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On “Black Saturday” weddings in Lent – and other matters…

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

The Book of Common Prayer says that by sharing Holy Communion, Christians become “very members incorporate in the mystical body” of Jesus. The words “corporate” and “mystical” are the key. They show that a healthy church has two sides. The often-overlooked “mystical” side asks, “How do I experience God?” This blog will try to answer that.

It has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (See John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance. (John 10:10.) The third is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. As it says in Luke 24:45: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” The fourth theme – and most often overlooked – is that God wants us to do even greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12.) 

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is: Read, study and apply the Bible with an open mind. For more see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

I last did a post on February 27, On Ash Wednesday and Lent – 2023, a little over two weeks ago. I had just finished up a five-day, four-night adventure, canoeing into the Okefenokee Swamp. In recovering from that adventure I missed Ash Wednesday. But I figured I did some good penance by enduring the butt-numbing discipline of paddling a canoe for hours and hours on end. (Not to mention mosquitoes and watching out for curious gators.)

On the other hand – kind of an Alpha and Omega – it looks like I’m going to miss Easter Sunday as well. My grandson is getting married this spring, and guess what date he and his fiance picked? April 8. It took me awhile to figure out, but that’s the day before Easter Sunday. That’s Holy Saturday to some people, while other devout people call it Black Saturday.

BTW: I’ll miss Easter Sunday – or at least going to church – because it’s 450 miles down to Tampa. After the weekend “party time” with one extended family, one I haven’t seen in awhile, I’ll want to get home quick. (“Forgive me, Lord, but I’m not up to drinking that much any more.”)

And just as an aside, I also had to change a long-sought doctor appointment. The doctor I’ve seen for years moved to a distant city. My new doctor – the one my brother and his wife picked after the same move – is very popular. She’s so popular that when I tried to make an appointment back in the middle of 2022, the earliest appointment I could get was April 7. But because I’ll be driving down to Florida for the wedding, I had to make a new appointment. The date for my new appointment? October 31, Halloween Day.

At least it’s in 2023, but I figure all this rigmarole is worth some good Lenten points.

For one thing, it led me to do more research on Holy Saturday. It’s the final day of Holy Week, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Specifically, the day “commemorates the Harrowing of Hell while Jesus Christ’s body lay in the tomb.” In some places it’s also called “Black Saturday.” That would seem – at first blush – not to be an auspicious day for a wedding.

Then there’s the article, Good Friday and Holy Saturday: Getting Married During Lent. It noted that as holy sacraments, “Catholic weddings during Lent [are] allowed except on two days.” Those two days are Good Friday and Holy Saturday. “If one were to ask a priest to allow a wedding on any of the two above-mentioned days, the immediate response is going to be a no.” But then, the young couple is not going to get married in a Catholic church – on April 8.

As to the “why,” Holy Saturday is a day of mourning. It reminds us of “Christ’s laying in the tomb.” Accordingly, the Catholic church says that “merrymaking, noise, and activity” must be kept to a minimum. No sacraments are allowed, including marriage and holy communion. There are some limited exceptions. Holy communion can be given as a Viaticum, to one who is dying; in other words, as part of Last Rites. Then too, “When there is an imminent threat to one’s life, such as death knocking on one’s door, lifting matrimonial restrictions is a possibility.”

In other words, a couple can get married if one partner has one foot in the grave. Which is not just an idiom meaning one is on the verge of death. (Close to death or in terrible condition.) It’s also the name of a British sitcom series that ran from 1990 to 2000. As for the idiom itself, “This picturesque hyperbolic phrase was first recorded in 1566.”

None of which I knew before researching for this post.

There’s one more thing. Hotels in the Tampa Bay area are a lot more expensive than I’m used to. I used to live across the Bay in Pinellas County, for 50 years, up until 2010 or so, so I never paid much attention. But trying to book a reasonably-priced room down there turned out to be a wake-up call. Not least of all because they all want hefty deposits, starting at $100 a night.

I finally found a room – a swanky Hilton – for $250, and thought that wasn’t too bad for two nights. But “through my own fault, my own grievous fault,” that turned out to be the price for one night. I’d been trying to book a room for some time, was tired, and seem to have been swayed by the fact that they didn’t charge a deposit. I also found out that it’s difficult to exercise that “free cancellation” option. So I’ll spent the evening of Good Friday at a swanky Hilton in the resort area that is Tampa and the Gulf Coast. But I learned some valuable lessons.

For one thing, from now on I’ll use the “pay at the hotel” option. As for those disgusting deposits, I’ll read through the fine print when booking online. (Or I could just reduce my visits to the Tampa Bay area to an absolute minimum.) As for learning valuable lessons, I’ve mentioned before that some people choose not to give up things as part of their Lenten Discipline. Some choose – as I have done in the past – to spend Lent in contemplation. That’s the spiritual discipline that “seeks a direct awareness of the divine which transcends the intellect.”

As Wikipedia explained, contemplation also means “profound thinking about something.” And in a religious sense, “contemplation is usually a type of prayer or meditation.” Then there’s this:

Within Western Christianity contemplation is often related to mysticism as expressed in the works of mystical theologians such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross as well as the writings of Margery Kempe, Augustine Baker and Thomas Merton.

I’m sure I’ll find other spiritual matters to contemplate between now and the end of Lent, 2023. (And do a future post or two on.) But until then, I’ll go ahead and ponder the spiritual lessons already mentioned. Then too, I’ll ponder the lesson about “whenever a relative or good friend schedules a spring wedding.” From now on I’ll be sure to check the date, just to make sure no such future wedding happens during Holy Week, and especially not on “Black Saturday.”

And in so “contemplating,” I’ll be in pretty good company. Just like Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross, Thomas Merton, and the nice lady “contemplating” below

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The upper image is courtesy of Black Saturday Holy Week – Image Results.

The Book of Common Prayer reference. The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

For more on contemplation as a Lenten discipline, see 2016’s My Lenten meditation. I borrowed the lower “nice lady contemplating” image from that post. It also included Lenten disciplines: spiritual exercises or ego trip? The 2016 post noted that for that Lenten period I contemplated “just when, where and how Moses came to write the first five books of the Bible. (The Torah.)”

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly.  (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

So in plain words, this blog takes issue with boot-camp Christians. They’re the Biblical literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible can offer so much more than their narrow reading can offer…  (Unless you want to stay a Bible buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians.” See for example, Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?”  The gist of that post is that starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” 

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

However, after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training. And as noted in “Buck private,” one of this blog’s themes is that if you want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image at left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.” * 

Re: “mystical.” Originally, mysticism “referred to the Biblical liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” See Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“That’s what the Bible was originally about!”) See also Christian mysticism – Wikipedia, “In early Christianity the term ‘mystikos’ referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative… The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.” As to that “experiential” aspect, see also Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, on the method of theological reflection with four sources of spiritual development: scripture, tradition, reason, and “Christian experience.”

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR? 

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On Ash Wednesday and Lent – 2023

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This past February 22, 2023 was the Feast Day called Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Season of Lent, and Wikipedia said this about Lent:

According to the canonical gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, Jesus Christ spent 40 days fasting in the desert, where he endured temptation by Satan. Lent originated as a mirroring of this, fasting 40 days as preparation for Easter.

Lent in turn is a season devoted to “prayer, penance, repentance of sins, almsgiving, atonement and self-denial.” But getting back to Jesus “wandering in the Wilderness” for 40 days, those 40 days mirrored the 40 years the Hebrews also spent “wandering around.” (Led by Moses.) But here’s the good news: Eventually those wandering Hebrews found the Promised Land. In much the same way, after 40 long days of penance, Lent leads us to the much-anticipated celebration of Easter, and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. (“The Lord is risen … Indeed!”)

And here’s another bit of good news. It’s not 40 straight days of self-denial.

That’s because there are actually 46 days of Lent. 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday. And why is that? Because Sundays don’t count. Sundays in Lent are basically “days off,” when you can still enjoy whatever it is you’ve “given up.” For example, if you’ve given up chocolate for Lent, you can still enjoy some chocolate treats on Sundays during Lent.

And by the way, somehow that little nugget of Bible wisdom got overlooked by the people who made the 2002 romantic comedy, 40 Days and 40 Nights. In that film the main character had to not have sex – to refrain “from any sexual contact” – for the duration of Lent. But as noted above, he “could have taken Sundays off.”  Which again just goes to show:

It pays to read and study the Bible!

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And speaking of wandering Hebrews who eventually found the Promised Land: The link above connects to an article, The Promise of the Promised Land | My Jewish Learning. It explains why possession of this Promised Land depends so much on continuing “moral behavior:”

Those who live in the land are tempted to take part in the struggle between the powers as a way to aggrandize power for themselves. But the only way to live in the Land peacefully and to bring a vision of peace to the world is by refraining from participation in those pagan power struggles and by liv­ing a life of justice and truth in accordance with the Torah.

