out of the world, the world hates you. Once, a long, long time ago, it seems to me now, in a religious galaxy far, far away I sat in a class…
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Friendzoned by Jesus.
+J+M+J+ The Readings for Friday in the 5th week of Easter (C1) Acts 15:22-31 John 15:12-17 I call you friends… This gets sentimentalized sometimes. Sometimes overly so. I remember when Jesus calling us (me) his friends used to cause me to wax poetical about Plato, David and Jonathan, and about someone important in my life.…
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Annuntio Vobis Gaudium Magnum!
+J+M+J+ The Readings for Thursday in the 5th week of Easter (C1) Acts 15:7-21 John 15:9-11 I have told you this so that… your joy might be complete. Jesus said this just before he went out to die. You know this and I do too, but we often forget it. If you’re not happy, some would…
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Nothing is strong. Very Strong.
+J+M+J+ The Readings for Wednesday in the 5th week of Easter (C1) Acts 15:1-6 John 15:1-8 Without me you can do nothing. St Thomas Aquinas calls God the root of being, itself. God’s being is the very beingness of everything. St John says that God is love. That means the very beingness of the entire…
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Second Birthday
+JMJ+ Two years ago today, with the helpful n of my fraternity Brother Joe on my shoulder, Fr Michael officially welcomed me into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. By her own teaching, I’ve been Catholic since 2002 when Fr Victor gave me the sacrament of Chrismation, but I was “not in full communion”. While…
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The Religion of the Incarnation
From Robert Hugh Benson’s Confession of a Convert. Wherein he discovers the meaning of the Incarnation. Christ took flesh of his mother, the Church is his body, ergo… — § 3 In Rome I learned one supremely large lesson, among a hundred others. It has been very well said that Gothic architecture represents the soul…
Orthoparadoxy 