January 2012
8 posts
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“The commentators excoriating today’s students for studying the wrong subjects...”
– Virginia Postrel
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Youth ministry gets religion →
“All pastoral ministry has gone the way of youth ministry.” I don’t think so.
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Epiphany
They knew a lot, those savants from the East, And much of it was wrong. In hindsight we can see that very clearly. And we too know a lot, and much of it Must likewise in its turn prove wrong. So what to do? Our finite knowledge cuts two ways: Can hold us frozen in suspicion Or give one clue sufficient for the venture. The easterners were wise because they took their chance And won. Robert W....
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JRR Tolkien →
At 9 o’clock tonight propose a toast in memory of JRR Tolkien born 3 January 1892.
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December 2011
16 posts
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“Perhaps the most memorable of the moments Mumford describes is the story of the...”
– Langdon Winner in his forward to Technics and Civilization by Lewis Mumford. It was the desire to be faithful at prayer, at the horæ canonicæ, that compelled the creation of accurate timepieces. Remember that when you check the time.
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Holy Orders
Ah, so big a question! That is the whole question of theology, you see! I should say, I hope that during your studies you have visited yourself earnestly with the message of the Old Testament and of the New Testament. And not only of this message but also of the Object and the Subject of this message. And I would ask you, are you trained to visit not only yourself now, but a congregation with what...
Christopher Hitchens at Heaven's Gate
Saint Peter: Next! Man [defiant]: Christopher Hitchens. Saint Peter [a half-beat late]: Personal account? Hitchens: Do you know who I am? Of course you do, it’s one of the drawbacks of omniscience. And this place… It’s obvious where this is. I haven’t seen taste this bad on such a scale since I last liberated one of Saddam’s palaces. No, no, let me finish. I suppose I...
Doug Wilson on Christopher Hitchens
So we got on well with each other, because each of us knew where the other one stood. Eugene Genovese, before he became a believer, once commented on the tendency that some have to try to garner respect by giving away portions, big or small, of what they profess to believe. “If other religions offer equally valid ways to salvation and if Christianity itself may be understood solely as a code...
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“Here’s a thing I will say now without hesitation, unqualified and important. The...”
– Peter Hitchens on his brother Christopher
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Christopher Hitchens, 1949 – 2011
Christopher Hitchens is dead. I’ll miss his fiercely vital voice. As for his book *God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything*, I wish he’d mounted a more formidable argument. I’ll say this for *God Is Not Great*: I’m sympathetic with its title (if not its subtitle). Philosophically speaking, it’s not illuminating to say God is great. My son will tell you,...
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“Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD,...”
– Zechariah 3
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Samuel Hsu, 1947 – Dec 1, 2011 →
Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine, et lux perpetua luceat ei.
Since I am coming to that Holy room,
Where, with Thy choir of saints for evermore,
I shall be made Thy music ; as I come
I tune the instrument here at the door,
And what I must do then, think here before ; — John Donne
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On the Feast of St. Ambrose of Milan, Veni,...
“To whom could you liken me
and who would be my equal?” says the Holy One....”
– Isaiah 40: 25 -31
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Handel's Messiah at Ascension and Saint Agnes →
gabrielellsworth:
I can’t believe it has taken me this long to make it to this milestone, but this year I will, for the first time in my life, be performing in a production of Messiah. Click above for event details and tickets. For more info on what your supporting this event would mean to the parish, check out the church’s homepage at http://www.ascensionandsaintagnes.org/.
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“Nearly all marriages, even happy ones, are mistakes in the sense that almost...”
– J. R. R. Tolkien, writing to his son Michael
November 2011
16 posts
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The BCP's General Thanksgiving
Almighty God, Father of all mercies,
we thine unworthy servants
do give thee most humble and hearty thanks
for all thy goodness and loving-kindness
to us and to all men.
We bless thee for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for thine inestimable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace, and for the hope...
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My argument against God was that the universe seemed so cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in...
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“So to celebrate the Bible of 1611 is not to genuflect before a timeless...”
– Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury, preaching at a Thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey for the 400th anniversary of the 1611 authorised King James translation of the Bible. Read the whole text of the sermon in The Guardian.
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“And all the time—such is the tragi-comedy of our situation—we continue to...”
– C. S. Lewis, Men Without Chests, in The Abolition of Man
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“At least one sports columnist has made the point that Joe Paterno, the 40+ year...”
– John Scalzi
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You Can't Pick Your Friend's Nose
You can pick your friends, we used to say, and you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose. We said it often and understood what it meant: man lives within constraints, be they moral or natural; our little lives were limited by rules or laws, boundaries we knew were there and dared not cross. Nowadays, my son tells me, you can pick your friend’s nose, you just can’t eat the...
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So. The love of God teaches us to see; it teaches us to see God in the face of Jesus Christ. It teaches us to see ourselves in the light of that love; it teaches us to see our neighbour as the object of that same love and that is when the whole face of the earth is transfigured and enlightened by the love of God. And that brings me to the first reading that we had this morning; God has saved Noah...
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Iain Sinclair on Bruegel →
Bruegel suggests a chart of emotions as intricate as the map-making of Ortelius. The sloped back of the kneeling Christ echoes the shape of a cliff or mountain range. The texture of the robes of the Pharisees, all fissures and geological creases, runs straight into this panel’s immediate neighbour: a Bruegel exterior, Landscape with the Flight into Egypt. At the feet of the stooped Pharisee...
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“They were the mixed result of young and noble impulse struggling amidst the...”
– These closing lines of George Eliot’s Middlemarch are among the most famous in English literature, as they should be. They crossed my mind with incense at Wednesday night’s High Mass of Requiem in Commemoration of All Souls Day.
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““Is it likely,” the anti-Stratfordians often say, “that these greatest of plays...”
– Alan Jacobs
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WatchHat tip to Billy Shand
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“It is very meet, right, and our bounden duty, that we should at all times, and...”
– The Book of Common Prayer
October 2011
5 posts
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“Have to help with a military rites funeral at 12:30 today in Ontonagon. Mom...”
– my father, U. S. Army, retired
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“Writers are defined, in large measure, by what they can’t do. The mass of things...”
– How to write fiction: Geoff Dyer on freedom | Books | guardian.co.uk
I think this is profoundly important for young artists and intellectuals to know. Similarly, a story I often tell: when he was a young trumpet player in New York, Miles Davis was so intimidated by Dizzy Gillespie that he almost...
“Almighty God, you planted in the heart of your servant William Tyndale a...”
September 2011
4 posts
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“Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ was lifted high upon the cross...”
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Rob Demovsky, Green Bay Press-Gazette journalist: Last year at this time, we were sitting in your office and we looked outside and they had just unveiled that fence slogan that said, “In McCarthy We Trust.” I know you’re not a huge ego guy, but …
Mike McCarthy, head coach of the Green Bay Packers: Let me make something clear: I have an ego. What I’ve learned in this business is everyone has an ego. It’s the discipline of your ego, and that’s what I’ve learned to do a much better job of. I didn’t mean to cut off your question, but when people say I don’t have an ego or I’m humble, that’s not accurate. You wouldn’t survive in this business if you didn’t have an ego and weren’t confident in your abilities. Yeah, I have an ego, but I’ve learned. I used to have a very bad temper, too, on top of it. But it’s not about me. If I wanted it to be about me, I’d go play tennis or golf. It’s about the team, and I think it’s important to put the other people in front of you. I find that very easy to do. I’m the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. There’s people taking your picture all the time. You get more notoriety than you’d ever wished for, so I don’t need any more. I’ve had enough. I love my job. I love competing in the NFL. I love leading the Packers. So it doesn’t have to be about me. But I will say this, pulling into Lambeau Field and seeing your name on the fence, that will get you going in the morning now. I thought that was really cool. That’s a memento I’ll always have.
August 2011
2 posts
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