Are you still carrying her?

Tanzan and Ekido were once travelling together down a muddy road. A heavy rain was still falling. Coming around a bend, they met a lovely girl in a silk kimono and sash, unable to cross the intersection. “Come on, girl,” said Tanzan at once. Lifting her in his arms, he carried her over the mud. Ekido did not speak again until that night when they reached a lodging temple. Then he no longer could restrain himself.

“We monks don’t do near females,” he told Tanzan, “especially not young and lovely ones. It is dangerous. Why did you do that?”

“I left the girl there,” said Tanzan. “Are you still carrying her?”

From 101 Zen Stories

I have a great affection for the work of Thomas Merton, a gifted writer who lead a life of general dissipation before finding himself in a Cistercian monastery as Frater Louis. His many attempts to leave the writer-self behind failed, and he ulimately became of the most important Catholic writers of the 20th century. He wrote prolifically on contemplative prayer, and spent a great deal of time building bridges to the religions of the East. One of his books, New Seeds of Contemplation, is a favorite of mine. I try to return to it often.

Merton has been on my mind a bit lately. I recently shared with a suffering friend of ours one of his most famous bits of writing, a short piece that came to be called the Merton Prayer. He wrote it during one of his sojourns in the hermitage at the Abbey of Gethsemani. I’ve reproduced it here.

MY LORD GOD, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Amen.

I suppose I should wind this up with a tying-together of the Zen story above and Thomas Merton. I’m not sure that I can, so I’ll let them stand as they are.

Radio. Armchair Exegesis. Rantlet.

The foxhole radio project was a mixed success. Having cobbled together all of the necessary junk, I stuck in the earpiece and heard…something. Not a radio broadcast, but something which sounded like it might have been one. I messed around with it for two consecutive evenings and didn’t seem to make much headway. I’ll probably try it a few more times and then retire it. I’ve a mind to try out a crystal kit at some point, but we’ll have to see.

We very much liked The Prestige, and have discussed it on and off for the past couple of days. Jonathan Strange is finally starting to pick up some steam, finally, about halfway through.

So.

Were any other Catholics out there confused by the Gospel proclamation of this past Sunday? Luke 16:1-18? I ended up cracking two commentaries to make sense of it. My assumption was that the steward was having debtors rewrite their promissory notes without his cut attached, but this wasn’t quite so. According to the NJBC, stewards were empowered to make binding contracts on behalf of their masters. He was, in essence, sticking it to his master by reducing (or eliminating) the usurious interest. He was playing a bit fast and loose with something that did not really belong to him ion the first place. And in the end, his master praised him for acting prudently.

Of the three explanations listed, the last one seemed to ring true: the payoff for listeners was precisely the reaction of the master, who did not avenge himself on his servant. It’s the sort of justice that can be expected in the Kingdom of God, and it would have completely baffled the listeners, and especially “The Pharisees, who loved money”.

My second point of confusion was in verse 9: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth…”

Do what? This, I think, comes from a shortcoming in the translation. The DRV has it as “And I say to you: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity…” Which is to say all money/mammon/riches, and not wealth gained dishonestly, which is the message I infer from the NAB text used in the American liturgy. In brief:

We live in a world of iniquity. Therefore
Money and riches that are of this world are iniquitous. QED.

Making a friend of these riches means doing what Christians are supposed to do, viz, to share them via almsgiving. Our priests are usually pretty good homilists, but we seem to be on the cusp of a capital campaign, so that’s where Father spent most of his time, up and including an brief chat from Sister M. on the state of the campaign thus far. That the place for these sort of announcements is most decidedly not in the middle of the act of Christian worship ought to go without saying, but that’s another rant for another time.

I may combine that rant with another one I have about the use of Marty Haugen’s “We Remember” as the Communion Antiphon. I take it as further proof that Gather: Comprehensive was selected for our use so that all Catholics have an opportunity to suffer for their faith.

Feast of St. Matthew. Backstory. Books and film.

As Jesus passed by,
he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him.
While he was at table in his house,
many tax collectors and sinners came
and sat with Jesus and his disciples.
The Pharisees saw this and said to his disciples,
“Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
He heard this and said,
“Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do.
Go and learn the meaning of the words,
I desire mercy, not sacrifice.
I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

Mt 9:9-13

Want to hear the funny backstory to my cycling accident? I wasn’t even on a work-out ride. Last week, the Make Weekend Project was the Foxhole Radio, a sort of improvised radio that works without batteries, similar to a crystal radio set. With a minimal parts list and no soldering required, I figured it was within my realm of expertise. You need to use an earphone with it, but it can’t be one of those little beige freebie ones that used to come with every radio ever sold. It has to be a piezoelectric earphone (of the high impedance variety). I don’t have anything like this rattling around the house so I consulted Google Maps, and found that a Radio Shack was located only about 4 miles away.

In a burst of eco-smugness, I decided to ride my bike to the store, pick up the earpiece and some insulated wire (for the coil) and return well within an hour. Except, of course, I never made it to the store.

The next night, Saturday, was a homeschool potluck picnic, and it wasn’t long before I was relating the story to one of the other dads. At the end of my tale, he asked where I had the accident, and where I was heading. When I told him, he shook his head.

“There hasn’t been a Radio Shack over there for some time. It’s a Dollar General now.”

Strike one.

A few days later, I stopped at a mall on the way home to check with their Radio Shack. They had the wire, but not the earpiece. I tried a second mall and ‘Shack. Same.

Strike two.

I went home and queried the RS website, figuring that even if the part wasn’t available in the store, it surely must be available via mail order. Nope. Not in their inventory at all.

Strike three. Sit down.