On that note, America has also been seen as the Promised Land by many, but I’d say that in view of today’s backstabbing politics – not to mention ongoing natural disasters – we Americans have been weighed on the balances and found wanting. But I’m not talking about restoring that balance through so-called Christian nationalism. (Which is anything but Christian.) Instead today’s “Christian nationalists” are more like the Pharisees and other too-conservatives who plagued Jesus in His time, and who continue to plague real Christians “even to this day.”

But as Garry Wills and others have noted, Jesus was above politics. “My Kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18:36.) And as I explained in Garry Wills and “What Jesus (REALLY) Meant.” Jesus simply never got involved in politics. He focused instead on healing the divisions so prevalent during His time on earth, not making them worse. (As some politicians do today.)

In other words, true Christians today should – to the extent possible – refrain from participating in today’s “pagan power struggles.” But instead, too many identify themselves as “Conservative Christian” or “Liberal Christian.” In plain words they place their political beliefs before their Christian faith. In plainer words, “Don’t place politics over your Christian faith.”

In turn, if one party believes it’s the “more Christian,” it’s time to put up or shut up. It’s time for them to show they’re part of the Ministry of Reconciliation. (2d Corinthians 5:18.) But getting back to the Garry Wills post, for him – along with Johnny Cash and Billy Graham* – Jesus was all about love. And that’s not to mention the Apostle Paul, who gave us 1st Corinthians 13:4-7.

The main theme of Wills’ book is that Jesus was “radical” in his love for all people. (Even – gasp – for liberals! And for that matter, even for those people [who] are a real pain in the ass.) Wills noted that Jesus spent little time with the well-to-do, and seemed to prefer the company of whores, lepers and outcasts of all types. As Wills put it, Jesus “walks through social barriers and taboos as if they were cobwebs.” 

Which is also the Christian love Johnny Cash showed. In Cash’s Religion and Political Views, the author wrote, “I like to think that Johnny was above politics and more about people and peace and happiness and cooperation.” Or as Cash’s daughter Rosanne said, her father “didn’t care where you stood politically.” He could “love all stripes, and that’s why all stripes claim him.”

Something to contemplate during this Lent 2023, when we look ahead to Easter.

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Lent leads to celebrating Easter Sunday and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ…

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The upper image is courtesy of Ash Wednesday Images – Image Results. It goes with an article at the website, Classical Astronomy – Home of the Signs & Seasons Curriculum, including this:

People often wonder why the dates of Easter and Ash Wednesday and other feasts are different each year. These are “moveable feasts” that are fixed by the cycle of the Moon’s phases. Easter (or properly, Pascha) is essentially defined to be the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the first day of spring, which is different every year. Ash Wednesday is defined to be 40 days ahead of the pre-calculated date of Easter.

I based this post on past posts on the subject, including On Ash Wednesday and Lent – 2016, On Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent – 2020, and On Ash Wednesday – 2022. Also, I borrowed the “from any sexual contact” observation from OMG! Is it time for Lent again?

The Book of Common Prayer reference. The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

America also “Promised Land.” The full link cite is America as the Promised Land | Museum of the Bible.

“The Lord is risen … Indeed.” The link is to Paschal greeting – Wikipedia, noting that in many churches this is part of the traditional greeting on Easter morning and throughout Easter week: “Christus surréxit! – Surréxit vere, allelúja.” (“Christ is risen” – “He is risen indeed. Alleluia!”):

This ancient phrase echoes the greeting of the angel to Mary Magdalene, to Mary the mother of James, and to Joseph, as they arrived at the sepulchre to anoint the body of Jesus: “He is not here; for he has risen, as he said” (Matt 28:6). [1] It is used among Catholics when meeting one another during Eastertide; some even answer their telephones with the phrase.

Billy Graham. He so believed in Jesus’ message of loving all people that some too-conservatives called him either “False Shepherd” or “Antichrist.” See Billy Graham – Ecumenicalist and False Shepherd and BILLY GRAHAM: SERVANT OF CHRIST OR OF ANTICHRIST? His “crime” seems to have been that he could get along with people like Muslims and the Pope. (Heck, he probably even got along with “whores, lepers and outcasts of all types.“)

The lower image is courtesy of Lent – Wikipedia. The caption:  

Lent celebrants carrying out a street procession during Holy Week [in Nicaragua.] The violet color is often associated with penance and detachment. Similar Christian penitential practice is seen in other Catholic countries, sometimes associated with mortification of the flesh.

The article added that Lent’s “institutional purpose is heightened in the annual commemoration of Holy Week, marking the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus … which ultimately culminates in the joyful celebration on Easter Sunday of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

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On “the night life in Jerusalem” – from four years ago…

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I enjoyed many a Maccabee at “the Leonardo,” though it wasn’t  on my Google Map radar…  

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Can you say, “Ooooops!“

February 8, 2023 – I first wanted to post this over three years ago; just after Christmas, 2019. I wanted it as part of a “big and pleasant” year-end review of my earlier-in-2019 trip to Israel. (More precisely, a review of my pre-trip Google research on “where are the bars in Jerusalem?”) A year after the trip – in May 2020 – I got back to the project, but this time with a side look at the then-new COVID pandemic. Then the project again got side-tracked, for reasons I can’t remember. Then this last February 2, 2023, I started working on an eBook about the Jerusalem trip. I typed in “Jerusalem” in the search box above right, and that’s when I found this still-in-the-draft almost-post. So what follows is mostly what I wrote back in December 2019, but with some editing and updating.

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December 27, 2019 – This past May of 2019 I flew over to Israel with a group of 20 or so people from my local church. We were all taking part in a two-week course given by St. George’s College, Jerusalem, called the Palestine of Jesus. Just after I got back from Israel – on May 29, 2019 – I posted Back from Three weeks in Israel. It focused mostly on the last day of the trip, which was a “cluster” (half a word). That “cluster” involved the long Wednesday I flew back home; 11 hours on the plane, combined with six “fast forward” time zone changes. (Also after getting lost in Tel Aviv trying to get to Ben Gurion airport from my lodging.)

This post will review the pre-trip research I did before I left for Israel. And it will talk about how our expectations don’t always match up with reality. That’s another way of saying – as John Steinbeck said – “You don’t take a trip. A trip takes you.” But first some background.

Back home I like to end the day with two ice cold beers. That’s my reward for working on my writing, blogging and painting, along with other projects around the house, up until 10:15 p.m. or so. And I wanted to continue that “end-of-the-day reward” sense in Jerusalem, with a nice cold draft beer if possible. But if not, with some other form of “O-be-joyful.” (A code-word for ardent spirits.) Which in a way brings up the the photo atop the page.

Before leaving home I did some Google-mapping to find the closest bars to St. George’s College – and Pilgrim Guest House. (At the apex of Nablus Road and Sala-Ad-Din Street.) That research seemed to show the nearest bars to St. George’s were a mile or more away. But then – once I got to Jerusalem – I found a pleasant lounge at the Leonardo Moria Classic Hotel. Shown above, Google Maps says it’s a mere two-minute walk from St. George’s Guest House. (And I timed it myself.) Officially, the Leonardo is located at “9 St. George Street.” But as it also turned out, the College itself had a “Garden Bistro,” which served beer and wine.

That Garden Bistro included a “mini-bar” – a small bar within the complex itself – that served cocktails for those pilgrim’s at St. George’s who wanted a little something stronger to go along with their evening meal. The photo at left shows the courtyard where we usually had our evening meals.

I also noted it was “nice to know where to get a bit of wine nearby; i.e., wine which ‘gladdens the human heart.’ (Psalm 104:15.)” But like I said, that place closed fairly early, so if you wanted a night-cap later on in the evening, “the Leonardo” was the place to go.

The Leonardo not only stayed open later, it also featured Maccabee beer instead of Taybeh. Maccabee is the featured Israeli beer, while Taybeh is brewed by a Palestinian company. They’re both good, but Leonardo’s Maccabee “on tap” seemed colder. And some nights the Leonardo had a piano bar as well. One evening a yarmulke-topped pianist played the Chicken Dance. But I seemed to be the only one there who’d ever heard it before. (“Can you say, ‘incongruous?'”)

But all that came later on. On my first full day in Jerusalem – a Sunday – I first had to recuperate from the jet-lag, no-sleep red-eye flight that left Atlanta around 10:00 p.m. local time on Friday night. That Sunday morning – after arriving late Saturday night (local) – I took a long walk along Jaffa Street and found the BeerBazaar. (One of those “clustered” bars.)

That is, the BeerBazaar was one of those bars I’d seen in my pre-trip research.

But I had a hard time finding many of the other bars I was looking for. Which brings up another part of my pre-trip research. As part of that research, I mass e-mailed the 20 or so people in my local church group, to share my findings. The email began:  “For those of you interested in such things – like maybe having an after-dinner aperitif after a long hard day hiking through the wilds of Judea – I did a little research via internet and Google Maps.” I did note the “Garden Bistro” at St. George’s, “right on the Nablus Road complex itself.”  Which turned out to be true.

