Christian Heritage - October 2 - The Angels

"The angels are friends of the bridegroom, so they listen to the soul's words, and make them known to the bridegroom. The soul's words are its desires, which the friends, that is the angels, listen to and delight in. They make them known, and they invite the soul to come; they console it, and advise it to seek and knock, because anyone who seeks finds, and to anyone who knocks the door is opened.

"Meanwhile, until the bridegroom comes, they frequently visit such a fervent soul, and by an increase of grace prepare it more fully for his arrival. They draw its thoughts toward a perception of their presence, and an awareness of their friendship, so that through this knowledge it may advance to divine knowledge.

"Thus the soul searching for God is found by the blessed angels, and after going round the city in its quest, deserves to be approached by them. It sees them coming to meet it and is taken in charge by them. In fact, they come before the bridegroom, manifesting their presence and revealing themselves, for being angels of light they accompany the Light, and the soul, flooded with light, is both illuminated and moved, so that it perceives their coming and is conscious of their presence."

Richard of Saint Victor (AD ?-1173), Song of Songs 4: PL 196, 417-418

Richard was an Augustinian canon and one of the great mystical writers of the middle ages. He greatly influenced Bonaventure and the Franciscan school. This quote from him is, I must admit with angelic swiftness, way over my head (existentially, if not intellectually). The first few lines remind me fondly of *City of Angels* (Meg Ryan, Nicholas Cage), an otherwise awful film.

Orange was the color of her dress - then silky death (props to C. Mingus)

A friend of mine recently mentioned on his blog that one of his top career choices is forensic science. This struck a nerve for me so I began to leave him the following comment, but decided it was better said in its own post.

As for forensic science: do you mean to be a pure evidence investigator or (as I assume) do you mean to be a coroner/medical examiner? When I was younger, I was very interested in doing the latter. (At least your patients don't complain!) But then I encountered two things. First, you have to be really really good at hard science (virtually a chemist, pathologist, histologist and physicist in one), which sadly isn't my bag.

Second, and more important, you have to deal with some really really awful homicides, suicides and general gore. I cannot recommend strongly enough that you go to the library and look through an ME casebook (with lots of photos), and then see how you fare. Seven years ago for me (in Chicago), a mere twenty minutes flipping through such a book cured me pretty much forever of wanting to be a coroner. There was in fact a single photo (rape-mutilation-homicide) that closed the career for me. I still shudder to think of such brutality.

With my interest in (emergency) medicine, I have no problem with blood and trauma and patient pain. But what I knew I could not endure was immersing myself in the brutal world of death death death. Obviously, it's a dirty job and someone's got to do it. The question is, though, "Are you 'someone'?" I am not. I have a strong stomach; I just don’t have *that* kind of strong stomach.

Another great day

Everything is a gift (禮物). The basis for everything is a Giver. The key to life (生命) is giving.

I got the sleep last night that I so sorely needed and then I woke up (late-ish) this morning to pray. I ate a small (小) breakfast and then FINALLY got back on the Chinese (中文) learning horse (馬). Then I sent out a few important emails. Did a couple loads of laundry and have them hanging and/or folded. (Breakthrough!) It was dinner at Salut after a long time away and then I watched *Mystic River*. A haunting and brutally human film. It was very well plotted and the acting was outstanding. Clint Eastwood, the director of this movie and *The Unforgiven* (another one of my favorites), really is one of the greatest personages in cinematic history (歷史). I say personage because he is not (不) just an actor; and he is (是) certainly not just a personality. He has irresistible on-screen charisma as well as a mature off-screen artistry.

At Salut, I chatted with an Orthodox friend (東正教的 朋友) of my Orthodox friend here. The latter has been Orthodox for two or maybe four years. The former had a long path to Orthodoxy, beginning as a Methodist, then a charismatic, then an Anglican and finally Orthodox, which he's been for eighteen years. He obviously "has a heart" for missions, but he made an interesting offhand admission to me. "Missions are not really... in the mainstream of Orthodoxy. There's something like 1% of 1% of people involved in them." He went on to mention he had asked some years earlier for statistics about USAmerican Orthodox mission work. "Do you know how many priests were [or are -- EBB] involved in overseas missions from the USA?" I shook my head. "One," he said, holding up his finger. "One," he repeated. Such candor gave me pause, to say the least.

Soon after I had announced my intention to become Catholic or Orthodox, a reader sent me an email with the following consideration (my quoted paraphrase):

The commission Christ gave His Church [in Matthew 28] go into all the nations as missionaries. So it stands to reason His Church will be marked by a special missionary activity. There's no denying the incredible missionary work of the Catholic Church. But there is a curious lack of such missionary zeal, on such a grand scale, in the Orthodox Church. You should consider why this is.

When I first read them, my reader's words seemed perfunctory. Sure, yes, missions are good sign -- but what about X, Y, and Z? Yet now, after the brief conversation I had tonight, I see the wisdom of my reader's consideration. Christ's Church must by its very nature be missionary (cf. Andrew F. Wall's _The Missionary Movement in Christian History_)[1] since God in Christ is by His very nature the Missionary God (cf. John Stott's famous 1970 Urbana message with that very point).

