Sunday Sermon

 

Trads, try not to scorn me but we use the new-fangled three year lectionary in the missions, which means today's Gospel was Luke 14:1, 7-14. Here, Jesus is at a feast held by a ruler of the pharisees and he gives, on the face of it, a simple warning against pride.

When you're invited to a wedding feast don't go for the seat of honor lest you're cast down in shame to a lower place. Instead, go for the lower place and be invited up. He concludes, "He who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted."

How that must have stung in such exalted company. Woe to you pharisees! You tithe and go for the seats of honor at the synagogue, you make long prayers and while you're at it devour widow's houses. "Ye are as graves," spiritually dead.

We can imagine the dinner party's host shifting uneasily as he's served five star from his slaves, and we can also imagine the Savior holding the man's gaze, eye to eye. The Word pinning the darkness to itself, and of course the pharisee can't complain; God abhors the proud, they are repellent to him, the Law and Prophets make this clear. Our Lady exults, "He has cast down the mighty from their seat and exalted the humble and meek." But why are the proud so egregious in the eyes of God?

Because they're ugly in themselves. "Look at me, I am so very, very important," said the junior British Army officer, fresh out of Sandhurst. to the platoon and the world. I know, a certain arrogance goes with the trade, but still, no one likes that man, not me, not you, not God. Again, pride is the start of sin, a well-head of wickedness. What evil will a proud, self-obsessed, exalted man not commit? More seriously, this deluded, luciferean attitude of heart and mind, of soul, is idolatrous.

The proud man sets himself up against God, he's forgotten "it is he that hath made us and not we ourselves." And therein lies disaster, you cannot go against God, reality itself, and stand. The math doesn't work. What a warning to the pharisees, what a warning to our present age.

Are we not at the xenith, the pyramid peak of rebellion against God? What would the spirit of the age, the zeitgeist look like if was a person? Hideous thought. I tell you, its head would be so swollen with self-importance that it couldn't fit through the door posts of the narrow gate which leads to the marriage feast, to heaven. 

Caveat in mind,  what a blessing that the people of the missions and all over the world came together in humility to worship God, to adore Christ as their sovereign King and Lord, to hear his revealed Word and be nourished by the Sacrament of the Altar in which we find union with the one perfect sacrifice of our Savior.

Domine non sum dignus

May God give us the grace to go out into the world and invite the "maimed, the lame, the blind," all those wounded by sin, to the Feast, to the heavenly banquet, even as we ourselves have been invited by the author and perfecter of our faith.

Ad Maiorem,

LSP

Clubs

 

Have you noticed there's this weird axiom or principle. Viz. Don't go to war against Russia."Ha, ha!" you say, "We are so powerful now that we can defeat that puny 13 time zone state, with its peasant ways and backwards obsession with artillery." Like how weird, here's a country which actually makes shells for its guns, how primitive and stupid.

Then there's Western Europe, which has gambled for decades on never, ever having to fight another kinetic war. You know, with guns and missiles and actual soldiers. Oops.

In other news, the Eagles are gearing up for an RV in London. This means, for me, revitalizing club memberships. Witch one? I hear the yuck Reform's going cheap. Then there's the nasty National Liberal Club. Abhorrent, but think of the reciprocity.

The Bangalore Club, the Bermuda Yacht Club, our very own Petroleum, and on across the world. And you get a beautiful Thames Embankment terrace, which we love. And reciprocal at the good old East India and the nasty Army club in DC.

Ad pursuit of happiness,

LSP

Tim Page RIP

Thanks to Wild I know that legendary war photographer Tim Page has died in his late 70s, may he rest in peace. Page was remarkable for his photography of the SE Asian conflict and I wish I'd met him.

But it wasn't to be, he was doubtless more concerned with other things, like moving to Australia, curiously. Brisbane aside, Page certainly shot the war, respect.

I first heard about him from Michael Herr's psychedelic book Dispatches, which had a deleterious impact on several levels. Regardless, Page's photography was outstanding.

May he rest in peace. In related news, a Gathering of Eagles is scheduled in London Sept/Oct, depending on Whitehall. See you there, Mandarins nothwithstanding, on the steps of St. Paul's.

