What Would Jesus Steal?

Gary North takes on the religious left.
From LewRockwell.com:

If voters can be made to feel guilty about their economic success, they can be manipulated. This is why the politics of guilt manipulation is at the heart of the welfare state.
In a systematic political program to make people feel guilty, the Social Gospel movement within Protestantism has played an important role for over a century. Economist-historian Murray Rothbard in a 1986 essay, "The Progressive Era and the Family," described this development.
In many cases, leading progressive intellectuals at the turn of the twentieth century were former pietists who went to college and then transferred to the political arena, their zeal for making over mankind, as a "salvation by science." And then the Social Gospel movement managed to combine political collectivism and pietist Christianity in the same package. All of these were strongly interwoven elements in the progressive movement.

The Social Gospel movement, which began in the United States in the 1880's, shared an ethical principle with the Progressive movement, which began at the same time and in the same social circles. This ethical principle can be summarized as follows: Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.

Read the rest here

Biretta tip to The Young Fogey

Feast of Corpus Christi

Today, Orthodox Christians of the Western Rite celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi, a western medieval feast that the Church, in her wisdom, ha deemed good and proper to have her Western Orthodox children celebrate. This feast day always falls on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, and the faithful are enjoined to contemplate the mystery of this most holy sacrament. Following Trinity Sunday, we rejoice in it as it brings us into the divine life: Christ, the second person of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, gives Himself to us, so that we can enter into this communion of love that is God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

From the Pastoral Ponderings of Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon:

Speaking of the Holy Eucharist, the Fathers and early liturgical texts of the Church have recourse to the metaphor of the flaming coal (anthrax, pruna) in reference to the Lord's body. For instance, with Isaiah 6:7 obviously in mind, The Liturgy of St. James refers to "receiving the fiery coal" (labein to pyrinon anthrax) from the Eucharistic altar. Indeed, even without using this word, those same doctrinal sources regularly appeal to Isaiah's experience, when they speak of the Holy Eucharist. Thus, in The Liturgy of S. John Chrysostom, when the Christian has received the Holy Communion, the priest tells him: "Lo, this has touched your lips and has taken away your iniquity." In comparing the sacramental body of Christ to Isaiah's living coal, these texts testify that the flesh of the risen Christ bears the fire of the Holy Spirit, drawn from the hearth of the heavenly altar.




It is through this purifying and sanctifying coal that we are deified in the Holy Eucharist. Thus, St. John of Damascus wrote, "Let us draw near to Him with burning desire and . . . let us take hold of the divine coal [tou theiou anthrakos], so that the fire of our longing, fed by the flame of the coal, may purge away our sins and enlighten our hearts. Let us be enkindled by touching this great divine fire, and so come forth as gods" (The Orthodox Faith 4.13).

In addition to the symbolism of the fiery coal from the altar, the Eucharistic bread itself seems naturally to evoke the image of the oven. This image is amply justified in the Epiclesis, the prayer that asks the Father to send down the Holy Spirit to transform the bread and wine into the Lord's Body and Blood. Rupert of Deutz perceived this truth, when he wrote, "The Virgin conceived Him of the Holy Spirit, who is the eternal fire; and through the same Holy Spirit He offered Himself as a living victim to the living God, as the Apostle says [Ephesians 5:2]. Accordingly, on the altar He is immolated by the same fire. For it is by the operation of the Holy Spirit that the bread becomes the body, and the wine the blood, of Christ" (On Exodus 2.10).

The Divine Liturgy, we may say, is the oven of the Holy Spirit. That grain of wheat, which was sown in the earth on Good Friday, sprang forth as the infinite Paschal harvest and now abides forever in the granary of heaven.

Christ our Lord is not content, however, simply to abide in His glorified body. In this body, Christ can be found in only one place. He is needed, however, in many places, and this is the reason He provided a new, sacramental mode of presence. In the Holy Eucharist, He lives on thousands of altars at once, available--edible!--for the myriads of believers who draw near in the fear of God and with faith and love.

In the mystery of the Holy Eucharist, the wheat, which is Christ's glorified body, is baked in the oven of the Holy Spirit, so that the nutritive energies of God may pass into those who receive Him in faith. Through the cells and sinews of our own flesh there course those divine energies that transform and deify our bodies and souls--our whole being--with the dynamism of immortality--eternal life.

Commenting on the Bread of Life Discourse in John 6, St. Clement of Alexandria plays on the image of fire stimulating the yeast in the dough, as heat raises the sown seed: "Here is observed the sacrament of the bread [to mystikon tou artou], for He says it is His flesh and as manifestly raised up; just as fire raises up the sowing from corruption [ek phthoras kai sporas], so like baked bread it has truly been raised up through fire for the enjoyment of the Church" (The Teacher 1.6).

