February 2012
30 posts
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Ash Wednesday
Almighty and everlasting God, who hatest nothing that thou hast made and dost forgive the sins of all those who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness, may obtain of thee, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy...
Let thy servant depart
acheiropoietos:
“Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and The winter sun creeps by the snow hills; The stubborn season has made stand. My life is light, waiting for the death wind, Like a feather on the back of my hand. Dust in sunlight and memory in corners Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land. Grant us thy peace. I have walked many years in this city, Kept faith and...
How indeed?
acheiropoietos:
Thou hast sealed…the earth…and they are deep. The heavens and the heavens of the heavens, and the abysses and the dark places of the earth…Thou, O my God, hast sealed them all and there is none to open them…Does one measure by the hollow of a human hand the waters of the great ocean? Are the heavens estimated by the span of fingers? In one third of a measure can any contain the...
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“God became man so men might become gods”
– St. Athanasius
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Eternity considered
Time we may comprehend […] but to retire so farre backe as to apprehend a beginning, to give such an infinite start forward, as to conceive an end in an essence that wee affirme hath neither the one nor the other; […] God hath not made a creature that can comprehend him, ‘tis the priviledge of his owne nature; I am that I am, was his owne definition unto Moses, and ‘twas...
“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth...”
– Psalm 91:5 (KJV)
To contemplate the mysteries
acheiropoietos:
azorica:
To immerse myself in an air untainted by the human scent. To be cushioned (plushly) by age-old stone… each stalactite, each stalagmite piercing the under-ether. To be the only indentation in purity: the only depression. To be amongst only the still, tacet. To see the wan luminescence of the wingless damsels (a hushed cri de coeur to their airborne compeers). To swathe...
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Another Mystery
It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or...
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“
no: tongue breaks and thin
fire is racing under skin
and in eyes no sight and...”
–
from If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho translated by Anne Carson (via acheiropoietos)
One of my favorite volumes. I bought a copy immediately after discovering it.
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“The more I considered Christianity, the more I found that while it had...”
– G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (via invisibleforeigner)
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Byzantium, 1204 →
If you’re not already aware of this site, Rachel, you should be.
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"What more should I say?"
Quid plura? Primum domo una coniungimur, postmodum animo. Sub occasione itaque discipline, amori penitus vaccabamus, et secretos recessus, quos amor optabat, studium lectionis offerebat. Apertis itaque libris, plura de amore quam de lectione verba se ingerebant, plura erant oscula quam sententie; sepius ad sinus quam ad libros reducebantur manus, crebrius oculos amor in se reflectebat quam...
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January 2012
10 posts
“1 O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for...”
– Psalm No. 63
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So I think
I should pass her a note, reading:
“I don’t think I was forward enough. It happens when things get busy. So let me be clear: I think you are beautiful, I think you are fascinating, I would really like to get to know you better.”
Yes, I should do this.
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Song
A rowan like a lipsticked girl.
Between the by-road and the main road
Alder trees at a wet and dripping distance
Stand off among the rushes.
There are the mud-flowers of dialect
And the immortelles of perfect pitch
And that moment when the bird sings very close
To the music of what happens.
Seamus Heany. “Song.” Field Work. (1979)
To the Division of Soul and Spirit
Ecce vulnera anime mee, Domine. Omnia videt oculus tuus vivus et efficax, et pertingens usque ad divisionem anime et spiritus. Vides certe, Domine mi, vides in anima mea et preteritorum peccatorum meorum vestigia et presentium pericula, causas etiam et materias futurorum. Vides hec, Domine, et sic volo ut videas. Tu enim scis, o inspector cordis mei, quia nichil est in anima mea quod vellem...
“My first semester in graduate school, one of my professors told us a little...”
– William Deresiewicz, in yesterday’s Daily Scholar on the topic of politics in academia. Read. (via theamericanscholar)
A request
Bury me in the seas,
for no soil may grow rich off my bones.
No fruited increase,
nor succor of trees
is my flesh, nourished for loving alone.
Cast me into the air, as dust,
but do not dream beneath my clouds.
Do not chasten beneath my darkening,
or raise eyes to heaven for my tomb,
for I do not rest, nor do I sleep
but when I sleep here in love.
I am no artless memory, no myth,
no...
December 2011
15 posts
2 tags
Grammatically Correct, Historically Absurd
There have always been, and doubtless always will be, men who feel a strong antipathy towards certain words or expressions or particular constructions, especially with the taint of novelty about them. Usually such men do not make their objections felt beyond the circle of their friends. But occasionally an individual whose name carries weight and who is possessed with a crusading spirit offers...
Losing My Marbles
The concept of the multiverse is compelling not only because it explains the problem of fine-tuning. As I mentioned earlier, the possibility of the multiverse is actually predicted by modern theories of physics. One such theory, called eternal inflation, is a revision of Guth’s inflation theory developed by Andrei Linde, Paul Steinhardt, and Alex Vilenkin in the early and mid-1980s. In...
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A Strange Handicap
One obvious reason is that, among the chattering classes, hardly anybody knows anything about it. Today’s children of the native-born bourgeoisie study cinema or gender studies or even marketing, but not so much physics or chemistry, at least in my experience. It’s indicative, perhaps, that in 2006 (the most recent year for which I could find data), foreign students earned nearly...
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The Burthen of My Generation
Whatever the theoretical justifications underlying the left’s agenda, its biggest problem is a lack of credibility. Over the past two generations, the mainstream left has followed a social democratic program that centers on the state provision of a variety of services, such as pensions, health care, and education. That model is now exhausted: welfare states have become big, bureaucratic,...
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Gained in Translation (Hopefully) →
A review by Peter Gordon of Jürgen Habermas’ new book An Awareness of What is Missing: Faith and Reason in a Post-Secular Age. From the New Republic.
