My Goddaughter and Me

Drama

I Love Easter

I love Easter, and I'm so glad it's a season, not just a day.

St. John of Damascus (c. 675 - 760) wrote my two favorite Easter hymns , called (in English) "The Day of Resurrection" (which we sing to the tune Ellacombe), and "Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain" (to St. Kevin). I found them on iTunes, even, although the latter is a fairly low-quality performance. I'll put some of the lyrics at the bottom just in case anyone will read them, but wouldn't go find them.

John of Damascus is called "the Last of the Greek Fathers," and perhaps his best-known treatise is "On the Divine Images." He was also the first to write a refutation of Islam.

While I'm discussing the Greek Fathers, whoever has not read St. John Chrysostom's Easter sermon really should do it, and then read it every Easter, for the rest of your life. 

And finally, "O Gladsome Light," the English version of the Greek Phos Hilaron, as set to the Bourgeois/Goudimel tune, is almost too beautiful to get through (if you are at all prone to choking up at hymns).

The Day of Resurrection, vv.1 & 2

The day of resurrection-- earth, tell it out abroad!

The passover of gladness, the passover of God.

From death to life eternal, from earth unto the skies,

Our Christ hath brought us over, with hymns of victory.

Our hearts be pure from evil, that we may see aright

The Lord in rays eternal of resurrection light;

And listening to his accents, may hear so calm and plain,

His own "all hail," and hearing, may raise the victor strain.

Come, Ye Faithful, Raise the Strain, v.2

'Tis the spring of souls today,

Christ hath burst his prison, 

And from three days' sleep in death

As a sun hath risen.

All the winter of our sins,

Long and dark, is flying,

From his light, to whom we give

Laud and praise undying."

Italy 2007

That Explains a Lot

According to Donald T. Williams, Flannery O'Connor described her generation as one "that has been made to feel that the aim of learning is to eliminate mystery."

Exactly!

"The sorry religious novel comes about when the writer supposes that because of his belief, he is somehow dispensed from the obligation to penetrate concrete reality."
Flannery O"Connor

See the latest issue of Touchstone for the article by Donald T. Williams.

A Bit of This, A Bit of That

A classmate from college recently posted on his blog concerning a line of doctrinal thought known as "Federal Vision." It involves people in the Reformed wing of the Church who are content to use biblical language about sacraments and the nature of the Church, without as much explanation and qualification as most Reformed Protestants give. For example, using the term "baptismal regeneration" in a context other than condemning it. This has caused a stir in certain quarters. Ya might say.

But on a different topic, namely, the audacity of many protestants in rejecting long-held doctrines of the Church based on their own reason, I offered him my comment to the effect that rejecting the Roman teaching on the nature of Christ in the Mass (which is not what the fathers taught) is not the same as rejecting the Virgin Birth, since the latter is creedal while the former is not. Or I should say with Turretin, "The latter we affirm, the former we deny."

He (who is a RC in the Byzantine rite) replied,

"Anything defined by the extraordinary Magisterium of the Church (i.e. by particular Papal decree on matters of faith and morals or a council of the all the Bishops of the Church in union with teh Bishop of Rome) is as binding as anything defined in the 4th century. The Magesterium and its boundaries never changed. The same authority that wrote the Nicene Creed and closed the Cannon of Sacred Scripture defined the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin into Heaven. There is no difference."

But isn't the point who and not when? I'm not arguing that because the Nicene Creed was formulated in the 4th century, it's therefore more binding, but that it is the product of the whole church, not one bishop. Otherwise, why the council at Jerusalem if Peter could've just solved the problem? Even the main foundation stone of the church doesn't make the whole.

High School Backpacking 2007

Or, Six Days, Five Nights in Lassen National Wilderness

In the first picture, we were all looking across the stream at the camera while Mr. Bartel set the timer, then he came bounding over the stream and took his place just in time to grin naturally, and *click* the camera went. Our smiles are very real right there.