St. Thomas Becket, Fifth Day After Christmas thoughts

I was a little surprised to find in my LOTH, Vol. I, a listing for "Dec. 29, The Fifth Day in the Octave of Christmas," but not too surprised, because the language of liturgists is like that -- formal and specific. It is also the feast of St. Thomas Becket, whom I believe became a saint as a result of refusing to let the King Henry II outrank Pope Alexander III. That's a very sticky question, and one that I'm delighted to never have to face.

Back to the fifth day in the octave of Christmas. To begin, I like the practice of attaching an octave to Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. It gives the feast/solemnity a little something extra, liturgical fringe if you will; a decoration. And to forestall any accusations of frivolity I ask why do we decorate? If you have a Christmas tree, you have decorated, and chances are that you don't have entirely frivolous reasons for doing so.

Now, I am a person who is forever finding meaning in things. Liturgy is the most wonderful possession we have of Christ. "No liturgy was composed by Christ, so why bother interpreting it?" I've been asked that question so many times, and the only answer is that when we are in a 'moment of liturgy,' being gathered in Christ's name, then Christ is among us in power, and in might. We have Christ in the Eucharist, and that alone is the full power and love of God, so how much more important our liturgy is then! From the first liturgical words and gestures of Moses and Aaron, to this very day, liturgy has defined our communal moments closest to God. We always have God within us, but in liturgy we encounter God from the outside of us.

The change in liturgy that has been going on since Aaron first lifted a censer, still pushes forward today. All things change. It has been said the only thing for certain is change itself. God does not change, but we do. As humanity changes we begin to understand God in a different way. That change in understanding does not happen all at the same time for everyone. Some move more easily than others through the change, and truly, there is no right or wrong, there is only Christian consideration of others and their sensibilities.

Unfortunately, the liturgy is too often a lash for us to use on one another. That reason alone is enough to justify any amount of interpretation and devotion to the liturgy, and in the past, the present, the future now.

All Creation Groans

Puer natus est nobis,
et filius datus est nobis,
cujus imperium super humerum ejus et vocabitur nomen ejus,
magni consilii Angelus. Cantate Domino canticum novum quia mirabilia fecit. Gloria...


A child is born to us,
and a Son is given to us:
Whose government is upon His shoulder:
and His Name shall be called,
the Angel of Great Counsel. (Ps.97. 1). Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: because He hath done wonderful things.

Glory be to the Father....

Dark Hours, Anxiety, and Faith

I wake early, always before sunrise -- winter or summer -- and generally feel energized and ready for the day. This morning I woke full of anxiety. There is no real reason for this anxiety, but it is in me and trying to ruin the day that's only just begun. Luckily, the lesson that "you are not how you feel" has helped me out this morning. How I feel is pursued by furies! While saying the Office of Readings it felt like my skin was going to run away without the rest of my body.

I hate that.

There are no supernatural sensations, or intimations of immortality (with nods to Wordsworth), all I have is the knowledge that I am not defined by how I feel. And what a good thing that is, because I feel like pure hell. Yet, there is comfort in knowing that the feelings are not a sign of anything other than some chemicals in my body following their 'vocation,' which is making me feel horrid.

No matter how my feelings change, they do not touch the reality of my life with God. That remains unchanged. "What can separate us from the love of Christ?" Certainly anxiety and it's paltry attacks.

St. John of the Cross, Doctor

We have come to the day of John of the Cross. Today we think of him, read him, meditate on him, and talk to him. Today we honor John of the Cross for what he suffered at the hands of his own monastic brothers. And, recall those dark and lonely months in his cell. The crucible that God used to transformed John.

He spent nine months in a cell not a whole lot bigger than he was. It was dark most of the time, and what light was admitted to the room came from a window far too high on the wall to be of much use to him. Weekly, he was taken before the monastic community and lashed in front of them all. Oh, and while he was there, he wrote most of the Spiritual Canticle. Now, think of his living conditions and read the following.

