Jesus Walks On Water - A Short Sunday Reflection

 

Thanks to our newfangled three year lectionary, we reflected on St. Matthew's account of Jesus walking on the waters of the lake, where he meets his disciples in the fourth watch of the night. There they are, a long way off from land, making no headway because the waves and the wind are against them. Terrified at the dimly seen presence of Christ they cry out, thinking they've seen a ghost. Jesus replies:

"Take heart, it is I, have no fear," Θαρσεῖτε, ἐγώ εἰμι· μὴ φοβεῖσθε. Then, after rescuing a drowning Peter, Jesus enters the floundering boat, stills the storm and the disciples worship him, "Truly, you are the Son of God." What does this teach us?

To state the blazingly obvious, that Jesus is God, Psalm 29 come to life, "The voice of the LORD is upon the waters; the God of glory thunders; * the LORD is upon the mighty waters." And that's worth the emphasis, the miracle happened, the Word made Flesh, the I AM who spoke to Moses from the burning bush, note the Greek, ἐγώ εἰμι, (I am) now speaks in power to his disciples on the water. 

The miracle is real and by it Jesus reveals himself as God to his friends so that they might put their faith in him and be saved, in this case from the storm, but we can go further. The Fathers of the early Church, no small authority, saw the miracle as an allegory or symbol of the Christian life, the life of the Church. Thus:

The disciples represent the faithful, their boat the Church, the ark of salvation. The waters of the lake are the waters of the world and its waves are its tribulations, at every level, which pound against the ship. And the wind is the tempestuous blast of Satan, who would blow the Church off-course from the far side of the lake, which is the Kingdom of Heaven, paradise.

Yes indeed. In every age the Church sets sail across the waters and is pounded by the world and by Satan, both of which hate and would destroy her. And note, apart from Christ the disciples make no headway, as Jesus says elsewhere, "I am the vine, you are the branches... apart from me you can do nothing."

Exactly, but with him, with the Lord upon the waters, we find salvation, both corporately as the Church writ large, the Mystical Body of Christ visible and militant on earth, and personally, as the Church writ small. Here Peter's experience speaks powerfully. It is a miracle within the miracle which illustrates the whole.

He glimpses Christ and hears his voice and asks, "Lord, if it's you, bid me to come to you across the water." Jesus replies, "Come." Peter does, stepping off the boat and into the water, impetuous, only to be distracted by the wind. He begins to sink, to drown, and cries out, "Lord save me!" Jesus does, he catches him and brings him to the safety of the ship.

Is this not the story of our lives? We glimpse Christ, we hear his word and Christ answers our questioning faith, "Come." So we set off across the stormy water to meet him and be with him. Then calamity, catastrophe strikes. The waves pound, the wind blows and no earthly power can save us, so we cry out with Peter, "Lord, save me!"

It's the prayer of desperate faith and Christ, in his love, mercy and strength hears that call and lifts us up from the depths, de profundis, to safety, to union with himself, and puts us back on the vessel of salvation.

I tell you, I've been there many times, no fooling, and I know you have too in far more extremis than I. But take heart, have no fear, the Lord, who is God upon the waters, is with us and is even now guiding his Church and we ourselves to the far shore of paradise. Fall down then, with the disciples in the boat, and worship the Saviour.

Here endeth the Lesson,

LSP

This - That & Cooking With LSP

 

So what's it like in LSPland? all three of you ask with bated breath. Well I'll tell you. It used to be all about horses, guns and fishing but now it's mostly about driving between the Compound and Fort Hood Cavasos on account of an indigent soldier's broken truck.

This, bizarrely, ended up  in a guerrilla shop in between Millford and Italy where cash was king. And, to be fair, they did the work for a good price and the kid's Chevy is back on the road. Right on. Millford, readers, used to look like this:

Now it looks like this:

Well done, asset strippers, you've created a wasteland where we should have flourishing small country towns. Still, there's a Tesla Tower nearby so who knows what tomorrow brings. Good question, for us today's brought venison sausage pasta.

It's an incredibly complex recipe. Shoot a deer or get someone to shoot it for you. Turn the meat into sausage. Slice the sausages up into 1" chunks, brown them with onion, garlic and olive oil. Add diced tomato, I use Roma because cheap. Behold your culinary expertise and have a glass of cold wine, it's hot as Hades and you deserve it.

Then season your cheerfully simmering sauce with ground black pepper, iodized salt, basil, chili powder and a couple of bay leaves. I use Mex come-in-a-plastic-bag variety because, again, cheap and just as good. No rule, feel free to pay more for your bay leaves, your call.