St. Clement likewise speaks of this sacramentally conferred immortality in connection with the Lord's blood, which we receive from the Chalice. Recalling, with Leviticus 17:11, that "the life of the flesh is in the blood," he comments: "To drink of the blood of Jesus means nothing less than to participate in the Lord's incorruption [tes kyriakes metalabein aphtharsias]. For the Spirit is strength to the Word, just as the blood to the body" (op. cit. 2.2).

This Eucharistic participation in the fire of Spirit is symbolized in the boiling water added to the Chalice right before the reception of Holy Communion. As the deacon pours this water into the blood of Christ, he identifies its symbolism: "The fervor of faith, the fullness of the Holy Spirit."

From St. John Chrysostom's Catechesis (3:13-19):

If we wish to understand the power of Christ’s blood, we should go back to the ancient account of its prefiguration in Egypt. “Sacrifice a lamb without blemish”, commanded Moses, “and sprinkle its blood on your doors”. If we were to ask him what he meant, and how the blood of an irrational beast could possibly save men endowed with reason, his answer would be that the saving power lies not in the blood itself, but in the fact that it is a sign of the Lord’s blood. In those days, when the destroying angel saw the blood on the doors he did not dare to enter, so how much less will the devil approach now when he sees, not that figurative blood on the doors, but the true blood on the lips of believers, the doors of the temple of Christ.

If you desire further proof of the power of this blood, remember where it came from, how it ran down from the cross, flowing from the Master’s side. The gospel records that when Christ was dead, but still hung on the cross, a soldier came and pierced his side with a lance and immediately there poured out water and blood. Now the water was a symbol of baptism and the blood, of the holy eucharist. The soldier pierced the Lord’s side, he breached the wall of the sacred temple, and I have found the treasure and made it my own. So also with the lamb: the Jews sacrificed the victim and I have been saved by it.

“There flowed from his side water and blood”. Beloved, do not pass over this mystery without thought; it has yet another hidden meaning, which I will explain to you. I said that water and blood symbolized baptism and the holy eucharist. From these two sacraments the Church is born: from baptism, “the cleansing water that gives rebirth and renewal through the Holy Spirit”, and from the holy eucharist. Since the symbols of baptism and the Eucharist flowed from his side, it was from his side that Christ fashioned the Church, as he had fashioned Eve from the side of Adam Moses gives a hint of this when he tells the story of the first man and makes him exclaim: “Bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh!” As God then took a rib from Adam’s side to fashion a woman, so Christ has given us blood and water from his side to fashion the Church. God took the rib when Adam was in a deep sleep, and in the same way Christ gave us the blood and the water after his own death.

Do you understand, then, how Christ has united his bride to himself and what food he gives us all to eat? By one and the same food we are both brought into being and nourished. As a woman nourishes her child with her own blood and milk, so does Christ unceasingly nourish with his own blood those to whom he himself has given life.




Adoremus in aeternum Sanctissimum Sacramentum!
(Let us forever adore the Most Holy Sacrament)

Christ is in our midst!

Sunday of the Holy Trinity

Yesterday, one week after Pentecost sunday, Orthodox Christians who follow the Western Rite began the longest season on the Church's calendar: Trinitytide. The feast itself is celebrated one day, with no octave, recalling the unity of the Godhead, but it also initiates, for those congregations influenced by English ussage, a whole season that lasts until Advent.

From the earliest centuries of the Church, the doctrine of the Trinty has figured prominently in the life of the Church, as the foundation of Christian belief and practice; thus, every liturgy is a liturgy to the Holy Trinity, just like every Sunday liturgy is a celebration fo the Paschal mystery of Our Lord's resurrection. But just as the Church dedicates one day of the year to highlight the paschal mystery, so also, in the western half of Christendom, one day is set aside in order to contemplate the central, incomprehensible mystery of God's triune being. This celebration rounds out all the feasts relating to our Lord's earthly life-His birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension, and then, the descent of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost.

When the formal celebration of Trinity Sunday began is not clear, but it became especially popular in England, primarily because the day of Thomas Beckett's martyrdom occured on that Sunday, in 1162. By then, it had already become a fixture in the Sarum Missal, spreading throughout Northern Europe, down through Normandy, and into Northern Italy, until Pope John XXII decreed its observance throughout the Western Church in 1334.

All Sundays are reckoned from Trinity Sunday in the Sarum Missal, as well as in the Book of Common Prayer. While the Roman practice was to reckon all Sundays after Trinity as Sundays after Pentecost (until the liturgical "reforms" of 1969), all Sundays are reckoned after Trinty in the Carthusian, Dominican and Carmelite breviaries.