But as noted, the “Bistro” closed down fairly early, so in the “before I left email” I added, “for those interested in such things, it looks like the closest bars (etc.) are clustered about a mile or so southwest of the College.” Which also turned out to be true. There was a cluster of bars about a mile southwest of St. George’s, including the BeerBazaar.

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I have some more notes on some other places I found in my research. I’ve included them at the very bottom of this post, after a bunch of other notes. If you like, you can read them as if they came from Tom Wolfe‘s whiz-bang style of writing in The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby. Or maybe from Hunter S. Thompson‘s note-heavy Gonzo journalism.

I’ve mostly included them “for further review at a later time.” However, there are references to things like a liquor store I found on Davidka Square, or a “Hataklit” bar with karaoke, which I never found, or a “Video Pub Gay Bar,” which I didn’t really look for. Or the Dublin Irish Pub…

So I’ve included them for later review, but there are references to things like a liquor store I found on Davidka Square, or a “Hataklit” bar with karaoke, which I never found, or a “Video Pub Gay Bar,” which I didn’t really look for. But lest we forget our feast days, last Thursday, February 2, 2023 was the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple. The idea of such a “presentation” – of Jesus, as a baby 40 days after Christmas – followed a thousand-year-old custom that began with Exodus 13:2, where God said, “Consecrate to me every firstborn male:”

Counting forward from December 25 as Day One [for Jesus], we find that Day Forty is February 2. A Jewish woman is in semi-seclusion for 40 days after giving birth to a son, and accordingly it is on February 2 that we celebrate the coming of Mary and Joseph with the infant Jesus to the Temple at Jerusalem.

And working backwards, I’ve written about this commemoration in The Presentation of Jesus – 2/2/22, The “Presentation of our Lord” – 2020, and in 2017, On the FIRST “Presentation of the Lord.” Check the links for more information, but the gist of the 2017 post is that Jesus was “presented” twice. We celebrate the first presentation every February 2d. The next one we celebrate on Good Friday each year, remembering how Jesus was about to be crucified…

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Ecce homo by Antonio Ciseri (1).jpg

What could be called the “Second Presentation” – Good Friday, Jesus about to be crucified…

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The upper image is courtesy of Leonardo Moria Jerusalem – Image Results. As for the distance from there to St. George’s, Google Maps actually says it’s a four minute walk, but it has you walking down St. George Street and over to “Sderot Hayim Barlev,” also known as Highway 60 (Israel–Palestine), then up to the other side of the hotel. The lounge entrance is on the side closest to St. George Street.

The Book of Common Prayer. The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

The full beer links are Maccabee Beer – Tempo Israel’s leading company for beer, and Taybeh Brewing Company – The finest in the Middle East.

“O Be Joyful.” See O-be-joyful – 17 of the Finest Words for Drinking: 

O-be-joyful began reaffirming the positive properties of intoxicants about two hundred years ago, and although the word is not in considerable use today, a book from 1977 asserted that an abbreviated form of the phrase was still in common use in some areas, and that “some New Englanders even today write ‘OBJ’ on their shopping lists.”

Back in the old days of our country, whiskey – for example – was used instead of hard currency:

One of the first media of exchange in the United States was classic whiskey.  For men and women of the day, the alcohol did more than put “song in their hearts and laughter on their lips.”  Whiskey was currency.  Most forms of money were extremely scarce in our country after the Revolutionary War, making monetary innovation the key to success.

See Why Whiskey Was Money, and Bitcoins Might Be.  So it was in that spirit – primarily – that I looked for some “O be joyful.” 

The lower image is courtesy of Pontius Pilate – Wikipedia. Wikipedia caption: “Ecce Homo (‘Behold the Man’), Antonio Ciseri‘s depiction of Pilate presenting a scourged Jesus to the people of Jerusalem.” 

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For those interested in visiting some of those Jerusalem bars – a mile or so southwest of St. George’s – here are some observations. (Even if those visits are only metaphoric.) They were gleaned from notes I took, via Googling, before I left for Jerusalem. For example, I saw on Google Maps that a number of bars seemed to be clustered “down by ‘Cat’s Square’ and/or ‘New York Square.’ The closest is Hataklit Bar. According to the Google Map review it has ‘Great cocktails’ and it has karaoke.” I wondered if they had David Allen Coe’s “You never even called me by my name,” but never got a chance to find the place. I must have walked by the street, “with the Hawaiian-sounding name,” a dozen times, but its entrance remained hidden. (Officially, its address is 7 Heleni ha-Malka, Jerusalem.)

From this point I’ve included some other notes, mostly in non-italic type, some of which I will use in the new eBook about my 2019 pilgrimage to Israel…

Not too far SW of that is Mike’s Place, “Kosher restaurant,” and great cocktails. It has an easier address to remember, Jaffa Street 33. Yet another place is Dublin Irish Pub, 1.2 miles SW of St. George’s… I saw that – according to Google Maps – there was even a “Video Pub Gay Bar,” near the Hataklit karaoke place. (“What goes on in Jerusalem, stays in Jerusalem?”) But seriously, for those interested in a bit of take-out libation, there are three Avi Ben Wine Stores in Jerusalem:

Avi Ben offers a wide selection of kosher and boutique Israeli wine as well as imported wines from the Bordeaux region in France, Italy and Spain. Avi Ben also supplies a wide choice of spirits from around the world.

The closest one is Yosef Rivlin Street 22. That too is about a mile SW of St. George’s, not too far from Cat’s Square, shown at left. (Apparently it used to be populated with cats, but no more. See “#BringTheCatsBackToCatsSquare.” One guy wrote, “There used to be a little market on the square, young folks gathering and playing music. But thanks to our ultra orthodox brethren the city’s dying. This place died too. Still, it’s close to the city center, restaurants, the Old City…. Ellipses in original.)

So anyway, Avi Ben stores have a “range of gifts including wine glasses, accessories and gift baskets, as well as an assortment of chocolates, olive oils, coffee, cheeses, and more.”

It’s also near the Hebrew Music Museum and the Friends of Zion Museum.  Another BTW:  All these places could be closed on May 2, for Holocaust Remembrance Day.

And in the process of doing all this research – no extra charge – I saw that if you wanted to walk that mile or so to the Hataklit kosher restaurant or the Dublin Irish Pub, you’d have to pass through the “Green Line.” That’s  Highway 60, also called the City Line and the ‘1949 Armistice Agreement Line.’” I emailed Genia at St. George’s, asking if that would present a problem. “Is it possible to walk through [the Green Line], over or around what appears to be a pretty busy highway? She wrote back, “there is no problem walking around the College.  Whatever streets you are passing by, there should be no problem. They are not really very close to us.”

[And there was no problem. My first day – a Sunday – I crossed the Green Line and ended up at the BeerBazaar, a boutique bar in the center of Jerusalem.]

And here are some other notes about the trip, unedited, for future eBook reference:

left atl about 10:30 p,m, friday, very little sleep, got to Istanbul, then Tel Aviv. “Breezed” through customs with the help of the shuttle driver, though he had a hell of a time finding Herod’s [Guest House] on Isfahani Street. [A side note. While we arrived on Saturday night, our lodging at St. George’s didn’t start until the following Monday. So for Saturday and Sunday night we had to arrange our own lodging.]

Sunday I wandered around, Mostly on Jaffa street. Found BeerBazaar and liquor store on Davidka Square. Met Greta, but no further contact

Got a nice room early on Monday, 5/13, opening reception, etc. Dinner at Jerusalem Hotel, ate too much, kabobs, beef, chicken, lamb, miserable overstuffed night

Tuesday. Mount of Olives, lecture room, dozed off a couple times.  Lousy sleep patterns. Pools of Bethesda, etc.

Wednesday [May] 15th

city of david, coming down with a cold, excused myself from Holocaust museum, got the “‘Quils,” day and night, slept good for a change.

Thursday

Four beers during the day, Taybeh,  early night, early morning

[Then there was this;] “Shalom, y’all!”  

Referring to the “Hebrew word meaning peace, harmony, wholeness, completeness, prosperity, welfare and tranquility and can be used idiomatically to mean both hello and goodbye.

And here are some other notes, from various Facebook posts…

It’s a shade after 11:00 p.m. here in Jerusalem.  (A shade after 4:00 in the afternoon back in the ATL.)  I just got back from up on the rooftop of St.George’s Pilgrim House, where my wash-and-wear clothes were drying in the breeze.  During the day it’s “hot as Gehenna” (Google it) here in the Holy Land, but at night it’s quite pleasant.  Cool and breezy, “Up on the roof…”  (Google it.)

Up there on the [terrace] and down in my room I’m in the process of sipping a brandy and water.  (“Sommelier,” for those interested in such things.)  And reflecting on the events of the day.