Then, after an hour or so, when the hearty sauce has simmered down and its oil's begun to separate, fire up a large pan of salted water and cook up a pack of spaghetti. Serve the venison over the pasta with freshly grated parmesan and fall upon your scoff...

Like Warriors,

LSP

STAND STEADY

 

Well done, boy, go for that commission. Keep your eye on the ball.

Just sayn'.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

BUSTED

An autistic Yorkshire teenager was arrested on Monday outside her home after telling a police persyn that she looked like a lesbian. How dare that 16-year-old female autist, who may or may not have been drinking, insult Rainbow Uk's thin rainbow line? I know you're outraged, as are we all, but the actual crime?

are you a lesbian? surely not

West Yorkshire Police tell all, suspicion of a "homophobic public order offence." There it is, "homophobic public order offense." Don't you dare, people of Yorkshire, say anything remotely rainbow offensive in public or you're going down, you hate speech word criminals.

you kinda look like a lesbian

Quite right too, and imagine how much better it'll be when there's no more cash, only facially verified central bank digital tokens. Step outta line? Criticize your beloved rulers? Sorry, hate speaker, no more buying power for you.

are you totally sure you're not a lesbian?

What a beautiful future and you'll note CS Lewis writes about it in The Abolition of Man and That Hideous Strength.  Get rid of spiritual, non-material value such as beauty, love, mercy, truth and reason and what are you left with? Not very much except demonic insanity and its insatiable pursuit of power.

We're against all that at the Compound. In the meanwhile, the hate speech criminal is out on bail. I tell you, punters, this kind of thing will come to a point.

Your Friend,

LSP

Retreat!

 

I know, "retreat" sounds bad, like some kind of defeat, but this was good, a retreat  with the local chapter of the SSC (Society of the Holy Cross) at Camp Crucis, just outside Granbury. It's a fun drive if you take the country roads, 22 and 144 through Whitney, Meridian, Walnut Springs and Glen Rose, with long stretches of empty two lane highway running through the hills.

Not so long ago this was bandit country, the notorious haunt of outlaws and bootleggers and it still has, I always think, a frontier feel. You can imagine Indians on the hills and sure enough they were there, but now Granbury's home to marauding hordes of tourists instead of Commanche war bands and the camp's pleasantly distant from that.

Our schedule was simple, Morning Prayer, Low Mass, Evensong, Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament and a series of meditations on the priesthood. Plenty of time to have fun with fellow clergy too, all united in a common love of the Faith. And no, there weren't any priestesses performing transing liturgical dance to the beat of a unicorn's hooves. That's not allowed. 

Then, all too soon, it was time to head back to the Compound, uplifted in spirit. It was good to get away.

God bless,

LSP

Stay In Your Lane - Straight Up Truth

 

Tucker interviews Ice Cube. Right on, Mr. Cube and good work Tucker for calling it as it is. Via LL and NFO:

Ep. 10 Stay in your lane: our drive through South Central LA with Ice Cube.

(next episode: Ice Cube sits down with us at his studio) pic.twitter.com/cUgCh2xccH

— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) July 25, 2023

What a great interview. I'll leave it at that. Well done Tucker and especially well done Mr. Cube. Do you think either of them will be mysteriously suicided?

Cheers,

LSP

Boys In The Hood

 

Well, not so much Hood as Cavasos because changing names and removing statues will do so much to raise the fortunes of virtue signalling hypocrite Democrats poverty stricken POCs everywhere. Except that it won't. Regardless, General Cavasos seems to have been the real deal and I enjoyed a brief tour of the post this afternoon.

The place always strikes me as well put together, unlike Killeen, and it was fun to drive around 1 Cav's enormous motor pools. Look at that, tanks! And the new JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicle) which is replacing ancient HMMVs. 

It comes in 2 and 4 seat variants and features a V8 power plant, advanced networking capability, scalable armor and can be fitted with an array of weaponry: light and heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, anti-tank missiles and more. You can read about this demonstrably badass vehicle here.

Tour over, we stopped at the PX for food, which meant something called a "Philly Cheesesteak," which is a kind of sandwich thing, for the boy and a small order of fries for me. Was it cheap? No, it was not cheap. It was expensive. Very expensive. Maybe I will apply for bankruptcy.

That's as maybe. Perhaps you remember when fast food was a quick, inexpensive variant to real food? Those days are well gone, my friends. But the kid liked it, so. And you know what? He's proud of the US Army and his post. I like that a lot.

Then it was back to 57 Signal, a fond farewell, and a drive back to the bucolic farming community that is LSPland. And all was good, with I35 strangely easy and to the West a massive Texan sun sank to the horizon, filling the air with golden light.

