Palm Sunday

Behold beauty from Farrer:

AFTER Jesus had died on the cross, his disciples hoped to keep his body with them as a sacred relic. They shut it in with stone, they came to embalm it. St. Magdalen was disconsolate that she could not find it. But Jesus had given his body to them at the Supper in the form in which he meant them to have it, a form which did not inolve its being stored on earth. He would continually give it them from heaven, where he lives. It is a heavenly being he bestows on us, it is in his heavenly body that he unites us. Lift up your hearts; by this sacrament you are parts of Christ, and Christ is the heart of heaven.

God bless you all,

LSP

A Maundy Thursday Reflection

 

Today is the day of the "Maundy," the mandatum, "the new commandment" of love. Fr. Crouse reflects, via Lectionary Central:

As Aristotle remarks, "When there is a great gap in respect of virtue or vice or wealth, or anything else, between the parties, they are no longer friends, and do not even expect to be so.  And this is most manifest in the case of the gods, for they surpass us decisively in all good things .... when one party is removed to a great distance, as God is, the possibility of friendship ceases." 

In general, Aristotle is right, as he usually is in points of theology.  But Aristotle could not know the unthinkable mercy of God in the Incarnation and Passion of Christ, whereby the distance of man from God is overcome and we are called friends.  In the atoning sacrifice of Christ, God manifests the ultimate good will towards us: "Greater love hath no man than this."  He makes known that good will, and sets it in our hearts; and that is the principle and ground of our friendship with him.  We are friends of God, because his grace makes us so.  He makes us god-like, and grants us the equality of friends, the proportional equality of sons.  "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God." (1 John 3.1) 

That is the friendship which Christians call "charity," the very bond of peace and of all virtues.  It is the friendship which binds us to God, and unites us to one another in the new commandment of love, "Fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God." (Ephesians 2.19)  And as friends, we must do as friends do: we delight in God's presence, we rejoice in our conversation with him, and find comfort in his consolations.  As friends we care for all that is his.  We seek to do his will as free men, not as slaves. "For we are in love," says St. Thomas, "and it is from love we act, not from servile fear." 

Today is the day of the "Maundy," the mandatum, "the new commandment" of love.  It is the special day of friendship, and the traditional ceremonies of the day - the washing of feet, the blessing of oils for the sick, and so on - all reinforce that thought.  Above all, it is the day of the banquet, the celebration of friends, in which our friend gives himself, that we may dwell in him, and he in us.  It is the moment of friends rejoicing together before the pain of tomorrow. 

Soon we shall remove the trappings of the feast, and leave the altar bare and cold, for tonight is the night of betrayal, and tomorrow is the day of despair.  But he has called us his friends, and we must watch with him, and "not fear, though the earth be moved, and the mountains shake." (Psalm 46.2)  We must watch and pray that the bond of charity may hold us firm as his friends, and friends of one another.  The fruit of the vine is crushed in the press, but we shall drink the wine new with him in the joy of his risen kingdom. 

 

God bless you all,

LSP 

Holy Saturday

 

The body of Jesus lays in the tomb, and all is still.

GRANT, O Lord, that as we are baptized into the death of thy blessed Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, so by continual mortifying our corrupt affections we may be buried with him; and that through the grave, and gate of death, we may pass to our joyful resurrection; for his merits, who died, and was buried, and rose again for us, the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

 

God bless,

LSP 

Maundy Thursday Pistol

 

One of the things which happens on Maundy Thursday is that the priest gets to wash peoples' feet, as Christ washed his disciples' feet. My MC doesn't like it because he thinks it's "hokey," which perhaps it is. That in mind, most definitely a lesson in humility.

Regardless, there I was, about to wash a rancher's right foot, and there on a sock next to his boot was a compact S&W(?), a 9 or 40 I think. So I looked at the pistol, looked at the foot and did some quick math.

Should I bless the pistol and make it part of the rite or not? I chose the latter path, deciding to store up value for a later a date, a churchwide blessing of guns. Go long and hold, went the arithmetic.

