Saints
-
Because WJT Will Understand
“A foreigner in her country, I came awkwardly, an anachronism, I suppose, and yet she came to light my life, to lead me into regions heretofore unknown to me, and I could not for the world give her up.” from Little Saint, by Hannah Green (2000 by Modern Library, New York, NY), p. 20
- Church Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Lectio Divina, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections, Saints
The Feast of Saint Joan of Arc
Five hundred and ninety years ago today, a devout 19 year-old virgin from an obscure French village was fastened to a pillar in the village square of Rouen and burned to death by Church authorities, their actions born of political intrigue, spiritual blindness, worldly greed…and great evil. Young Joan hears her voices For deeply personal reasons, I have a special devotion to the Maid, and have maintained an intimate relationship with her through prayer and meditation for some years now. There is no one like her. And her presence in the living world of today is real and undeniable. I am celebrating the Maid’s feast day on this last Sunday…
-
For The Maid
One of the more tedious things I encounter when reading blogs is a blogger mentioning or quoting someone, then adding the disclaimer, “Now of course, I don’t agree with everything he/she writes, but this specific thing was profitable…” This sort of thing strikes me as terribly unmanly. If one doesn’t have the courage to quote or share the work of a particular individual, one should probably just keep quiet. The whiny “Don’t judge me because I quoted someone or read a book by someone who doesn’t dot all of the eyes or cross all of the tees” is a sort of false-humility-cum-virtue-signaling, and I dislike it strongly. It’s the sort…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, Lectio Divina, Movies, Photographs, Prayers, Quotations, Reflections, Saints
Wednesday In Holy Week
I overheard someone at work refer to one of their mutual acquaintances as having “a missionary’s heart.” The phrase got me to thinking about missions and my experience with missionaries. In my experience in the Protestant world, few things are more heavily lip-serviced and more lightly performed in real life than “missions.” Pretty much every church has a bulletin board or display with photos and profiles of “their” missionaries. There are regular fund-raisers, coinciding usually with the missionary and his/her family making a personal appearance before the congregation to give a report on how things are going in their particular mission field. I also saw a fair number of “mission…