Wednesday, July 21, 2021
I'm Covid Confused
Monday, July 19, 2021
Sunday, July 18, 2021
A Short Sunday Evening Reflection
In today's Gospel, Mark 6:30-44, we saw Christ miraculously multiply loaves and fish to feed 5000, a physical feast which points to a heavenly one. The elements of the miracle are telling.
5 loaves for the 5 books of the Law given by God to Moses on Sinai, the law of righteousness and love spoken to by the Prophets. And so there are two fish, for the twofold summary of the divine commandments, to love God and neighbor, as enunciated by Moses and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets.
This Law is fulfilled in Christ, he is the love of God incarnate, righteousness itself, so the bread and fish ultimately represent him. Jesus, the bread of life, will miraculously feed the people of the new covenant with himself, he does so in the Eucharist. I found this helpful, from Benedict XVI:
The dual commandment to love God and neighbor encloses the two aspects of a sole dynamism of the heart and of life. Jesus thus achieves the ancient revelation, not in adding an unedited commandment, but by realizing in himself and in his own salvific action the living synthesis of the two great words of the old covenant: “You will love your God the Lord with all your heart …” and “you will love your neighbor as yourself” (cf. Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18).
In the Eucharist, we contemplate the sacrament of this living synthesis of the law: Christ gives us, with himself, the full realization of the love for God and the love for our brothers. And this love of his, he communicates to us when we are nourished by his Body and his Blood. This is when what St. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians in today’s reading is achieved: “You broke with the worship of false gods and became the servants of the living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9). This conversion is the beginning of the path of holiness that the Christian is called to achieve in his own existence.
You broke with the worship of false gods and became servants of the living and true God. This conversion is the beginning of the path of holiness that the Christian is called to achieve in his own existence. Yes indeed.
God bless,
LSP
Saturday, July 17, 2021
Some Kind of Cult?
Friday, July 16, 2021
Behold Your Rulers -- Ice Cream Edition
Your Best pal,
LSP
Thursday, July 15, 2021
Napoleon
Josephine, though most beautiful, had rotten teeth. Or so they say. There's a moral there, if you care to draw it. Enjoy the March.
LSP
Clean It Up
Wednesday, July 14, 2021
Smoke That Skeet
Someone once said, famously, Speed is fine. Accuracy is final, and skeet shooting's a bit of both, not that I'm any kind of expert. The orange bird zips out fast and you have to be on to get it. A typically quick, accurate, snap shot.
And how good when you connect and smoke the clay challenger. There's something especially satisfying about hitting that small moving target and watching it dust off. Big fun, but here's the thing, readers.
You may think, because shotgun, that pointing in the general direction and letting loose is going to work, street sweeper style. Think again. It helps to aim. Seriously. Don't forget, in the shotgunnery excitement of all, to aim. Put that bead on the bottom edge of the clay, "popsicle" it, and squeeze the trigger. A fast movement for sure, but an accurate one.
But what am I saying. All you competition shooters out there have forgotten more about the sport than I will ever know. Regardless, the misnomered White Flyers took a right beating today, not least from the kid. Great result.
Then, after a headshot plinkathon against small steel at 150 yards, .22 WMR, we headed back to base. And what a good day out in the country with guns, just sheer enjoyment. Thanks, CR, for the invite. And now?
Pork chops, Yorkshire Pudding(!), roast potatoes and all the rest. A delicious end to a great day's shoot. It's raining too, another plus. Thank you, Climate Change.
Your Pal,
LSP
Tuesday, July 13, 2021
Shoot The Guns
A new day, a new opportunity to shoot, so off we went to the range with a few guns, a 20 SxS, a 12 OU and a Marlin .22 WMR. Idea being to get some remedial shotgunnery in, and then a little plinking with the Marlin.
The range was overgrown and semi-flooded but we made it through, get a 4x4, LSP, and set up on dry ground next to a field, baking under a big Texan sky. The erstwhile Cadet went first, on the 12, and started smoking clays like a good 'un.
I followed up on the 20 and was more or less on, unlike the Specialist who specially smoked the clays with the same gun. Hmmm, improve your game, so-called "LSP." I did, and got in the zone, shooting far better to the right than left, curiously. Perhaps there's a moral in that.
A box of orange "White Flyer" over, we moved on to the little magnum, shooting off the bed of the truck. Take that, fifty yard adversary, and the kid's offhand was impressive, right in the zone. Nice work. Then it was time to head back to the Compound, a good morning well spent.
I love shooting and file this tale under guns and country life in Texas.
Shoot straight,
LSP
Monday, July 12, 2021
Fish And Fossil
"Dad, can we go fishing?" I thought for a moment, for maybe a second, "Yes, we can." Some coffee, two bacon and egg sandwiches and a relined rod later we were on our way to the lake, Lake Whitney. And after a brief pit stop at a lakeside Pick 'n Steal for fried cherry pie and a fishing license for the kid, we were at Soldiers Bluff, casting off.
Would the fish be on? Sure enough they were, right from the get go, with voracious predator perch going at the worms we were throwing into the murky, minnowed water. Tug, snap, light rod down and boom, out comes a fish. The soldier caught first, nice, and I came in not far behind.
And so passed a pleasant hour or so in the Texan sun on the side of the lake, what a lot of fun, especially given a late bite in the last half hour; fish after fish till you started to lose count. Some of them were big too, but all Bluegill. Come on, Bass, get your act together.
As we clambered up the rocks to get to the rig and home, I reminded the world that this was once the bed of a primeval, Mesozoic sea and there were fossils to be found. Sure enough, there was a junior ammonite and some petrified shells, easy to dig out of the clayish strata.
Then, "Look at this!" Lo and behold, there was a section of fossilized shell, sticking out of the rock. Pretty cool, so we went back to the truck to get some tools to excavate it.
Some well placed taps with the hammer end of an old axe on a sturdy screwdriver and there it was, freed from the rock. "What if there's more?" We tapped away, removing the stone which had once been mud, and there it was, the fossilized spiral of an ancient crustacean.
Great excitement, and the fossil's back at the Compound. The Bluegill, on the other hand, were put back to fight again another day, and maybe to keep. Tasty.
Fish On,
LSP.
Sunday, July 11, 2021
Thank You
I'd like to thank the Commentariat for all the good wishes. I was especially struck by this, from Anon:
A Soldier's life is a hard life. But there is instruction in this, for the Soldier.
This is exactly why Soldiers are necessary for freedom to survive. The minions of Myrmidon will not be driven from the land by angry girls waving posters, nor will they suddenly see the light, unless and until, the Soldier forces them to give up.
Forces them to give up. As it always was, so it is yet.
A true Soldier serves his people, an automaton serves the Power, oppressing his own people. It is ultimately the Soldier who frees his people. All the rhetoric in the world is for nought. It wasn't talk that drove the Persians from Greece, stopped the Ottomans at Lepanto, or took back Europe from the Nazis.
We are truly sorry Troop didn't get to see his kin, but, a Soldier's life is a hard life.