history – Mum's devotional

Happy Hanukkah!

December 22nd

O King of the Gentiles, yes, and their desire; O Corner-stone, that makes two of one: come to save man, whom You have made of the dust of the earth!

O Rex Gentium antiphon

We thank You also for the miraculous deeds and for the redemption and for the mighty deeds and the saving acts wrought by You, as well as for the wars which You waged for our ancestors in ancient days at this season. …You in your abundant mercy rose up for them in the time of their trouble, pled their cause, executed judgment, avenged their wrong, and delivered the strong into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of few, the impure into the hands of the pure, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, and insolent ones into the hands of those occupied with Your Torah. Both for Yourself did you make a great and holy name in Thy world, and for Your people did You achieve a great deliverance and redemption. Whereupon your children entered the sanctuary of Your house, cleansed Your temple, purified Your sanctuary, kindled lights in Your holy courts, and appointed these eight days of Hanukkah in order to give thanks and praises unto Your holy name.

Al HaNassim prayer

Because: irony. Since Hannukah starts at sunset tonight: Happy Hanukkah, or “G’mar tov” since I’m typing this and there’s no possible way for me to mispronounce it.

Here is Tom Inglis et al. (on We Are One) singing A King is Born on Youtube and Spotify respectively. This is one of the few Integrity/Hosanna songs I genuinely like.

…and here is an image of Herbig-Haro 110 from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. (Herbig Haro objects are basically like exhaust jets from a star.)

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

Paying attention

December 7th

“Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams.”

1 Samuel 15:22 (HCSB)

…You see that the sun, as it rises, shows us the size of objects which we could only make out obscurely during the night. Remember that, as the inner light increases, you will see the imperfections which you have seen heretofore as basically much greater and more harmful than you had seen them up to the present. You will find in your heart all the weaknesses which you will need to lose confidence in your strength; but this experience, far from discouraging you, will help to uproot all your self-confidence, and to raze to the ground the whole edifice of pride. Nothing marks so much the solid advancement of a soul, as this view of his wretchedness without anxiety and without discouragement.

The wise and diligent traveller watches his every step, and always has his eyes upon the part of the road directly in front of him. But he does not turn constantly backward to count every step, and to examine every track. He would lose time in going forward. A soul whom God truly leads by the hand (because I am not speaking of those who are learning to walk, and who are still looking for the road), ought to watch his path, but with a simple, serene vigilance, limited to the present, and undisturbed by self-love. It takes a continual attention to God’s will to accomplish this every moment, and not a turning back upon self to assure ourselves of our condition, while God wishes us to be unsure of it. This is why the Psalmist said, “My eyes are raised to the Lord, and it is he who will deliver my feet from the snares.”

Notice that to conduct his feet safely among roads sown with snares, instead of lowering his eyes to examine every step, he raises them instead to the Lord. We never watch over ourselves so well as when we walk with God present before our eyes, as God commanded Abraham. We should follow God’s will step by step.

Whoever conforms to it in all things watches over himself, and sanctifies himself in everything. If then we should never lose the presence of God, we should never cease to watch over ourselves, but with a simple, affectionate, serene and detached vigilance; while that other vigilance that we seek for self-assurance is sharp, uneasy and full of self-interest. It is not in our own light, but in that of God, that we must walk. We cannot see the holiness of God, without being horrified by the least infidelities. We examine ourselves, not for our own interest, but to follow the advice, and to accomplish the pure will of God. Moreover, we abandon ourselves in his hands, and we are as glad to know ourselves in the hands of God as we should be sorry to be in our own.

…Our life is a continual combat, but a combat in which Jesus Christ fights with us.

from Fenelon’s Christian Perfection (6 – Faults and Temptations)

I was pretty sure that I’d already posted part of this passage, but I couldn’t find it in my index. So, sorry if this is redundant.

Here’s Pentatonix’s God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen on Youtube and Spotify.

…and here is an image of another galactic collision (in Corvus) from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

The “First Thanksgiving”

November 28th

Now the Spirit explicitly says that in the latter times some will depart from the faith… They forbid marriage and demand abstinence from foods that God created to be received with gratitude by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good, and nothing should be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, since it is sanctified by the word of God and by prayer.

