A journal of byzantine digressionS
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The Greatest Adventure
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Memorial of Francis of AssisiThursday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Job 19:21-27 Luke 10:1-12 Ite : ecce ego mitto vos sicut agnos inter lupos. Nolite portare sacculum, neque peram, neque calceamenta. Go: Behold I send you as lambs among wolves. Carry neither purse, nor scrip, nor…
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Yes, Virginia, there are Angels. OK, Maryland.
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Memorial of the Guardian AngelsTuesday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Job 3:1-3, 11-17, 20-23 Mathew 18:1-5, 10 Videte ne contemnatis unum ex his pusillis : dico enim vobis, quia angeli eorum in caelis semper vident faciem Patris mei, qui in caelis est. See that you despise…
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Fisking St James
✙ JMJ The Readings for the 26th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B2) Numbers 11:25-29 Jas 5:1-6 Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48 Come now, you rich, weep and wail over your impending miseries. Remember that we – in the USA – are the rich. Doesn’t matter how much you earn, doesn’t matter how much you make or how…
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What’s love got to do with it?
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Memorial of St Vincent de PaulThursday ihthe 25th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Ecclesiastes 1:2-11 Luke 9:7-9 Deus, qui sacrae legis omnia constituta in tua et proximi dilectione posuisti… O God, whou founded all the commands of your sacred Law upon love of you and of our neighbor… As…
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Poets of the Logos
✙ JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Proverbs 21:1-6, 10-13 Luke 8:19-21 Mater mea et fratres mei hi sunt, qui verbum Dei audiunt et faciunt.My Mother and Brothers are those who are hearing and doing the Word of God.Jesus, like his brother, James, makes much of those who…
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Think Different
Good Ol’ Uncle Al ✙ JMJ The Readings for Monday in the 25th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Proverbs 3:27-34 Luke 8:16-18 Ne aemuleris hominem injustum, nec imiteris vias ejus. Envy not the unjust man, and do not follow his ways. America has a problem with rebels. We started with the violent overthrow of our lawful…
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The Lord will uphold my Life.
✙ JMJ The Readings for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time (B2) Wisdom 2:12, 17-20 James 3:16—4:3 Mark 9:30-37 Videamus ergo si sermones illius veri sint, et tentemus quae ventura sunt illi, et sciemus quae erunt novissima illius. Si enim est verus filius Dei, suscipiet illum, et liberabit eum de manibus contrariorum… Erit enim ei…
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Sonnet: Purgatio
+JMJ+ I burn! To know the pangs of love. These flames,That singe & bake, that sear & broil my soulAre but the birth contractions: payment, toll.For each of Love’s rejections living maims. See these are not the chains from Marley’s holeHow dark & clanging hopeless Without EndBut rather here my soul’s most comely FriendIn living…
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So Very Much Love
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Memorial of Sts Andrew Kim Tae-gon, & Paul Chong Ha-sang, and Companions, MartyrsThursday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 Luke 7:36-50 Remittuntur ei peccata multa, quoniam dilexit multum. Cui autem minus dimittitur, minus diligit.Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much. But to…
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Thoughts and Prayers
+JMJ+ The Readings for the 24th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B2) Isaiah 50:5-9A James 2:14-18 Mark 8:27-35 Vade retro me Satana, quoniam non sapis quae Dei sunt, sed quae sunt hominum. Get behind me Satan, you’re not thinking as God does, but as men do. At vigil Mass on Saturday night I had the second…
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Idols of the Post-Moderns
✙ JMJ The Readings for Our Lady of SorrowsSaturday in the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (B2) 1 Corinthians 10:14-22 Luke 2:33-35 Sed quae immolant gentes, daemoniis immolant, et non Deo. Nolo autem vos socios fieri daemoniorum : non potestis calicem Domini bibere, et calicem daemoniorum; non potestis mensae Domini participes esse, et mensae daemoniorum.But the things…
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Sing my tongue
+JMJ+ A Blessed Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross! The office hymn today (in the tradition office, pre-V2, and as we used it at my monastery) tells a great mystery, repeated again in Holy Week: singing the whole plan of Salvation. It begins with Matins, in the dark with notes of prehistory and…
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The Courthouse at Apophatics.
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Memorial of St John ChrysostomThursday in the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (B2) 1 Corinthians 8:1B-7, 11-13 Luke 6:27-38 Si quis autem se existimat scire aliquid, nondum cognovit quemadmodum oporteat eum scire.If any one imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. There is…
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Wei Wu Wei
✙ JMJ The Readings for Wednesday in the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (B2) 1 Corinthians 7:25-31 Luke 6:20-26 Et qui utuntur hoc mundo, tamquam non utantur : praeterit enim figura hujus mundi. And they that use this world, as if they used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away. The Greek in these verses…
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What if?
✙ JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in the 23rd Week of Ordinary Time (B2) 1 Corinthians 6:1-11 Luke 6:12-19 Et haec quidam fuistis : sed abluti estis, sed sanctificati estis, sed justificati estis in nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et in Spiritu Dei nostri.And such some of you were; but you are washed, but you are…
Orthoparadoxy 