O you soul, then, most beautiful of creatures, who so long to know the place where your Beloved is, that you may seek Him, and be united to Him, you know now that you are yourself that very tabernacle where He dwells, the secret chamber of His retreat where He is hidden. Rejoice, therefore, and exult, because all your good and all your hope is so near you as to be within you; or, to speak more accurately, that you can not be without it, “for lo, the kingdom of God is within you.” So says the Bridegroom Himself, and His servant, St. Paul, adds: “You are the temple of the living God.” What joy for the soul to learn that God never abandons it, even in mortal sin; how much less in a state of grace! (Italics are my own)

Even on my best days I am not sure such an openness of spirit is within me, much less were I in a prison like his. His suffering was so deep and blatant that in order to cling to sanity he had to cling to God. God saved John of the Cross, because John found God inside himself, giving positive proof for the psalmist's question "Where can I hide from your spirit?" Nowhere! God is present, keep silence.
Honor John of the Cross today.

To my mythical reader, I apologize for my last post being, yet another, cause statement. An article I came across said that writing a series of posts ahead of time is the best way to deal with writer's block. Last week I used a lot of things I'd written previously, and the causes were in the same folder. That is how causes seemed to take over last week.

Part of my Advent discipline has been to do the Office of Readings, lectio, and Morning Prayer, at home in my prayer spot. Sometimes, I add the Rosary to round things out. This morning I said Office of Readings, OOR, and went to mass at the monastery. The reason I've not attended all the Advent weekdays is because of my Advent morning routine.

The rain was heavy when I left the house, with standing water in the road, here and there. Twice I almost turned around. Pulling up in front of the monastery was a relief. On the way up the steps the Angelus began to ring. I heard it from outside, and all at once I felt a longing so deep and old that it could have been the early middle ages, and I, a peasant on my way to the fields, heard the bells from the monastery nearby. It was a splendid, and a spooky moment.

Stepping in the doors dispelled all eeriness. Inside were a number of retreatants, and the local regulars. My little congregation, along with the monastic community. Then mass was upon us.

I thought, isn't it wonderful how no matter what my view or your view, when we are at mass there is only one view. The one view that counts, Christ's view. When we encounter him in Eucharistic action, all our discussions are stilled by the divinity among us. Our silence extends beyond exterior silence, reaching out into the world around us, by going home with us, as part of our physical bodies. What is the advantage of having faith that Christ is 'body and blood' in the species of 'bread and wine,' if not by partaking of his body and blood we are being transformed into his likeness? The very likeness Paul spoke.

We have spent too much time worrying over our individual causes.

Abortion and gays have become the new gods, even though we say that we oppose, or support, those things because of our faith in the true God. We do not. We oppose or support those things because they keep us from having to examine ourselves too closely. Those who think they know the answers, conservatives and liberals, are elevating themselves, and their worldview, to the level of a god.

Let's be clear here, Christ was not someone who pursued a cause. Christ did not oppose the Romans, probably causing many to accuse him of being a sissified liberal.

Faith must shown in our lives, not in our causes. We subsitute causes for real content of faith. It is as if some say, "my cause will show my faith." Causes do no such thing. Causes help us have easy answers. Guess what? Life in Christ has no easy answers. Unless we count, "pull the beam out of your own eye first ...."

I have a series of preferences for liturgy and theology that I would like to see in place in the church, but I will not join a fight to have it my way. There was a time I would have signed up for such a fight, in my twenties, thirties, maybe even early forties, but no longer. At fifty I say, don't bring your cause to me, for the only cause that matters is the relationship to God.

Saint Ambrose, Doctor

To all who may read. I am shamelessly republishing Ambrose. Oh well.


Today we begin to look at the first of the four Latin Doctors. Ambrose was born in Trier, Gaul, now Germany, around the year 340. After the death of his father, his mother took the children to Rome where Ambrose received an excellent education. In 370 at the age of 30, Valentinian I made him governor of Liguria and Aemilia.

When the people of Milan proclaimed him Bishop, he was still a catechumen. How did something like that happen? That a catechumen should be elected bishop? Simple, the Arian bishop of Milan died, and what happened next is a scene straight out of the history books. Half the people wanted an Arian replacement for bishop, the other half wanted a Catholic replacement. As we have learned about those times, violence often went hand in hand with episcopal elections.

Ambrose did not want violence breaking out in the Milan where he was governor, so he went to the Cathedral to plead with the crowds to make a peaceful choice. While he was speaking someone called out "Ambrose for bishop." It must have struck a chord, because everyone else started chanting "Ambrose for Bishop."