1 Timothy 4:1-5 (HCSB)

…our harvest being gotten in, our governor sent four men on fowling, so we might after a more special manner rejoice together, after we had gathered the fruit of our labors; they four in one day killed as much fowl, as served the company almost a week… many of the Indians coming amongst us, and among the rest their greatest King Massasoit, with some ninety men, whom for three days we entertained and feasted, and they went out and killed five deer, which they brought to the plantation and bestowed on our governor, and upon the captain, and others. And although it be not always so plentiful, as it was this time with us, yet by the goodness of God, we are so far from want, that we often wish you partakers of our plenty.

from Mourt’s Relation (A Letter…)

Like I was going to post anything else.

The story is cliche for a reason, okay? It’s pretty impressive that a bunch of exhausted, starving, persecuted, not-especially-skilled, English peasants managed to land in a completely unfamiliar place, with a wildly different culture, and not get themselves killed.

I mean, half of them died of terrible diseases. But, hey, it was a different time.

On that cheerful note… Happy Thanksgiving?

Working for the fruit that lasts

November 11th

…And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above. For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

2 Kings 19:29-31 (BSB)

Do you not now see the fruits of your labors, O all you servants of the Lord that have suffered for his truth, and have been faithful witnesses of the same, and the little handful amongst the rest, the least amongst the thousands of Israel? You have not only had a seed time, but many of you have seen the joyful harvest; should you not then rejoice, yes, and again rejoice and say Hallelujah, salvation and glory, and honor, and power, be to the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments.

When by the travel* and diligence of some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessing on their labors… many became enlightened by the word of God, and had their ignorance and sins revealed to them, and began by his grace to reform their lives.

from Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation (Ch. 1)

* I honestly have no idea whether ‘travell’ was supposed to be read as ‘travel’ or ‘travail’ so I just picked the one I liked best, even if it’s probably wrong.

The chapter this comes from is an explanation of how the Pilgrims left England for the Low Countries, (this is before they somehow decided that Massachusetts was a good idea), and there’s a lot about how hard life was if you weren’t part of the official church. We also skipped most of the complaining about ‘papists’ here. To be fair though, almost everyone was pretty rotten to each other, and dealing with the religio-political complex of the time had to have been deeply unfun, so I’m going to give them a pass on all the grandiose, post-exilic rhetoric they had going on there. (I wanted to subtitle this post ‘God working through crappy political scenarios and other pointless, frustrating situations caused by human self-will and selfishness,’ but apparently I have some sense of proportion left and it won’t let me.)

Anyway, Happy… Mayflower Compact-Signing Day? (Actually though, I think it was November 11th in the Julian calendar, so we’re ten days early. Oh well, no takebacks.)

Manifestation

October 16th

…the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up… [and] God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.

Exodus 3:2,14 (NIV)

…Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Acts 7:55-56 (NIV)

The infinite, inaccessible, uncreated God, through His infinite and inconceivable kindness, embodied Himself, and, if I may say so, diminished Himself from His inaccessible glory, to make it possible for Him to be united with His visible creatures, such as the souls of saints and angels, that they might be enabled to partake of the life of God-head.

In the same way, the infinite and inconceivable God in His kindness diminished Himself, and put on this body, and gathered Himself in from the inaccessible glory. How much more cannot He, who is as He will and what He will, through His unspeakable kindness and inconceivable goodness change and diminish and assimilate Himself, embodying Himself according to their capacity in holy and worthy faithful souls, that He, the invisible, might be seen by them, He, the impalpable, be felt… that they might enjoy in real experience the goodness of the light?

All things are easy to Him, and He transforms Himself into any shape He chooses for the benefit of faithful souls. For the Lord embodies Himself even in meat and drink, as it is written in the gospel, ‘He that eateth this bread shall live for ever‘ to give the soul rest unutterable, and fill it with spiritual cheer ; for He says, ‘I am the bread of life.’ He embodies Himself in the drink of a spring of heaven, as He says, ‘Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, it shall be in him a well of water springing up into eternal life,’ and ‘We have all, it says, been made to drink the same drink.‘

To each of the holy fathers He appeared in the manner that pleased Him and was best for them, in one way to Abraham, in another to Isaac, another to Jacob, another to Noe, to Daniel, to David, to Solomon, Esaias, and each of the holy prophets. To each of the saints He appeared as He pleased, to give them rest and salvation and lead them to the knowledge of God. Everything is easy to Him that He chooses. As He pleases, He diminishes Himself by some embodiment, and transforms Himself to come under the eyes of those who love Him, manifesting Himself to those who are worthy in an inaccessible glory of light, according to His great and unspeakable love, and by His own power.

from (Pseudo-)Macarius’ Homily IV

Yesterday, today and forever

August 12th

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today, yes and forever.

