Sunday Snippets 31MAR2012

Another busy week of blogging. Unfortunately, I have a lot of free time as of late.
I posted two Monty Python videos Sunday in Sunday Evening Humor from Monty Python.
Monday was Wisdom from Father Jose 19. Wednesday was A Story about St Anthony of the Desert and And now for something completely Byzantine, topped of with One of my many random thoughts.
Thursday was Footprints. Today was Lazarus Saturday (its Lazarus Saturday in the Byzantine Churches) and Food for thought.
Don't forget to check out the other Sunday Snippets.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Food for thought

"As a dog that returneth to his vomit, so is the fool that repeateth his folly."
 Proverbs 26:11

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Lazarus Saturday

I love how the music in Byzantine churches always relates specifically to the readings.

hat tip to Blessed is the Kingdom for the picture


May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Footprints

We've probably all heard or read the story about the dream with two sets of footprints (the author's and the Lord's) and then there was suddenly one set because the Lord was carrying said person.
There's a church in Italy that has preserved footprints said to be those of Jesus Christ. There's a story with these footprints too.

During a persecution of Christians, Peter was said to be fleeing Rome when he came upon Jesus walking towards Rome. He asked "Quo vadis Domine?" (Where are you going Lord?) Jesus responded, "To be crucified again." Peter having been admonished returned to Rome to face the persecution and eventually to be crucified upside down on Vatican Hill.
I don't think Peter would have spoken to Jesus in Latin, but the people recording the story would have passed the story on in Latin. Also, the question is the source for the name of a great book and a classic movie based on the book.
I found the picture here.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

One of my many random thoughts

A relationship with the Lord isn't a home invasion. He isn't going to kick down the door and force His way into your soul.
He knocks. He will often knock loudly, but He waits for you to answer the door and welcome Him in. We must assent to a relationship with our Lord.
The Lord encourages and often pleads with us to accept our Salvation in Him, but ultimately we must choose to accept it.
For instance, Paul was encouraged by a vision of Jesus to renounce his persecutions and to become a Christian himself and accept Jesus and his Lord and Savior.
Judas knew Jesus well. He had to have heard many powerful, moving sermons and seen miracles that would seem to leave no doubt. Yet, he rejected Jesus as his Savior and betrayed Him.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

And now for something completely Byzantine...

 Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit both now and forever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.
And now for something Byzantine...
And now for something else Byzantine...

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Story about St Anthony of the Desert

When the same Abba Anthony (St Anthony of the Desert) thought about the depth of the judgments of God, he asked, "Lord, how is it that some die when they are young, while others drag on to extreme old age? Why are there those who are poor and those who are rich? Why do wicked men prosper and why are the just in need?" He heard a voice answering him, "Anthony, keep your attention on yourself; these things are according to the judgment of God, and it is not to your advantage to know anything about them.'

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Sign that Hell has frozen over

Jane Fonda is playing Nancy Reagan

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Wisdom from Father Jose 19

Faith, though involves feelings, it's not just about feelings. -- Father Jose

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Sunday Evening Humor from Monty Python

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Sunday Snippets 24MAR2012

This has been a relatively busy week of posting here at 50 Days After.

Monday:
Wisdom from Father Jose 18, 
St Ephrem on Eucharist
Death of Saint Joseph

Tuesday:
Thomas a Beckett on Religious Freedom


Wednesday:
Ever Virgin Mary

Thursday:
Latin Inscription on Sacred Heart Altar

Friday:
7 Quick Takes

Please check out the other Sunday Snippets at This That and the Other Thing

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Seven Quick Takes 23MAR2012

1. Nobody seems to have figured out Saint Quiz XIV yet. Hint: The spiked wheel next to her.
2. I'm taking a test for teacher certification tomorrow. I'm confident that it will go well, but prayers are appreciated.
3. I'm trying to read the entire Bible. I'm reading one book at a time. I started reading Job this week. I started to read it before, but for whatever reasons never made it all the way through. Now that I have set times when I read the Scriptures I think it will be easier to get past my short attention span.
4. Adopt a Catholic Blog in Prayer
5. The first Catholic radio station in Georgia started broadcasting last week. My house is on the very fringe of their coverage area, but its nice to listen to Saint Paul Radio in other parts of town.
6. Is there anyone else out there who thinks its inappropriate to sing/play Protestant praise & worship music during Eucharistic adoration? I like listening to it in the car, but music during adoration should lure and welcome souls into awareness and contemplation of the awesome and majestic mystery before them.
Our God is near to us!
7. Blessed be Jesus Christ, true God and true Man!
Please check out Seven Quick Takes at Conversion Diary

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Latin Inscription on Sacred Heart Altar

In English: "He hath loved us and hath delivered Himself for us." from Ephesians 5:2

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Ever Virgin Mary

"And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut.
And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut
For the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way." Ezekiel 44:1-3
read more

h/t to Classical Christianity
May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Thomas a Beckett on Religious Freedom

hat tip to Art of Manliness
May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Death of Saint Joseph

I took this picture with my phone at the Sacred Heart Cultural Center in downtown Augusta, GA. I don't think I've ever seen any other depictions of his death.