So not only did I not make it to the store, there was no store at all. And even if I had, they wouldn’t have had the part I sought. Lovely. Somewhere in all of this, there’s a lesson. It could be a meditation on the journey, rather than the destination, or perhaps God was telling me something about my presumed abilities. Or maybe the lesson is simply “call ahead for availability first.”

In any case, the project is here and I ordered some of the crystal earpieces from Tubes and More. When they get here, I’ll put this radio together. And just for spite, I’ll only use my bad arm to assemble it.

Books and whatnot: Jonathan Strange started to get a little dull, but is picking up some speed now. Touchstone also did a nice little review, presumably for the recent paperback release of the book. I’ve not finished it, but my verdict thus far is that it could have seriously benefited from some editing. 800+ pages is a fairly ambitious first novel. It’s good, but the pace sometimes starts to plod a little for my tastes. Also, no matter how hard one tries to write in a period style, the modern sensibilities of the author creep in and start to distract a little.  At the halfway point, however, I’d still give it 4/5 stars.

Ezmerelda just finished Alexander McCall Smith’s Tears of the Giraffe, which is the second novel in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. She liked it, and I’ll probably start it before too much longer. She started reading through a Wodehouse collection. I’m looking forward to that one, too.

For movies this weekend, we have The Prestige and Kind Hearts and Coronets.

One-and-a-half arms…

So the verdict is: possible radial fracture. Treatment? Wait, and exercise the elbow to keep things limber. The doctor says that I should be back to 100% in about 2 weeks. I’m just glad to have the splint off, because it means I can resume typing with both hands. Not a whole lot of pain; just some tightness in the joint and a little wincing if I extend, flex or rotate fully.

“Liturgical dance detected.”

Too funny not to post: Liturgical referees at The Curt Jester.

Beware the one-armed man…

Blogging may be light for a little while as I’ve lost the use of one arm and hand. I had my first cycling accident yesterday and am now intimate with new terms such as “road rash”. I may (or may not) have fractured something in one arm, so the bump-n-scrape place splinted and slung me just in case, then told me to follow up with an orthopedist in a week. It was my own fault for riding too close alongside a raised lip of concrete which caught the front tire and sent me sprawling along the sidewalk.

Thanks to a helmet (which I now must replace), I walked away from it largely uninjured.

I bolded that for emphasis. Show it to everyone you know. I hit my head hard enough to bruise my temple from the inside of the helmet. I would have otherwise have been in seriously bad shape.

I feel fine otherwise, though this may be due in no small part to the hydrocodone and naproxin.

Anyway, the real shame is that I was going to do another 25 mile ride today and the weather is magnificent. Oh well. Poop happens.

Perhaps I can press Ezmerelda into service as an amaneusis.

Triumph of the Cross

This day is also called the Exaltation of the Cross, Elevation of the Cross, Holy Cross Day, Holy Rood Day, or Roodmas. The liturgy of the Cross is a triumphant liturgy. When Moses lifted up the bronze serpent over the people, it was a foreshadowing of the salvation through Jesus when he was lifted up on the Cross. Our Mother Church sings of the triumph of the Cross, the instrument of our redemption. To follow Christ we must take up his cross, follow him and become obedient until death, even if it means death on the cross. We identify with Christ on the Cross and become co-redeemers, sharing in His cross.

Catholic Culture : Liturgical Year

Here’s a bit from The Dream of the Rood, an extremely early Christian poem originally written in Anglo-Saxon.

On shoulders men bore me there, then fixed me on hill;
fiends enough fastened me. Then saw I mankind’s Lord
come with great courage when he would mount on me.
Then dared I not against the Lord’s word
bend or break, when I saw earth’s
fields shake. All fiends
I could have felled, but I stood fast.
The young hero stripped himself — he, God Almighty –
strong and stout-minded. He mounted high gallows,
bold before many, when he would loose mankind.

Dr. Mohler on Books

I cannot really remember when I did not love to read books. I do know that I was very eager to learn to read, and that I quickly found myself immersed in the world of books and literature. It may have been a seduction of sorts, and the Christian disciple must always be on guard to guide the eyes to books worthy of a disciple’s attention — and there are so many.

As Solomon warned, “Of making many books there is no end” [Ecclesiastes: 12:12].

Some Thoughts on the Reading of Books

Catholics might consider adding Augustine, Aquinas or some of the other Fathers to his fourth bullet point. I read some of Luther and most of Calvin’s Institutes as part of my long-term reading project (which is currently stalled while I work through my latest fantasy kick). Luther was interesting, but I found Calvin about as exciting as an appliance service manual.

Though I pray the Morning Office daily, and the Night Office with my wife and older kids right before their bedtime, I could still stand to immerse myself a little more fully in Scripture. I’ll probably come up with a reading plan for Advent – without some sort of structure or goal in mind, I find it very difficult to simply tolle et lege.

Folks unfamiliar with Dr. Mohler’s blog should take a look. He’s an excellent writer and an interesting exegete.

‘Conception Day’

You’d think they would have learned their lessons about central planning.

This Wednesday’s event is timed precisely nine months ahead of next year’s Constitution Day so that mothers “ideally should give birth on June 12,” said a spokeswoman for the administration, speaking by telephone to AFP.

A series of concerts and exhibitions are being organised to promote family values and employers are being encouraged to grant a discretionary day off, said the spokeswoman.

“The purpose is to improve the demographic situation and support family values,” she said, adding that a four-year programme of building and improving kindergartens was under way to support families.

Russian province gets set for ‘Conception Day’ via Drudge.

CNN has more on it too.

Saturday Ride

…posted on Monday, because I was too tired/forgot until now: 25 miles in 1:36. The original plan was for 20 miles, but I took a wrong turn and ended up having to backtrack a little. Overcast, not much wind. Terrain was pretty forgiving, and the scenery was delightful as usual.