theology

A Visit to the Family

meep-by-the-window

“I’ve always enjoyed our annual trip to see your Aunt Harriet, Uncle Ike, and cousin Mamie”, Floyd told Mabel. “Only they could possibly know that G.K. Chesterton died on June 14, 1936. They’re all members of the Chester~Belloc Debate Society.”

“Yeah,” she chimed in. “There’s only one thing I don’t get though. Of all the pets they could have gotten, why a quail?”

“Hey, you have to remember,” he explained, “Chesterton and Belloc were both distinctive. Quails are distinctive. Seen from that point of view, it fits.”

“They’re most certainly distinctive, all righty,” she agreed, as they finished eating.

Welcome back yet again to Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers. Each week, on Wednesday, we get to pretend it’s Friday.  This week’s photo prompt comes from Jean L. Hays

 

 

 

 

Annunci

Feast of St. Gabriel Possenti

“San Gabriele” Movie   Today is the Feast of St. Gabriel (originally named Francesco Giuseppe Vincente Pacifico Rufino) Possenti, Gabriel of Our Lady of Sorrows. He was a Passionist Religious, born in Assisi, Italy, and lived from March  1, 1838~ February 27, 1862. Beatified on May 31,  1908 by St. Pius X, he was canonized on My 13, 1920 by Pope Benedict XV. He is a patron saint of Catholic youth, students, and of boys and men studying for the priesthood.

we only have one life to live

Of course I most certainly don’t give any credibility whatsoever to the dualistic claims of eastern religions and modes of thought which claim that each individual must go through a series of different lifetimes in order to be purged enough so that he may be happy in the next life.  Beatle George Harrison may have been quite an absolute expert at music but he got it all wrong when it came to that topic.  God puts each of us here for only one opportunity to do the right thing. In that sense my view of life is more linear than cyclical. Whenever a new baby is conceived, God does not insert a new soul into a material container. Each individual is conceived with his body and soul inextricably linked permanently to each other. The Catholic Church has consistently taught that for over two thousand years.
“It is appointed unto men to die once but after this comes the judgment.” (Heb. 9:27). That’s where the Four Last Things-Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell-must be dealt with.  Once someone has faced up to his Particular Judgment immediately upon his decease, he goes either to Purgatory temporarily, straight to Heaven, or straight to Hell.

 

daily post

to karma

the element of heat

YOLO

echinodermic propensity

what goes around comes back around

 

 

 

 

 

the rule of threesies

on-on-off

“You know, friend Beelzebub,” said Mephistopholes, “The rule of three controls all of reality.”

“Yes, Master,” replied his smitten servant.

“Once I plug my machine in,” exclaimed the evil genius, “The world is mine. Text, context and subtext; melody, harmony and rhythm; plot,theme and setting. I can irrevocably own mankind, each individual’s very soul. Any fool can win deliberately evil sadistic people to us. These three switches, however, merely by distorting things, can bring all those well-intentioned characters to us too. Yes, that’s all it takes. Just juggle things around so they don’t understand.”

tempus fugit. memento mori

I suppose that I have known, since a very early age, of the inevitably of my eventual death.  When I was first born I was  very sick, with a life-threatening problem, and after effects that lingered all throughout my childhood, so I was constantly reminded of the risk of my early death. The earliest death that really stands out in my mind, in a concrete way, is my Uncle Gino’s when I was a twelve year old kid. As far as I know, there wasn’t any feeling of total awe at my having realized that I would, sooner, or later, be required, by definition, to die. Having always gone to Catholic schools, I was always reminded of it, but it must have inevitably struck me as just some entirely abstract factual reality.  Unlike many people I simply don’t have a profoundly cathartic story to tell about how some ultimate moment of truth profoundly changed my life and perception of that specific aspectfour-last-things1 of reality. Sooner or later, each of us shall be in either Heaven (usually by way of Purgatory), or Hell. That’s the ultimate inevitable eschatological reality of the four last things. Death carries with it at least two main fears for each of us: the fear of all the physical and emotional torment that goes with the end of his life, and the fear of eternal damnation for those who go to hell. I really have to wise up and to start dealing with it in a more first hand manner very soon.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/finite-creatures/

http://abozdar.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/patience/

http://youaintspecial.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/prove-it/

http://fibercompulsion.com/2014/10/20/infinite/

http://shameport.wordpress.com/2014/09/14/spinning-dust/

http://agirllikemee.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/on-a-sunny-summer-afternoon/

literature major me

I’d say that I enjoy both fiction and non-fiction about the same, though for different reasons.  Right now I’m reading Longfellow’s poem, “Evangeline” and Jane Austen’s novel, “Sense and Sensibility”. I’m also reading “The Story Of A Soul” by St. Therese of Lisieux.  I’ve always been interested in novels and poems because they allow me to travel to other places and time frames.  I can permit my imagination to get entirely out of control. A well written novel or poem also can teach interesting lessons about human nature. Dostoyevsky’s  “The Brothers Karamazov” and Evelyn Waugh’s “Brideshead Revisited” are exceptionally good examples of this. One problem with Dostoyevsky, though, is that he tends to be exceptionally didactic. Reading something of his always makes me feel as if it’s written in the form of a thinly disguised theology and philosophy lecture.nortonI’ve always enjoyed seeing how many different symbols I can see in various works of literature.  Two of the most famous examples of symbolism in classic western literature are a bookworm character, who reads a story within the story,  a convention begun by Cervantes in “Don Quijote”, and travel, begun by St. Augustine of Hippo in his “Confessions”.  Among works of non-fiction, I especially enjoy biographies, and classic works of theology and philosophy. By now I’ve read very many biographies of a wide variety of famous people, including writers, politicians, musicians and saints. Although I only have thirteen credits in philosophy, and no college credits in theology, I’ve always had quite a voracious interest in those fields. As a lay Carmelite I’ve read all the Carmelite classics I’ve been able to find.  Since I really like to get involved in a good debate about the culture war, reading these kinds of things keeps me well informed.

http://dailypost.wordpress.com/dp_prompt/the-great-divide/

http://lindaswritingblog.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/fiction/

http://tyrocharm.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/longest-reading-queue-purely-for-fun/

http://laughagain.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/fact-or-fiction/

http://berryduchess.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/the-bibliophile-in-me/

http://thegadabouttown.wordpress.com/2014/09/29/fact-or-not-fact/