Bože! A Grace Catholic Project
Feasts and Liturgy
Disciplined Practice – Outside The Box
Those of you who also read along at Hour Of Scampering already know that for the past month I’ve been comitted to the 2011 NaNoWriMo. The challenge is to write a 50 thousand word piece of fiction. I vassilated about whether or not I would participate when I first discovered it. Which meant that when [...]
Celebrating Initiation Into the Mystery
When you enlightened all things at the time of your manifestation, the sea of unbelief ebbed away and the Jordan reversed its course, flowing uphill and carrying us to Paradise. The feast of the Theophany is not just our celebration of the revelation of the Trinity, it is also a celebration of our initiation into [...]
Nativity For The Digital Age
Last year (at least I think it was last year) this was my favoured, fun, Christmas vid. This year – Thanks to Maggie Dawn, we’ve got this clever, and quite amusing rendition of the Nativity story told in a very modern context. So (putting this in the context of theology) what effect do you find [...]
Theology of Shopping
How do you relate shopping and theology, particularly in the current “festive” season? How does living in a consumer society affect your understanding and practice of the faith?
Theology Of The Incarnation?
This essay by Giles Fraser of the Guardian was very enjoyable. Not only does he raise the interesting question about how people percieve the theology of the Incarnation, but he also draws in some interesting elements about current approaches to theology generally. As we are approaching the feast of the Nativity how do you understand [...]
St. Mary of Egypt
I’m a bit behind on things – including posts. It’s half way through Lent and I’ve not much to show for it here on site – sorry about that. Yesterday was the fifth Sunday of Lent – St. Mary of Egypt, one of my favourite saints because her story is so interesting. She was a [...]
Theophany
Perhaps the second most important feast in the liturgical cycle (Pascha being the first) today we celebrate the manifestation of the Trinity, and the philanthropy of God. “When you enlightened all things at the time of your manifestation, . . . the Jordan reversed its course, flowing uphill and carrying us to heaven.” Today is [...]
St Nicholas: “Re-claiming” Christmas
Around this time of year we often hear about “re-claiming” Christmas; often with very little effect. However, this piece by Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on a move to re-claim St. Nicholas is I think a very thoughtful and possibly one of the more effective places to start. Tweet
3.5 in 4
OK, so this morning I was struck by something as I quickly scanned the recent weeks of the Calendar project. Roughly – throughout the past four months – that is one quarter of the year – there have been on average only 3.5 commemorations per month of female saints! Obviously this is not “scientific” – [...]
What Makes “Sacred Space”?
I watched this vid from Religion & Ethics News Weekly this morning and it reminded me of the work I did when studying at Oxford on the features and functions of “Sacred Space”. What constitutes “Sacred Space” will vary from one person to the next – from one group to the next – I realised [...]
Incense: “Sacrifice Locally”
Huw had a great idea which I think is worth sharing/exploring – and that is trying to “source” sources of incense locally. He listed a few aromatic herbs like sage & juniper which are easy to grow. But I’d be curious – any other ideas? I’m going to go rummaging around my garden & herb [...]
Feast of the Dormition
Today we commemorate the falling asleep of the Theotokos – or perhaps more correctly the “apotheosis” of the Theotokos. I use “apotheosis” knowing well that it is a term often associated with Greek and Roman Paganism, however many aspects of the traditional Dormition narraitve paralells imagery of such apotheosis “narratives” as that of Antoninus Pius [...]
Saints? Why Bother?
This piece from the Guardian Belief section is rather timely given my recent experiment in posting the saint for the day – sometimes with a touch of irony, sometimes with a few related ideas. Remembering back to my childhood, listening to older OC relatives talking about (Marian) devotional practice in particular taking pains to point [...]
Fasting – Solidarity With Others
Earlier this week I posted on Feasts – and the converstaion took an interesting and unexpected direction to discuss fasting and the customary fasting periods before Pascha, and other feast days. I’ve been pondering this thread of the conversation ever since, been doing some reading too. It struck me this morning that many (if not [...]
Feasts
Only a few days now until Pentecost but here’s the question: what does a “feast” mean to you? Any feast – not just Pascha and Pentecost, Theophany and Transfiguration – but any feast, the patronal feast of your community, your name day – how do feasts “fit” into your experience of the faith? I ask [...]
Christ Is (Almost) Risen! – Oh Work With Me Jesus!
Huw, another OC/IC Easterner has created this wonderful compilation of Paschal Troparia – sit down, relax, and have a good giggle over it. Tweet
Let’s Fix Pascha! (literally)
The Irish politician Feargal Quinn has written in the Irish Times (27 March) that the EU must set a fixed date for Pascha. His argument runs that the movable date is inconvenient to parents and schools organising vacations, and time off. That it negatively affects the tourist industry, and causes inefficiency in other businesses attempting [...]
The Liturgy Bat, Swing & Miss & Swing Again
This is a follow-up post to Lyngine’s great comment (19 Dec) in the Shifting Sands thread another is on the way of a slightly different bent: Back in the late 80’s and early 90’s when I was living in DC, before I was ordained, our parish “edited” the liturgy to suit the various protest issues [...]
Unravelling the Meaning . . .
“. . . I will not reveal your mysteries to your enemies, nor give you a kiss as did Judas . . .” We had a rather interesting conversation about this line in the prayer before communion this morning at breakfast. It is a reminder that Christianity is a “mystery cult” and begs the question [...]
Happy New Year!
. . . Well almost. I’m a few day’s late I know, but the sentiment is there all the same. The liturgical new year began on Monday and, at the time, I did not have immediate access to the net. New year, new ideas, new experiences . . . renewal generally. Hey, I like it. [...]
Saint’s A’ Leaping!
So, at breakfast this morning we fell into the topic of today being 29 Feb – i.e. a leap year. I’ve seen a few humorous articles in the paper about it in the past week or so but gave it very little thought. Until this morning . . . As we were musing over it [...]
Marian Puzzle – Feast of the Presentation II
As we are still in the Feast of the Presentation I got to thinking about a train station. Yes, a train station. Every journey I make into the centre of London I pass “Ladywell” station. Some weeks ago I commented to G that I bet it was named for a well or spring associated in [...]
Feast: Entrance of the Theotokos Into the Temple
One of the bigger feasts (it lasts a week) and like many Marian feasts; the Feast of the Presentation is rooted in the 2nd century apocryphal Protoevangelion also known as the Infancy Gospel of James. As early as Origen this text has been treated as being “canonical by tradition” rather than having been included in [...]
Art On the Calendar
In January I blogged about our community’s ongoing calendar reform project, in the context of a conversation some of us were having in another forum about how our various communities adapt the liturgical cycle to reflect our OC/IC situation. In my earlier post I mentioned that it was difficult to find resources offering a varied [...]