Later, at the Pax, I told  my friend, "That was the safest footwashing I've ever seen." He replied, embarrassed, "Padre, I just forgot it was there, in my boot!" He needn't have worried, "Brother, next year we'll make it mandatory."

And that, all five of you readers, is the story of that. A short tale of God, country life and guns in Texas.

God bless,

LSP

Holy Wednesday

 

In between cleaning all the guns that I don't have and watching scenes from Tombstone on continuous loop, I look forward to Maundy Thursday with it's double mandate, do this and love one another as I have loved you, the former realized in the Eucharist, was ever a command so obeyed?, and the latter signified by Christ washing the feet of his disciples.

The connection is clear and lies in the Cross, from which Jesus washes away our sins in his supreme act of love. And it's precisely this sacrifice that's made present to us in the Sacrament of the Altar. The extent to which we receive the grace offered, think Parable of the Sower, depends on our obedience to the commandment to love. 

Benedict XVI reflects:

In it (Confession), the Lord continually rewashes our dirty feet, and we are able to sit at table with Him.

But in this way, the word takes on yet another meaning, in which the Lord extends the "sacramentum" by making it the "exemplum," a gift, a service for our brother: "If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another's feet" (John 13:14). We must wash each other's feet in the daily mutual service of love. But we must also wash our feet in the sense of constantly forgiving one another. The debt that the Lord has forgiven us is always infinitely greater than all of the debts that others could owe to us (cf. Mt. 18:21-35). It is to this that Holy Thursday exhorts us: not to allow rancor toward others to become, in its depths, a poisoning of the soul. It exhorts us to constantly purify our memory, forgiving one another from the heart, washing each other's feet, thus being able to join together in the banquet of God.

Holy Thursday is a day of gratitude and of joy for the great gift of love to the end that the Lord has given to us. We want to pray to the Lord at this time, so that gratitude and joy may become in us the power of loving together with his love. Amen.

Amen to that. We must and should hunger and thirst for righteousness, swords about the Cross. But by the same token, there is no place for the poisonous serpent of hatred within our hearts. It is the hallmark of our Adversary, Satan. And remember, though it seems counter-intuitive, the enemy's lost and lost hard.

Be on the side of Light,

LSP

A Short Palm Sunday Sermon

 

Here we are on Palm Sunday, the "gateway to Holy Week," and the liturgy of the Mass seems strange or jarring. One minute we're hailing Jesus as the Messiah while singing All Glory Laud and Honour and the next shouting out Crucify Him!, as we hear the Passion. It's as though we've been catapulted, in mood, from Easter to Good Friday. But of course we understand the connection.

Christ's kingship as the anointed holy one of God rests upon the Cross, his throne from which he establishes sovereignty over sin and death. He could, in that week leading up to his death, have chosen worldly power; the temptations in the wilderness surely returned with demonic intensity.

Stones to bread? Yes indeed, literal bread for himself and the world, to say nothing of spiritual bread in the form of the righteous wisdom he could have given from the gleaming, thunderstruck fastness  of Mount Zion. 

Instead of being scourged and nailed to a cross by Roman soldiers he could have ordered the angelic host to his defense, lest he dash his foot against a stone. And the kingdoms of the world? His for the asking, with all the glories therein.

Christ says no to this and by extension to the Devil himself. He follows a different path, the way of the Cross. What qualities took him there? Humility, for sure. He emptied himself, taking the form of a servant or slave, even to an agonizing, shameful death. Likewise obedience. 

Recall the Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus prays that the chalice of suffering and death would be taken from him, but he continues, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou willest." (Matt. 26:39) This utterly faithful submission to the Father's will takes him to Golgotha, where he lays down his life in a perfect act of love for the forgiveness of our sin.

Humble, obedient, loving faith. The way of the Cross and the way to the empty tomb and everlasting life. It comes at a cost, obviously, but consider the reward, the green pastures of paradise.

I pray we're given the courage, by the grace of God, to acknowledge Christ as our King and follow him through the "grave and gate of death" to eternal life.