The usual color for this season is green, which brings to mind our Lord's words in Revelation 21:5: "Behold, I make all things new..." We entered into the Paschal mystery, now brings us into the life of the Holy Trinity, the eternal peace of God, who, in His Triune goodness, gives life to His whole creation. The lectionary from this time forward will contain the scriptural lessons from the whole year, thus bringing to mind that all things are brought together in God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Benedicta sit Sancta Trinitas!

Prayers for Pope Shenouda III

Statement from Cleveland Clinic Regarding Pope Shenouda
CLEVELAND, June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- "H. H. Pope Shenouda III, Pope of
Alexandria and Patriarch of the sea of St. Mark, underwent a one-hour
surgery at the Cleveland Clinic this morning to repair his broken left
femur after he suffered a fall. The surgery was successful and he is
recovering well. He will remain in the hospital for approximately one week
and then receive physical rehabilitation as a part of his recovery," said
Wael Barsoum, M.D., orthopaedic surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic.

He seems to be recovering well, but do continue to pray for His Holiness.

Pray also for the Coptic Christians under his pastoral care, and other Christians in Egypt undergoing persecution from extremist Islamic groups.

Biretta tip: Ben Johnson

Gotta Love those Romanians!

From BBCNews:

"Romanian villagers have voted to re-elect a dead man as their mayor, to prevent his living rival winning.
Neculai Ivascu - who led Voinesti for almost two decades - died from a liver disease on Sunday, too late to cancel the contest.
"I know he died, but I don't want change," one villager told Romanian TV. (emphasis mine)

Ben Johnson: This takes, "That government is best which governs least" to new extremes.

I don't know. Given the rapid growth of the central government (brought to us by the Republicrats and the Demoreps), this may be the ultimate "no confidence vote" that really, REALLY makes the point. This gives me a few cheeky ideas for election day!

Biretta tip: Ben Johnson

H.L. Mencken on Public Schooling

"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality. School days, I believe, are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, and brutal violations of common sense and common decency."

Cyd Charisse, +Requiescat in Pace

Actress, Dancer, Classic Hollywood Beauty! She passed away today at Cedar Sinai, apparently of a heart attack. She was 86, and still looked as stunningly beautiful as ever.

Among her most memorable moments: Dancing with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon and Gene Kelly in Singin' in the Rain

One of the most remarkable things about her: She remained married to the same man for 60 years! Rare in Hollywood, and as it's turning out, everywhere else as well.

As a boy, I watched a lot of classic movies, and I must say, when I saw her in Singin' in the Rain and The Band Wagon, I had an instant crush on her.

A true class-act!

+Requiem aeternam dona eae, Domine, et lux perpetuam luceat eae.

+Requiescat in Pace.

May her memory be eternal!!!!

Tom Paine and Our Pain: Rothbard, Monarchies and Republics

From Nouspraktikon's Weblog:

It is a maxim of conservative thought, which should be fully shared by paleolibertarians, that good things evolve, while evil things burst suddenly into the world with revolutionary force. In the short time since the death of Murray Rothbard (1995), paleolibertarian theory has continued to clarify itself through small increments of incisive reasoning. This is, of course, as Murray would have wanted it, for if there was anything that he was more skeptical of than the idea of a “new libertarian man” it would have to be the notion that he himself provided an infallible model of such a person.
One of the most surprising turns in the late and post-Rothbardian period of libertarian theorizing has been the rehabilitation of monarchism stimulated by Hans Hermann Hoppe in his Democracy: The God That Failed. This paleoconservative/paleolibertarian synthesis is indeed a promised land which Rothbard, even looking out from the highest Pisgah peak of his theory could but vaguely dicern. Thus the excerpting of a portion of Rothbard’s history of the independence movement Concieved in Liberty by the Ludwig von Mises Institute provides a valuable opportunity to assess the limits of Rothbardian thinking, as well as to explore a new trajectory of thought which was mostly unguessed at during his lifetime. I can add nothing to the brilliant analysis of “private government” (aka monarchy) as a stable and equitable economic system contained in Hoppe. However there is another dimension to the critique of republicanism which was overlooked by Rothbard, a dimension which, for want of a better term, might be called “social psychology.” Hoppe is no doubt aware of this dimension, but in his works he makes the case for “private government” according to the strict methodological rationalism of the Austrian school. Although I am every bit of a rationalist as Hoppe, here my approach will be more phenomenological, which might be termed rational inquiry into the irrational.