This morning we visited the Church of the Visitation, in Ein Kerem. After  lunch at the “Tent Restaurant, Beit Sahour,” we visited the Church of the Nativity and St. Jerome’s chapel and tomb, both in Bethlehem.  The church was both packed and crowded, and after standing around – and learning some fairly interesting talking points – I did a Good-Samaritan thing and gently persuaded a fellow pilgrim – who was in danger of getting stressed out – to forego a hump-through-a-tunnel extension of the tour, AND go to the garden restaurant next door and have (another) Taybeh (Palestinian) beer.

In situations like this you have to pick your battles.  It seems to me that finding a spiritual breakthrough usually comes in relative solitude, not when your surrounded by hot, sweaty and pushy “fellow travelers.”  (Google it.)

Speaking of which, the theme of the Visitation to Mary centered “on Mary responding to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to set out on a mission of charity.”  But there I didn’t see a whole lot of charity in the visit we made at the end of the day…

As my brandy-and-water is winding down and it’s getting time for bed – we’ve got an early start in the morning – I’m tempted to say the road to both freedom and spiritual enlightenment is littered with dumbasses along the way.  But hey, that wouldn’t be Christian…

Of course I knew that before I came over here. But before you start thinking I’m getting grumpy in my old age, it actually has been a pretty fun trip. I wouldn’t have missed it…

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On Saints Peter and Paul, January ’23…

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“Two Scholars Disputing” – Saints Peter and Paul – but they mostly worked together… 

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Welcome to “read the Bible – expand your mind:”

The Book of Common Prayer says that by sharing Holy Communion, Christians become “very members incorporate in the mystical body” of Jesus. The words “corporate” and “mystical” are the key. They show that a healthy church has two sides. The often-overlooked “mystical” side asks, “How do I experience God?” This blog will try to answer that.

It has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (See John 6:37.) The second is that God wants us to live lives of abundance. (John 10:10.) The third is that Jesus wants us to read the Bible with an open mind. As it says in Luke 24:45: “Then He [Jesus] opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures.” The fourth theme – and most often overlooked – is that God wants us to do even greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12.)  

And this thought ties them together:

The best way to live abundantly and do greater miracles than Jesus is: Read, study and apply the Bible with an open mind. For more see the notes or – to expand your mind – see the Intro.

In the meantime:

I’ve been remiss in posting lately. December 2022 turned out to be a busy time, what with two family Christmases, one up in Massachusetts. (Which included my driving up there through yet another “storm of the century.”) That’s why my posts went from Advent ’22 to Epiphany ’23 – without much to say about Christmas. (Not to mention having to say “farewell Mi Dulce.”)

But hopefully I can now start getting back up to speed.

On that note, last week’s January 18 was the Feast Day for the Confession of St Peter. This Wednesday, January 25 is the Feast Day for the Conversion of St Paul. I covered these two feast days in Peter confesses, Paul converts, from January 2016. The post started off saying that on June 25 each year we have a feast day for both Apostles together. But in January we remember both men separately. “Or more precisely, we remember how these two ‘Pillars of the Church‘ took two completely different paths to the same destination.” That is, closer to God:

On 18 January we remember how the Apostle Peter was led by God’s grace to acknowledge Jesus as the Christ (Matthew 16:13-20), and we join with Peter, and with all Christians everywhere, in hailing Jesus as our Lord, God, and Savior.

Put another way, January 18 commemorates Peter as the first apostle to confess Jesus as Messiah. On the other hand, the January 25 Feast Day commemorates how “Saul (or Paul) of Tarsus, formerly an enemy and persecutor of the early Christian Church, was led by God’s grace to become one of its chief spokesmen.”  (See Conversion of St. Paul, emphasis added.)

In other words, Peter came to his position of authority from “inside the church.” On the other hand God pretty much dragged Paul kicking and screaming into his position of authority.

Turning to the Confession of Peter, that refers to this New Testament episode:

[The] Apostle Peter proclaims Jesus to be Christ – the Messiah. The proclamation is described in the three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 8:27–30 and Luke 9:18–20. The proclamation of Jesus as Christ is fundamental to Christology … and Jesus’ acceptance of the title is a definitive statement for it in the New Testament narrative.

In turn, on January 25 we remember how Paul was once a devout and zealous enemy of early Christians, as told in Galatians 1:13-14. He was “extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers,” persecuting the newly-formed Christian Church and trying to destroy it. But then came his Damascus Road Experience. He was literally struck blind, for three days. Thus the claim that Paul was “pretty much dragged kicking and screaming into his position of authority.”

The Bible also includes his part in the stoning of Stephen, in Acts 7:57-8:3.  (“Saul was ravaging the church, and entering house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”) So in plain words, Paul’s Damascus Road experience “changed him from a Christ-hating persecutor of Christians to the foremost spokesman for the faith.” But before that could happen, he had to convince those Christians – in Jerusalem especially – that his change of heart was genuine.  Their change of heart came about mostly through the work of Barnabas:

To sum up, if it hadn’t been for Barnabas and his willingness to give Paul a second chance – a second chance for the formerly zealous persecutor of the early Church – he might never have become Christianity’s most important early convert, if not the “Founder of Christianity.”

For more on Paul’s change of heart, see Paul restored – from the Damascus Road, from April 2016, which spoke of the transforming power of Jesus.

Which sums up the theme for the post, that power to be transformed – if you let God into your life and read the Bible with an open mind. As for my not being able to do a post for Christmas ’22, you can see some background details at The 12 days of Christmas, 2018-2019. Which included the thought that “If Jesus had been a conservative, we’d all [still] be Jewish!“

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Caterpillar to butterfly – what stage are you in, Biblically speaking?

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The upper image is courtesy of Albert Bierstadt Museum: Two Scholars Disputing REMBRANDT.

The Book of Common Prayer. The “corporate-mystical” prayer is on page 339, the post-communion prayer for Holy Eucharist, Rite I.

“Storm of the century.” See December 2022 North American winter storm – Wikipedia, on the “extratropical cyclone created winter storm conditions, including blizzards, high winds, snowfall, or record cold temperatures across the majority of the United States.” I tried to make the 1000-mile drive in two days, but because of that snow, ice and fog had to stop the second night in Milford PA…

“The 12 days of Christmas, 2018-2019.” That post also included a note that the concepts of sin, repentance and confession should be viewed as tools to “help us grow and develop, and are not to be used as a means of social control.”

The lower image is courtesy of Caterpillar To Butterfly – Image Results. See also How Does a Caterpillar Turn into a Butterfly? – Scientific American.

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As noted in the opening blurb, this blog has four main themes. The first is that God will accept anyone. (John 6:37, with the added, “Anyone who comes to Him.”) The second is that God wants us to live abundantly.  (John 10:10.) The third is that we should do greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12). A fourth theme: The only way to do all that is read the Bible with an open mind:

…closed-mindedness, or an unwillingness to consider new ideas, can result from the brain’s natural dislike for ambiguity. According to this view, the brain has a “search and destroy” relationship with ambiguity and evidence contradictory to people’s current beliefs tends to make them uncomfortable… Research confirms that belief-discrepant-closed-minded persons have less tolerance for cognitive inconsistency…

So in plain words, this blog takes issue with boot-camp Christians. They’re the Biblical literalists who never go “beyond the fundamentals.” But the Bible can offer so much more than their narrow reading can offer…  (Unless you want to stay a Bible buck private all your life…) Now, about “Boot-camp Christians.” See for example, Conservative Christian – “Career buck private?”  The gist of that post is that starting the Bible is like Army Basic Training. You begin by“learning the fundamentals.” But after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training.” 

http://www.toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg

However, after boot camp, you move on to Advanced Individual Training. And as noted in “Buck private,” one of this blog’s themes is that if you want to be all that you can be, you need to go on and explore the “mystical side of Bible reading.*” In other words, exploring the mystical side of the Bible helps you “be all that you can be.” See Slogans of the U.S. Army – Wikipedia, re: the recruiting slogan from 1980 to 2001. The related image at left is courtesy of: “toywonders.com/productcart/pc/catalog/aw30.jpg.” * 

Re: “mystical.” Originally, mysticism “referred to the Biblical liturgical, spiritual, and contemplative dimensions of early and medieval Christianity.” See Mysticism – Wikipedia, and the post On originalism.  (“That’s what the Bible was originally about!”) See also Christian mysticism – Wikipedia, “In early Christianity the term ‘mystikos’ referred to three dimensions, which soon became intertwined, namely the biblical, the liturgical and the spiritual or contemplative… The third dimension is the contemplative or experiential knowledge of God.” As to that “experiential” aspect, see also Wesleyan Quadrilateral – Wikipedia, on the method of theological reflection with four sources of spiritual development: scripture, tradition, reason, and “Christian experience.”

For an explanation of the Daily Office – where “Dorscribe” came from – see What’s a DOR? 

