Maundy Thursday

On the night before he suffered, Jesus instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood. In doing so Christ draws his friends, his Apostles into communion with his own paschal sacrifice. Take, eat, this is my body given for you... this is my blood shed for you, given and shed upon the cross for our redemption. 

Jesus invites us too into this saving mystery, into union with his own sacrificial action on Calvary. In the words of Austin Farrer:

"Do the disciples understand the nature of the bond? Jesus has blessed his food, to be the body he will offer in his sacrifice; do they know that they are committed to membership in such a body as that?  A body flogged, broken, crucified - see, he crumbles the loaf before their eyes.  Do they perceive the new meaning in the ancient custom, the breaking of the bread?  Are they willing to be parts of such a body, are they willing that his body, with its sacrificial destiny, should be theirs?  

The disciples were not yet fully willing, but they came to be, and so we all must; for if we do not want to be given and surrendered to God, why touch religion at all?  By partaking of the sacrificial body, we are to be made capable of sacrifice, taken up, as we are, into the sacrificial being of Christ." (From This is my Body, 1958 Eucharist Congress)

Tonight, as we watch and pray with Jesus in the Garden before his betrayal, ask him to fill our hearts with his love. The same love given on the cross and commanded of us at the Last Supper, "Love one another as I have loved you." (John 13:34-35) The same love which takes us up into the "sacrificial being" of Christ himself.

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.

God bless,

LSP

Rest In Peace John Prine

Country singer and legend John Prine died on Tuesday from Chinese Virus related illness, he was 73 years old. Out of many  excellent obits I like this.

Rest in peace and rise in glory,

LSP

Holy Wednesday Reflection

I find this helpful, perhaps you will too:

Light From Darkness

 

It is out of that uttermost gloom of My God, my God, why have you forsaken me that the light breaks. The light does not merely shine upon the gloom and so dispel it; it is the gloom itself transformed into light.  For that same crucifixion of our Lord which was, and for ever is, the utmost effort of evil, is itself the means by which God conquers evil and unites us to himself in the redeeming love there manifested.

 

Judas and Caiaphas and Pilate have set themselves in their several ways to oppose and to crush the purpose of Christ, and yet despite themselves they became ministers. They sent Christ to the cross; by the cross he completed his atoning work; from the cross he reigns over mankind.  God in Christ has not merely defeated evil, but has made it the occasion of his own supremest glory.

 

Never was conquest so complete; never was triumph so stupendous.  The completeness of the victory is due to the completeness of the evil over which it was won. It is the very darkness which enshrouds the cross that makes so glorious the light proceeding from it. Had there been no despair, no sense of desolation and defeat, but merely the onward march of irresistible power to the achievement of its end, evil might have been beaten, but not bound in captivity for ever.  God in Christ endured defeat, and out of the very stuff of defeat he wrought his victory and his achievement.

 

Archbishop William Temple (1881-1944) Mens Creatrix.

God in Christ endured defeat, and out of the very stuff of defeat he wrought his victory and his achievement.

Behold the mystery,

LSP

Devil Went Down To Georgia

Thanks for the infographic, LL, and while we're at it here's the song:

Speaking of Georgia, the Private's doing well at Ft. Gordon though he tells me Chinese Plague's disrupted the training schedule and assignment to units. There's one civilian contractor in quarantine at the base hospital. So. 

God bless,

LSP

Holy Tuesday Reflection

The many art philosophers who read this lighthearted mind blog might enjoy the Visual Commentary on Scripture (VCS). Here's an excerpt on James 1:12-27 from the VCS Holy Week series:

Another letter—the Letter of James—also highlights a choice between pathways, and Clare Carlisle Tresch’s exploration of its first chapter with the help of three works of art returns us to a consideration of ‘light’. James’s hearers are to ‘put away filthiness’ (James 1:21) and receive the gifts that come from ‘the Father of Lights’ (v.17). 

The self-enclosure of Narcissus in Caravaggio’s baroque painting has led him to turn away from the light. He is mesmerised by his own reflection, captive in the black depths of a pool. By contrast, the contemporary work of landscape sculpture by David Wood faces upwards from the waters on which it floats, fully open to the light ‘from above’ (v.17). 