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

St Ephrem on Eucharist

"O Lord, we cannot go to the pool of Siloe to which you sent the blind man. But we have the chalice of Your Precious Blood, filled with life and light. The purer we are, the more we receive."-- St Ephrem

see more quotes on the Eucharist

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Wisdom from Father Jose 18

I am still learning... and I hope to have the humility to receive the lesson. -- Father Jose

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Wisdom from Father Jose 17

Sometimes we build our own walls, and then we are the same ones who have to tear them down. -- Father Jose

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

7 Quick Takes 09MAR2012

1. I have been reading Joshua and the commentary in the Bible mentions that Rahab is a prefiguring of the Church. This is the best article I've read explaining it. I've been thinking about it all week.
2. I think I found a job. Next week, God willing, I'll be employed again.
3. I'll go to drill for the first time this weekend with my new reserve unit.
4. I've read that St Joseph is the archetype of the Christian bishop. I'm not sure of the reasoning or theology, but it sounds neat.
5. I've now lived in my house for a whole year. Only 29 more and I'll have it paid off, although I hope I can get it paid off before that.
6. What does it say about me that I like having lots of trees in my yard so I can burn the leaves?
7. "The forceful practice of self-control and love, patience and stillness, will destroy the passions hidden within us"--St Thalassios the Libyan

Please check out the other 7 Quick Takes at Conversion Diary

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Waking up at 0300

found this at Aggie Catholic
May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Saint Quiz XIV

As always, who can correctly guess the saint?

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Wisdom from Father Jose 16

Maturity comes on second thought... yes, usually the first thing you want to say is inadequate.. you have to think again (think twice) before you say anything at all. -- Father Jose

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Saints and Scripture Matthew 10:16

"Behold I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be therefore wise as serpents and simple as doves." Matthew 10:16

While Christians and the Church, even in the best of times, is surrounded by enemies who hate our Lord and His Church for 2,000 years we have overcome. The Roman Empire which once persecuted the Church converted and became transformed in Christian love. And so it has continued through the years. Even in the recent past, the first revolutions without violence ever known in history were brought about by Christians who overcame the Soviet Union and its satellite states. Even on a personal level, conversions are constantly brought about by the love shown to others by Christians and their persistence in faith. From the person-to-person level all the way to the national and international level Christians have in the past and still do use gentleness and wisdom to change the world in Christ.
I don't personally have anything more insightful to say about this. The saints have had much to say about this passage:

If you love the good disciples, no thanks are due to you on that account; but rather seek by meekness to subdue the more troublesome. Every kind of wound is not healed with the same plaster. Mitigate violent attacks [of disease] by gentle applications. Be in all things wise as a serpent, and harmless as a dove.  For this purpose you are composed of both flesh and spirit, that you may deal tenderly with those [evils] that present themselves visibly before you.

St Ignatios of Antioch

He sends them unprovided, bidding them look to those who should receive them for support; but rests not in that, but shews his power still further, “Lo, I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves.” Where observe that He does not say merely ‘to wolves,’ but “in the midst of wolves,” to shew His [p. 380] excellent might therein, that the sheep would overcome the wolves though they were in the midst of them; and though they received many bites from them, yet were they not destroyed, but rather convert them. And it is a much greater and a more wonderful power that can change their hearts than that can kill them. Among wolves He teaches them to shew the meekness of sheep.

St John Chrysostom

The harmlessness of doves is shewn by the assumption of that form by the Holy Spirit; as the Apostle speaks, “In malice be ye children.”

“Wise,” that they might escape [p. 381] snares; “simple,” that they might not do evil to others. The craft of the serpent is set before them as an example, for he hides his head with all the rest of his body, that he may protect the part in which life is. So ought we to expose our whole body, that we may guard our head which is Christ; that is, that we study to keep the faith whole and uncorrupt.

St Jerome

Please check out the other Saints and Scripture entries at The Kennedy Adventures!
May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Sunday Snippets 03MAR2012

Quiet week of blogging:
Wisdom from Father Jose
And now for something else Byzantine
Eastern Christian New Media Awards

Please check out the other Sunday Snippets at This That and the Other Thing

May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

Eastern Christian New Media Awards

Nominations are now open for 2011 Eastern Christian New Media Awards


May God bless all who read my ramblings,

Adopt A Catholic Blog

And now for something else Byzantine...

Refrain: O Rejoice Bride unwedded.
O Virgin pure, immaculate, O Lady Theotokos. (Refrain)
O fleece bedewed with every grace. O Virgin Queen and Mother.(Refrain)
More radiant that the rays of the sun, and higher than the heavens. (Refrain)
O joy of virgin choruses, superior to the angels. (Refrain)
O brighter than the firmament and purer that the sun's light. (Refrain)
More holy than the multitude of all the heavenly armies. (Refrain)
O ever virgin Mary of all the world, the Lady.(Refrain)
O Bride all pure immaculate, O Lady Panagia. (Refrain)
O Mary Bride and Queen of all, the cause of our rejoicing. (Refrain)
O noble Maiden, gracious Queen, supremely holy Mother. (Refrain)
More honored than the Cherubim, beyond compare more glorious(Refrain)
Than the unbodied Seraphim, transcending the angelic Thrones. (Refrain)

"And now for something Byzantine"
May God bless all who read my ramblings,
 
Adopt A Catholic Blog