Epiphany ’23, the end of Christmas and “farewell Mi Dulce…”

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January 11, 2023 – I know should be doing a post on the feast of Epiphany, last January 6, but I just had a big shock. I learned – on Facebook of all places – that the “young” lady I started dating in June 2013 just died. She was a mere 76 years old, as I also just found out. (I never could get a straight answer about her age when we were together.) But she seemed remarkably healthy the last time I talked to her, on December 30, 2022. (We stayed in touch even after the dating.)

During our halcyon days I took to calling her “Mi Dulce,” which roughly translates in Spanish as “My Sweet.” (She was a sucker for such flattery.) And in reviewing my past posts I just did get my memory refreshed about the times I mentioned her in this blog. One post was Returning from a pilgrimage – and the coming holidays, dated November 21, 2014.

That November 2014 post fits in nicely with the idea of Epiphany – January 6 – as marking the end of a long holiday season. That long holiday season – that “old-time winter festival” – actually started back on Halloween and just ended two months later, this past January 6.

There’s more about that long holiday season later on, but first here are some notes from an earlier post that year, On the “Infinite Frog.” (From July 2014, that mentions Dulce.)

That summer I took a two-week trip to New York City and Montreal. At the same time Mi Dulce took a two-week trip up to her home town, Cleveland. As I drove home – on I-81 through Virginia – I called her on the phone and we had a nice chat. But then she started talking about some “infinite frog, infinite frog.” Which made me wonder, “What the heck is an Infinite Frog?” It turned out she was talking about getting back her Infant of Prague doll – like the one at left – which she’d somehow lost track of as she grew up.

Which gives a flavor of how our conversations often went.

Later that year, on August 10, 2014, I did a post on St. Michael and All Angels.  

There’s a church in Stone Mountain –  St. Michael & All Angels’ Episcopal –  that Yours Truly and his Dulce passed the other day while leaving Stone Mountain Park. That led to the question, “Who the heck is this St. Michael guy?” 

Which just goes to show you can advance a spirit-pilgrimage even driving past Stone Mountain, east of Atlanta. I came to learn that the Archangel Michael is the one who reach[es down] to save souls in purgatory.” To which I said, “Hey, I’ll take all the help I can get!”

Skipping ahead – to May 2015 – I mentioned Dulce again in On “Job the not patient” – REDUX. In it I noted that I spent a lot of time driving, and that much of that driving back then was spent “visiting Mi Dulce, who lives three counties over.” (Close to 60 miles each way.*)

To pass the time driving I got the habit of listening to lectures on CD. One lecture was Hebrews, Greeks and Romans:  Foundations of Western Civilization, by Professor Timothy Shutt. Through that lecture I learned that at the end of the Book of Job, “Job realizes divine omnipotence and understands the folly or trying to penetrate God’s plan and purposes with the limited mind of a human being.” Put another way, we are just not up to the task of fully understanding God:

We are simply not up to the task, not wired for such an overload. We are no more prepared to comprehend an answer than – to make use of a memorable example – cats are prepared to study calculus. It’s just not in our nature

Which is something I wouldn’t have learned without driving over to visit Ms. Dulce. (And come to think of it, I never managed to figure out – to fully understand – her mind either…)

Put another way, too many humans limit the majesty and power of God to their limited brain-power. So they tend re-make God’s mind to be more like their mind. They don’t do what God wants them to do. They don’t expand their minds or their horizons. And they never come close to eventually doing greater miracles than Jesus. (John 14:12.)  

All of which is not a bad set of lessons to learn driving over the visit Mi Dulce.

And now back to Epiphany. The post mentioning the lady that is most relevant to Epiphany is Returning from a pilgrimage – and the coming holidays. Posted in November 2014, it talked about my return from an eight-day canoe trip out in the Gulf of Mexico, 12 miles off the coast of Mississippi. It also talked about Epiphany as “the end of Christmas,” noted in the title:

Christmas ends the season of Advent and begins the 12 days of Christmas. Those 12 Days end on 12th Night, which marks the start of The Epiphany. “12th Night” … is the evening of January 5, also called the Eve of 12th Day. It’s also called the Eve of Epiphany, and was formerly known as the last day of the Christmas season, “observed [also] as a time of merrymaking.” Note also that in medieval times, 12th Night marked the end of a winter festival that started on All Hallows Eve – now called Halloween – back on October 31.

There was a note – in the Notes – “regarding the title of Shakespeare’s play “Twelfth Night.” In parentheses I added, “courtesy of ‘Mi Dulce,'” and I think that was because I had to explain to her either the play or the concept of Epiphany. But as they say, “in teaching you will learn.” And through the lady in question I learned that there actually are websites for Infinite Frogs.

For more information on Epiphany, the end of 12 days of Christmas and the long liturgical season starting last October 31, check the links above. But it’s been exhausting trying to process this emotional jolt, so I’ll sign off for now. Here’s hoping the rest of the year turns out better.

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There actually IS a website for “infinite frogs. . .”

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The upper image is courtesy of Image Rest In Peace – Image Results.

“Mi Dulce.” See also, ‘Mi Dulce’ – and Donald Trump – made me a Contrarian (or actually an Independent), from my companion blog. I posted that on November 8, 2016:

Mi Dulce is Spanish for “My Sweet.” That’s what I call the lady I’ve been “dating” some time now. (Since the start of the relationship, [when] I started saying she had me “wrapped around her little finger…”) Also since then she’s broken up with me at least 10 times.

And that was just in the three years since we first met in June 2013. Therein I also wrote about her using the “8-track tape mode of political discourse.” The thing about 8-tracks was that they never stopped, they used a “continuous loop” system, and no rewind. “As long as you played the tape, you got the same thing over and over again.”  

“Infant of Prague.” The full cite is e Infant Jesus of Prague – Wikipedia, referring to the 16th-century wax-coated wooden statue of the Child Jesus holding a globus cruciger of Spanish origin, now located in the Discalced CarmeliteChurch of Our Lady of Victories in Malá Strana, Prague, Czech Republic. First appearing in 1556, pious legends claim that the statue once belonged to Teresa of Ávila and was consequently donated to the Carmelite friars by Princess Polyxena of Lobkowicz in 1628.” See also Infant of Prague Doll – Etsy.

On that note, the “Infant doll” image is courtesy of Wikipedia, with the caption, “A German copy of the statue, with a white wig instead of the traditional blonde hair, circa. 1870.”

“Three counties over.” From Peachtree City to Conyers. Google Maps says its 60 miles using the interstates up to and through Atlanta, but traffic that way is always congested, if not stopped completely. So I usually took the back roads, which meant a drive of an hour and a half to two hours each way.

The lower image is courtesy of Infinite Frogs | Are We Full Yet? 

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On Advent ’22, Tradents, and “Scriptio continua…”

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As he grew in grace (and age) Billy Graham believed the Bible is inerrant “in all that it affirms…“

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I just published a book, On Mystic Christians: (You know, the REAL ones?). One theme involves the difficulties in considering the Bible inerrant in every “jot and tittle.” Without error of any kind, grammatical, scrivener’s, whatever. And that every Bible “fact” must be accepted as literally true, even to the point of accepting the earth as only 6,000 years old. That view seems flawed,* but the short and simple answer is that the Bible is inerrant “in all that it affirms.”

That was good enough for Billy Graham (see the Notes) and it’s good enough for me.

Of course we are nearing the end of Advent – Christmas Day is next Sunday – and I did just promise to write more about “Andrew, Advent and The 12 DAYS of Christmas.” I’ll say more about those later, with links in the notes for more information. But getting back to the difficulties in translating the Bible, one big difficulty involves translating from the original Hebrew. For one thing ancient Hebrew, the kind used to write the original Old Testament (or at least the Torah), had no vowels. It had only consonants, and all the consonants in a sentence were strung together. Also, there was no punctuation, so sentences too were just “strung together.” 

That style of writing is called Scriptio continua. It has no spaces or other distinguishing marks between either words or sentences. The letters – all capitals – are simply strung together, page after page. Take for example a sentence in English, “The man called for the waiter.” In Biblical Hebrew the sentence would read, “THMNCLLDFRTHWTR.” But that sentence could also read, when translated into English, “The man called for the water.” And again, that sentence would have no period to mark its end, or space to mark the beginning of the next sentence coming up. That next sentence would start right up without any “break in the action.”

Another point: When the Torah was written only a very few people could read at all, and fewer still could write. So what they ended up doing was relying on a trained mentor. A mentor who had memorized what all those strung-together letters actually meant. Which brings up Tradents. And that’s something I only learned about recently, by watching a course lecture taught by Professor Gary A. Rendsburg, on The Dead Sea Scrolls.

In Lecture 11 of the course – “Biblical Manuscripts at Qumran” – Professor Rendsberg made some interesting points. For one thing, he said that back in Old Testament time, “texts were produced in two versions: oral and written. Scribes copied the text over and over again, while tradents transmitted the text orally from generation to generation (though most likely they held a text in their hands as a guide).” This was after noting again that at that time, Hebrew had only consonants: no vowels or punctuation marks. (See also TRADENT English Definition and Meaning.)