When I was in a history class in college, covering this very incident, the professor said that Ambrose presented all the various reasons why he could not become bishop. First, he wasn't baptized yet. Second, he was sinful. And third... the professor then ran out of the room to illustrate what Ambrose did. Now the saga ends with his baptism and then consecration as bishop one week later.

If Ambrose thought he wasn't ready for episcopal office, he set about remedying the situation at once. He started studying the scriptures, reading Origen and Basil, as well as other Church Fathers. Like John Chrysostom, once Ambrose was in office he sold his goods and began to live a life of simplicity, vigils, fasting and prayer. His concern for the poor and for the church itself became legendary. His sermons were largely pastoral, and not overly argumentative.

He wrote a book called Concerning Virginity which he wrote for his sister Marcellina. It seems there were many consecrated virgins influenced by Ambrose. In fact, it has come down to us that mother tried to prevent their daughters from hearing Ambrose preach.

As always, the Arians were a problem and Ambrose becamse a champion of Orthodoxy. It was a catch phrase for Arians when discussing Christ to say "there was a time when he was not." Let's be very clear that the heresy is still alive and well today. The statement "Jesus was a great man, a great teacher, but he was not the Son of God," is Arianism pure and simple.

It's time to skip some parts of the biography so there's plenty of room left for Ambrose's Hymns.

In 390 there was a terrible massacre in Thessalonica. In retaliation ... Theodosius's troops killed seven thousand people. Ambrose wrote a severe letter to Theodosius, telling him that "what was done at Thessalonica is unparalleled in the memory of man," and urging him to penance. Theodosius did the public penance.

That is typical of Ambrose, in standing up for the right thing, and for acting for the right without fear of the Emperor to whom he wrote.

O Splendor of God's Glory

O splendor of God's glory bright,
O Thou that bringest light from light,
O Light of Light, light's Living Spring,
O Day, all days illumining.

O Thou true Sun, on us Thy glance
let fall in royal radiance,
the Spirit's sanctifying beam
upon our earthly senses stream.

The Father too our prayers implore,
Father of glory evermore,
the Father of all grace and might,
to banish sin from our delight:

Time for Torah

Today I signed up for some email classes from the folks at Torah.org. As we are in the first week of Advent and the readings from Office of Readings are rich in the Hebrew scriptures, then why not make a special study of them with Rabbis? I will write more about it as the classes unfold.

Quote from today's Office of Readings (OR)

That day, man will look to his creator and his eyes will turn to the Holy One of Israel. He will no longer look after the altars, his own handiwork, nor gaze at what his hands have made: the sacred poles and the solar pillars.

This text is a call to conversion as much as promise. It is easy to turn our cause or world view into a sacred pole, or erect a solar pillar. All the thoughts we develop and world views we experience, are nothing when we turn our eyes to "the Holy One of Israel." Turning eyes must be understood then as repentance. Conversion.

Advent is a time of conversion when you begin to see that the season as expressed in the liturgy is aching for this birth to occur. Come, O come. Then, on the 17th will begin the O Antiphons. Each day from then until Christmas there is a specific antiphon for the Magnificat at Vespers. The liturgy of the Church Year is magnificent. I wonder if other people find it that way, too?

1st Wednesday of Advent, 2007

Here we are, in the vestibule of Advent. "All creation waits with eager longing," (Romans 8:19), seems to apply more to Advent than any other time of year. I always liked that verse because it says that
not all is known, not all is shown.
It didn't happen just once.
There is yet more to come!
More Christ. More God.
No shortage!

It shouldn't surprise anyone that the Bible is the libretto of the liturgy. The Bible is full of what we call one-liners. A possible definition of one-liner might be a phrase that sums up volumes of meaning, in a short, pithy, memorable phrase. The Bible provides that in every book, on almost every page. The best quotes are those used as antiphons, and responsories. The antiphons frame the psalms and canticles, while the responsories reflect on the reading.

Liturgy is serious business to me. I heard a joke once comparing liturgists to terrorists, with the punchline being you can negotiate with terrorists. Certainly I'm not that bad. I do think liturgy is the door to the mystical element of the Christian's faith. The liturgy is also the gate of sacramental reality.

For Advent I will relish all the parts of the propers of the season. Once, it was believed that the elaborate Gregorian Alleluias had a mystical meaning. Intuitively, I've always believed that. This Advent I mean to explore it fully.

St. John Damascene

This was published earlier this year. Today is his feast day, so why not?

St. John Damascene was born in Damascus, Syria, in the year 675. The world he was born into was already, officially, Islam. The Arab Christians had family roots there reaching back to the time of Christ. John came from a family that held a hereditary position as Chief of the Revenue Department, until the Caliph decided he didn't want a Christian doing that anymore. Then John became a monk.

While a monk he wrote over one hundred fifty works. One of them was the Exposition of the Orthodox Faith. He weighed against the Iconoclasts in that controversy. Iconoclasts were icon breakers, they believed that the veneration of images was idol worship. His support of icons made St. John very unpopular in the Byzantine empire. John didn't live in the Byzantine empire, so he wasn't hounded like so many others were.

"Since some find fault with us
for worshipping and honoring the image of our Savior
and that of Our Lady, let them remember
that in the beginning God created
man after his own image. On what grounds
then do we show reverence to one another
unless it is because we are made
after God's image?"

I think that makes the case rather convincingly for the veneration of Icons. It makes me think of John Donne's poem "The Cross," written against the Puritans who were trying to ban all crosses.

SINCE Christ embraced the cross itself, dare I
His image, th' image of His cross, deny ?
Would I have profit by the sacrifice,
And dare the chosen altar to despise ?
It bore all other sins, but is it fit
That it should bear the sin of scorning it?

That was written sometime in the early 1600s. So more than a thousand years separates the two works, but the same spirit is in both.

For his many works, and his clear defense of veneration of icons, John is a Doctor of the Church.

Causes are the Disease of the Church

Liberal or conservative, you have a cause.

If liberal, then you're in the forefront of women in the priesthood, oh, my! Or, gays and marriage, oh my.

If you're a conservative, then you're Latin mass society. Abortion! Gays! Oh, my!

I loathe and detest, as a matter of faith, any cause which divides one Christian from another. My world view, and your world view are never going to meet, because we are two different people. It really is just that simple.

Is it better to form up and yell at each other, than to sit before God and expose our naked helplessness? Is turning on each other the answer? We are always saying turn to God, turn to God. Well, when will we begin to leave off yelling at each other, and do that?

Like the old song, "Let there be Peace on Earth," and let it begin with me. Here is my version.

It is always best, so I believe history has taught us, to agree to disagree, and go on our way in peace; without leaving behind us a wake of shredded souls, personal attacks, and wild generalizations, thereby objectifying the 'other' as heretic, or worse yet, liberal.

I maintain that to care too much one way or the other in how someone else has to experience God in order to meet a criteria set up by who knows whom, is a sin.

I maintain, and so will this blog, prayer is our only weapon, not our vote, not our world view contained in some authorities statement on how I must experience God, God's revelation, and God's own self.

I maintain that I am a Roman Catholic by conversion from the Episcopal Church. Protestant to Catholic.

I maintain that mystery lives in my life, in your life, and in every living thing.

I maintain that I support women in the priesthood, and I accept that the RC does not ordain women.

I maintain that I did not become RC because of the gay issue in the Episcopal Church, I support it, and it is one hundred years too soon.

I am a Roman Catholic because of real presence in the Eucharist.

I accept the Magisterium of the Church through tradition, without necessarily always agreeing.

I accept Mary as Theotokos. God-bearer.

I believe that liberals and conservatives have both taken their focus off of Christ, in order to assault each other with words.

I believe that there are others out there, just like me.

Resurrecting a Blog

In my last post, I made a lament over the lack of direction that pits my blog like meteorites hitting the moon. Is not today the best day to bring about new life to a dead blog? After all, it is the first Sunday of Advent, what better time to look ahead and stop looking backwards to failures past. Today's first reading in the Office of Readings, is Isaiah 1:1-18. The reading looks to the past record of behavior and doesn't have anything good to say about it, but it ends in a different vein.

‘Come now, let us talk this over,
says the Lord.
Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red as crimson,
they shall be like wool.’

If you search the bible front to back you could not find a better promise than this one. I think it applies to direction-less blogs, as well.