Hebrews 13:8 (NASB)

An imbecile habit has arisen in modern controversy of saying that such and such a creed can be held in one age but cannot be held in another. Some dogma, we are told, was credible in the twelfth century, but is not credible in the twentieth. You might as well say that a certain philosophy can be believed on Mondays, but cannot be believed on Tuesdays. You might as well say of a view of the cosmos that it was suitable to half-past three, but not suitable to half-past four. What a man can believe depends upon his philosophy, not upon the clock or the century. If a man believes in unalterable natural law, he cannot believe in any miracle in any age. If a man believes in a will behind law, he can believe in any miracle in any age. Therefore in dealing with any historical answer, the point is not whether it was given in our time, but whether it was given in answer to our question.

It is commonly the loose and latitudinarian Christians who pay quite indefensible compliments to Christianity. They talk as if there had never been any piety or pity until Christianity came, a point on which any mediaeval would have been eager to correct them. They represent that the remarkable thing about Christianity was that it was the first to preach simplicity or self-restraint, or inwardness and sincerity. They will think me very narrow (whatever that means) if I say that the remarkable thing about Christianity was that it was the first to preach Christianity. Its peculiarity was that it was peculiar, and simplicity and sincerity are not peculiar, but obvious ideals for all mankind. Christianity was the answer to a riddle, not the last truism uttered after a long talk.

from G. K. Chesteron’s Orthodoxy (Ch. 5)

Two ears, one mouth

August 6th

…if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.'”

1 Samuel 3:9 (NIV)

Prayer is not monologue, but dialogue. Its most essential part is God’s voice in response to mine. Listening to God’s voice is the secret of the assurance that he will listen to mine. “Incline thine ear and hear,” “Give ear to me,” and “Hearken to my voice” are words which God speaks to man as well as man to God. His hearkening will depend on ours. My willingness to accept His words will determine the power my words have with Him. What God’s words are to me are the test of what He Himself is to me. It shows the uprightness of my desire to meet Him in prayer.

More than once Jesus had said “Abide in me and I in you.” His abiding in us was the complement and the crown of our abiding in Him. But here He says “You in me and my words in you.” The abiding of His words is the equivalent of Himself abiding.

When God reveals Himself in His words, He does indeed give Himself— His love and His life, His will and His power— to those who receive these words, in a reality passing comprehension.

from Andrew Murray’s With Christ in the School of Prayer (Ch. 22)

I figured it was the week for folksy sound bites. …and one side of my family hails from the Midwest, so I have plenty more where that came from.

Whole Heart

July 13th

…but Hezekiah had interceded for them, saying, “May the good LORD provide atonement on behalf of whoever sets his whole heart on seeking God, even though not according to the purification rules of the sanctuary.”

2 Chronicles 30:18-19 (HCSB)

Whatever belonging to the region of thought and feeling is uttered in words, is of necessity uttered imperfectly…

Our Lord had no design of constructing a system of truth in intellectual forms. The truth of the moment in its relation to him, The Truth, was what he spoke. He spoke out of a region of realities which he knew could only be suggested—not represented—in the forms of intellect and speech. With vivid flashes of life and truth his words invade our darkness, rousing us with sharp stings of light to will our awaking, to arise from the dead and cry for the light which he can give.

How, then, must the truth fare with those who build intellectual systems upon the words of our Lord, or of his disciples? A little child would better understand Plato than they St. Paul. The meaning in those great hearts who knew our Lord is too great to enter theirs. The sense they find in the words must be a sense small enough to pass through their narrow doors. And if mere words, without the interpreting sympathy, may mean, as they may, almost anything the receiver will or can attribute to them, how shall the man, bent at best on the salvation of his own soul, understand, for instance, the meaning of that apostle who was ready to encounter banishment itself from the presence of Christ, that the beloved brethren of his nation might enter in? To men who are not simple, simple words are the most inexplicable of riddles.