So, what’s the point? Just that when Moses wrote the Torah he had no vowels or punctuation marks to work with. (Which raises another question: When and where did he learn to write Hebrew?) And in the years after Moses died, the scrolls he worked with got worn out, and so they had be copied, over and over again. And that was a two-step process, involving tradents and that person or persons doing the actual writing. So basically the written version – with no vowels or spacing between words and sentences – operated as kind of a “cheat sheet.”

But only in the sense of a paper with “summarized information used for quick reference.”

In otber words, Tradents worked with the actual writers, the scribes. They kept the oral tradition alive by telling the person copying the ancient texts – as they wore out – just what all those jumbled-together consonants and sentences actually meant. So in the original, the books of the Torah especially were handed down from generation to generation using a two-part process. The person copying the original worked with a tradent. The tradent knew the text from memory, and he – again – passed on just what those strung-together symbols actually meant.

So according to this theory, the person copying down the words had to use the original writing as kind of a “cheat sheet,” and needed a “tradent” to fill in the blanks. So “writing” the Old Testament was originally a two-step process. One person transcribed but needed both the original written text and an “elder” to give that text its full meaning.

Beyond that, all that information had to be passed on to whoever was going to read this scriptio continua, out loud, in a synagogue every Sabbath. That was because up until at least a thousand years after Jesus – to the time of Gutenberg – precious few people could read at all. And other information about scriptio continua – as detailed in the notes – indicate the reader of such a strung-together text was more of a “trained performer.” And such a trained performer had a lot more room for subjective ambiguity than would be possible in reading the Bible today.

Which is enough of “giving a Southern Baptist apoplexy,” for now. As for St. Andrew, the end of Advent and Christmas, see the links in the notes. But some things to point out: 1) Andrew was the “First Apostle,” the one who first brought Peter to meet Jesus. 2) It wasn’t just Guy Lombardo who said “it’s later than you think,” back in 1949.* The same view was expressed in Ecclesiastes 5:18, “It is good and fitting for one to eat and drink, and to enjoy the good … all the days of his life which God gives him; for it is his heritage.” And 3) Christmas isn’t just one day:

The Twelve Days of Christmas is the festive Christian season [including “Twelfth Night”] beginning on Christmas Day … that celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ, as the Son of God.  This period is also known as Christmastide…  The Feast of the Epiphany is on 6 January [and] celebrates the visit of the Wise Men (Magi) and their bringing of gifts to the child Jesus.  In some traditions, the feast of Epiphany and Twelfth Day overlap.

Which means the Three Wise Men didn’t visit Jesus in the manger on the night He was born. (Christmas Eve.) Instead they came some time later, as I’ll explain in the next post. Also in a later post I’ll explain how the original “Christian Mystic” was Jesus Himself. Stay tuned!

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The upper image is courtesy of Young Billy Graham Images – Image Results. See also Billy Graham – Wikipedia. The “grace and knowledge” refers to 2d Peter 3:18: “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever!”

“Mystical” and “corporate.” See The Online Book of Common Prayer, at page 339, the post-communion prayer in The Holy Eucharist:  Rite One.

Re: Age of the earth. According to How Old Is Earth? | Britannica, it’s more like 4.4 billion years old, while Age of Earth Collection | National Geographic Society says “4.54 billion years old, plus or minus about 50 million years.”

Re: Billy Graham. He agreed the Bible was inerrant in all that it affirms when he took part in shaping the Lausanne Covenant. (The July 1974 manifesto promoting active worldwide Christian evangelism.) See Billy Graham, Evangelism, Evangelicalism, and Inerrancy:

We affirm the divine inspiration, truthfulness and authority of both Old and New Testament Scriptures in their entirety as the only written word of God, without error in all that it affirms, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice. (Emphasis added.)

That was also the view of John R. W. Stott (1921-2011), the Anglican cleric who Time magazine ranked among the world’s 100 most influential people. In his book, Understanding the Bible, and on pages 140-143, made three key points. His first point was that the process of God’s inspiring the Bible “was not a mechanical one. God did not treat the human authors of Scripture as dictating machines or tape recorders.” He said God spoke to the Bible writers in different ways, sometimes through dreams and visions, “sometimes by audible voice, sometimes by angels.” 

Re: “Scriptio continua,” the writing style with no spaces or other distinguishing marks between words or sentences. “The role of the scribes was to simply record everything they heard to create documentation. Because speech is continuous, there was no need to add spaces.” In turn, the person who read the scroll-text out loud – most people were illiterate – was a “trained performer.” He would memorize the “content and breaks of the script.” In turn, during such “reading performances, the scroll acted as a cue sheet:” Also, the “trained performer” had the liberty to insert pauses and dictate tone, which made the act of reading significantly more subjective.

Re: St. Andrew, Advent and the coming Christmas season. See On Andrew – “First Apostle” – and Advent, from 2016, and from last year, Advent 2021 – “Enjoy yourself.” Because – in the midst of a new COVID variant – “it’s later than you think.” For some views on Christmas see On the 12 days of Christmas, 2018-2019, and On the 12 DAYS of Christmas – 2021-22. As to Guy Lombardo, the Advent 2021 post led off with a picture of an album cover of his, featuring the “Enjoy yourself” song. This was after noting that at the time of posting there was a “new Covid in town,” the Omicron variant, and that as of December 5, 2021, “COVID that has already claimed the lives of 803,045 Americans.” 

I got the image of the “Mystic” book from the Kindle bookstore. As to Jesus as the first Christian Mystic, see the Penguin paperback version of What Jesus Meant: [by] Wills, Garry, at pages 22-23 and 110-111. See also the “mystical body” of Jesus quote from the Book of Common Prayer, above.

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On Advent 2022 – and St. Andrew…

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St. Andrew – Protoklete or “First Apostle” – brought his brother Simon Peter along with him…

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November 30 is the Feast day for St. Andrew. And depending on the year, the First Sunday of Advent falls either just before or just after that November 30 Feast day. This year the First Sunday of Advent came on November 27, three days after Thanksgiving 2022. 

There’s more on these two events below – the First Sunday of Advent marks the beginning of the Liturgical year – but first I wanted to check out something called Advent Calendars. Some nice ladies at my local church are extolling the virtues of such calendars, so I thought I’d explore the topic further. (Instead of my usual, “Nah, I’m not interested!”) So here goes:

An Advent calendar is a special calendar used to count down to December 25: The celebration of the Birth of Jesus. The Advent calendar tradition evidently dates back to the 1850s and typically includes 24 doors or boxes to open, one for every day in December leading up to Christmas Day.

One article I ran across said Advent calendars are raking it in while counting it down. It noted that liturgically, advent is the period of preparation for Christmas, and “can be a serious time for reflection, prayer and even fasting.” And indeed, the first advent calendars “from 19th-century Germany offered up a Bible verse each day.” But modern commercialization of Christmas “brought mass-produced calendars for children and enhanced the tradition with chocolate.”

Eventually the calendars evolved into boxes of “delayed-gratification chocolates to help children count down to Santa,” then transmogrified into calendars offering a wide variety of luxury goods like beer and wine, jewelry, “healing” crystals, dog treats, and “Ariana Grande perfume.”

Because that’s what this is really about: Getting people to buy a product that will get them to buy more products. “Having sampled new products in the run up to the holiday, consumers are likely to follow up on their new treats post holiday” [including] “anticipation calendars” to turn every occasion into a prolonged opportunity for multiple gifts, “from graduations to birthdays and anniversaries

Another site – Everything to Know About Advent Calendars – said the most common type is one that has “paper calendar doors and a little piece of chocolate behind each door.” And that the concept “dates back to the 19th century, when German families would mark their doors or walls with a tally mark in chalk to count the days until Christmas.” In the United States, “the popularity of the Advent Calendar didn’t really take off until 1954, when Newsweek published a photo of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s grandchildren holding one,” as shown below.

But now we’re getting really far afield. I hope to write more about Advent in a week or so, and there’s some detail in the Notes, but in the meantime you could check out a post from 2017, On St. Andrew, Advent, and “Prosperity Theology.” Then from the past two years, December 2020, Advent, and a “new beginning,” and Advent 2021 – “Enjoy yourself.” For starters, St. Andrew was one of Jesus’ closest disciples, but few people know much about him.  Which is another way of saying he was pretty important, but that he often gets overlooked:

Andrew was “one of the four disciples closest to Jesus, but he seems to have been the least close of the four… That’s ironic because Andrew was one of the first followers[. In fact,] because he followed Jesus before St. Peter and the others – he is called the Protoklete or ‘First Called’ apostle.”

I’ll write more later about Andrew, Advent and The 12 DAYS of Christmas, but for now:

Happy Advent!

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President Eisenhower‘s grandchildren hold up an Advent Calendar in 1954…

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The upper image is courtesy of Andrew the Apostle – Wikipedia.  The caption:  “‘Saint Andrew the Apostle’by Artus Wolffort.” 

Re: More on Advent. See On St. Andrew, Advent, and “Prosperity Theology.” Then December 2020, Advent, and a “new beginning,” and Advent 2021 – “Enjoy yourself.” One note:

Advent is “a time of expectant waiting and preparation for the celebration of the Nativity of Jesus at Christmas.”  The theme of Bible readings is to prepare for the Second Coming while “commemorating the First Coming of Christ at Christmas….”  The season offers the opportunity to share in the ancient longing for the coming of the Messiah…  (E.A.)

One of the three posts talked of human life being always risky, filled with wars, pestilence and disaster. But “modern folk” got spoiled a bit, which brought up a review of “The Plague” by Albert Camus:

Being alive always was and will always remain an emergency; it is truly an inescapable “underlying condition…” This is what Camus meant when he talked about the “absurdity” of life. Recognizing this absurdity should lead us not to despair but to a tragicomic redemption, a softening of the heart, a turning away from judgment and moralizing to joy and gratitude.

Thus the “Enjoy yourself.” (It’s later than you think…)

The lower image is courtesy of Everything to Know About Advent Calendars. The caption: “President Eisenhower’s three grandchildren join in an appeal for sales of ‘Little Christmas Town’ Advent calendars by the national Epilepsy League. Holding one of the calendars at Fort Leavenworth are (left to right) Susan, 3; David, 6; and Barbara, 5; children of Major John Eisenhower.
‘Photo by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images.'”

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On Thanksgiving 2022 – and an Unknown American Icon

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 John Howland – a Mayflower pilgrim – holding on for dear life in the cold North Atlantic…

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A note: For the most recent post see On Saints Peter and Paul, January ’23.

(I’m not sure why the platform is doing that…)

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I just googled “what’s new for Thanksgiving 2022.” The answer is apparently “not much.” (Which could be a good thing; who needs more excitement?) So, aside from getting stuffed with turkey and fixings, the big news is a full slate of football, college and NFL. (Thanksgiving Football Schedule: Egg Bowl tops Turkey Day marathon: The Egg Bowl has Mississippi State playing “Ole Miss,” along with three NFL games.) So I guess I’ll have to revisit some old posts from the past…

Like Thanksgiving – 2021. Two years before that – meaning before COVID – I posted Thanksgiving 2019. Before that came three earlier posts, on Thanksgivings in 2015, 2016 and 2017. Before that – in 2014 – I posted On the first Thanksgiving – Part I and Part II. That Part II has – I just discovered – some errors that need correcting. The most noticeable is a missing lead painting, showing John Howland, holding on for dear life in the middle of a North Atlantic storm, with only the slenderist of lifelines back to the Mayflower, far off in the distance.

So maybe it’s time to revisit Howland’s story, because he not only survived that “adventure,” he went on to populate America with 2 million descendants. Interestingly, he came over as an indentured servant, but signed the Mayflower Compact in 1620. He went on to serve as trusted assistant to Governor Carver, and in 1621 helped make a treaty with the Sachem Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe. By 1626 he’d finished his indenture and become a “freeman.” 

In the years after becoming a freeman, Howland “served at various times as selectman, assistant and deputy governor, surveyor of highways, and as member of the fur committee.” And aside from various adventures during the early years of Plymouth Colony, Howland married Elizabeth Tilley. The couple then started what became a dynasty of sorts: 

John and Elizabeth Howland founded one of the three largest Mayflower families and their descendants have been “associated largely with both the ‘Boston Brahmins‘ and Harvard’s ‘intellectual aristocracy’ of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” American actors Humphrey Bogart (1899-1957), Anthony Perkins (1932-1992), and Alec Baldwin (b. 1958) are counted among Howland’s descendants.

Howland died at the ripe old age of 80, outliving “most of the other male Mayflower passengers.” And left quite a legacy, detailed at Meet John Howland, a lucky Pilgrim who populated America with 2 million descendants. But first he and the other Plymouth Pilgrims had to survive. On the voyage over two people died, and once they arrived in America, “in the space of several months, almost half the passengers perished in the cold, harsh, unfamiliar New England winter.”

I’ve listed the gory details of that first harsh winter, and the First Thanksgiving that followed a year later in 1621. Which brings up the ongoing “need for a reality check every so often:”

102 [Pilgrims] landed in November 1620 [at Plymouth Rock].  Less than half survived the next year.  (To November 1621.)  Of the handful of adult women – 18 in all – only four survived that first winter in the hoped-for “New World…”  The point is this[:  T]he men and women who first settled America paid a high price, so that we could enjoy the privilege of stuffing ourselves into a state of stupor.

So, as we stuff ourselves into a stupor this Thanksgiving, let’s remember that after this national “Splurge Day,” it’ll be time to get back to work. And to remember that when it comes to Jesus:

“It is to vigor rather than comfort that you are called.“

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And don’t forget to remember those not “home for Thanksgiving…”

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Re: The upper image is courtesy of Meet John Howland, a lucky Pilgrim who populated America with 2 million descendants.

Re: Book of Common Prayer. At page 339.

Re: Howland’s “indenture.” Wikipedia noted that William Bradford, governor of Plymouth Colony for years, “wrote in Of Plymouth Plantation that Howland was a man-servant of John Carver.”

Re: “vigor rather than comfort.” The quote is from Practical Mysticism, by Evelyn Underhill:

Hearing now and again the mysterious piping of the Shepherd, you realize your own perpetual forward movement . . . and so are able to handle life with a surer hand.  Do not suppose from this that your new career is to be perpetually supported by agreeable spiritual contacts, or occupy itself in the mild contemplation of the great world through which you move.  True, it is said of the Shepherd that he carries the lambs in his bosom; but the sheep are expected to walk, and to put up with the bunts and blunders of the flock.  It is to vigor rather than comfort that you are called.  (E.A.)

Ariel Press (1914), at page 177. See also Evelyn Underhill – Wikipedia.

The lower image is courtesy of Norman Rockwell’s Beloved “Home For Thanksgiving” Sells For $4.3 Million to Benefit American Legion Post. The article further noted:

The painting was one of Rockwell’s legendary homecoming pieces painted as war began transitioning to peacetime. For The Saturday Evening Post he painted myriad images of the soldier home from war, including the iconic “Homecoming GI” that appeared in May 1945 and was famously used in the film “Broadcast News.” “Home for Thanksgiving” became so beloved because it showed “the veteran doing K.P. (kitchen patrol) and liking it…

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Between Halloween and Thanksgiving – 2022

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“There WAS a man who tried to pressure Jesus into being more political: Judas Iscariot...”

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The one major holiday between Halloween and Thanksgiving is Christ the King Sunday, next November 20. It’s also called the Feast of Christ the King, or “Proper 29” in the church calendar, or the “Last Sunday after Pentecost,” as discussed in the notes. I covered this recently-created Feast Day in the 2015 post, Hitler and Mussolini help create Christ the King Sunday.

Speaking of recently created, it all started in 1925, mostly “Over There” in Europe:

Pope Pius XI instituted The Feast of Christ the King in 1925 [after] the rise of non-Christian dictatorships in Europe…  These dictators often attempted to assert authority over the Church [and] the Feast of Christ the King was instituted during a time when respect for Christ and the Church was waning…  (Emphasis added.)

And speaking of 1925, here’s how that year started: On January 3, Benito Mussolini “promised to take charge of restoring order to Italy within forty-eight hours.” (Marking the beginning of his dictatorship.) Aside from Mussolini in Italy, in Russian a new organization was created, TASS, which quickly became a front for the NKVD, later the KGB. (Of Vladimir Putin fame.) And that’s not to mention Adolf Hitler. In July 1925 he published Volume 1 of his personal manifesto Mein Kampf. Also in July, in the United States, 1925 featured a show of strength by a group called the Ku Klux Klan. The Klan held its parade in Washington, and their five million members at the time made it the “largest fraternal organization in the United States.”

In plain words, Pius XI created the Feast of Christ the King in response to world events swirling around him. (Including – but hardly limited to – Hitler, Mussolini, and the KKK.) 

Which brings up the recent U.S. elections and a potential rise in Christian nationalism. The problem: “nationalist governments tend to become authoritarian and oppressive in practice. (See What Is Christian Nationalism?) Or see Christian nationalism isn’t Christianity. It’s spewing hate in ‘the name of Jesus.’ That article said “Christianity is grounded in Christian scriptures where Jesus teaches love, peace, unity and truth. Christian nationalism preaches hatred, violence, separation, and disinformation.” All of which could be problematic for American democracy.

Another problem is that today’s Christian Nationalists get a lot of political power from the fact that their political opponents just don’t know much about the Bible. They can’t tell when the Bible is being misquoted, misused or abused. But that “problem” is also the Achilles’ heel of Christian nationalism. Mostly because Jesus opposed all such “Nationalism.*”

As Garry Wills pointed out, Jesus was above politics. Or as Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Jesus was all about saving souls, even the souls of people who hated Him the most. “I came to save, not to condemn.” Which means He definitely wasn’t into today’s politics. But of course there WAS one man who tried to pressure Jesus into getting more politically involved, into being more of a nationalist. His name was Judas Iscariot.

Getting back to such nationalism and its Achilles’ heel. All this makes a good case for more Americans reading and studying the Bible: Political self-defense. Those who stand for Jesus and against exclusionary “nationalism” can start saying things like, “What part of ‘love your neighbor’ don’t you understand?” Or, “What part of ‘love your enemy‘ don’t you understand?” Or my favorite, 1st John 4:20, “If we say we love God, but hate others, we are liars. For we cannot love God, whom we have not seen, if we do not love others, whom we have seen.” In other words:

Play the “Jesus card:” It’ll drive ’em crazy!

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These guys prompted Pope Pius XI to create “Christ the King Sunday…”

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The upper image is courtesy of Judas Iscariot – Wikipedia. The caption: “‘The Kiss of Judas’ (between 1304 and 1306) by Giotto di Bondone depicts Judas’ identifying kiss in the Garden of Gethsemane.”

Re: Book of Common Prayer. At page 339.

Re: “Last Sunday after Pentecost.” Christ the King Sunday ends one version of “Ordinary Time.” It also bridges the gap between the end of Pentecost season and the start of Advent. (Which leads to Christmas.) In plain words, Ordinary Time refers to two “seasons of the Christian liturgical calendar.” The better known Ordinary Time takes up half the Christian calendar. See On Pentecost – “Happy Birthday, Church!” The better known Ordinary Time begins with Pentecost Sunday, for Catholics. In the Anglican liturgy, it’s known as the Season of Pentecost.

[In] 2015 the Season of Pentecost [ends on] November 28 [Thanksgiving Weekend.  T]he day after that – November 29 – marks … a new liturgical year.

See also Liturgical year – Wikipedia, and an earlier post On the 12 Days of Christmas. They note an alternate “New Year” to the one on January 1: “Advent Sunday is the first day of the liturgical year in the Western Christian churches.” It also marks the start of the season of Advent, and leads to Christmas. See Advent Sunday – Wikipedia, and also Advent – Wikipedia.

I’ll clear things up in future posts at month’s end and December 2022.

The first mention of Christian Nationalism cites Wikipedia. The first non-Wikipedia article on Christian Nationalism is from Christianity Today. See also “Patriotism” vs. “Nationalism”: What’s The Difference? The article noted that while patriotism has a positive connotation, “nationalism” often doesn’t:

[F]ascist regimes have merged the fervor of nationalism with the notions of superiority, especially when it comes to ethnicity and religion. In such contexts, “patriots” can become those who happened to agree with you or look like you, and “traitors” those who do not.

Re: Garry Wills. See his What Jesus Meant. In the paperback, at pages 102-103, in Chapter 6, “Descent into Hell.” The “not of this world” quote is from John 18:36. The “save not condemn” quote is from John 3:17. See also Why Do We Condemn When Jesus Came to Save? – Christianity.

Re: “Love your enemy.” See Matthew 5:44. Or Google “love your neighbor as yourself.” I did that and got four billion, 260 million results. The 1st John 4:20 quote is from the Good News Translation.

The lower image is courtesy of Hitler and Mussolini meet in Rome | History Today. 

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On Halloween 2022 – and a “Samaritan” update

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“A man[,] traveling down from Washington to Richmond, Virginia … was attacked by robbers...” 

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For many people, the fun part of Halloween is being able to think outside the box. I’m not that crazy about Halloween myself, but I do like the part about thinking outside the box. So here goes, an extra added treat for this “All Hallows E’en:” I’m imagining Jesus updating the Parable of the Good Samaritan, as He would tell it today, in this deeply divided country.

“A man was traveling down from Washington D.C. to Richmond, Virginia, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and then went away, leaving him near death. In due course a Christian Evangelical happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed him by on the other side. So too, a Southern Baptist preacher, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.

“But a California Liberal, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, took pity on him. He went to him and tended and bandaged his wounds, then put the man in his car, brought him to a nearby Hilton and took care of him. The next day he took out his credit card and paid for two night’s lodging, and told the clerk, ‘Look after him, and when I return, I’ll reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'”

The thing is, the Pharisees in Jesus’ time hated Samaritans as much as today’s Conservatives seem to hate Liberals. (See Hatred Between Jews and Samaritans | Bible.org. Or google “liberal heresy.”) So, I wonder what point Jesus would be making, if He updated the story that way?

Then there’s this: “If God [is] generous with you, He will expect you to serve Him well. But if He has been more than generous, He will expect you to serve Him even better.” (Luke 12:48.)

A reminder for those who have “been given much,” now and in the near future.

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But we were talking about Halloween, which isn’t just one night. It’s part of a three day celebration – a “Triduum” – that begins on “All Hallows E’en.” It then continues into “All Hallows Day” – better known to us as All Saints’ Day – and ends on November 2 with All Souls’ Day. (The term “Hallowe’en” developed from the Old English word for “saint,” halig.) This three-day period is a time to remember the dead, including “martyrs, saints, and all faithful departed Christians.” The main day of the three is November 1, what used to be referred to as Hallowmas. 

Halloween itself started with an old-time belief that evil spirits were most prevalent during the long nights of winter. And those “old-timers” also thought the “barriers between our world and the spirit world” were at their its lowest and most permeable on the night of October 31:

So, those old-time people would wear masks or put on costumes in order to disguise their identities.  The idea was to keep the afterlife “hallows” – ghosts or spirits – from recognizing the people in this, the “material world.”

And about traveling on All Hallows E’en. If you hiked from 11:00 p.m. until midnight, your had to be careful. If your candle kept burning, that was a good omen. (The person holding the candle would be safe in the upcoming winter “season of darkness.”) But if your candle went out, “the omen was bad indeed.” (The thought was that the candle had been blown out by witches…)

Next comes November 1, which honors all saints and martyrs, “known and unknown.” These are special people in the Church. A saint is someone with “an exceptional degree of holiness,” while a martyr is someone “killed because of their testimony of Jesus.” On the other hand, November 2 – All Souls’ Day – honors “all faithful Christians … unknown in the wider fellowship of the church, especially family members and friends.’” In other words, the third day of the Halloween Triduum – November 2, All Souls’ Day – remembers the souls of the largely unknown “dear departed.” Observing Christians typically remember such relatives, and in many churches the following Sunday service includes a memorial for those who died in the past year.

I’ve done a lot of posts on Halloween, and you can see more deep background in posts like The Halloween Triduum – 2019, and On Halloween 2020 – “Scariest ever?” (And links therein.)

 Incidentally, there were some good reasons why Halloween 2020 was the “scariest ever.” (A Halloween Like We’ve Never Seen!) For one thing, there was the ongoing COVID pandemic, as noted in Halloween: CDC says no trick-or-treating amid COVID. Then there was an economic recession – another one? – not to mention an upcoming presidential election. (We still haven’t gotten over that event.) In turn, aside from all that there was a “blue moon:”

With the convergence of a full moon, a blue (Hunter’s) Moon, daylight saving time and Saturday celebrations — plus the unprecedented events of this year — Halloween 2020 will truly be one to remember. 

By the way, to say something happens “once in a blue moon” just means it happens rarely. And here’s hoping a presidential election like the one in 2020 will be equally rare. (Or better yet, never happen again.) And while we’re wishing – and thinking outside the box – here’s hoping that the election after this one will feature civilized discourse and an exchange of thoughtful views, not name-calling, ad hominem attacks, and especially not personal physical violence.

And yes, I am naive, but then so was Jesus. I’m sure He hoped that 2,000 years after He made His Ultimate Sacrifice, we’d all be getting along a lot better than we are now…

Happy Halloween!

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The upper image is courtesy of Good Samaritan Image – Image Results.

Re: Book of Common Prayer. At page 339.

The full “box” link is to Thinking Outside the Box | HuffPost Life:

Thinking outside the box” refers to taking an imaginative approach to solve a problem, as opposed to a rigid, unyielding method that calls to mind a square box. In other words, thinking outside the box is often counterintuitive. Each problem is unique and often can’t be anticipated or tackled with prescribed methods.

Which is pretty much a major theme of this blog…

A note on Luke 12:48. I capitalized all the “he’s and him’s” when the quote referred to God. The original used lower case.

Re: Once in a blue moon: A term “something of a misnomer, because an actual blue moon – that is, the appearance of a second full moon in the same calendar month – occurs once every 32 months or so. Further, the moon can appear blue in color at any time, depending on weather conditions.”

The lower image is courtesy of Blue Moon Image – Image Results.  

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