The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, July 31, 2011 - Theodore

When [Christ] gave the bread he did not say, "This is the symbol of my body" but, "This is my body." In the same way when he gave the cup of his blood he did not say. "This is the symbol of my blood," but, "This is my blood," for he wanted us to look upon the [Eucharistic elements] after their reception of grace and the coming of the Holy Spirit not according to their nature, but receive them as they are, the body and blood of our Lord. We ought . . . not regard [the elements] merely as bread and cup) but as the body and blood of the Lord, into which they were transformed by the descent of the Holy Spirit. (Catechetical Homilies 5:1 [A.D. 405])

If it's worth doing . . .

I'd like to share a quote from Brenda Ueland’s book If you want to Write, a delightful read.

“It is our nasty twentieth-century materialism that makes us feel: what is the use of writing, painting, etc., unless one has an audience or gets cash for it? Socrates and the men of the Renaissance did so much because the rewards were intrinsic, i.e., the enlargement of the soul. Yes we are all thoroughly materialistic about such things. 'What's the use?' we say, of doing anything unless you make money or get applause? for when a man is dead he is dead.' Socrates and the Greeks decided that a man's life should be devoted to 'the tendance of the Soul' (Soul included intelligence, imagination, spirit, understanding, personality) for the soul lived eternally, in all probability. I think it is all right to work for money, to work to have things enjoyed by people, even very limited ones; but the mistake is to feel that the work, the effort, the search is not the important and the exciting thing. One cannot strive to write a cheap, popular story without learning more about cheapness. But enough. I may very well be getting to raving.”

Ueland, Brenda (2010). If You Want to Write (Kindle Locations 359-367). Wilder Publications. Kindle Edition.

Founders Friday, Friday, July 29, 2011 – John Adams

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Each individual of the society has a right to be protected by it in the enjoyment of his life, liberty, and property, according to standing laws. He is obliged, consequently, to contribute his share to the expense of this protection; and to give his personal service, or an equivalent, when necessary. But no part of the property of any individual can, with justice, be taken from him, or applied to public uses, without his own consent, or that of the representative body of the people. In fine, the people of this commonwealth are not controllable by any other laws than those to which their constitutional representative body have given their consent.

Thoughts on Government, 1776

Wacky Wednesday, Wednesday, July 27, 2011 -- Don Rickles

It's Wednesday, we'vemade it half way through the week, it's time to sit back and enjoy a laugh with Don Rickles, and another kinda famous guy.

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, July 24, 2011 – St Justin Martyr

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We call this food Eucharist, and no one else is permitted to partake of it, except one who believes our teaching to be true and who has been washed in the washing which is for the remission of sins and for regeneration [i.e., has received baptism] and is thereby living as Christ enjoined. For not as common bread nor common drink do we receive these, but since Jesus Christ our Savior was made incarnate by the word of God and had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so too, as we have been taught, the food which has been made into the Eucharist by the Eucharistic prayer set down by him, and by the change of which our blood and flesh is nurtured, is both the flesh and the blood of that incarnated Jesus. (First Apology 66 [A.D. 151]).

Founders Friday, Friday, July 22, 2011 – Elbridge Gerry

Whenever governments mean to invade the rights and liberties of the people, they always attempt to destroy the militia, in order to raise an army upon their ruins.

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Elbridge Gerry

Wacky Wednesday, Wednesday, July 20, 2011, Allan Sherman - Hello Muddah Hello Faddah (1963)

It's Wednesday, we've made it half way through the week.  It's time  to kick back and enjoy a laugh from Allen Sherman, once a very popular guy, mostly on the basis of this song.

The Early Church Fathers, Sunday, July 17, 2011 – St Cyprian

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Peter speaks there, on whom the Church was to be built, teaching and showing in the name of the Church, that although a rebellious and arrogant multitude of those who will not hear or obey may depart, yet the Church does not depart from Christ; and they are the Church who are a people united to the priest, and the flock which adheres to its pastor. Whence you ought to know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop; and if any one be not with the bishop, that he is not in the Church, and that those flatter themselves in vain who creep in, not having peace with God’s priests, and think that they communicate secretly with some; while the Church which is Catholic and one, is not cut nor divided, but is indeed connected and bound together by the cement of priests who cohere with one another. (Letters 66 [A.D. 253])

Founders Friday, Friday, July 15, 2011 – James Madison

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I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.