God Bless,

LSP

Christ's Prayer In The Garden

Today we're looking forward to Maundy Thursday and with it the events of the Last Supper and beyond. Christ washes his disciples' feet, institutes the Eucharist, then goes to the Garden of Gethsemane where he prays before falling into the hands of sinful men.

Such mystery, and we tend to concentrate on the prophetic action of the foot washing and the sacrament of Jesus' body and blood. The one, of course, begets the other. As the disciples are cleansed by Christ and made fit for the Passover feast, so too are we cleansed by the blood of Calvary and participate in the heavenly banquet of the Eucharist. 

True enough and that's the least of it, but what of Gethsemane and Christ's prayer in the garden. Here's Benedict XVI:

Jesus says: “Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet not what I want, but what you want” (Mk 14:36). The natural will of the man Jesus recoils in fear before the enormity of the matter. He asks to be spared. Yet as the Son, he places this human will into the Father’s will: not I, but you. In this way he transformed the stance of Adam, the primordial human sin, and thus heals humanity. 

The stance of Adam was: not what you, O God, have desired; rather, I myself want to be a god. This pride is the real essence of sin. We think we are free and truly ourselves only if we follow our own will. God appears as the opposite of our freedom. We need to be free of him – so we think – and only then will we be free. 

This is the fundamental rebellion present throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. When human beings set themselves against God, they set themselves against the truth of their own being and consequently do not become free, but alienated from themselves. We are free only if we stand in the truth of our being, if we are united to God.

This is the fundamental rebellion present throughout history and the fundamental lie which perverts life. And what a perversion it is, the same tormented falsehood, for example, that tells Mothers they'll find meaning and fulfillment if they kill their children.

We know where this comes from, "He was a murderer from the beginning." We also know that Hell was broken on the hard wood of the Cross.

Have a blessed and holy Triduum,

LSP

Palm Sunday 2019

I love Palm Sunday, the gateway to Holy Week and with it the opportunity to follow Christ ever more deeply on his way to the cross and resurrection. Beautiful, and it forces two things upon us, discernment and choice.

Who and what do we love, what leads us, who do we follow? Bread and power, the world, the flesh and the devil who hovers over all, or Christ? Discernment achieved, choose wisely.

That said, half of one of the Missions was missing in action today. Why? Because they'd gone to a rabbit show. That's right, a bunny display.

Well, there's nothing quite like anticipating Easter.

Antenicene Fathers forever,

LSP

Chrism Mass 2017

Every year the clergy of the Diocese of Fort meet in Holy Week at St. Vincent's Cathedral in Bedford, Texas, for the diocesan Chrism Mass. Thanks for the photo, Fr. C.

But guess what, there's no liturgical dance and there aren't any clowns goofing off in the cathedral. Perhaps, in your book, this disqualifies the event as a meaningful worship experience. I find it a relief, but that's just me. 

Goofing Off in Church

This year's sermon had its moments too, including a quote from Evelyn Underhill:

God is the interesting thing about religion, and people are hungry for God. But only a priest whose life is soaked in prayer, sacrifice, and love can, by his own spirit of adoring worship, help us to apprehend Him.

I felt judged, and rightly so, by that.

God bless,

LSP

Palm Sunday Wisdom

Tomorrow's Palm Sunday and it always seems, liturgically, to be a bit of a double cross. We welcome Christ as King, Hosanna in the highest, and the next minute it's Crucify Him. But it's in the Passion that Christ's kingship is revealed.

The late Fr. Crouse puts it well:

"Are you a king then?" asks Pilate. Yes, he is a king. "Thou sayest it." Yes, he is a king. But kingship is not what Pilate thinks it is; not what the world thinks it is. Yes, he is a king: "But now is my kingdom not from hence, if it were, then would my servants fight...but now is my kingdom not from hence." The ways of God's Kingdom are not the world's ways, and the glory of its kingship is altogether different. Its kingship is the kingship of a servant, its liberty is the liberty of free obedience; its virtue is humility. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." That is the essential message of this day.