Lee Ho Fooks,

LSP

SHIA CONVERTS TO CATHOLICISM

 

hmmm, note WHITE WOLF

Yes, we live in an age of miracle and wonder, Shia LaBeouf has converted to traditional Roman Catholicism. No, this isn't from the Babylon Bee, the Onion or the autists at /pol, Shia's actually done it, he's embraced the Faith. Far out, it wasn't always this way:

Lampooned in the pages of this popular mind blog and relentlessly attacked by 4Chan basement dwellers, don't say Shadilay, for being a two-bit millionaire socialist fraud, Shia found his life spiraling out of control. So to save his plummeting career and possibly his life, the actor accepted a part as St. Padre Pio in an upcoming movie.

wow

Moved by the Spirit and his experience living with Capuchin friars, to say nothing of learning the Latin Mass, Shia converted. I know, you couldn't make it up if you tried, but such is grace, here's Fox, via the NYP:

“I know now that God was using my ego to draw me to Him. Drawing me away from worldly desires. It was all happening simultaneously. But there would have been no impetus for me to get in my car, drive up [to the monastery] if I didn’t think, ‘Oh, I’m gonna save my career.'” 

While researching and performing the role, however, LaBeouf said he felt “tricked” by God.

“And when I got here, a switch happened. It was like Three-Card Monte. It was like someone tricked me into it, it felt like,” the actor recounted. “Not in a bad way. In a way that I couldn’t see it. I was so close to it that I couldn’t see it. I see it differently now that time has passed.”

There is, says the Good Book, more joy in heaven over one sinner that repents than over ninety-nine self-righteous prig hypocrites that don't. And note this, all ye doomers, if it can happen to him there's hope for us all yet.

Well done, Shia, keep it up, love you brother.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Under Glowering Skies

No foreign sky protected me,

no stranger's wing shielded my face.

I stand as witness to the common lot,

survivor of that time, that place. 

(Anna Akhmatova)

What remained after the flood? For us, we few survivors? A glowering sky for sure, that much is constant.

And shacks, somehow these too remain.

As does the Dojo. Kick 'em out, kids, before you too are washed away in the flood.

But trees still stand. What happens here is that roots destroy the sidewalk which no one walks on, so the Town in its wisdom cuts down the trees. Idiots.

So back again to the Compound, unscathed, frosty, our enemy the Weather threatening. But questions remain.

Have we paid too much Climate Tax, too little, or is this an issue caused by prayer? Pray for rain, God agrees, cause and effect. Problem, solution. But note how abundantly our Creator provides this. 

Do you detect judgment?

LSP

Climate Change Eschaton

 

This small farming community in North central Texas faced down ferocious storms on Monday, but it was nothing compared to Dallas. Our Old Adversary, the Weather, changed with a vengeance and flooded the Metrosprawl.

Like no kidding. Torrential rain turned suburban streets into raging torrents and shut down the Mix Master, an insane highway complex in the center of town which is a nightmare at the best of times. A woman died in Mesquite, caught in her car as it was carried under by the current. May she rest in peace.

Even the world famous Margaret Hunt bridge was threatened with disaster as the waters rose with primal, apocalyptic fury. Yes, the levees hold, for now. And it's a here and now issue because, apparently, that's not some kind of God-given thing. Work it out, Dallas.

In the meanwhile, Ma LSP's house rests on high ground and I'll be sure to swing by and make sure all's well, safe from marauding hordes of waterborne looters. On that note, smart people are investing in BOATS.

Row Jimmy row,

LSP

Monday Admonishment

 

Who do you love? Your truck, your money, the British Army, what's left of it, the ritual of the Mass itself?, the idea of Rhodesia and the Selous Scouts? How very awesome, until it isn't.

I tell you, readers, there's no luggage rack on the back of a hearse; so store up treasure in heaven, strive for eternal value. Which reminds me of all these young brokers in London, back in the day, "Value!" they'd shout, while hoisting yet another champagne bottle before they got busted for *dealing.

Gross, eh, picture the scene, all kinds of hi-spirits. That in mind, crazy rain here and we thank God for this. Providence, kids, is both loving and implacable.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

Yet Another Sunday Sermon -- WARNING GRAPHIC

I'm not a contractor, never have been, never will be, just a humble LSP, but I do know this. 

Roddy walked into our South Ken office in '97, in tears, positively weeping, all 6.4 of him. Why? Because Lady Di had died and he'd just visited her multi-candlelit shrine. "Why are you crying, Roddy?" asked the Guv'nor. "Because she... she... died!"

