"We are travellers…not yet in our native land" – St. Augustine
Yesterday morning I came across the following video:
That’s right…an iPad lectern! And, I checked, this thing is a real product available for purchase!
At lunch, as I walked to a nearby sandwich store, I got to thinking about whether or not I thought an iPad-based parish would be a good move or not. There would be some clear advantages to having an electronic Missal and an electronic Lectionary:
As 2011 draws to a close I’ve been reflecting on the events of this past year. New people have entered my life and some have left it. There have been fights and reconciliations. There has been the opportunity to go on some wonderful adventures as well as the chance to be still, to sit and listen and to reconsider my life’s vocation.
All of these things have changed me in some way. There is a proverb which I believe is attributed to E.E. Cummings which says “To grow is to change and to have grown often is to have changed much”. All the events of this past year have helped mould me, for better or worse, from the person I was at the end of 2010 to the person I am now at the end of 2011.
The more I’ve considered this, the more comforting I’ve found it. It means that there is always a dynamism. There is always hope. Things are not set in stone. The person I was in the past is not necessarily who I am now or, indeed, the person I will become.
A week ago I began my sabbatical. Following my spiritual director’s suggestion, I spent that first week away on retreat. I spent my time at a monastery, dedicating the next two months of discernment to the Lord.
The monastery I visited was a Benedictine monastery in Oregon. Having grown up around Benedictine monks, I felt very much at home. It was wonderful having the rhythm of my day guided by the monastic office, even if the (very loud) bell rang for Vigils at 5:30am each day!
It was really nice to have some time away and get a complete change of scenery. I got plenty of rest and spent most of my time reading and writing. It was so good to quiet the noise inside and to have an opportunity collect my thoughts.
I got back Sunday evening and yesterday I spent planning, working out the day-to-day routine of the months ahead…
In the mornings I’ll be going to Matins and Divine Liturgy and then I’ll repair to a coffee shop to work on the book for a couple of hours. I’ll try and go to a different coffee shop each day and I’m planning on keeping track of them on this map:
I’ll then come home and cook lunch. I do love cooking but normally I’m too rushed/lazy/impatient to do it. Therefore, during this sabbatical, I’m going to endeavor to expand my usual repertoire of dishes by following a recipe each day.
The afternoons will begin with an hour of exploring new technologies which will then be followed by a long walk through one of Seattle’s many beautiful parks. I’ll listen to a lecture on my iPod, but I’ll always spend the last half an hour in peaceful silence. When I get back I’ll spend some time reading the mountain of books I’ve assembled.
The evenings will be spent relaxing, working out and the odd Holy Hour.
This week, during my walks I will be listening to John – The Sacramental Gospel from St. Paul’s Center for Biblical Theology. The meals I will cook will include Spicy Salmon with Bok Choy, Chicken Curry, Salmon With Creamy Cucumber-Fennel Salad, Pasta With Turkey and Broccoli and Southwestern Beef Chili With Corn.
Today is the feast day of St. Peter and St. Paul, two of the great pillars of the Church:
This morning at the Byzantine liturgy I was struck by how the themes of patience and perseverance came up again and again in the Liturgy of the Word. The Apostolic Reading (roughly equivalent to the Second Reading in the Roman Mass) even contained my life verse where St. Paul talks about how the grace of God operates through our weakness 🙂
If I had been the one to choose the Readings today I would have probably chosen other readings, so during the Liturgy I pondered why the Church chose those particular passages…
In part, I think it might be due to the fact that Peter and Paul were not only great leaders of the Church, but they were also martyrs, enduring suffering and offering their lives to God in the most radical way. I think by focussing on the theme of patient endurance the Church is teaching us that we are all called to do the same, to be patient in adversity and to allow the “fertilizer of life” to yield fruit within us (Romans 5:1-5) and to offer our entire lives to the Lord.
At the end of the First Century, Clement of Rome wrote a letter to the Church at Corinth. The Church at Corinth was having difficulties (again). This time they had rebelled against their clergy, so St. Clement wrote to them to resolve the issue. During the course of his letter, he spoke about how envy and jealousy had caused havoc and destruction in the lives of different Old Testament characters. He then turned to, what was for Clement, very recent events:
But not to dwell upon ancient examples, let us come to the most recent spiritual heroes. Let us take the noble examples furnished in our own generation. Through envy and jealousy, the greatest and most righteous pillars of the Church have been persecuted and put to death.
Let us set before our eyes the illustrious apostles. Peter, through unrighteous envy, endured not one or two, but numerous labours and when he had at length suffered martyrdom, departed to the place of glory due to him. Owing to envy, Paul also obtained the reward of patient endurance, after being seven times thrown into captivity, compelled to flee, and stoned. After preaching both in the east and west, he gained the illustrious reputation due to his faith, having taught righteousness to the whole world, and come to the extreme limit of the west, and suffered martyrdom under the prefects. Thus was he removed from the world, and went into the holy place, having proved himself a striking example of patience – Pope St. Clement of Rome (c. AD 96)
As you can see, Clement reminds the Corinthians of Peter and Paul, examples of those who patiently endured and, who for their fidelity, won crowns of eternal life.
Since today is the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul, it is also my Feast Day, since I took the name “Peter” at my Confirmation. I always make a point of celebrating my Feast Day, so I’ll be sure to pick up something delicious for dessert later 🙂
Do you celebrate your feast day? If so, what do you do?
