Just God

From the diary of Vincent Pallotti, a 19th Century theologian and pastor, a praryer I'd like to make my own:

Not the intellect, but God.
Not the will, but God.
Not the soul, but God.
Not the goods of the world, but God.
Not riches, but God.
Not honors, but God.
Not distinction, but God.
Not dignities, but God.
Not advancement, but God.
God always and in everything.

Why I Read the Church Fathers

Scott Cairns wrote the following in an introduction to Athanasius' Life of Antony. He says more effectively than I could ever do how I have come to feel about the leaders of the early church and the writings they've left behind:
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... C.S. Lewis makes the claim that our continued attention to the "old books" is absolutely necessary if we are to avoid the hubris of thinking that our contemporary views are without error. It is not so much that the old authors didn't also make mistakes, Lewis notes, as it is that their mistakes are not our mistakes; without having recourse to "the old books," we become blind to our own disabling premises.

To the Father of Monks

Today is the feast day of St. Anthony of Egypt, one of the "Desert Fathers" of the church. In 271, at the age of 20, Anthony took seriously Jesus' words regarding the selling of possessions. Anthony gave all his wealth to the poor and moved to the desert to live the ascetic life of a monk, but was continually sought out by pilgrims for spiritual direction and advice.

In the early 300s, Anthony created a loosely-organized group of cells, which can be considered the world's first monastery. The story of Anthony's life (compiled by St. Athanasius in about 370) greatly influenced St. Augustine, who was only 2 when Anthony died. Augustine went on to serve the church greatly and leave many of his own writings behind, including his "Rule" for monastic life, written in 400, which led to great growth and vitality of the monastic vocation within the church over the next thousand years.

In 311, in a renewed time of persecution, Anthony moved about ALexandria preaching and teaching, willing to accept the grace of martyrdom should it come his way. His life was spared, and he continued as a church leader, active in the fight against the Arian heresy, which denied the deity of Christ and thus the Trinity. At this point, Anthony was nearly 90. He died at 105.

from the venerable Bede

A hymn of glory let us sing,
new hymns throughout the world shall ring;
by a new way none ever trod
Christ takes his place: the throne of God!

You are a present joy, O Lord;
you will be ever our reward;
and great the light in you we see
to guide us to eternity.

O risen Christ, ascended Lord,
all praise to you let earth accord,
who are, while endless ages run,
with Father and with Spirit, One.

For the Holy Innocents

This is from a sermon by Quodvultdeus, Bishop of Cathage, on those slaughtered by Herod, who in some ways were the very first little martyrs to the faith.

"They cannot speak, yet they bear witness to Christ. They cannot use their little limbs to engage in battle, yet already they bear off the palm of victory."

Mary the Dawn

I love Mary, and my feelings for her lie somewhere between the extremes expressed by some of my Catholic friends and by too many of my Protestant friends. This devotion (from the Dominican Sisters of Summit) I think rightly navigates the extremes, presenting Mary's right position as the great herald of her Son.
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Mary the dawn, Christ the Perfect Day;
Mary the gate, Christ the Heavenly Way!

Mary the root, Christ the Mystic Vine;
Mary the grape, Christ the Sacred Wine!

Mary the wheat, Christ the Living Bread;
Mary the stem, Christ the Rose blood-red!

Mary the font, Christ the Cleansing Flood;
Mary the cup, Christ the Saving Blood!

Mary the temple, Christ the temple’s Lord;
Mary the shrine, Christ the God’s adored!

Mary the beacon, Christ the Haven’s Rest;
Mary the mirror, Christ the Vision Blest!

Mary the mother, Christ the mother’s Son
By all things blessed while endless ages run.

Movie Review

Bella (2007), PG-13. Producers include Stephen McEveety, a producer on The Passion of the Christ.

Tag line from the poster: "True love goes beyond romance"

A tragedy ends the career of an up-and-coming soccer star Jose' (Eduardo Verástegui) on the way to sign his million-dollar contract. Years later, working in his brother’s restaurant, Jose' and waitress Nina (Tammy Blanchard) discovers something that Nina is unprepared for. An impetuous act by Jose brings them together during an extraordinary day. Nina is facing a tough decision and when Jose' shares a tragedy that changed his life and how his family helped him cope, Nina also transforms.

Bella is strongly pro-family and pro-life, but both in such subtle and organic ways that there is never a hint of the film being pushy.

