Musings of an Entish Presby-Catholic medievalist on training the soul in virtue in the postmodern West
Seven Deadly SinGrams
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Anger is up, pride is down, and envy has gone into hiding. But how can greed be so low, along with gluttony and lust? Sloth, of course, we expect to crawl along at the bottom.
I was very happy to join Tom Rowsell on Survive the Jive for a conversation about my experience in academia as a Christian and the problem of getting inside the medieval mind. Which is harder: thinking like an academic or thinking like a medieval Christian?! Join us to find out! For a complete list of my video, radio, and podcast appearances, see Bear On Air .
"Already [her Son] was taken, already he was bound, already he was spat upon and struck, and it was said over him: 'He deserves death,' and it was shouted to the prefect: 'Crucify, crucify him.' These things were not hidden from the pious mother, who doubtless had come to Jerusalem at this time, whether for the festival of unleavened bread, or rather to see with pious eyes the agony of her Son, which had been specially revealed to her. "And thereupon she heard from many: 'Don't you know, woman, what has happened to your son?' 'I knew,' she says, 'so be silent, and do not add to the pain of my wounds.' Thus however she was saying to herself: ' I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense. I will go and I will see his agony, and maternally I will die with him, because that prophecy which truth-telling Simeon said to me-- His sword will pierce through your own soul --is to be fulfilled in this way. I will g...
Here be dragons. And doves. Human beings long for transcendence. Such longing is, for the world, always out of fashion because, of course, it is not a longing for the world, and the world knows it. We know what the world wants. The world—by which we mean Satan, the Lord of the World—wants above all our obedience, a jewel so precious that he will do anything to get it: lie, steal, murder, bear false witness, pretend to social standing, pretend to insider knowledge to get us to consent to his influence. “God lied to you. You will not die.” And suddenly we are anxious about having other people dislike us, about losing prestige in our social circles, about other people being more popular or influential or successful, about other people having secret knowledge, about our own influence and fame. “You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” And with that temptation, our first parents fell. The irony is cosmic. There they were in the Garden, privy to conversation with God face-to-face, ...
Once upon a time, there was a man named Theophilus who made a bargain with the devil. Thank God that Our Lady was able to help him! Do you want to know the full story? Listen here ! * The Prayer of Theophilus O miserable wretch that I am, what have I done and what have I wrought?... Where shall I, unhappy sinner, go, who have denied my Christ and his holy mother ( Christum meum et sanctam eius genitricem ) and have made myself a servant of the devil ( seruum diaboli ) through a chirograph of wicked warrant ( per nefande cautionis chirographum )? Who, do you think, will be able to pull it away from the hand of the devil, the destroyer, and help me? Why was it necessary for me to become acquainted with that wicked Hebrew who should be burned? (For this same Hebrew had been condemned a little while before by law and judge.) Why indeed? For thus are they honored, who forsaking God and the Lord, run to the devil.... Woe ...
Over 200 people died today in Sri Lanka as victims of bomb blasts at three hotels and three churches. It was Easter Sunday. The President of Ireland posted a statement on the attacks : “At a time of religious significance”? When the people killed were in church? Perhaps President Higgins had just been searching his iPad on Google and was confused about why the people were in church (sorry, “places of worship”). After all, Google (at least in its mobile mode) didn’t seem to know. Or maybe, like myself, President Higgins was spending the weekend reading Joseph Campbell —that great source of religious wisdom behind so much of our modern myth-making ( see Star Wars ). I read this passage this morning right before going to church: The recognition of the secondary nature of the personality of whatever deity is worshiped is characteristic of most of the traditions of the world. In Christianity, Mohammedanism, and Judaism, however, the personality of the divini...
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F.B.