Its virtue is humility or blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs, we learn, is the kingdom of heaven. By the grace of God.

Defeat the Turk,

LSP

Unholy Tuesday

The religion of peace has attacked Brussels, blowing people up at the city's airport and a subway station. At least 30 were killed and 100 wounded by the Muslim terrorists.

Israel's Prime Minister had this to say:

"The chain of attacks from Paris to San Bernardino to Istanbul, to the Ivory Coast and now to Brussels and the daily attacks in Israel. This is one continuous assault on all of us. In all these cases the terrorists have no resolvable grievances. It’s not as if we could offer them Brussels or Istanbul or California or even the West Bank. That won’t satisfy their grievances because what they seek is our utter destruction and their total domination. Their basic demand is that we should simply disappear. Well, my friends, that’s not going to happen.”

And here's Geert Wilders:

“It is time to act. First of all, we must close our national borders and detain all the jihadists whom we have foolishly allowed to return from Syria. We must also tell people the truth. The cause of all this bloodshed is Islam. We need to de-Islamize the West. That is the only way to safeguard our lives and protect our freedom.”

How could Geert say that? Everyone knows that Islam's like Buddhism, only way more peaceful; tell the people at Brussel's airport. Oh, you can't, they're dead.

Stop the Jihad, and may the souls of the people it's killed rest in peace.,

LSP

A Thought for Good Friday

Here's a thought for Good Friday, from David Virtue:

"This is all happening during Holy Week. Think about that. Sin is being rapturously endorsed by a rapidly disintegrating culture that is no longer Protestant, let alone Christian. It is happening even as the Savior of the world sets his sights on Calvary to die for a lost humanity. Our Lord will be raised up on a cross with nail pierced hands and a sword will be thrust into his side; he will bow his head and die for the sins of the world. Think about that.

"If you don't think your freedoms are being trampled on in America, you are worse than stupid."

I agree with that.

God bless,

LSP

Maundy Thursday, 2015

It's Maundy Thursday, when we commemorate the Last Last Supper and the Institution of the Eucharist, along with the Mandatum to "love one another as I have loved you."

Here's the Anglican Collect:

ALMIGHTY Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, did institute the Sacrament of his Body and Blood; Mercifully grant that we may thankfully receive the same in remembrance of him, who in these holy mysteries giveth us a pledge of life eternal; the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who now liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

And for all you Roman Catholic trads out there, here's the Latin one, from the Extraordinary form of the Mass.

DEUS, a quo et Judas reátus sui pœnam, et confessiónis suæ latro prǽmium sumpsit, concéde nobis tuæ propitiatiónis efféctum: ut, sicut in passióne sua Jesus Christus Dóminus noster divérsa utrísque íntulit stipéndia meritórum; ita nobis, abláto vetustátis erróre, resurrectiónis suæ grátiam largiátur. Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum.

In English:

O GOD, from whom Judas received the punishment of his guilt, and the thief the reward of his confession: grant unto us the full fruit of Thy Clemency; that even as in His Passion our Lord Jesus Christ gave to each retribution according to his merits, so having cleared away our former guilt, He may bestow on us the grace of His Resurrection: Who with Thee liveth and reigneth in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. 

God bless,

LSP

Bullet in the Roof

The roof of my Mother's house in Dallas was leaking, so she got it fixed. But what caused the roof to leak? An amused Mexican roofer found the culprit; a bullet had gone through the composite and into the old wood shingles beneath.

You see, what happens here is they shoot their pistols in the air, forgetting that what goes up, must come down. Except for the Episcopal Church; that broke free of gravity years ago.

Cheers,

LSP

Chrism Mass, 2015

I drove to Bedford today, which is a kind of suburb of Fort Worth. It's where our cathedral is and that's where we go every year for the diocesan Chrism Mass.

It wasn't good to drive through the metrosprawl, but I did like being with the clergy and meeting up with like-minded friends.

Blue Liturgical came along for the ride, and got looked after by the kitchen staff, while we ate lunch. He seemed to enjoy the adventure, and one senior clergyman told me that "you should never trust a priest who doesn't like dogs."

