Category: Catholicism
Know Your Valar: Irmo and Estë
Today we have another couple, Irmo, (also known as Lórien whom we previously met) and his wife Estë:
Irmo
Estë
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: –
- Other titles: –
- Appearance: –
- Location: Lives with her husband in Lórien
- Notes: Responsible for the healing of the hurt and weary.
Know Your Valar: Namo, Lorien, and Nienna
Today we have three siblings: Námo (whom we’ve previously met as Mandos), Irmo, and Nienna…
Námo
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: “Ordainer”/”Judge”
- Other titles: Mandos (“Prison-fortress”)
- Appearance:
- Dark figure
- Loud, solemn voice
- Location: Halls of Mandos
- Notes:
- Responsible for the judgement of the elves after death
Lórien
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: –
- Other titles: Irmo (“Master of Desires”)
- Appearance: –
- Location: Lórien
- Notes:
- Master of Visions, Dreams, and Desires
Nienna
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: “She Who Weeps”
- Other titles: –
- Appearance: –
- Location: –
- Notes:
- Her mourning of the Two Trees brought forth their last flower and fruit, and made into the Sun and Moon.
Know Your Valar: Mandos and Vairë
Know Your Valar: Melkor and Manwë
Today we have the siblings. The first is Melkor, who is clearly the baddie (you can tell by his tailor)…
Melkor
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: “He who arises in might”
- Other titles: Morgoth (“Black Foe of the World”)
- Appearance:
- Crown with the Silmarils
- Location: Utumno, Angband
- Notes:
- Primordial source of evil in Eä.
…and we already met Manwë, the King of Arda:
Know your Valar: Oromë and Vána
Today we have another couple, Oromë and Vána…
Oromë
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: “Horn-Blower”, “Sound of Horns”
- Other titles: –
- Appearance:
- Horn (“Valaróma”)
- Steed “Nahar”)
- Hound (“Huan”)
- Location: –
- Notes:
- Great Hunter
- First of the Valar to discover the Elves and named them Eldar
- Brother of Nessa
Vána
- Type: Vala
- Name meaning: “Beautiful One”
- Other titles: “Vána the Ever-Young”
- Appearance: Golden Hair
- Location: –
- Notes:
- Responsible for the preserving of the youth made for all life in Arda.
- Younger sister of Yavanna
Wise Words on Wednesday: The Church is a whore?
Today’s “Wise Words on Wednesday” is a correction of a quotation I’ll periodically see people quote on the Internet:
The Church is a whore, but she’s also my mother
St. Augustine?
This is a poor paraphrase of something which St. Augustine wrote in Sermon 213:
“Let us honor the Catholic Church, our true Mother, the true Bride of her Husband, because she is the wife of so great a Lord. And what shall I say? How great is that Husband and of singular rank, that he discovered a prostitute and made her a virgin. Because she should not deny that she was a prostitute, lest she forget the mercy of her liberator. How can it be said that she was not a prostitute when she fornicated with demons and idols?”
Sermon 213 on the Creed
The ordering is really important here. The Bride of Christ was once unfaithful, but she was liberated by Him – the emphasis is on Christ’s ability to heal, save, and sanctify the lost.