Sailing the Last Voyage with Newton and Pascal
This weekend is the tenth anniversary of the Gulf Coast landing of Hurricane Katrina, which wrought so much destruction in both Louisiana and Mississippi. I had started the predecessor format of this blog earlier that year. Given ancestral and business interests, a disaster of this size made an impact on me, especially after visiting the …
Continue reading "When Your Metairie is Wiped Out: My First Post After Hurricane Katrina"
From Bossuet's History of the Variations of the Protestant Churches, III, 12, this gem: For although the Eucharist, as well as the other mysteries of our salvation, had a spiritual effect for its end, it had, like the other mysteries, that which was accomplished in the body for its foundation. Jesus Christ was to be …
Putting a wrap on Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 8: Now there is only this beautiful place in Proverbs, where the uncreated wisdom speaks thus: The Lord has possessed me, generated me, from the beginning of his ways. I am myself this beginning, being the worker idea of this great artisan and the original …
Lining up another one of the Elevations on the Mysteries by Bossuet, III, 7: God made the basis of his work. Â God decorated it, God put the finishing touch, God rested. When he made the basis of his work, that is to say in confusion the heavens and the earth, the air and the waters, …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: The Order of the Works of God"
Acting again to post Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 6: You are all powerful, of God of glory!  I adore your immense and voluntary generosity.  I pass all the centuries, and all the evolutions and revolutions of nature; I see you as you would be before all beginning and all eternity; that is to say …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Acts of Faith and Love on All Things"
Another day, another post from Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 5: The design of God in the creation and in the description which his Holy Spirit dictated to Moses, is first to make himself known as the all-powerful and very free creator of all things, who without being limited to another law except for …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: The Six Days"
Marching on in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 4: God says: Let there be light, and there was light. Â The King says: March, and the army marches; that one makes such an evolution, and it is made; all the army moves at one command of a Prince, that is to say at a single …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Efficacy and Liberty of the Divine Command"
Getting back to Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 3: Weak and imbecile that I am, who only sees mortal artisans whose works are subject to time, and who choose certain moments to be the start and end of their work, and who also need to be in a certain place to act and to find …
Continuing in Bossuet's Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 2: Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes (Genesis 18:27)  And of what do I speak to you, O Lord? By where can I better begin to speak with you than the place where you began to …
Continue reading "On the Creation of the Universe: Before the Creation, There Was Nothing But God"
We're back to Bossuet, starting another series of Elevations on the Mysteries, III, 1: Collecting my thoughts in myself, only seeing in me sin, imperfection and nothingness, I see in the same time, above me, a happy and perfect nature: and I say to him in myself with the Psalmist: You are my God, you …
Positive Infinity 