The third work, a Renaissance panel by Fra Angelico, envisages what Jesus’s followers may hope for at the end of the path well chosen: the reward of those who have become ‘children of light’. They have followed the way of the cross, ‘the wisdom of God’, by which the circle of self is broken open and an encircling glory offers its embrace.

An encircling glory offers its embrace. I love that.

God bless,

LSP

Bedward The Flying preacher

There's a moral here, if you care to draw it.

LSP

Skorzeny Requiem

Otto Skorzeny, the same Otto who rescued a doomed Benito in a Fieseler Storch, went on to live and prosper. Skorzeny wasn't charged with war crimes, he lived instead in Portugal and elsewhere, and lived handsomely. Why?

Could it be that Otto was subcontracted by our own Power to do its "wetwork"? Don't say Kennedy. Instead, watch this short clip of the spec ops supremo's Requiem, and ask yourself, how many people in the funeral worked for US.

Just a thought. 

Love,

LSP

Her Majesty The Queen Addresses The Nation

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN.

LSP

God Save The Tzar

Note, they stand.

Dam straight.

LSP

Cantique de Jean Racine

Gentlemen and women, you might want to rent a blue tooth speaker for the Cantique because this version's sound challenged. Still, appropriate for the time, d'ye not think?

Some of you may be thinking muh flu, deepstate hoax. I'd urge you to go here, here and here.

Whatever the case, mourn the death of Western Christendom, what's left of her. Strive to rebuild. And remember.

An armed citizen is a citizen. Not a slave.

Your best Pal,

LSP

Walking The Eschaton

It was like a midsummer day in Borth on the Welsh Riviera. Overcast, a drizzling rain, not too cold, not too hot but no, this was North Central Texas and time to take Blue Eschaton for a walk.

The streets were empty, because of the Chinese Virus or because they always are? A mystery, and so was our old friend the Meth Shack. The Shack's under new management, who've been busy gutting the place with a view, presumably, to newer and better renters. Good luck with that worthy project.

Mourning the passing of an age, we advanced to the Pick 'n Steal. It still stands, essential business in the midst of lockdown. I tethered the Eschaton to an empty newspaper vending machine and went inside for a coffee "refill" in an invincible Yeti mug. 

The store's Owl Idol looked down with unflinching eyes on its supplicants, the usual crew of pajama wearin', slipper shufflin', lottery playin', blunt buyin' punters. There they were and there it was. Reassured that some things never change, I walked the furry apocalypse back to the Compound, mission accomplished. And then a curious thing happened.

Within a space of minutes, clouds rolled in from the north and with them a fierce wind. The temperature dropped like a stone in seconds, taking us from Borth in August to Borth in April. Fearing a Polar Vortex, I showed the Eschaton inside to warmth and safety.

Poor dog. You can imagine, centuries later, explorers discovering an elderly Heeler encased in ice, the remains of a fried cherry pie in his mouth, frozen where he stood on the awful day the Climate Changed.

That aside, I hope you've all managed to recover your firearms from the lakes and rivers and sensibly saved on SCUBA by use of powerful magnets and sturdy ropes.

God bless,

LSP

Arm Up You Fools

A lot of people lost all their firearms and ammo in boating accidents over the last year, and that's a tragedy. Maybe now's  a good time to hire SCUBA teams to salvage?

Just a thought, as looting and two-bit lawlessness starts to break out here and there. To be succinct, in the words of one of our London correspondents, "Junkies are fighting outside my window." The supply chain's diminished, you see.

Trump sends a letter to Sen. Schumer and it is worth reading in full. pic.twitter.com/jrvFnEI8oa

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 2, 2020

In other news, the Pelosi/Schumer combine have started a new impeachment drive because they can't kick the habit, viz. junkies, and 45's announced war on the cartels. Meghan Markle, on the other hand, has made a stunning debut on Disney.

Coal Burner?

Whatever. Message to market. Arm up, be prepared. It's simple math and you've lost nothing for following it. Heck, you can always shoot the rounds later if they're not needed. 

As it is, they might be.

God bless,

LSP