It seems far too early to make mention of Christmas, but today—nine months before the celebration of our Lord's birth—is when the Church celebrates the festival of the Annunciation our Our Lord. This day commemorates Gabriel's visit to Mary and his announcement that she would conceive and bear the Messiah, God incarnate, in her womb.
Some think they have no need for the liturgical calendar or that it is 'too Roman Catholic' or something. I think that attitude is a mistake. Everything on the Church calendar points us to Jesus and his saving work for us. On this day, we remember, marvel, and worship that God kept his promise made through the prophet Isaiah in a particular place and time in history. These words of the Prophet are not relegated to the lost recesses of the Old Testament but are front and center for our faith:
Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz, saying, “Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD your God; ask it either in the depth or in the height above.”
But Ahaz said, “I will not ask, nor will I test the LORD!”
Then he said, “Hear now, O house of David! Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel. Curds and honey He shall eat, that He may know to refuse the evil and choose the good. For before the Child shall know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the land that you dread will be forsaken by both her kings.
miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun
1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book
This week is politics, religion, and even the blending of the two...oh, hic sunt dragones (here be dragons)...definitely dangerous territory. Enjoy!
Beginning more than 2,500 years ago, from all quarters of the Greek world men thronged every four years to the sacred grove of Olympia, under the shadow of Mount Cronus, to compete in the most famous athletic contests of history—the Olympian games. During the contest a sacred truce was observed among all the states of Greece as the best athletes of the Western world competed in boxing and foot races, wrestling and chariot races for the wreath of wild olive which was the prize of victory. When the winners returned to their home cities to lay the Olympian crown in the chief temples they were greeted as heroes and received rich rewards.
For the Greeks prized physical excellence and athletic skills among man’s greatest goals and among the prime foundations of a vigorous state. Thus the same civilizations which produced some of our highest achievements of philosophy and drama, government and art, also gave us a belief in the importance of physical soundness which has become a part of Western tradition; from the mens sana in corpore sano of the Romans to the British belief that the playing fields of Eaton brought victory on the battlefields of Europe. This knowledge, the knowledge that the physical well-being of the citizen is an important foundation for the vigor and vitality of all the activities of the nation, is as old as Western civilization itself. But it is a knowledge which today, in America, we are in danger of forgetting.
— John F. Kennedy, “The Soft American,” Sports Illustrated (December 1960)
miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun
1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book
The things that resonated most with me this week were seemingly unrelated: the state of the faith in America and two pieces about keeping the 'main thing' the main thing. On the surface, they may seem unrelated, but I think the exact opposite is true.
“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, in the end, “Thy will be done.” All that are in Hell, choose it. Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. To those who knock it is opened.
We are not quite a full week into this Lenten season—a time of cutting away things that hold us back in our Christian lives and of taking up new habits that will draw us closer to God and conform us more closely to the image of Christ. Both the negative (cutting away) and positive (taking up) aspects of Lent require us to break old habits and form new ones.
miscellany [ mis-uh-ley-nee], noun
1. a miscellaneous collection or group of various or somewhat unrelated items2. a miscellaneous collection of literary compositions or pieces by several authors, dealing with various topics, assembled in a volume or book
Only one quote and one article this week...I've let both simmer for a while but would like to share them.