Wise Words on Wednesday: Picking and Choosing
We have learnt to take what we want from the buffet of religion
– Mark Hall, Lifestories
Tag: Casting Crowns
New Casting Crowns Album Released!
It’s that time again! A new album from Casting Crowns, Thrive:
Wise Words on Wednesday: Training
“We have been trained well beyond our obedience”
– Mark Hall, Lifestories
Wise Words on Wednesday: Peace On Earth
“Peace is not merely the absence of war; nor can it be reduced solely to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies; nor is it brought about by dictatorship.
Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called an enterprise of justice. Peace results from that order structured into human society by its divine Founder, and actualized by men as they thirst after ever greater justice.”
– Vatican II, Church in the Modern World 78.
Wounds in Heaven?
Today I’d like to talk about one of the songs from a recent album of my favourite contemporary Christian band, Casting Crowns. The song is entitled “Wedding Day” and describes the wedding feast of Heaven when Christ’s Bride, the Church, is finally presented to the Him:
Towards the end of the song there’s a lyric which speaks of the scarred hands of Christ wiping away every tear:
When the hand that bears the only scars and heaven touch her face
And the last tears she’ll ever cried are finally wiped away
And the clouds roll back as He takes her hand and walks her through the gates
Forever we will reign
Jesus, Friend Of Sinners
My favourite band, Casting Crowns, just released a video of a song from their new album “Come to the Well”. The song is called “Jesus, Friend Of Sinners”:
This is definitely one of my favourite songs from their most recent album Come To The Well. It has a few lyrics which I find devastating:
Jesus, friend of sinners, …we cut down people in your name but the sword was never ours to swing…
A plank-eyed saint with dirty hands and a heart divided…
Open our eyes to the world at the end of our pointing fingers…
…and finally…
Nobody knows what we’re for, only what we’re against, when we judge the wounded…
It is this last line which I find the most powerful. Before hearing this song I had never really thought that when I judged someone, I was judging someone injured. We’re all wounded, of course, both by the Fall and our own personal histories.
Until I heard these words I had never really considered that when someone does something which disappoints or hurts me, it might be due to a wound which that person had previously sustained, so rather than judging and condemning that person, I should instead see him as someone in need of healing.
Over the past few months I have, on occasions, remembered this song and the resolution it inspired: Be More Gentle With People. When I have done this, and managed to set aside my indigence and anger, and tried to “look for the wound”, the results have been quite surprising. I have found my heart softened and the reservoirs of compassion and patience which I had long thought empty, refilled.
Now, if only I could remember this resolution a bit more often…
Christ is born! Glorify Him!
I’ve just got back from the Christmas Eve Divine Liturgy at Holy Angels. Ahhh…so good to breath with the Eastern lung again… 😉
Anyway, I had this song stuck in my head on the way home so I thought I’d share: