Some New Music Worth Buying
When I'm able to scrounge up enough pennies to afford a new CD or two I think I'm going to purchase one or two of the following:
Queens of the Stone Age: Songs for the Deaf. I've only heard one track, but it's pretty phenominal what Dave Grohl accomplishes on the drums. I think the disc might be worth the price just for that (it's rare these days for real solid drumming to displayed, even in rock music).So when's that big check coming from the California State Lottery? ...oh, er, that's right...I don't play the lottery.A CD I'll purchase for sure at some point is Cold Play's new one: A Rush of Blood to the Head. I had their first one (Parachutes), and it was a very strong album; from what I've heard this new one is yet a major improvement on the first.
Radiohead is in the studio, so new material from them is welcomed greatly.
I'm excited too about the posthumous release by Jeff Buckley, called: Songs to No One, although some of the reviews are less than positive.
now what?
Some Greek
IC XC NIKA means: Jesus Christ, Victory/Conqueror
Old Bones Mean a lot to us Christians
"James the son of Joseph" inscribed on an ossuary found. Read more.
St. James remembered
Continuing a tradition that's nearly 2000 years old, the Orthodox Church commemorated the life of St. James on Tuesday, October 23rd. This commemoration was observed in part by a Tuesday morning liturgy that traditionally carries his name. The liturgy of St. James is one of the oldest liturgies of the Church.
James (not the Saint) wrote some interesting words concerning the St. James.
Francis Schaeffer's Son Speaks Out
In a book called Dancing Alone; The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion Francis's Schaeffer's son, Frank Schaeffer, writes about his journey from Protestantism to Orthodoxy. The book thus far, though written from a laymen's perspective and though at some points it digresses into unnecessary tirades, is a very well written and fascinating read that resonates well with my own thoughts and beliefs concerning Protestantism.
In a chapter that primarily discusses the error of schism inherrant in the acts of the "Reformation" he quotes some church fathers with biting poignancy.
You ought to have been ready to suffer anything whatever rather than split the Church of God, and martyrdom to avoid schism woud have brought you as much honor as martyrdom to escape idolatry-- I should say more. For in the latter case a man is martyred to save his own single soul, in the former to save the whole Church. ~~ Dionysius (Bishop of Alexandria) writing a reprimand to Novatus (Circa A.D. 166).St. Cyprian of Carthage wrote in A.D. 251:
If someone does not hold fast to this unity of the Church, can he imagine he still hold to the faith? If he resists and withstands the Church, can he be confident that he is in the Church, when the blessed Apostle Paul teaches this very thing and displays the sacred sign of unity when he says: 'One Body and One Spirit, One hope of your calling, One Lord, One faith, One Baptism, One God?'...The Episcopate is one, of which each bishop holds his part within the undivided structure...the Church is also one.To demontrate the contrast between the church father's insistance upon church unity and the Protestant break, Frank Schaeffer makes the following point:
Barely eighty years after the beginning of the so-called Reformation, the various Protestant sects had already split into more than 280 denominations. Even the most committed Protestant must have been grieved to see the one thousand five hundred years of essential sacramental unity, destroyed in less than eighty.Keep in mind that literally just after the Reformation had begun there was intense debate between Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli over the presence of Christ in the Eucharist: a topic which for 1500 years was not called into question by virtually anyone.
In 1989 the U.S. government released a staggering statistic: there are some 23,000 Protestant denominations claiming to be Christian. Hm. Lord have mercy on us all.
On Icons
A quotation of V.V. Weidle's book The Baptism of Art.
The icon is also a fruit of this renewal of art and its appearance is inextricably connected with the unveiling in the Church's consciousness of the meaning of the Incarnation: the fullness of the Godhead that dwells corporeally in Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the Man Christ reveals Him in full. An image of the Man Jesus is therefore an image of God, for Christ is the God-Man. If the material universe and its matter can be sanctified by grace of the Holy Spirit, and in feeding our bodies also feed the "whole man" in God's conception of him as an incarnate spirit; if the water of baptism grants us forgiveness of sins; if the bread and wine of the Eucharist make present to us the Body and Blood of Christ, then a portrayal of Christ, the product of human art, may also be filled with the grace of His presence and power-- may become not only an image but also a spiritual reallity. In the icon there is at once a further revelation of the profundity of the dogma of Chalcedon and the gift of a new dimension in human art, because Christ has given a new dimension to man himself.Amen.
Plenty to offer
Interested in Biblical enrichment? St. Paul's Orthodox Church has much to offer:
Sunday morning 8:45am: Orthos (prayer service); a great time to prepare for liturgy, repenting of sins, reflecting on God's grace, etc.
10am Divine Liturgy. Like nothing else on Earth.
Monday 7-7:30pm Small Compline (prayer service).
7:30pm Monday night Bible study (currently studying Hebrews). Lead by Fr. Timothy, will certainly be a valuable exercise.
Tuesday Nov 5th (first Tuesday of each month) St. Paul's and St. John Neuman's (Romanist) book club. (We're currently reading Augustine's Confessions.) This may be the only club of its kind (at least in Cali). Catholics and Orthodox come together to discuss great books of Christianity.
Wednesday 7pm Orthodoxy 101. A study of Orthodoxy. Great stuff, lead by Fr. Steve.
Thursday 7:30pm Orthodox Christian Fellowship; Bible study for those between the ages of 25-35 (but really all are welcomed.) Dean Langis, who leads the group, provides great insight and demonstrates a vast knowledge of the Church Fathers.
I invite any and all who would like to attend (even just once). Drop me a line, or just show up, everyone there will be happy to have you. Check out their website: I listed but a few of the great programs offered by the church.
Novel Protestant Practice
More Schaff:
the theology of the fathers still less accords with the Protestant standard of orthodoxy. We seek in vain among them for the evangelical doctrines of the exclusive authority of the Scriptures, justification by faith alone, the universal priesthood of the laity; and we find instead as early as the second century a high estimate of ecclesiastical traditions, meritorious and even over-meritorious works, and strong sacerdotal, sacramentarian, ritualistic, and ascetic tendencies, which gradually matured in the Greek and Roman types of catholicity. The Church of England always had more sympathy with the fathers than the Lutheran and Calvinistic Churches, and professes to be in full harmony with the creed, the episcopal polity, and liturgical worship of antiquity before the separation of the east and the west; but the difference is only one of degree; the Thirty-Nine Articles are as thoroughly evangelical as the Augsburg Confession or the Westminster standards; and even the modern Anglo-Catholic school, the most churchly and churchy of all, Ignores many tenets and usages which were considered of vital importance in the first centuries, and holds others which were unknown before the sixteenth century. ~~Section 160. Vol. IITo the Orthodox such disparity with the early church fathers is troubling.
Of Interest
In Vol II, section 154 of the HOCC Schaff makes the following statement concerning the formation of doctrine concerning redemption:
If any one expects to find [during the Ante-Nicene age], or in any of the church fathers, Augustin himself not excepted, the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone, as the "articulus stantis aut cadentis ecclesiae" be will be greatly disappointed. The incarnation of the Logos, his true divinity and true humanity, stand almost unmistakably in the foreground, as the fundamental truths. Paul’s doctrine of justification, except perhaps in Clement of Rome, who joins it with the doctrine of James, is left very much out of view, and awaits the age of the Reformation to be more thoroughly established and understood.
I'd love to go
If only we could spare the funds. Perhaps student tickets might work out.
Sun.: Requiem Mass. The William Hall Master Chorale and Chapman University Choirs perform Verdi’s version of a death dirge. How befitting it is that this piece is the final eulogy for Maestro Hall’s career as music director for the Chorale. Join the 400-plus members of the Alumni Choir in this lament, 7:30 p.m. $20-$60.