And I dare you to not weep at the ending.

A hymn for the season

By Josiah Holland
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There's a song in the air! There's a star in the sky!
There's a mother's deep prayer and a baby's slow cry!
And the star rains its fire while the beautiful sing,
For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King!

There's a tumult of joy over the wonderful birth,
For the Virgin's sweet boy is the Lord of the earth.
Ay! The star rains its fire while the beautiful sing,
For the manger of Bethlehem cradles a King!

In the light of that star lie the ages impearled;
And that song from afar has swept over the world.
Every hearth is aflame, and the beautiful sing,
And we greet in His cradle our Savior and King!

A Terrific Musician

I hereby make Bruce Cockburn the offical musician of the Itinerant Iconoclast site. He is a man who deals with real world issues and sings about them from a persepective of one who knows there is a God. He has never been a part of the "Christian" sub-culture, which allows him to sing about hard issues and air his struggles in an honest way. The above-referenced site includes comments by Cockburn about his songs, tour info, etc . . .

BTW, Cockburn's album "Christmas" is simply the best seasonal album out there, a combination of original, traditional, and obscure Christmas songs.

Life in Europe?

This is a (lightly edited) column from the Wall Street Journal this weekend.
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The Well Spring
By KYLE WINGFIELD
Brussels

Old ladies sitting in otherwise empty churches. That's the picture most of my American friends have of spirituality in Europe. How is it, then, that a guy like me, Bible Belt-born and -bred, lifetime churchgoer, has found spiritual renewal in this pit of secularism? And am I the only one?

The hard data show that Christianity remains in long-term decline here. A 2004 Gallup poll found that 15% of Europeans attend a weekly worship service of any faith, compared with 44% of Americans. And the spiritual gap between the U.S. and Europe is actually "worse than people think," says Philip Jenkins, author of "God's Continent: Christianity, Islam, and Europe's Religious Crisis."

But the light is not yet out. Those remaining believers and the faith communities they form are what Prof. Jenkins calls "white dwarves" -- because "they're smaller than the sun, but they shine brighter." I'm no astrophysicist, but it seems to me that such intense bodies are more likely to expand than to contract.

This is certainly true of the church in which I'm involved here, which has grown to 120 members -- larger than the average church in Belgium -- in just a couple of years.

My wife and I began to look for a church soon after moving to Brussels three years ago. It was almost a reflex and initially may have amounted to little more than the search for the familiar. After trying an Anglican church that resembled the Catholic one she grew up in and a Scottish congregation that seemed like the Methodist one I was raised in, we came upon a new church called The Well that had been planted by missionaries from the U.S. It's a mix of the familiar and the foreign. The leaders speak with American accents, but rather than deliver a sermon, they encourage attendees to hash out the week's topic in small discussion groups.

The Well doesn't gather as one large group in a church building but rather as a few smaller groups in cafés and restaurants. That's in part because we don't actually own a building. But there's a purpose behind this, too: It's far less intimidating for newcomers to visit a public space with a dozen or so other people than a normal "church" with pews and a steeple and a hundred strange faces. In the course of our gatherings, we also meet people who were just going out for coffee and probably wouldn't have wandered into a sanctuary along the way.

This emphasis on the nontraditional is intentional. For many of the Europeans I've met here, it's not God who is dead to them as much as it is The Church -- the official, often state-supported church, be it Catholic, Anglican or Lutheran. Now new life is being infused into these churches by missionaries from America and even
Africa.

Some of the elements in The Well -- and its sister churches in Madrid, Amsterdam and other European cities -- that are deemed unusual here would seem familiar to American Christians: worship songs that sound like rock 'n' roll rather than 18th-century hymns; discussions focusing on a personal relationship with God rather than a list of do's and don'ts. But other elements would seem out of place even in cool U.S. churches. Holding services in a microbrewery is an effective way to hammer home the point that church doesn't have to be the way it always has been.

The message is getting out. A mostly American and British group at first, The Well now regularly attracts people from Belgium, France, Holland, Portugal, Romania, Bulgaria, Ghana and Lebanon. Some wouldn't be attending church if The Well didn't exist.

There is an added sense of urgency when you undergo such self-examination in a land where being religious is not exactly de rigueur. The data don't yet reveal a similar awakening in the Europeans around me. But I have faith.
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Mr. Wingfield is an editorial-page writer for The Wall Street Journal Europe.