Father's Day

Wearing one of my Father's Day gifts. :-)

I went to see my father on Father's Day. He wasn't having the best day, unfortunately. But that's okay. We had some time together. He's 95 and still kicking - that's something. I'm lucky to have him around still.

Some 75 years ago, in the Army Air Corp in World War II.

Today (minus the uniform.)  :-)

An Oldie But Goodie . . .

Been a while since I last blogged . . . catching up after vacation . . . trying to get going with my dissertation proposal . . . root canal . . . family and home stuff . . . always lots to do! But anyway, here's an oldie but a goodie for you, as I try to get back to some kind of normal with the ol' blog here!

The flesh is the hinge of salvation. . . . The flesh, then, is washed so that the soul may be made clean. The flesh is anointed so that the soul may be dedicated to holiness. The flesh is signed so that the soul may be fortified. The flesh is shaded by the imposition of hands so that the soul may be illuminated by the Spirit. The flesh feeds on the body and blood of Christ so that the soul too may feed on God. They cannot, then, be separated in their reward, when they are united in their works.

~ Tertullian, Resurrection of the Flesh

Good Quote

"For wherever they see the Lord's blood, devils flee and angels run together."

~ John Chrysostom

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

Grandpa Peasant with his tomato garden.

The man who taught me what it is to be a man of God, to love family, nature, and not take things for granted. He took care of me for many years; now we get to care for him.

Thanks Dad.

And thanks Father for giving me such a father.

Regression into Paganism

St. Augustine asked what pagans did when they did not succeed at resisting vices (or even try to). Very simply, they attributed them to God! And so they made a god for lust, Venus, a god for violence, Mars, and so on, feeling themselves justified in practicing these vices. The same thing is happening today with regard to Christ, and it is one of the most disturbing signs of regression into paganism. There is no weakness or obsession in modern culture that is not somehow attributed to Jesus in a way that makes people feel justified in cultivating it.

~ Raniero Cantalamessa 

in Remember Jesus Christ: Responding to the Challenges of Faith in Our Time, 14

Happy Father's Day

Us three kids got my father this elevated garden so he could still get out and plant and dig as he used to and always so enjoyed. We actually gave it to him a couple weeks ago when it arrived so he could start planting. Gotta love the big cheesy grin he gave us for this picture!

There's so much I remember of being his son. Good times and rough times. I remember how in the morning I would come down to get ready for school and I would find him in his chair with his Bible open on his lap, praying. I remember how he was down to his last $250 sending me to college - of course, he wouldn't tell me that and I didn't know it until much later. I remember his service at church in so many offices and roles. I remember disappointing him but also making him proud. I remember the two weeks I spent with him after mom died. But through it all God worked, by grace, all by grace, to get us where we are today.

I am happy he is living with us now and I can help take care of him for however much longer God will give him to us. It's hard for him and at times for us, but what a blessing and a privilege. Happy Father's Day dad!

Photo

For Father's Day, my older daughter and I went into DC for "artomatic." Every year (I believe) this organization takes over an office building that is about to be torn down and let artists display their work. They can do whatever they want to the building because they don't have to clean up afterwards - it's just being torn down. So we spent the day looking at 11 floors of various kinds of art and stuff that was called "art" but whose fitting of that definition is dubious at best. Some was really cool, some was pretty disturbing, but a good Father's Day outing nonetheless. (It was actually the day before Father's Day). Oh, and we had lunch at a really good burger joint, too!

Some Good Quotes

Some good quotes from the Church Fathers that I recently read:

From Cyprian: "The Ancient Church Fathers had an acutely honed sacramental sense. Wherever Scripture intimated anything related to the sacramental elements or practice, they read the text sacramentally. Their lives were arranged around pulpit, font, and altar. These were sources of life for them, because from them flowed the Word of God. These means, then, were seen everywhere in that Word. We would be blessed to learn this from them."

(Do we have trouble reading and interpreting the Scriptures this way today because our lives are not "arranged around pulpit, font, and altar" but around other things?)

From Ambrose: "Christians should never fear the trial of repentance. We should never seek to plead to a lesser charge than our full guilt. We are not trying to avoid punishment, because the punishment for our sins has been laid on the back of the only Son of God. To delay or avoid repentance is tantamount to denying the completeness and perfection of Christ's work. He is rushing toward us, offering us the pledge of His mercy; why should we be reluctant? He offered Himself into death, even for enemies."

("He is rushing toward us." Picture that! And so is avoiding repentance to dodge Christ "rushing at us" with His forgiveness like dodging a dodge ball? Do we see Christ rushing at us as good news [to be received repenting of our sins] or bad news [to be dodged by professions of innocence]?)

Both quotations from: A Year with the Church Fathers by CPH, a companion book to the Treasury of Daily Prayer. I highly recommend this book!

Interesting . . .

In 2 Kings 6:1-7, Elisha retrieves an axe head that fell into the water by throwing a stick in the water. What is the significance of this? Irenaeus writes that here we see a picture of the cross, which is the wood that has retrieved what was lost. "By means of a tree we were made debtors to God, [so also] by means of a tree we may obtain the remission of our debt." Interesting . . .

Christ Active in the Liturgy

"For what Christ was and did, he still is and does: it is he who preaches his Word, he who calls us to himself, he who binds the wounds of our sins and washes us in the waters of salvation, he who feeds us with his own life, he who is the pillar of fire leading us across the horizon of our own salvation history, lighting our sin-darkened path. He does it in Word and Sacrament . . ."

(Taft, Through Their Own Eyes, 139-140)

"For to be baptized in the name of God is to be baptized not by men, but by God Himself. Therefore, although it is performed by human hands, it is nevertheless truly God's own work. From this fact every one may himself readily infer that it is a far higher work than any work performed by a man or a saint. For what work greater than the work of God can we do?"

(Luther, Large Catechism)

Patristic Quote

"See how great is the power of the [liturgical] assembly!  . . .  Again, in the most awesome mysteries the priest prays for the people and the people pray for the priest; for "And with your spirit" is nothing but that. Everything in the eucharist is shared, for the priest does not give thanks alone, but also the people [give thanks] with him. For after he has first received their acclamation consenting that "It is fitting and right" to do this, only then does he commence the eucharist . . .  Why are you surprised that the people speak together with the priest, when they send up in common those sacred hymns even with the very Cherubim and the heavenly Powers?"

- St. John Chrysostom

(as quoted by Robert Taft, Through Their Own Eyes, 29-30)

Patristic Quote

"God is so good that he in no way permits an evil unless he knows how to draw good from it."
- St. Augustine

Patristic Quote

"If someone asks, therefore, why God allowed man to be tempted when he foreknew that man would yield to the tempter, I cannot sound the depths of divine wisdom, and I confess that the solution is far from my powers. . . . I do not think that a man would deserve great praise if he had been able to live a good life for the simple reason that nobody tempted him to live a bad one." (St. Augustine, Ancient Christian Devotional, 73)