Now, I am NOT about to impugn the missiological dimensions of the Orthodox Church. The name of this blog honors St. Innocent (Veniaminov) himself, a dynamic Russian missionary to Alaska! Where did the Russian Cyrilic alphabet come from (not to mention major roots of the Russian Orthodox Church)? From the work of Sts. Methodius and Cyril. Think also of St. Herman of Alaska and Archbishop Nicholas of Japan, Orthodoxy's St. Francis Xavier (as it were). Obviously, there are great missionaries in the Orthodox tradition -- but I am still left wondering if missions is a huge and LIVING aspect of Orthodoxy. One experience Orthodox man seems to think its not. This requires more reflection. Missions are so very important to me.[2]

I close with this quote:

Both Orthodox people and Jews came to Western Europe from the East, often as refugees. They came to societies that were culturally different from, even alien to, their own. So they have tended to develop an enclosed mentality. They have had to struggle against the temptation and pressure to lose their identity and become absorbed into the society and culture of the West. This has been the main reason why there has been a lack of sense of mission in the Orthodox Church in the West. They have seen their role as preservative rather than evangelistic.

(from the book "A Faith Fulfilled" by Fr. Michael Harper in *Again Magazine* Vol 21 No.1)

[1] Yes, that is my review of the book. No more need to be anonymous!　

[2] Hence, in part, my big interest in the Jesuits and my serious consideration of getting a degree in missiology.

New Links Day!

Enter the Bible online, in many translations, through the Bible Gateway

Enter the (full) Catholic Bible online, in the New American Translation, care of the USCCB

The Catechism of the Catholic Church, care of the USCCB or, in a more organized format, care of the Vatican (also available in German, in Spanish, or in the original Latin)

Keep drinking! Early Christian Writings

Got questions? Get Catholic Answers

Got any, related, questions? Get OrthodoxInfo

In need of some reasonable apologetics? Peruse Bede's Library

One of my favorite authors and a distant personal acquaintance, Rev. Stanley L. Jaki. Have a look at his bibliography too.

What's the story, what's so funny? Funny Stories (as well as cartoons, jokes, useless facts and more)

Augustine Day by Day - September 30 & October 1

September 30 - Lead Us Not Into Temptation

"Some persons [viz., Pelagians] think we receive no divine aid to avoid sins, since free choice of the will has been granted to our nature. Hence, according to them, it is not necessary to pray that we may not enter into temptation. Their opinion is a harmful error, contrary and prejudicial to our salvation, which is in Christ."

-- On Merit and Forgiveness 2

This should signal at least one crucial difference between Catholics (and Orthodox) and the Pelagians they are so often, and so recklessly, grouped with by Protestants. Catholics, like all faithful Christians, can and must rely only on God's grace, both to forgive their sins and animate their virtue. We ask Him for what He has already given: His bgrace in Christ. To say Catholics are Pelagians is about as credible as saying Augsutine was a Manichean.

Prayer. My faith, O Lord, which you gave me through the humanity of your Son, calls upon you.

-- Confessions 1, 1


October 1 - Possess Us

"The Church is the Body of Christ and his temple and house and state. So he who is the Head of the Body dwells in this house, sanctifies this temple, and is King of this state. As the Church is all these, so too is Christ.

"What then have we promised to God, except that we be God's temple? We can offer him nothing that is more pleasing than to say to him: 'Possess us!'"

-- Commentary on Psalm 131, 3

Prayer. I want to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. In it lies something wonderful to see, the delight of the Lord himself, awaiting our contemplation.

-- Commentary on Psalm 26 (2), 8

Christian Heritage - September 30 & October 1

Reading the Holy Scriptures - September 30

"In the Acts of the Apostles there is a holy eunuch, or rather, man (as holy scripture names him), who was reading Isaiah, and when Philip asked him: Do you really understand what you are reading? He answered: How can I without a teacher? To speak of myself for a moment, I am neither holier nor more zealous than that eunuch, who came to the temple from Ethiopia, that is, from the ends of the earth, setting out from the royal palace. He loved the law and divine knowledge so much that even while sitting in his chariot he read the sacred writings. And yet all the time that he was holding the book, ruminating on the Lord's words, reading them fluently and out loud, he did not know who he was unwittingly revering in the book. Then Philip came and showed him Jesus, who lay enclosed in the text in secret. The marvelous power of a teacher! In that same hour the eunuch believed, was baptized, was faithful and holy, and turned from a pupil into a master.

"I have touched briefly on these matters, to make you understand that you cannot enter upon the holy scriptures without someone to go before you and show you the way."

Jerome of Jerusalem (AD 342-420), Ep. 53 ad Paulinum: PL 22, 543-544

St. Jerome was a translator of the Bible into Latin from the original languages (known as the Vulgate). He commented on many books of sacred scripture and was considered the greatest bibical scholar of his time.

Each Little Flower- October 1

"I understood too that the love of our Lord is revealed in the simplest soul who offers no resistance to his grace as well as in the most sublime soul. In fact, since the essence of love is humility, if all souls were like those of the learned saints who have illuminated the Church by the light of their teaching, it would seem as if God would not have very far to descend in coming to their hearts. But he has created the baby who knows nothing and whose only utterance is a feeble cry; he has created people who have only the law of nature to guide them; and it is their hearts that he deigns to come down to, those are his flowers of the field whose simplicity delights him. In coming down in that way the good God proves his infinite greatness. Just as the sun shines at the same time on cedar trees and on each little flower as if it was the only one on earth, so our Lord takes special care of each soul as if it was his only care."

Thérèse of Lisieux (AD 1873-1897), Livre de Vie, pages 20-22

St. Thérèse pioneered in the Church of the nineteenth century the "little way" -- fidelity in small things, trust, and complete self-surrender to God. Please also notice her age.