Holy Trinity

Yesterday was Trinity Sunday and I celebrated the Feast by grilling burgers. The meat came from a deer that a friend had shot, and right tasty it was too.

I like to think that my exposition of the Trinitarian mystery is faithful to Augustine and Aquinas, but I won't pretend any theological expertise. If you want something brainy on the subject, see here. In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with the Collect, and not the rubbish "contemporary" language one, either.

ALMIGHTY and everlasting God, who hast given unto us thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of thy Divine Majesty to worship the Unity: We beseech thee, that thou wouldst keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reignest, one God, world without end. Amen.

God bless,

LSP

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day everyone, especially to all you Mothers out there. Here's the Salve Regina, addressed to Mary, the great Mother of God and the the new Eve, who brought life into the world.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of mercy, our life, our sweetness and our hope. To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve. To thee to we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears. Turn, then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us, and after this, our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

V. Pray for us, O holy Mother of God.

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, Who by the working of the Holy Spirit didst prepare both body and soul of the glorious Virgin Mother, Mary, that she might deserve to be made a worthy dwelling for Thy Son, grant that we who rejoice in her memory, may, by her loving intercession, be delivered from present evils and from lasting death, through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.

God bless, and don't forget to love and respect your Mothers.

LSP

Eschaton and the End of Time

I know. This kabob stand on the information superhighway is frivolous and shallow at best. So here's an apocalyptic vision to quicken up the pace:

“The image of the woman [the Church] before the altar in front of the eyes of God that I saw earlier was now also shown to me again so that I could also see her from the navel down. From the navel to the groin she had various scaly spots. In her there appeared a monstorous and totally black head with fiery eyes, ears like the ears of a donkey, nostrils and mouth like those of a lion, gnashing with vast open mouth and sharpening its horrible iron teeth in a horrid manner... Lo, the monstrous head removed itself from its place with so great a crash that the entire image of the woman was shaken in all its members. Something like a great mass of much dung was joined to the head; then, lifting itself upon a mountain, it attempted to ascend to the height of heaven. A stroke like thunder came suddenly and the head was repelled with such strength that it both fell from the mountain and gave up the ghost.”

Damian Anti-Christ

After describing the fall of anti-Christ and the woe of those who had been deceived by him, the Seer continues:

“Behold, the feet of the aforementioned female image appeared to be white, giving out a brightness above that of the sun. I heard a voice from heaven saying to me: ‘Even though all things on earth are tending toward their end, so hardships and calamities is bowed down to its End, nevertheless, the Spouse of my Son, though much weakened in her children, will never be destroyed either by the heralds of the Son of Perdition or by the Destroyer himself, however much she will be attacked by them. At the End of time she will arise more powerful and more secure; she will appear more beautiful and shining so that she may go forth in this way more sweetly and more agreeably to the embraces of her Beloved. The vision which you saw signifies all this in mystic fashion.’” (Scivias 3:11; Translated by B McGinn, Visions of the End, pp101-102)

I'll leave you to consider whether elements of this vision apply to the Episcopal Church.

The Seer is Hildegard von Bingen (of course), Katharine Jefferts Schori's new "ally."

God bless,

LSP