Month: November 2004

• Rene Girard on Mousetrap Atonement

  …Origin and many of the Greek fathers elaborated a thesis that played a great role as the first centuries of Christianity unfolded, that of Satan duped by the Cross. Satan means the same in this formulation as those St. Paul names as the “princes of this world.” In Western Christianity this thesis has not met…

• Gregory Nazianzen: “Quod non assumpsit, non sanavit”

  “What He did not assume, He did not heal.” Gregory Nazianzen, -letter to Cledonius Cappadocian response to Appollonarian Christology, which tried to solve the problem of the unity of the Incarnate Logos by omitting the humanity.

• The Moment the Bottom Fell Out

  And when,that evening near that summer’s end,on sun-warmed stone of the old church steps,you spoke of larger rooms within my inner silencewhere the word of God is never silent, yetmidsummer forever.

• Notes From Dreams

  “I thirst.” We thought He said: “O send someone to dip a finger in the spring and cool my tongue.” There was a sponge, a javelin, and vinegar there. He turned His swollen tongue away. We saw that instant what deep and spanless gulfs we listened across. 2. I saw the high priest standing as…

• Low Church Credo

  He is nothing you can see or feel, He is nothing you can paint on a board, He is nothing to be broken or poured, He is nothing our mistakes can kill.

• That There Are Multiple Darknesses

  Man is called into existence by the word of God,  so God’s first impingement on his cognition has describable shape.   For some individuals, later, there is contact with God the Spirit, and through this process the man moves from one epistemological universe to another, since each Trinitarian person, being a person, exudes a unique…

• Anger’s Entire Function is to Enact Justice

  Injustice or unfairness, real or perceived, makes us mad.  It is a precognitive force, discovered within us at some point in those moments after the Fall when we were rearranging all our internal powers to make sure we were dealt with fairly…. just after that bliss when “fair” was an unknown concept.   Fish don’t know…

• And Isaac Rustled Like the Wind

  Barbara and I walked in the park after dark, hand in hand. The gravel paths shimmered from the moon, and the moon’s twin floated in the flat creek. The voices of other walkers were muffled by the warm air. The trees stood stories high and rippled in a slight wind. Long after we might have…

• Quotes from here and there I’ve not categorized

  “We do think in words, and the fewer words we know, the more restricted our thoughts. As our vocabulary expands , so does our power to think….If we limit and distort language, we limit and distort personality.” Madeleine L’Engle: A Circle Of Quiet, p.149 …”the idiosyncratic has triumphed over the normative..” Joseph A. Mazzeo: “An…

• The Roman Exorcism Rite: “…Ipse venena bibas…”

  Vade Retro Satana. Numquam suade mihi vana. Sunt mala quae libas. Ipse venena bibas. Crux sacra sit mihi lux. Non draco sit mihi dux. (Begone Satan! Suggest not vain things to me. Evil is the cup you offer. Drink the poison yourself. May the Holy Cross be my light. Let not the dragon be my…