Our Lady of Ashes

Someone asked me recently what to  do  as a Christian with all the violence and atrocities found in the Old Testament, many of them seemingly sanctioned if not commanded by God through the Law or the prophets. Even when not directly described there can be an apparently blood-thirst, especially in some of the Psalms (137 being of the worst) which is distasteful to our contemporary morality. How do reconcile that with "All scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for refutation, for correction, and for training in righteousness" ( 1 Tim:3:16 )? First, it's important to do what the person who asked was already starting to do: always read the Old Testament in light of the new, especially in light of the words and actions of Jesus Christ. One text my questioner mentioned was that Jesus said he came to fulfill the law not destroy it, which for him could mean a condoning of the violence within the Law. He's right about Jesus' saying as crucial to in

The Octave of Easter is Drawing to a close, and throughout the week, the liturgy has focused on the mystagogy of the Neophytes and the newly initiated into the Mysteries of the Church. But drawing deeper into the Faith is a lifelong journey, and for the newly initiated, it can seem like there's either too little, or too much in the way of suggested direction. The book The Four Signs of the Dynamic Catholic by Matthew Kelly [ https://dynamiccatholic.com/the-four-signs-of-a-dynamic-catholic-free-copy ] would not be a bad place to start. It gives you a "program" so to speak of how to stay engaged in your Faith through Prayer, Study, Generous Giving, and Evangelization on top of regular participation in the Sacraments. After that, start reading the daily Mass Readings online [http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/index.cfm] which draws you into the liturgical rhythm of the church and will feed your prayer with the Word of God. For spiritual reading and study her

Part three of my reflections on Coventry Patmore's short religious thoughts in  The Rod, The Root, and the Flower  [ Part I ,  Part II  and Part III ] From Magna Moralia: IV - 'Merit', as the word is used in Scripture and by the Church, means rather capacity  than right . Faith 'merits' because, without faith, there can obviously be no capacity. Christ took upon Himself the flesh and human nature of the Blessed Virgin, 'through whom we have deserved ' (or been made able) 'to receive the Author of Life.' Emptiness of self is the supreme merit of the Soul because it is the first condition of her capacity for God. 'My soul shall make her boast in the Lord: the humble shall hear thereof and be glad.' The Soul's boast and merit, as it were her vanity, is the God-seducing charm of her conscious nothingness. She becomes through her Mere emptiness of self, the female twin Of Fullness, sucking all God's glory in. The Secret of obtain

'There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root.' [ Isaiah 11:1 ] 'My covenant shall be in your flesh.' [ Genesis 13:17 ] Part three of my reflections on Coventry Patmore's short religious thoughts in The Rod, The Root, and the Flower [ Part I and Part II ] From "Homo" VIII - Creation is nothing but a concerted piece, consisting of representative repetitions and variations of and harmonious commentaries upon the simple theme, God, who is defined by St. Thomas as an Act —the Act of love, the 'embrace' of the First and Second Persons, and their unity is the thence proceeding Spirit of Life, 'Creator Spiritus', the Life and Joy of all things. In this divine contrapuntal music, plagues, the sack of cities, and hell itself (according to St. Augustine) are but discords necessary to emphasize, exalt, and illustrate the harmony. If Beethoven and Back are but senseless noise to the untrain

Faith is the light of the flame of love. Continuing my scattered commentary ( pt 1 here ) on parts from Patmore Coventry's The Rod, the Root, and the Flower . The quote above is from the final section of the book, "Aphorisms and Extracts" added posthumously by Patmore's son. Another of these Extracts sums up well the theme of Coventry's theme: God, in whose image we were made, Let me not be afraid To trace Thy likeness in what best we are. And this nicely sums up what Stratford Caldecott noticed as Prelude thoughts to the Theology of the Body: God has declared to his His mystic rapture in His Marriage with Humanity in twice saying, 'Hic est Filius meus dilectus in quo bene complacui'. [This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased] He expressly and repeatedly calls this marriage, and pronounces the marriage of Man and Woman to be its symbol. This is the burning heart of the Universe . A few more from the first section, "Aurea Dicta&qu

Coventry Patmore, portrait by John Singer Sargent The Rod, the Root, and the Flower  by Coventry Patmore is a collection of aphorisms expounding the culmination of Patmore's spiritual thought. Patmore is a poet of the the late nineteenth century, a member of the Christian Romantics, poets who found the Romantic movement in and of itself, too bereft of religion, intellect and philosophy, but found inspiration in the Romantics' rejection of the Rationalist philosophy, and their return to allegory, symbolism, and medieval imagery. Patmore was considered a mystic and was popular in his day though that waned after his conversion to Catholocism, which still made someone something of a persona non grata in England. Stratford Caldecott in " Why We Need Coventry Patmore " ( Communio  2014) notes that Patmore's writing is a poetic expression of St John Paul II's Theology of the Body almost a hundred years older than the Pope's groundbreaking exegesis of fa

A Severe Mercy  by Sheldon Vanauken ( 1977, Harper & Row ) is a memoir of the author Sheldon "Van" Vanauken and his true love Jean "Davy" Davis but is self-described by the author as "the spiritual autobiography of a love rather than the lovers." The book has two essential parts, the first "pagan" and the second after the couple's conversion to Christianity while at Oxford up until tragedy befalls their relationship and its aftermath. It also chronicles the couple's friendship with C.S. Lewis including several letters that include outstanding spiritual advice. In what Van calls the pagan beginnings of their relationship, Van and Davy, agnostics devoted to beauty and truth, meet and from their first date discover their connection, in a moment Van describes using C.S. Lewis's words defining Friendship: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself ..." From there, their love grows to heights and depths that I recogniz

The Secret Fire of Middle-earth "You cannot pass," he said. The orcs stood still, and a dead silence fell. "I am a servant of the Secret Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass. The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn. Go back to the Shadow! You cannot pass." —Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings , The Fellowship of the Ring "Therefore Ilúvatar gave to their vision Being, and set it amid the Void, and the Secret Fire was sent to burn at the heart of the World; and it was called Eä." —Valaquenta, The Silmarillion . The following is quoted from Tolkien and the Silmarillion , by Clyde S. Kilby [ via here ] Responding to a letter from Father Robert Murray suggesting Tolkien’s story impressed him as entirely about grace, Tolkien wrote: “I know exactly what you mean by the order of grace; and of course by your references to Our Lady, upon which all my own small perception of beauty both in majesty and simplicity is founded. The Lord of

The story of Bishop Basil (whose feast, along with his friend Gregory, we celebrate today), the daughter of Heradius, the Devil and the Slave from The Golden Legend , ( compiled by Bl. Jacobus de Voragine ) is so good ... the multilevel, perfidious plan of the Devil; the insight of demonic influence upon our passions; magic as the illusion of the devil that the magician is the one in control; the promise of the power of God's mercy to overcome Sin and Death's oppressive influence on the spirit, as well as our own sins; an exorcism as the demons torment the subject to despair; climatic battle of wills between the saint and the devil, and the day saved by the Sacrament of Reconciliation! A highly respected man named Heradius had an only daughter whom he intended to consecrate to the Lord, but the devil, foe of the human race, got wind of this and inflamed one of Heradius’s slaves with love for the girl. The man, knowing that as a slave he could not possible win the emb