The Arrow's Path

An interesting comparison . I remember it being all trendy in some circles in my former life as a Liberal Protestant minister that being a Christian Buddhist was all the rage, or at least taking prayer meditation techniques and such from Buddhism. Thomas Merton, in particular, got really sucked into this prior to his death. I believe had Merton lived past the height of 1960's weirdness that he may have backtracked on this, but, tragically, we will never know. I never quite understood the fad, nor did I think it was really compatible with Christian thought and life. We are made in the likeness and image of God and so, if the ultimate goal of life is the extinguishment of the self, then that means an extinguishment of something made in God's image. That's a problem. Likewise, while we do not deny that suffering exists, and that there can be redemptive suffering, this does not stem from a world that is completely bad or evil. We believe God made the world and called it good. W...

With all the great tragedy of Christian persecution going on in the Middle East, I have with some amusement watched my extremely Protestant friends on social media being extremely open and generous in their prayer and praise of those Christians. I say I find amusement in that because if such a Christian was talking to them on the street corner or in the coffee shop, I know a number of my friends would tell those people straight up that they were not saved because they are either Catholic, Coptic, or Eastern Orthodox. I found this video a while back and have been wondering when was a good time to post it. It is a great answer to the very American Christian question of "Are You Saved?"

Great stuff from Bishop Michael of the Orthodox Church in America. I think this would be a great examination of conscience before confession during Lent. (Original Link to Video here .)

The Eucharist is a mystery, the very mystery of joy, the mystery of all mysteries, the mystery of the Church. The Eucharist is a joyful gathering of those who are to meet the risen Lord, and they enter with him into the bridal chamber. The Eucharist is an action, by which a group of people become something corporately, which they had not been as a mere collection of individuals. It is the essential attitude, and the essential act of the Church, which is the new humanity, restored by Christ, one transforming act, and one ascending movement. The Eucharist is a procession of the Church following the ascension of Christ. The Eucharist is a journey of the Church into the dimension of the Kingdom. The Eucharist is a real separation from the world. We always want to make Christianity understandable and acceptable to the mythical modern man on the street, and we forget that the Christ of whom we speak is not of this world, and that after his resurrection, he was not recognized, even...

...is exactly what I have said about raising the minimum wage to levels unfit for unskilled, uneducated labor . ( Warning: a few curse words are used, but the point is a good one. ) Social justice is not achieved if to help the poor you raise minimum wage to high levels but destroy all the entry level jobs in the process.

In this time of fasting and prayer, brethren, let us with all our hearts forgive anything real or imaginary we have against anyone. May we all devote ourselves to love, and let us consider one another as an incentive to love and good works, speaking in defence of one another, having good thoughts and dispositions within us before God and men. In this way our fasting will be laudable and blameless, and our requests to God while we fast will be readily received. We shall rightly call upon Him as our Father by grace and we can boldly say to Him, "Father, forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matt. 6:12). St. Gregory Palamas "Homily Seven: Another on Fasting"

Seriously, this is disturbing .

“It is necessary most of all for one who is fasting to curb anger, to accustom himself to meekness and condescension, to have a contrite heart, to repulse impure thoughts and desires, to examine his conscience, to put his mind to the test and to verify what good has been done by us in this or any other week, and which deficiency we have corrected in ourselves in the present week. This is true fasting.” — St John Chrysostom

As someone who left the Episcopal church because of its moral bankruptcy  at least in part, this is simply sad and yet made me smile. Seriously, just drop your lawsuits and let it go. Why is saying, "Go in peace to love and serve the Lord" so hard to do?

Here's some interesting historical perspective. US drone strikes have killed more people in the last six years (at least 2,464) than the Spanish Inquisition is estimated to have tried, convicted, and handed over for execution over the course of 356 years (2,250).

"For by the unceasing and absolute renunciation of yourself and of all things you may be borne on high, through pure and entire self-abnegation, into the superessential Radiance of the Divine Darkness." --Dionysius the Areopagite

There was a question on the Facebook group I help moderate that was phrased in this way: "I'm curious about something. I want to know the diversity of the belief of the creation among Catholics. If you take the beginning of Genesis literally, please comment "literally", if just as a symbol, please comment "symbolic"." This was my response:  I don't believe it can be an either/or distinction. I really hate when people try to frame it this way, as if its a game of poker and you have to go all in on one side or the other. You have to look at it from the view point of how it would have been interpreted (as any miraculous story would have been) by the early Hebrews as well as the early Church, and we have to step away from our modern post-Newtonian Enlightenment rationalism to do this. To antiquity, the universe was a scary place. It was something that seemed arbitrary and harsh because life was that way. Nature in its purest form was chaos. This is ...

Fasting with Joy .

I partially wrote a blog post earlier in the week that I never posted. In fact, I deleted it outright. That is fairly rare for me to table a thought entirely. I may save it for a while and rework it, but I always generally end up posting here on this blog what I am thinking or pondering at the moment: serious, humorous, or otherwise. A few days ago, however, I was really in the dumps, not to put too fine a point on it. I tend to have a healthy dose of what my wife calls "Irish melancholy." I like dreary, rainy days with fog. I can't stand extremely happy or bubbly food or people. Don't get me wrong, it is not that I am a grumpy old man. I may be a curmudgeon at times, but that is different that being a mean old Scrooge. I do not run kids off my lawn with a stick while yelling, "Oy vey!" Well, at least usually. I have been discerning a lot of things in my personal life for going on close to two years now. I left the priesthood of my former denomination be...

An interesting Orthodox explanation here that is worth a read .

If that's your thing .

I am usually not a fan of "anonymous" editorials written by an unverifiable source, but this one about Congress is particularly interesting. I would only add that if you take out the word "Congress" and insert "Roman Imperial Senate," it is eerily accurate in both time periods.

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It's coming already here . Sadly, I heard pretty much this conversation in a diocesan clergy meeting a few years back and couldn't believe I was hearing it. I read/recall stuff like that and am always reminded of the ending of CS Lewis' Narnia series where in the north of Narnia, an ape named Shift has persuaded a well-meaning but simple-minded donkey called Puzzle to dress in a lion's skin and pretend to be the Great Lion Aslan. Using Puzzle as his pawn, Shift convinces the Narnians that he speaks for Aslan and deceives a majority of them into serving the Calormenes and to cut down Talking Trees for lumber. The money will be paid into "Aslan's" treasury, held by Shift, on the pretext that it will be used for the good of the Narnians. Basically, in the end, the Narnians can no longer tell the difference between good and evil because of all this deception and casuistry and the world of Narnia ends because all that is left of the world is moral madness.

Excellent response to this whole "marriage is a civil right" nonsense.