James Madison

Wacky Wednesday, Wednesday, July 13, 2011

It's Wednesday, we've made it half way through the week, time to sit back and enjoy a laugh with Bob Newhart.

Miscellaneous Musings, Tuesday, July 12, 2011

This is from Mark Steyn’s column Selective Shaming on National Review On Line. It seems there’s been massive test fraud on the standard achievement tests conducted by the Atlanta Public School system. It’s a clear example of the core problem with unions of any kind; the object becomes protection of the union workers and jobs and to heck with any other goal, like actually doing the job. How long will taxpayers continue to put up with this kind of thing?

The APS [Atlanta Public Schools] Human Resources honcho Millicent Few illegally had an early report into test-tampering destroyed. So APS not only got the federal gravy but was also held up to the nation at large as a heartwarming, inspirational example of how large urban school districts can reform themselves and improve educational opportunities for their children. And its fake test scores got its leader, Beverly Hall, garlanded with the National Superintendent of the Year Award, the Administrator of the Year Award, the Distinguished Public Service Award, the Keystone Award for Leadership in Education, the Concerned Black Clergy Education Award, the American Association of School Administrators Effie H. Jones Humanitarian Award, and a zillion other phony-baloney baubles with which the American edu-fraud cartel scratches its own back.


In reality, Beverly Hall’s Atlanta Public Schools system was in the child-abuse business: It violated the education of its students in order to improve its employees’ cozy sinecures. The whole rotten, stinking school system is systemically corrupt from the superintendent down. But what are the chances of APS being closed down? How many of those fraudulent non-teachers will waft on within the system until their lucrative retirements?

The Desert Fathers, Sunday, July 10, 2011 – St. Cyril of Jerusalem

O strange and inconceivable thing! We did not really die, we were not really buried, we were not really crucified and raised again, but our imitation was but a figure, while our salvation is in reality. Christ was actually crucified, and actually buried, and truly rose again; and all these things have been vouchsafed to us, that we, by imitation communicating in His sufferings, might gain salvation in reality. O surpassing loving-kindness! Christ received the nails in His undefiled hands and feet, and endured anguish; while to me without suffering or toil, by the fellowship of His pain He vouchsafed salvation.

St. Cyril of Jerusalem, On the Christian Sacraments.

One More

Here's one more bird shot from Monday.

 

Fourth of July Photos

On Monday morning we were fortunate to have a little time to sit on the back deck and enjoy some fresh air.  While out there, we were overcome by a full symphony of birds singing their morning praise.  It finally dawned on me that I might be able to get a few shots, my first bird pictures ever.

For any bird lovers, I'm sorry about my inability to identify the subjects in these few shots.  About all I can say is pretty little red bird and pretty little blue-gray bird.  Perhaps you're better informed than I.

Hope you enjoy.

 

And then, there were also a few man-made birds in the sky above. This is a USAFA glider and tow plane from the Air Force Academy cadet basic flight training activities conducted all summer long.

 

Founders Friday, Friday, July 8, 2011 – Samuel Adams

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It is a very great mistake to imagine that the object of loyalty is the authority and interest of one individual man, however dignified by the applause or enriched by the success of popular actions.

Loyalty and Sedition, essay in The Advertiser, 1748

Wacky Wednesday, Wednesday, July 6, 2011

It's Wednesday, we've made it half way through the week, time to sit back and enjoy a laugh.  Here's George Gobel, and a few other folks.

Founders Friday (On Monday), July 4, 2011

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"The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more."

John Adams, On the Declaration of Independence, Letter to Abilgail Adams, July 3, 1776

The Desert Fathers, Sunday, July 3, 2011 – St. Gregory of Nyssa

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When we lay bare the hidden meaning of the history, scripture is seen to teach that the birth which distresses the tyrant is the beginning of the virtuous life. I am speaking of the kind of birth in which free will serves as the midwife, delivering the child amid great pain. For no one causes grief to his antagonist unless he exhibits in himself those marks which give proof of his victory over the other.

St. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses.

Founders Friday, Friday, July 1, 2011 – George Washington

Speak seldom, but to important subjects, except such as particularly relate to your constituents, and, in the former case, make yourself perfectly master of the subject.