The Arrow's Path

"You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it." -Charles Buxton I have not the foggiest idea what Charles Buxton this quote is referring to. I found the quote in a poorly referenced book. There were several of that name in history. One of a beer brewer and entrepreneur. Another, whom I am inclined to believe is the Buxton quoted above, was a radical off-again, on-again Member of British Parliament in the early 20th century from World War I to the late 1930s. He would win his seat for a while then lose his seat and win it back again several times. This Charles Buxton was a bit of a radical. For a while, member of the Liberal Party and later the Labour Party. He opposed both World Wars. In fact, he was one of the few voices in Parliament with the moral courage to advocate for a negotiated settlement with Germany that allowed everyone to save a little face while stopping the mass killings and not continue fighting to the bitter end so as to get an un...

 "Who can grasp the Lord’s meaning in his creation and beyond it? Who can tie up with a short string the unbounded bouquet of wisdom? Who can tame the jungle of his incomprehensibility? See how man’s spirit and whole being lies, like the bowl of an impetuous fountain, under the downpour of so many mysteries. Let it gush! By letting it gush you will grasp what you can, and what you can is to be a bowl for the flood. Open up heart and brain and do not attempt to clutch tightly. By being washed out you will become purified. The strange thing that flows through you is precisely the meaning you seek. … Everything must enter this current, like icefloes that crack open under the sun with a roar and lose their own shape and roll out to the sea in a mighty tumble. But this movement is produced by the heartbeat at the Center, and what appeared to be a chaotic impulse is the blood circulating in the Body of the cosmic Christ. This is the body in which you are to flow, letting y...

Someone on a Facebook group I admin for passed this along for discussion in the group. My response follows:  "Protestant Friend: We are all born sinners but baptism does not cleanse sin, it’s the next step of obedience from repentance and belief. The age of accountability differs between each child, there’s no set age, it’s just when they can say they believe in the gospel (Mark 16:16) The Baptist church is not Protestant because we never protested the Catholic Church, everything we believe comes out of the Bible which is why scripture needs to back up everything. Being saved is by grace through faith and not of works, it’s not something we have to earn or work for, it’s a gift given by God. There’s no Limbo There’s no purgatory And of course we worship the saints and Mary." My general response: Firstly, just a general reminder that we need to operate in charity. Even with what seems to be very close-minded people who are saying things that are factually untrue, we still h...

 

 An assistant priest at my parish wrote this very amazing piece about the death of his nephew that he got to baptize before he died. It is worth a read. It was basically the homily he preached for Good Friday this year.