The Venerable Bede
672 - 735
Probably the first person to Blog
in the English language.
Subscribe in a Feed Reader
Get our Blog Updates by Email
Communion with the Ornery
by 
nathanielkidd on 1219684219|%B %e
One of the things I love most about the Church is how I get to be in communion with people I really don't agree with. It is a challenge, yes; perhaps even an impossible one. But joyously received nonetheless.
My favorite icon of the Church from Scripture is the table of the Last Supper. Consider the guys sitting around Jesus. You've got some fishermen, some tax collectors. You've got some Hellenized Jews, and some Jewish radicals anxious to take down the Roman government. You've got some brothers, and some pairs of guys who really just don't get along.
Without Jesus at the head of the table, it would be far easier to imagine these guys being arrested for getting into a bar fight with each other than starting a world religion.
And really, at this point, did any of them understand what Jesus was about? They all ran away when he was taken. Peter denied him. Judas betrayed him. It seems there was some fundamental miscommunication about the nature and end of Jesus' mission going on.
Yet here they are, sitting around Jesus, around a table. Together. Ignorant nearly to the point of comedy, and certainly to the point of tragedy.
Yesterday, I stumbled across the website of Lighthouse Trails. Their mission: expose the dangers of contemplative spirituality.
As you might imagine (particularly if you have encountered my own reflections on contemplative Christianity), I find the material on their website to be…challenging. Not only that, I find that the way they have reached their conclusions challenging, and the attitude with which they present them challenging. I seem to disagree, not only with what they think, but the way they think.
Indeed, I find it a challenge to bite my tongue back from using all sorts of nasty superlatives to describe their painstaking efforts. God bless them, they are doing the best that they can.
I work hard to remain in communion with people I disagree with. Looking at the table of the Last Supper, I think this is what Jesus would want. I want to learn from them, and be reformed and refined by submitting myself to their criticism.
There comes a point when said person is not just disagreeable, but utterly intolerable. And I guess this is the true test of our communion. Am I really willing to listen to and learn from those I disagree with? Or do I subconsciously narrow that category to those I disagree with BUT like as people?
I doubt I can do this perfectly. After all, Jesus had to die to begin to restore communion between man and God.
But, by the grace of God and the guidance of the Spirit, I hope to be able to live in a Church that looks a little more like the Last Supper, and a little less like a bar fight.
image credit: http://www.lamp.ac.uk/trs/toms_pix/icons/icon_supper400.jpg
Comments: 0 | Go to Comments...
The Queenship of Mary
by nathanielkidd on 1219474532|%B %e
Today the Catholic Church celebrates the Queenship of Mary. Its placement on August 22 makes it the completion of the octave following the Feast of the Assumption (aka the Dormition) on Aug 15.
Untangling the web of Marian feasts is something of a chore. This particular feast was instituted in 1954 by Pius XII, and originally occupied a space on the calender at the last day of May (the Marian month). August 22 used to be the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of the BVM, but that was moved, reasonably enough, to sit next to the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
Pius 12 was also the Pope who, by action of Papal Infallibility, ensconced the Assumption as Catholic doctrine.
 |
| An Ethiopian Icon of the Coronation of Mary. |
I don't have a problem with Marian piety. It is, at heart, a question of the involvement of the feminine and the maternal in the divine drama of salvation. This is much easier to do through Mariological rubrics than other means. Mariology arose from our Christian ancestors gentle and reverent fantasias on themes of Scripture and Tradition. Involving the feminine in God through other theologizing would quickly verge on the heretical.
Even still, I am not sure that our Marian devotions should be organized and dictated by a central source.
The problem is apparent already in how many times this feast has moved. Rome rightly wants to organize the calender in ways that will sanctify the time of the faithful. But that takes stability, and a sense of inter-involvement of all the little pieces in the broad story of Salvation.
The East worked out their Marian devotion quite well, without having to forge any doctrines binding on all believers. They have essentially four Marian feasts in the Orthodox year: the Nativity of the Theotokos (Sept 8), the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple (Nov. 21), The Annunciation (Mar. 25), and the Dormition (Aug. 15). Along with these, there are several smaller Marian feasts, and local celebrations of the Theotokos. The most famous of these is the Protection of the Mother of God (Oct. 1), which commemorates a tenth-century vision of the Virgin.
Thus, Mary's feasts form a sort of "lunar cycle" reflecting the glory of her Son's Major Feasts, which are the analogous "solar cycle." Other feasts are left to local piety.
In the Catholic world, Marian devotion caught on later, and less uniformly. Ultimately, it was the criticism of Protestants that solidified the importance of Mary in Catholic theology. Perhaps, then, institutionalizing Marian observance has been a legitimate central action for the Roman Catholic Church.
But if the decision is going to be made unilaterally, they should make their decision and get on with it. Of course, I have a hard enough time managing my own calendar. Establishing a calender for the whole church, and then getting people to pay attention to it! …now there's a chore.
image credit: http://www.thefolkartgallery.com/graphics/icon1side1large.jpg
More about the Image: Ethiopian Orthodoxy is a separate tradition from either Eastern, or Western Christianity. The existence of such an icon is particularly fascinating, as it points to a more or less independent Marian tradition in the Ethiopian Church.
Comments: 0 | Go to Comments...
I Hate Sandcastles
by nathanielkidd on 1219341922|%B %e
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one is worth a thousand and three.
image credit: http://photofile.ru/photo/fishki_net/3568632/77932205.jpg
Comments: 0 | Go to Comments...
Brotherhood of the Crumbs
by nathanielkidd on 1218997633|%B %e
"Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the Master's table."
—Matthew 15:27
Today's Eucharistic readings point us to one of the central tensions of the Gospel and the Christian life: the dynamic relationship between inclusion and exclusion.
On one hand, the Church should be the most inclusive, serving, and enterable institutions in the world. Salvation is, after all, God's free gift, given for all. Like life, it is meted out freely by God through the mechanisms of the material world, but it is more or less independent of it. The Church seeks to articulate and embody this truth, radiating the healing and reconciliation she has received through Christ.
It seems somewhat incongruous that Christians would become so passionate about defining human communities and creating rigorous requirements to mark out the saved from the rest of humanity.
Yet on the other hand, these boundaries are necessary. With entry requirements too low or non-existent, our religion would be unable to seriously propagate itself, and would quickly cease to exist in any identifiable form.
How can the transforming work of Christ take place in a way that is both utterly catholic, yet respectful of the integrity of existing communities?
The primary answer from this set of Scriptures is that the work is done by God. It is not contingent upon the perfection of our vision and the strength of our aptitudes. Indeed, it may be happening beyond our perception, even beyond our comprehension. We are invited to be witnesses to the process, and occasionally used as an instrument of his work. In any case, we should behave in a way that is respectful of the unfolding mystery.
As Christians, we have access to the Bread of Life. We can be confident in this fact to the extent that we have experienced, and continue to experience this to be true. Being secure in this identification, we should be comfortable understanding the grace-experiences of our friends of other faiths as being crumbs of that same loaf.
Comments: 0 | Go to Comments...
