A journal of byzantine digressionS
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IT’S A
Revelation 22:1-7Luke 21:34-36 Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life, and that day catch you by surprise like a trap.Luke 21:34 Jesus was quite aware of our weakened human mental map. He knows that it is the “anxieties of daily life” that lead us…
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Indeed, it’s Just a Pinch
Revelation 20:1-4, 11—21:2Luke 21:29-33 I saw the dead, the great and the lowly, standing before the throne, and scrolls were opened. Then another scroll was opened, the book of life. The dead were judged according to their deeds, by what was written in the scrolls. The sea gave up its dead; then Death and Hades…
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Dont Ruin Thanksgiving!
Ben Sira 50:22-24I Corinthians 1:3-9Luke 17:11-19 Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?Luke 17:18 The NABRE renders this as “give thanks to God” but the Greek, the Latin, and just about every other translation says “give glory to God” or “give praise”. I think it could easily be “give worship to…
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Little Purple Seeds of Fire
Revelation 15:1-4Luke 21:12-19 You will even be handed over by parents, brothers, relatives, and friends, and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name, but not a hair on your head will be destroyed. By your perseverance you will secure your lives.Luke 21:16-19 Near the…
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Lectio Apocalypse!
Revelation 14:14-19Luke 21:5-11 “Use your sickle and reap the harvest, for the time to reap has come, because the earth’s harvest is fully ripe.” So the one who was sitting on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.Revelation 14:15b-16 Your host honestly got excited Monday morning when Pope Francis…
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Go to the Temple, then this happened!
Revelation 14:1-3, 4b-5Luke 21:1-4I tell you truly, this poor widow put in more than all the rest; for those others have all made offerings from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has offered her whole livelihood.Luke 21:3b-4 Today is the memorial of the Entry of Our Lady into the Temple. To me this…
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Ecce Rex Noster Dilecto
II Samuel 5:1-3Colossians 1:12-20Luke 23:35-43 When I went away to college, my freshman year, I was at an Evangelical liberal arts college called “The King’s College“. Two guys named David shared the room with me. A huge bunch of stuff had been given to me to go to college with, but one thing I asked…
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These Three are One
Revelation 11:4-12Luke 20:27-40 …those who deny that there is a resurrection…Luke 20:27 The Sadducees insisted on the literal meaning of the text, following only the first five books of the Bible (excluding the Prophets, the Wisdom books, and the Historical books from their sense of “Scripture”). They also insisted there was no bodily resurrection, no…
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Gosh that’s hard.
Revelation 10:8-11Luke 19:45-48 I took the small scroll from the angel’s hand and swallowed it. In my mouth it was like sweet honey, but when I had eaten it, my stomach turned sour.Revelation 10:10 Chesterton rather famously said, “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and not tried.” Every…
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More of the Unpopular Opinion
Revelation 5:1-10Luke 19:41-44 If this day you only knew what makes for peace – but now it is hidden from your eyes.Luke 19:42b These came to me in College, they are called, Bailey’s Four Spiritual Flaws of Human Interaction: Humans are primates. Primates are Territorial. Humans have evolved to a point where “territory” includes abstract…
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Confess Your Unpopular Opinion
Revelation 4:1-11Luke 19:11-28 Worthy are you, Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things; because of your will they came to be and were created.Revelation 4:11 The Introduction to a Devout Life by St Francis de Sales has been my evening and morning reading for a month or…
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Anthony Quinn and Keith Green Agree…
Revelation 3:1-6, 14-22Luke 19:1-10I know your works, that you have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead… I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of…
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Popi, have you seen Dash?
Revelation 1:1-4; 2:1-5Luke 18:35-43Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?” He replied, “Lord, please let me see.” Jesus told him, “Have sight; your faith has saved you.” He immediately received his sight and followed him, giving glory to God.Luke 18:40c-43a This blind man, asking for pity. Jesus says, “What?” The…
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If You Don’t Work, You Don’t Eat.
Malachi 3:19-20aII Thessalonians 3:7-12Luke 21:5-19 Jesus said, “All that you see here– the days will come when there will not be left a stone upon another stone that will not be thrown down.”Luke 21:6 In the weeks leading up to Advent the western Lectionary gets apocalyptic. Today it comes out in full swing! The collection…
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Since August
A friend asked why I’ve not blogged about my experience at the Monastery. My reply is that you only meet the good side of a divorce. To be clear, I don’t think anything bad happened, and as Fr Prior noted in his recent newsletter it was a peaceable departure. The final date was suggested by…
Orthoparadoxy 