Augustine on the Word

"Now this Word that was in God, this Word that was God, through whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made, in whom was life: he has come down to us. What were we? Did we deserve him to come to us? No, we were unworthy of his having compassion on us but he was worthy of taking pity on us."

on the Holy Innocents

From St. Gregory of Nissa (355-395):
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What does the killing of children signify? Why venture on so horrible a crime? If Jesus is lord of the stars, is he not sheltered from your attacks? You think you have power to give life or death yet you have nothing to fear from someone of such gentleness ... the mystery of the Passion begins today.

Athanasius on the Psalms

Comments by St. Athanasius, the great 4th century teacher. Being one the great intellectual lights of his time, I like the way he appreciates the power of the Psalms to stir the emotions.
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"But even so, the Book of Psalms thus has a certain grace of its own, and a distinctive exactitude of expression. For in addition to the other things in which is enjoys an affinity and fellowship with the other books, it posses, beyond that, this marvel of its own – namely, that it contains even the emotion of each soul, and it has the changes and rectifications of these delineated and regulated in itself.

[And] in the Book of Psalms, the one who hears, in addition to learning these things, also comprehends and is taught in it the emotions of the soul, and consequently on the basis of that which affects him and by which he is constrained, he also is enabled by this book to possess the image deriving from the words.

And it seems to me that these words become like a mirror to the person singing them, so that he might perceive himself and the emotions of his soul, and thus affected, he might recite them."

An Advent Thought

I had never run across this concept of the 3 advents, presented in a sermon from Pierre de Blois, who lived from 1130-1211. But I think I like it.
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There are three advents of the Lord: the first in the flesh, the second in the soul, and the third at the judgement. This first advent has already happened since Christ has been seen on earth and has spoken with men. This second advent is therefore something mingled with uncertainty, since who other but the Holy Spirit known who is God's? As for the third advent: it is most certain that it will happen, most certain that it will happen. For this is nothing more certain than death, nothing less certain than the day of our death.

Thus the first advent was lowly and hidden; the second is mysterious and full of love; the third will be dazzling and terrible.

In his first advent Christ was judged unjustly by men; in the second, he grants us justice by his grace; in the last, he will judge all things with equity.

Lamb in the first advent; Lion in the last; our most gentle Friend in the second.

Book Review

The Fall of the Evangelical Nation, by Christine Wicker.

Wicker is a solid reporter, and knows the religious landscape of America pretty well. This work is an account of what has happened among the evangelical wing of the family the last decade, and what the next few decades may hold. I found it refreshinlgy balanced and fair.

She calls churches on their inability (unwillingness?) to report honest attendance figures, and focuses on those "leaving out the back door" as much as she does on those "coming in the front door." She commends the modern church for still being able to change lives, and commends mega-churches for the good things their size enables them to do.

There are some problems in the book. Wicker struggles to define her terms, as anyone who has tried to define "evangelical" has struggled. She fails to distinguish strongly enough between evangelicals and fundamentalists and charismatics and pentecostals, which are all distinct groups and strongly disagree on a range of issues. She also seems to harp on the "literal view fo Scripture" as an identifying mark of evangelicalism, where the broader "inspired" or "taking Scripture seriously" would be more accurate.

Thankful for the Apostles

From a devotion by James H. Kurt:

I thank God today for Andrew and his brother Peter, their brothers James and John, and all brothers and sisters in the Lord. I thank God especially for their answering His call, their readiness to respond. They immediately abandoned their nets and became His followers.

And so strong in the Lord they would become, and so clearly their words would be spoken of Him who is risen from the dead, of Him in whom our hearts trust, of Him of whom we now speak.

A joy fills me this day, and should fill us all, for the beauty of the apostles and their call. For now our ears ring with the love of our Jesus, the truth of the ages.

N.T. Wright on the value of resurrection

From Surprised by Hope:

"The revolutionary new world which has begun in the resurrection of Jesus, the world where Jesus reigns as Lord having won the victory over sin and death, has it's front-line outposts in those [of us] who have shared his death and resurrection.

The intermediate stage between the resurrection of Jesus himself and the renewal of the whole world is the renewal of human beings -- you and me! -- in our own lives of obedience here and now."

For All The Saints

Back when the primary (if only) pathway to sainthood was martyrdom, this day for commemorating and honoring all of the anonymous martyrs of history, those who died in groups or whose identities were not known. As time passed, and the nature of sainthood changed, the day has come to honor all the saints. Among Protestants who observe the liturgical calendar, "saints" is considered in its New Testament usage, meaning all believers. They have thus reinterpreted the feast of All Saints as a celebration of the unity of the entire Church.

Whatever take one has on Sainthood and the Feast of All Saints, it is a day to honor those who have gone before us, those examples of the faith who have demonstrated heroic virtue.

Falling in Love With God

Attributed to the former head of the Jesuits, Don Pedro Arrupe:
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Nothing is more practical than finding God, that is, than falling in love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you will do with your evenings, how you will spend your weekends, what you read, who you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.

N.T. Wright on the Trinity

Once we glimpse the doctrine – or the fact! – of the Trinity, we dare not slide back into a generalized sense of a religion paying distant homage to a god who (though somewhat more complicated than we had previously realized) is nevertheless a quasi-personal source of general benevolence. Christian faith is much more hard-edged, more craggy, than that. Jesus exploded into the life of ancient Israel, the life of the whole world, not as a teacher of timeless truths, nor as a great moral example, but as the one whose life, death, and resurrection God’s rescue-operation was put into effect, and the cosmos turned its great corner at last.