A journal of byzantine digressionS
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Annunciation Palms
JMJ For quite some time in the Western Church no feast is allowed to coincide with Holy Week or Bright Week (as it is called in the East), so, from today until the Sunday after Easter any feast that shows up gets either ignored or moved. Thus the Liturgical Celebration of Annunciation is, this year,…
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Sonnet II Palm Sunday
All glory laud & honor children sing:to thee hosanna, Lord, hosanna! Praisewe thee with them, our olive branches raise.Thy train in triumph through the gate we bring With garments strewn the road to glory lays:what ails the crowd that soon they’ll turn away?Here where we hear hosanna cried todaygreat hearts will fail as darkness on…
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Sonnet I Lazarus Saturday
Tiz better to have lov’d & lost: so saidthe Bard when speaking of the heart’s romance.What would he say if God & man did danceAs friends til mortal man is stoppéd dead? Then God can weeping fall in mourner’s tranceWhile sisters, neighbors, pharisees, & allwill wonder at his healing advent’s stall:when but one touch restor’d…
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Prelude. Holy Week Sonnets
JMJ I try to get through a little more every year. So, once again, I will try to make the Holy Week Sonnet Cycle complete. Prelude My Lord, always majestic is thy name. No man may sing thy praises worthily & mould’ring – wanting words to hear & see is often in believers’ hearts thy…
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Croquet in Eqypt.
✙ JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in Passion Week (B2) Numbers 21:4-9 John 8:21-30 Cur eduxisti nos de Aegypto, ut moreremur in solitudine? Why didst thou bring us out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? In the Fathers, Egypt is seen as a symbol of our human bondage to sin. The Passover is a…
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The Strong, Silent Type.
✙ JMJ The Readings for the Solemnity of St Joseph Monday in Passion Week (B2) II Samuel 7:4-5A, 12-14A, 16 Romans 4:13, 16-18, 22 Luke 2:41-51A For this Just Man was given by you a spouse to the Virgin Mother of God and set a s a wise and faithful servant in charge of your…
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Sacramentum Oboedientiae
✙ JMJ The Readings for Passion Sunday (B2) Jeremiah 31:31-34 Hebrews 5:7-9 John 12:20-33 Nunc anima mea turbata est. Et quid dicam? Pater, salvifica me ex hac hora. Sed propterea veni in horam hanc : Pater, clarifica nomen tuum. Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But…
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Where you from?
✙ JMJ The Readings for Saturday in the 4th Week of Lent (B2) The Commemoration of St Patrick, Apostle to Ireland. Jeremiah 11:18-20 John 7:40-53 Numquid et tu Galilaeus es?Art thou also a Galilean?An Anglican clergyman once told me that whenever he heard a Southern Drawl he immediately assumed he was talking to someone unlearned.…
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His Ways are Very Different
✙ JMJ The Readings for Friday in the 4th Week of Lent (B2) Wisdom 2:1A, 12-22 John 7:1-2, 10, 25-30 Factus est nobis in traductionem cogitationum nostrarum. Gravis est nobis etiam ad videndum, quoniam dissimilis est aliis vita illius, et immutatae sunt viae ejus.He is become a censurer of our thoughts. He is grievous unto us,…
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There’s gotta be an easier way…
✙ JMJ The Readings for Thursday in the 4th Week of Lent (B2) Exodus 32:7-14 John 5:31-47 Locutus est autem Dominus ad Moysen, dicens : Vade, descende : peccavit populus tuus, quem eduxisti de terra Aegypti.And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Go, get thee down: thy people, which thou hast brought out of the…
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Like a Swiss Army Knife
✙ JMJ The Readings for Wednesday in the 4th Week of Lent (B2) Isaiah 49:8-15 John 5:17-30 Dedi te in foedus populi, ut suscitares terram, et possideres haereditates dissipatas; ut diceres his qui vincti sunt : Exite; et his qui in tenebris : Revelamini. Super vias pascentur, et in omnibus planis pascua eorum.[I have] given thee to…
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In the Vision-Time
✙ JMJ The Readings for Tuesday in the 4th Week of Lent (B2) Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12 John 5:1-16 Certe vidisti, fili hominis?Have you seen this, Son of Man? הֲרָאִ֣יתָ בֶן־אָדָ֑ם Son of Man in the Latin and English. In Hebrew it’s Son of Adam, like in Narnia. Yes, Adam means “man” and also “earth creature”,…
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A Journey of All Sorts and Conditions
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Oh, that guy.
✙ JMJ The Readings for the 4th Sunday of Lent (B2) II Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23 Ephesians 2:4-10 John 3:14-21 Non enim misit Deus Filium suum in mundum, ut judicet mundum, sed ut salvetur mundus per ipsum. For God sent not his Son into the world, to judge the world, but that the world may be…
Orthoparadoxy 