If we are bound to search after what our Lord means —and he speaks that we may understand— we are at least equally bound to refuse any interpretation which seems to us unlike him, unworthy of him. To accept that as the will of our Lord which to us is inconsistent with what we have learned to worship in him already, is to introduce discord into that harmony whose end is to unite our hearts, and make them whole.

Words for their full meaning depend upon their source, the person who speaks them. An utterance may even seem commonplace, till you are told that thus spoke one whom you know to be always thinking, always feeling, always acting. Recognizing the mind whence the words proceed, you know the scale by which they are to be understood. So the words of God cannot mean just the same as the words of man. “Can we not, then, understand them?” Yes, we can understand them—we can understand them more than the words of men. Whatever a good word means, as used by a good man, it means just infinitely more as used by God. And the feeling or thought expressed by that word takes higher and higher forms in us as we become capable of understanding him,—that is, as we become like him.

from George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons (Vol. 1, It Shall Not Be Forgiven)

Magnify by We Are Messengers

Looking underneath the underneath

March 23rd

“Do not consider his appearance or his height… [because] the LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.”

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet… after he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. …because he poured out his life unto death… and made intercession for the transgressors.

from Isaiah 53 (NIV)

So… more poetry, but sneakily disguised as scripture. Clever, eh?

I sort of fell in love with Isaiah early in my reading career because English doesn’t really have a lot of good long (finished) poems. (I am so sorry Aunt D, but the Song of Hiawatha just doesn’t count.) Basically, it’s Paradise Lost or digging back into the Old English corpus.

So I definitely give the translators of the King James credit for some of Isaiah, even if that’s sort of cheating.

…and because I can’t help myself: All We Like Sheep Have Gone Astray on Youtube and Spotify respectively. (Handel did other portions of Isaiah 53, but, honestly, none of them are as fun as that chorus.)

Want to do great things for God? Clean your room ;)

March 21st

…whatsoever is done of charity, be it never so little and contemptible in the sight of the world, it becomes wholly fruitful. For God weigheth more with how much love a man worketh, than how much he doeth. He doeth much that loveth much.

from The Imitation of Christ (Book 1, Ch. 15)

Naaman, commander of the army for the king of Aram, was a man important to his master and highly regarded because through him, the LORD had given victory to Aram. The man was a valiant warrior, but he had a skin disease.

Aram had gone on raids and brought back from the land of Israel a young girl who served Naaman’s wife. She said to her mistress, “If only my master were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would cure him of his skin disease.”

So Naaman went and told his master what the girl from the land of Israel had said. Therefore, the king of Aram said, “Go, and I will send a letter with you to the king of Israel.” So he went and took with him 750 pounds of silver, 150 pounds of gold, and ten sets of clothing.

He brought the letter to the king of Israel, and it read:

When this letter comes to you, note that I have sent you my servant Naaman for you to cure him of his skin disease.

When the king of Israel read the letter, he tore his clothes and asked, “Am I God, killing and giving life that this man expects me to cure a man of his skin disease? Recognize that he is only picking a fight with me.”

When Elisha the man of God heard that the king of Israel had torn his clothes, he sent a message to the king, “Why have you torn your clothes? Have him come to me, and he will know there is a prophet in Israel.”

So Naaman came with his horses and chariots and stood at the door of Elisha’s house.

Then Elisha sent him a messenger, who said, “Go wash seven times in the Jordan and your skin will be restored and you will be clean.”

But Naaman got angry and left, saying, “I was telling myself: He will surely come out, stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, and wave his hand over the place and cure the skin disease.

“Aren’t Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Couldn’t I wash in them and be clean? ” So he turned and left in a rage.

But his servants approached and said to him, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do some great thing, would you not have done it? How much more should you do it when he only tells you, ‘Wash and be clean’? ”

I felt like the whole chapter was a bit too long to post, and I’m pretty sure everybody knows how the rest of the story goes, but just in case, here’s 2 Kings 5. (Worth the read. Plus, you know, there’s the omake with leprous Gehazi at the end. Way better than Miriam’s.)