Read the rest here

Hat tip to The Young Fogey

Pentecost 2008

VENI, Creator Spiritus,

mentes tuorum visita,

imple superna gratia

quae tu creasti pectora.

Qui diceris Paraclitus,

altissimi donum Dei,

fons vivus, ignis, caritas,

et spiritalis unctio.

Tu, septiformis munere,

digitus paternae dexterae,

Tu rite promissum Patris,

sermone ditans guttura.

Accende lumen sensibus:

infunde amorem cordibus:

infirma nostri corporis

virtute firmans perpeti.

Hostem repellas longius,

pacemque dones protinus:

ductore sic te praevio

vitemus omne noxium.

Per te sciamus da Patrem,

noscamus atque Filium;

Teque utriusque Spiritum

credamus omni tempore.

Deo Patri sit gloria,

et Filio, qui a mortuis

surrexit, ac Paraclito,

in saeculorum saecula.

Amen.

(Come, Holy Spirit, Creator blest,And in our souls take up your rest;Come with your grace and heavenly aidTo fill the hearts which you have made.O Comforter, to you we cry,O heavenly gift of God Most High,O fount of life and fire of love,And sweet anointing from above.You in your sevenfold gifts are known;You, finger of God's hand we own;You, promise of the Father, youWho do the tongue with power imbue.Kindle our senses from above,And make our hearts o'erflow with love;With patience firm and virtue highThe weakness of our flesh supply.Far from us drive the foe we dread,And grant us your peace instead;So shall we not, with you for guide,Turn from the path of life aside.Oh, may your grace on us bestowThe Father and the Son to know;And you, through endless times confessed,Of both the eternal Spirit blest.Now to the Father and the Son,Who rose from death, be glory given,With you, O holy Comforter,Henceforth by all in earth and heaven. Amen.)

Here's a beautiful rendition of this ancient hymn to the Holy Spirit.

Collect for Pentecost:

O God, who as at this time didst teach the hearts of thy faithful people, by sending to them the light of the Holy Spirit; Grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things, and evermore to rejoice in His holy comfort; Through Jesus Christ our Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with Thee, in the unity of the same Spirit, one God, world without end. Amen.

Byzantine Troparion for Pentecost:

Blessed art Thou, O Christ our God, Who hast revealed the fishermen as most wise by sending down upon them the Holy Spirit - through them Thou didst draw the world into Thy net. O Lover of Man, glory to Thee!

A blessed Penecost Feast to all!

UN to UK: Get Rid of the Monarchy

UK to UN: Mind your own knickers.

Me to UK: Bravo! Well done, old chaps!!!

God Save the Queen!

Courtesy of: The Young Fogey

Let us follow the Lamb!

I interrupt this bloggin hiatus to bring you a short meditation on so great and sublime a feastday as the Orthodox world is celebrating today.

There was a time when I thought of this event as a joyful event for our Lord, but a sad one for us. After all, as he returns to His Father and claims the Kingdom for his own, with Angels, Archangels, Powers, Thrones and Dominions welcoming Him with Hosannahs and Alleluias, veiling their faces, we on earth are left without the blessed presence of our Master.

But there is a deep mystery here, something that the "deeper magic" has provided as a result of Christ overcoming the "deep magic," the law of the curse. When He conquered sin and death at His resurrection, he foiled them, for thinking they had a mere man, they encountered God. Christ, with that same human nature, with its transfigured flesh, blood, organs, soul and will, goes into the Holy of Holies, the eternal abode of the Father, taking His place at His right hand. In other words, the second person of the Holy, Consubstantial Life-Giving Trinity is enthroned in heaven with his human flesh! One of us sits enthroned in the heavenly places and that is where we must also go. We are invited to ascend with Him to the presence of the Father. The Ascension of Our Lord is the capstone of His earthly life, signaling for us the true essence of human destiny, transfigured in Christ. This is the end of the New Birth: transfigured humanity taking its place with the Lamb, who now sits enthroned on the right hand of the Father! Let us follow Him!

From St. Augustine's Sermon LXVI:
But what said the Lord Jesus? “Why are ye troubled, and why do thoughts ascend into your hearts?” If thoughts ascend into your heart, the thoughts come from the earth. But it is good for a man, not that a thought should ascend into his heart, but that his heart should itself ascend upwards, where the Apostle would have believers place their hearts, to whom he said, “If ye be risen with Christ, mind those things which are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Seek those things which are above, not the things which are upon the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ your life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory.” In what glory? The glory of the resurrection. In what glory? Hear the Apostle saying of this body, “It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory.” (Courtesy of Ben Johnson)

Christ is Ascended!