A while ago on this blog I shared my “life verse”, my favourite Bible verse by which I try to live my life…
But [the Lord] said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness”
– 2 Corinthians 12:9
I brought up the subject of life verses in my Theology On Tap talk. I told those attending that I wanted my talk to inspire those present to read the Bible, to be the kind of person who has a favourite book of the Bible and to be the kind of person who has a “life verse”.
Moses always enjoyed sharing his favourite Bible passages…
I invited those without a life verse to keep their ears open for their life verse during future times of Bible study and during the Liturgy of the Word. Otherwise, what would they say if they got cornered at a party by some enthusiastic Christians, who asked for their life verse?!
I made the point that picking a life verse at random is a risky strategy since, if one decided to play it safe and pick psalm, one might end up choosing Psalm 38…
For my loins are filled with a loathsome disease: and there is no soundness in my flesh
– Psalm 38:7
If your new friends know their Bible well, or if they look up your “life verse” on the spot…then things will get awwwkward! As they leave the party, don’t expect them to shake your hand…or even touch you in any way whatsoever!
I’ve got a longer article in progress on the subject of abortion, but today’s post is an extremely short entry on a point I’ve been wanting to mention for some time…
Whenever you see an abortion debate, either in a formal setting or on Facebook, it’s not long before you hear someone, typically from the pro-choice side, talk about “fertilized eggs”. I only note this because I think it’s always worth pointing out that “fertilized egg” is something of a misnomer…
I say this because once an egg is fertilized, it ceases being an egg. It is now a new, distinct human organism. Calling it a “fertilized egg” is rather like referring to a man as a “married bachelor”. It’s nonsensical since, once married, a man ceases to be a bachelor. Likewise, we would never refer to someone being a “born fetus” because once the child is born it ceases to be a fetus.
That’s all for today 🙂
Picking back up my notes for C.S. Lewis’ “Mere Christianity”…
1. We may speak of Christian morality in terms of the seven virtues
(b) Three are called “Theological” virtues
“…as a rule, only Christians know about [these]…”
(a) Four are called “Cardinal” virtues
“…all civilised people recognise [these]… It comes from a Latin word meaning “the hinge of a door…they are, as we should say, ‘pivotal'”
(i) Prudence
“Prudence means practical common sense, taking the trouble to think out what you are doing and what is likely to come of it”
Some think that prudence isn’t really a virtue and that it’s okay to be a foolish and childish, but…
(a) Christ wants us to grow
“Christ never meant that we were to remain children in intelligence… He wants us to be simple, single-minded, affectionate, and teachable, as good children are; but He also wants every bit of intelligence we have to be alert at its job, and in first-class fighting trim.
He has room for people with very little sense, but He wants every one to use what sense they have”
(b) Christianity is an education in itself
“Anyone who is honestly trying to be a Christian will soon find his intelligence being sharpened: one of the reasons why it needs no special education to be a Christian is that Christianity is an education itself. That is why an uneducated believer like Bunyan* was able to write a book that has astonished the whole world”
* John Bunyan, the author of “The Pilgrim’s Progress”.
(ii) Temperance
“Temperance referred not specially to drink, but to all pleasures; and it meant not abstaining, but going the right length and no further”
(a) Temperance, or even abstinence, does not mean the thing is bad in and of itself
“…An individual Christian may see fit to give up all sorts of things for special reasons-marriage, or meat, or beer, or the cinema; but the moment he starts saying the things are bad in themselves, or looking down his nose at other people who do use them, he has taken the wrong turning”
(b) We should not think that temperance is restricted to drink
“One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word Temperance to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motor-bicycle the centre of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as “intemperate” as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals”
(iii) Justice
“It is the old name for everything we should now call “fairness”; it includes honesty, give and take, truthfulness, keeping promises, and all that side of life”
(iv) Fortitude
“And Fortitude includes both kinds of courage-the kind that faces danger as well as the kind that “sticks it” under pain. “Guts” is perhaps the nearest modern English. You will notice, of course, that you cannot practise any of the other virtues very long without bringing this one into play”
2. There is a difference between an individual act and a character
“Someone who is not a good tennis player may now and then make a good shot. What you mean by a good player is the man whose eye and muscles and nerves have been so trained by making innumerable good shots that they can now be relied on… In the same way a man who perseveres in doing just actions gets in the end a certain quality of character. Now it is that quality rather than the particular actions which we mean when we talk of ‘virtue'”
If we think only of particular actions, embrace three wrong ideas:
(a) How and why don’t matter
“…whether you did it willingly or unwillingly, sulkily or cheerfully, through fear of public opinion or for its own sake. But the truth is that right actions done for the wrong reason do not help to build the internal quality or character called a “virtue,” and it is this quality or character that really matters”
(b) God cares more about rules
“We might think that God wanted simply obedience to a set of rules: whereas He really wants people of a particular sort”
(c) Virtues are only for this life
“Now it is quite true that there will probably be no occasion for just or courageous acts in the next world, but there will be every occasion for being the sort of people that we can become only as the result of doing such acts here… if people have not got at least the beginnings of those qualities inside them, then no possible external conditions could make a “Heaven” for them…”
1. What are the “Cardinal Virtues”?
2. What is the difference between the “Cardinal” and “Theological” virtues?
3. Why might some Christians not think that prudence is a virtue?
4. Why is it dangerous to restrict “temperance” to “drink” and “teetotalism”?
5. What is the difference between acts and character? How might we go wrong if we think more about acts than character?
No doodle!