Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
Continuing on in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, XV-VII: The shepherds, imitators of the holy Patriarchs and the most innocent and simple flock in the world, guarding and keeping the night watches over their flock. Holy angels, accustomed to converse with the shepherds of old, with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, announced to those in the …
Continue reading "The Angels Announce Jesus to the Shepherds"
Continuing in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, XV-VI: God prepared the world a great and new spectacle when he made a poor King to be born and he made him a palace and a suitable cradle. He came unto his own: and his own received him not. They found no place for him, when he …
More from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, XV-V: After the dream of Joseph and the word of the angel, this holy man was changed. He became a father, he became a husband by the heart. Others adopted children: Jesus adopted a father. The tender care which he gave Mary and the divine child was the …
From his Elevations on the Mysteries, XV-IV: His name will be Emmanuel: God with us. These are the mystical names which the Prophets give in spirit, to explain certain effects of divine power, which are necessary for those who use them. If we understand the force of that name Emmanuel, we find that of the …
Continue reading "His Name Will Be Emmanuel: Bossuet on "God With Us""
This comment from one Dr. Clarence Charles on the testimony of Sir Lionel Luckhoo is worth repeating: As I meditate on Psalm 1 today, I contrasted the glorious life of Sir Lionel Luckhoo and its outcome, with the inglorious one of Jim Jones and his clan and their outcome in a piece entitled, "Eleven Days …
It's supposed to be the time of year for joy and merriment, but I've seen a few things lately that bother me about the immediate course of the country. Most of those concern foreign policy, that necessary evil Americans aren't very good at, even with all the years of travel and media coverage. (I think …
Continue reading "Let's Not Do Something Stupid About the Russians"
It's been a bit since Ephraim Radner and Christopher Seitz "crossed the Rubicon" and set forth The Marriage Pledge, which calls ministers to stop officiating civil marriages.  Reactions have been mixed.  The fact that I can say that shows that the steady legalisation of same-sex civil marriage has forced Christians--who have been working to "preserve marriage", …
Continue reading "The Marriage Pledge: A Gratifying Step on Civil vs. Ecclesiastical Marriage"
Today is the Feast of Christ the King. The script that calls out the liturgical year on this site simply refers to this as the Sunday before Advent, and that's what it was for centuries. The idea of this feast--at the end of the liturgical year--comes from the "new theology", one that generally gets a …
Many of you know that, in spite of a lot of what turns up on this blog, I am a member of the North Cleveland Church of God and worked for the church's International Offices in the Lay Ministries Department for 13 1/2 years. Â So I'm not a stranger to at least some of our …
Continue reading "My Challenge to Church of God Ministers: Take the Marriage Pledge"
The Republican "wave" (what that means electorally depends upon whom you talk to) in the recent Congressional elections has highlighted their opponents' weaknesses at the state level. Â To a large extent there are two electorates: one at the mid-term and one at the Presidential year. The one thing these two have in common, according to …
Continue reading "Maybe the Democrats Don't Need a Deep Electoral Bench"
