Friday Logoi II

“Acquire a peaceful spirit, and around you thousands will be saved.” –St. Seraphim of Sarov.
“The ontological unity of humanity is such that every separate individual overcoming evil in himself inflicts such a defeat on cosmic evil that its consequences have a beneficial effect on the destinies of the whole world. On the other hand, [...]

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Friday Logoi

[On suffering and physical disability] “God wants it, so I accept it.” Pope John Paul II
“Basing our happiness on our ability to control everything is futile. While we do control our choice of action, we cannot control the consequences of our choices. Universal laws or principles do.” First Things First, Steven R Covey, [...]

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Harry-ness

Well, at long lost, I have begun (completed first five chapters of) the final installment of the Harry Potter series.  I must say, the first 80-odd pages have not disappointed.  I found myself waxing quite maudlin at Dumbledore’s death in book 6 again.  And then I got mad as yet another character got killed off [...]

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The First Edition of the New Testament

In my previous blogging about sola scriptura, one of my fellow parishioners emailed me about David Trobisch’s The First Edition of the New Testament (Oxford: 2000). I was intrigued. He offered it to me as a gift. And I am extremely grateful. I present here something of a summary and review [...]

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J K Rowling Sucks

If you haven’t read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and/or you don’t want to know the really big plot spoiler I will reveal in my rant, do not click on the link to continue reading.
I’m serious: You will be reading about THE REALLY BIG THING THAT HAPPENS AT THE END OF THE BOOK if [...]

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Dark Night of the Soul and Other Spiritual Classics Available Online

John of the Cross’ Dark Night of the Soul, translated by E. Allison Peers, is available online. So, too is Ascent of Mt. Carmel and Spiritual Canticle.
From that other well-known Carmelite, Teresa of Avila, you can read the following online: Life of Teresa of Jesus, Interior Castle, and Way of Perfection
Those with Russian and/or [...]

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Vladimir Lossky: Essences and Energies

. . . [T]he theology of the Eastern Church distinguishes in God the three hypostases, the nature or essence, and the energies. The Son and the Holy Spirit are, so to say, personal processions, the energies natural processions. The energies are inseparable from the nature, and the nature is inseparable from the three [...]

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Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm VI

Annie Dillard ends her meditations with a prayer for Julie.
There is Julie Norwich. Julie Norwich is salted with fire. She is preserved like a salted fillet from all evil, baptized at birth into time and now into eternity, into the bladelike arms of God. For who will love her now, without a [...]

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Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm V

Today is Friday, November 20. Julie Norwich is in the hospital, burned; we can get no word of her condition. People released from burn wards, I read once, have a very high suicide rate. They had not realized, before they were burned, that life could include such suffering, nor that they personally [...]

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Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm IV

Facing squarely the rock mountain and the salt sea, the airplane fallen from the sky, and little Julie Norwich burned, Annie Dillard is ready. Am I?
I know only enough of God to worship him, by any means ready to hand. There is an anomalous specificity to all our experience in space, a scandal [...]

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