Our boss paused, "But Roddy, you're a fkn arms dealer." And he was; tragedy meet mourner and, to be fair, what a neat guy. He sold missiles and drove a Porsche through West London while threatening to invite me to the Special Forces Club. 

Drive Safe.

Your Old Pal,

LSP

A Mercifully Short Sunday Sermon

“Lord, will those who are saved be few?” And he said to them, “Strive to enter by the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able." (Lk 13:22)

Strive to enter by the narrow gate. It grates against post-modernist Marcusian ears, against the culturally ascendant air we breathe  because "narrow gate" sounds dangerously like narrow-minded, and so bigoted, intolerant and hateful.

"After all," says our Ivy League uneducated friend, "I've got my truth, you've got yours. Coexist!"

What a broad path and it sounds alluring; so free and tolerant, so very narrative. But let's apply this logic to mathematics. Imagine a classroom full of young children, pronouns mixed. Their teacher asks, "You have two rainbows in the sky and you add another two rainbows, how many rainbows are there?"

An impetuous youngster raises zhir hand, "One!" A pensive girl, she/hers, utters "three," another adventurer exclaims four, another eight and an enthusiastic child offers up "eighty eight!" The teacher beams, "Children, all of you are right!" And each receives a delicious unicorn cupcake, don't say Lambeth Conference.

But look what's happened. In the name of freedom, these poor children have been denied the liberty of doing mathematics because they haven't been allowed to go through the narrow gate of correct addition. The logic of salvation's similar.

As with 2+2=4, there's one solution to paradise and that's Christ; He is the gate. Only He unites humanity to God, He alone is true God and true Man. He alone offers the perfect, sinless, atoning sacrifice to the Father for the forgivness of sins and He, and only He, rises victorious from the grave only to give His resurrected life to the faithful.

So to get to heaven, the end or τέλος of desire, we have to go through Christ, the door, the gate of the sheep, the way, the truth and the life. And we must strive to do so, to make the conscious, deliberate effort to conform our lives to His.

The Savior's grace, frightened and gentle readers, will supply the deficiency.

Here endeth the Lesson,

LSP

A Civil Disturbance

 

Remember the Cherokee Nation uprising? I do, just, and part of our people goes that way, so. Speaking of which, did you know that some 80% of US combat arms are from Texas.

Food for thought,

LSP

Italy

 

Go figure, everyone's in Italy, living large and escaping the beautiful strip malls and flyovers of our cultural ascendancy for something else, and who can blame them? 

I texted an old music buddy, who's set up in an Italian castle, "Maybe they need to turn that town square into a parking lot. Ffs, get onnit." He clicked between contracts and replied, "Look. Castle ceiling. Standard." Have a look:

Huh. But that's not all. Ma LSP and several sisters are in Italy, living it up on the Adriatic. I guess Texas wasn't good enough, they just had to go one better:

Feeling badly left out, I drove through Italy but didn't stop. Let the reader understand.

Italy Texas, a fine place to be. Then there's this town, where the kids are staying:

So unattractively awful, why hasn't this been torn down and turned into a strip mall? I mean to say, what's wrong with these people? As we reflect on that, here's a castle garden.

Soothing, don't you think?

LSP

What A Good Couple Of Days

 

It started as it often does, with a drive down I35 to the Metrosprawl, but this time in a V8 Beast, result. Objective? Set up at Dallas HQ then visit with the Bishop the next day and, the day after that go for a post-op checkup at a medico in Plano.

Two orders of business, several possible orders of outcome. So perhaps I was a little... pensive, how would it go? It went well. Had a great meeting with our outstanding new(ish) Bishop, which found financial security for Mission #1. No small thing, I live there.

And the Doc was helpful too, "You know, that was a pretty serious operation and you're healing way better than expected, I'm surprised." Result, and I drove back to base through the Tollway wasteland of North Dallas in good spirits.

Seriously, surgery's a deal. I know, we're all Warriors, but still, it's helpful to have the thing checked off by a doctor. He's Christian, to boot, and asked for permission to pray before the op, "Of course you can, I'm a priest." And there you have it, back to the sylvan boulevards of Old Hill County tomorrow.

Drive Safe,

LSP