God bless,

LSP

Palm Sunday, 2015

I won't preach, because I've done that twice today already, but I will leave you with the Palm Sunday Collect:

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of his great humility; Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Have a very blessed day and Holy Week.

LSP

Chrism Mass

Iker

I took a break from exotic game hunting to go to this morning's Chrism Mass at our cathedral, St. Vincent's, in Bedford; Bedford is a kind of suburb of Fort Worth. The Episcopal Church (TEC), which is suing our diocese for daring to say no to gay marriage, is keen to get its pink mitts on the cathedral. 

Pyrrhus

It'll be a Pyrrhic victory if they do. Millions of dollars spent on lawsuits to get an empty church, to say nothing of the moral downside.

Judas Betrays

Regardless of that, Bishop Iker preached an excellent sermon on the Last Supper, reminding us of our Lord's statement that one of those eating with Him would betray Him. "Is it I, Lord?" they asked. Apparently every one of them considered themselves capable of the crime. I'll leave you to draw the personal application, and the solution? Our Lord's Mandatum, to love one another as He loved us, acted out in the parabolic washing of feet. Powerful medicine against the snake pit of wickedness.

On that note, you may be glad to know I made my Confession. Not before time... all should, some must...

Blessed Holy Week,

LSP

Used Scopes

I like iron sights and, for the most part, that's what I use when I shoot. Still, I'm always on the look out for affordable optics, so I was pleased when a local gun shop gave me a couple of used scopes to try out. A Burris Fullfield II 3x9x40 and an old Universal 4x32; if I liked them and they worked -- $50. If not, return them and no harm done.

Burris

I mounted the glassware up on the AR to dial in and test, getting on paper from 25 yards. At first the Universal did well, grouping nice and tight but a few inches to the left of point of aim. No problem, adjust windage right by the relevant amount, get nicely on target then pull back to zero in at 50 yards. Easy, isn't it? Think again.

60 frustrated rounds and a significant amount of tape and Sharpie later, I discovered that this piece of Japanese rubbish wasn't going to work. Off with the "scope", flip up the Magpul back-up and unload a couple magazines at a steel plate turkey. Turkey down, I headed for home.

wrath of God

The next day it was time to test out Reverend Burris. The Fullfield did just fine; on paper quickly and zeroed at 100 yards. Why at 100? Because that's pretty much the maximum length of the range and I was just messing about to see if it worked. I won't trouble you with the ballistics of 5.56 ammo and don't intend to use the scope for that anyway, it'll probably go on one of the Lees to be sighted in again for the venerable .303. The Burris Fullfield's a decent bit of kit, clear and powerful enough for me and it's inexpensive new, even more so second hand.

Moral of the story? Don't scorn used optics but test them first to see if they work, you can save a lot of money. Also, steel plate turkeys are fun to blast down at 75 yards with semi-auto carbines.

stormchaser

Drove home along the edge of a tornado. The wrath of God was waxing strong against the fleshpots of Dallas, but the country just got a well needed drenching of lightning, gale force winds and rain.

God bless,

LSP

Holy Week

I've been accused, rightly, of 'neglecting my virtual flock'. Things have been a little busy with the usual ramp up to Easter, funerals, various deadlines and not half as much time to ride and shoot as I'd like. So that's my excuse, still, there's been the odd moment to gaze at the computer and the excellent site, Manhattan Infidel.

MI likes liturgical dance almost as much as I do; here's an excerpt, with accompanying picture of the Mahoney Girls:

"Desperate to induce vomiting the ER resorted to a new and controversial method:  Liturgical dance.
The Holy Sisters of the Fat Mannish Lesbian were brought in to do a five-minute interpretative dance of Jesus preaching about the dangers of climate change. Within seconds the child was vomiting.

“It was like watching Linda Blair in the Exorcist.  The kid was spewing across the entire room.” 

You can read the whole thing here, but in the meanwhile, have a blessed Holy Week and Maundy Thursday.

Stay on the horse.


LSP