God Bless,

LSP

Wow - Seriously Warning Graphic

 

This is Salzburg, at a festival of culture, and what a culture it is, a demonic culture characterized by a hatred of truth, love, mercy and life which is focused on its cannibalistic hatred of children. 

Perhaps you recall this verse from the Bible, "It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones." Woe unto you by which this offence cometh. 

Woe unto you. I won't go on, you call the shot as you see it. In the meanwhile, these satans aren't even bothering to hide.

Thanks, N, for the video.

Out Demons Out,

LSP

Kaiser Hymn

 

Behold, Otto von Hapsburg is laid to rest. A friend was there, ordained by JPII no less, and loved it. Apparently people turned up in Death's Head Hussar uniforms. Respect. Regardless, here's the Kaisar Hymn:

If you scorn the above you're an utter fool. That said, can we wind the clock back to a better, more gilded and glorious age? I'd argue, no, we cannot. On topic if a bit oblique, Chesterton and Belloc argued and argued well for "swords about the Cross." 

Well said, Church Militant, and then the world turned and WWI crashed in with some 60,000 British men dying in the first day of the Somme offensive alone. All of a sudden Chester/Belloc didn't look so good.  The War, you see, caught them left-footed, military metaphor didn't look so bright and we lost faith in our culture. 

Fail. But not so fast, punters, what's wrong with being proud of your country and its tradition, what's wrong with celebrating Christian leadership, not least the Hapsburgs. Nothing at all, especially when we consider its opposite, the Godless, Satanic, kill-it-in-the womb fangs of our omnipresent Aggressor; hiding, of course, behind euphemisms and lies, like "Woman's Healthcare."

Their ruler is the Father of Lies and a murderer from the beginning. His kingdom has been broken, definitively, by the Cross. Here endeth the Lesson.

Walk in the light,

LSP

Fire

 

Remember the old line, "It's so hot the air might ignite, like a thermobaric munition"? Maybe you think that's hyperbole, think again punters. 

A friend's place caught fire yesterday afternoon while they were baling and it stopped, thank God, within 100 yards of their barn and house. In the meanwhile, some 300 acres burned; all it takes is a spark and massive failure to pay the Weather Tax. So be careful out there kids. 

On topic, learned people from the UK keep sending me Lit suggestions, books to read, and that's a very fine thing except for the fact it's hard to read here as paper tends to ignite.

Cheers,

LSP

You Miserable Offender

 

Here's how it went down. 0600 and the phone rings, "What?" slightly terse perhaps. "Hey dad, I'm at the 7-11 next to Walmart and the car won't shift out of park." Huh, I thought grimly, "So you need a ride to Fort Hood?" Sure enough, that's exactly what was needed and off I drove.

It was a good drive as the sun rose over the expanse of Texas, though I35 was crazy as usual. Then there we were at Hood or Fort Carvasio, or whatever it's called now. Seriously, how many People of Color (POC) benefited in any way, at all, from the name change?  Like wow, just look how the indigent POCs in Killeen have prospered since.

That's the thing with virtue signalling mountebanks, they come on fast with good if fatuous slogans, like Black Lives Matter. Nice, of course they do, but who actually profits? Why, the virtue signalers themselves. You'll note BLM's founders are living in mansions now, poor POCs? Not so much, they haven't received a penny. The Biblical term for this is hypocrite.

Regardless, it was good to be back at Fort Hood and the soldiery seemed well presented if preposterously young. And the malfeasant vehicle's been towed to the Compound where it sits, awaiting the attention of a mobile mechanic or, more likely, a tow to a shop on Monday. Its issue? A broken linkage cable.

Easy fix, apparently, but I'm not about to try. In the meanwhile, what can we say?

Vivat,

LSP

Dwarf Tranny

 

I know it's not very St. Sarov, but have you noticed we're throwing billions of IOU notes at interest at this East European tranny dwarf NWO puppet? 

Like no kidding, hardly a day goes by but we're sending billions of dollars to this tranny pop dwarf, and for why? Because stop evil USSR conquering Europe and turning us commie? Oops, already are, and someone please tell UKLF that 100 or so ancient tanks doesn't = viable army.

some kind of risible joke?

Risible demise of the  UK's already pathetically weak army aside, our ruling crime syndicate have nothing to declare, they're too busy indicting the only president in decades who didn't take us to war.

Punters, I say again, what utter satans.

Your cheery old pal,

LSP

PS. The UK's Wunderwaffe Challengers haven't been seen on the battlefield. Whyever not?