The boys just finished Vacation Bible School at our Catholic Church. They'd done VBS earlier in the summer at the Lutheran church. Rob picked them up on their last day, and when I got home from work, he said to me "That VBS was so.... CATHOLIC. I don't get it. What's with Catholics and all the bling. The boys came home with St. Joseph medals. I don't understand what that's all about."
And sure enough, there were my boys, shirtless, running around the yard with garish gold chains around their necks, each sporting an oversized medal with St. Joseph holding the baby Jesus on it.
My reply? "Well, St. Joseph was Jesus' FATHER. He protected him, provided for him. Was a faithful dad. Isn't that something worth remembering and reminding ourselves about?"
"I mean - I'm not saying it's wrong. It's just so different than what I'm used to! Why do you need all that stuff? They didn't get saints medals when they went to the Lutheran VBS. "
This was true, and I told him that it was a cultural thing. A "heritage" thing that Catholics have practiced for hundreds of years. I myself have a necklace with medals of Our Lady of Guadaloupe, the Infant of Prague, a Guardian Angel, and the Sacred Heart of Jesus on it. But how does a person explain it to someone for whom it is SO outside their normal?
Rob went on. "It's like in the Catholic church has this cast of characters, when I'm used to thinking only about Jesus. I worry about the characters being a distraction, when all that's really important is that relationship to Jesus."
I couldn't deny this. He was absolutely right. But I guess I don't see the cast of characters as a distraction, but rather an example pointing the way. I told him that Jesus was fully divine and fully human, and we always strive to emulate Him, but... He was DIVINE. And SINLESS. Sometimes, we need the example of a mere mortal's response to Jesus. Like we're telling ourselves "See? I know we're flawed human beings. But, by God's grace, we human creatures are ABLE to have an amazing relationship with the Savior. Just look at those who did!" And we bring up Mary, who said "yes" to being the vessel to bring Him into the world, and Joseph, who accepted the responsibility of caring for Him as a child, and John the Baptist, who prepared the way, and Paul and Peter, and countless others that we read about in scripture. Those who made mistakes, and stumbled, just like we do, but in the end responded as God wanted them to. And those examples didn't just stop when the "book" was published. Those examples of Christians who responded to Jesus' call continued throughout history. Pointing the way to salvation, to Christ. And when we recite the Creed and talk about the "Communion of Saints" -- THAT is what it is!! We are all brothers and sisters in Christ, whether we lived 1000 years ago, or today. And we pray for each other, support each other, help each other to grow closer to Christ. Just as my father-in-law always tells my mother-in-law "if you make it there first, put in a good word for me", those that go before are still connected to us. Alive or dead - members of the same family. And just as we might have a picture of Grandpa in a locket around our neck, or wear the ring that used to be grandma's... it's a reminder. To make us feel closer to that person. When we invoke a saint, we are not worshipping them by any means. We are asking them to pray for us, just as I would ask for prayers from anyone alive today. "Pray for me, to the Lord our God. You are my brother or sister in Christ. Please pray for me."
But still - it is a cultural thing to feel so connected to the Christians that went before. To the geneological roots of our family. And to many, it is different, awkward, distracting. I understand that.
I recently posted a video on this blog about a Pentecostal minister who, along with most of his congregation, converted to Catholicism. Interestingly, he made a statement at one point that struck me as utterly true.... he said that getting to the Catholic church theologically was EASY. He just had to study history to come to that conclusion. When this group of people actually entered the church, though -- they most struggled with the CULTURE. They were used to singing loudly, hands in the air or clapping. They were used to fiery sermons, exclamations full of fervor. Sitting through a quiet, meditative liturgy was so FOREIGN, it was hard to take. My husband talks of the same thing. The Mass is so FOREIGN to him, the feel of it so different than what he is used to, it's really hard.
"I don't think I'll ever get used to it", he has told me. "It doesn't speak to me, it doesn't fire me up like a good sermon and good music do. It may be universal and timeless, but doing the same thing over and over makes it so you just don't FEEL it anymore". I get this, too. God created us to appreciate music, He created us to respond emotionally to words, to atmosphere. I feel close to God whether I'm in the Lutheran or the Catholic church. I know that He is there. And if He's THERE, regardless of location, why then, do I insist on dragging my family to Mass every other week? To not devoting us fully to one church or the other? And to that, I can only respond... theology. The FULLNESS of that theology. Not "90%" of it. Even though God is there in that "90%". Because if I'm not "100%", I feel like a hypocrite, saying that I believe the 100% but practicing only 90% of it. I want ALL of it.
I read a book just recently called "Limbo", an autobiography of a devout Catholic girl growing up in Wisconsin, an accomoplished piano player who was on track to becoming a concert pianist, when she was struck with a debilitating illness that put her in a wheelchair, and robbed her of the ability to walk or use her hands. She referred throughout the book to her faith in the past tense, which I found disturbing. Describing her faith as a young adult, she talked about the God in which she had believed. Sure enough, as the story progressed, it became evident that she eventually lost her faith completely. One day, while sitting in a concert - the same day she decided to give up the piano - she just.... let it go. She didn't want it anymore. There wasn't some theological crisis, some extreme hurt or some deep revelation. She just simply gave it up, this belief in God that she'd held so dear for the first 20 years of her life. It was a burden to her, and she didn't want it anymore. For some reason, that just hit me really hard. Is it possible that I, some day in the future, could just "give up" my faith, see it as a burden, a set of rules, that I choose not to follow anymore? I pray to God that that never happens to me. Never happens to my family. It was tragic, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.
But that's when I realized that this woman's faith had always been cultural. She had the trappings of faith... she had come from a devout family, she had attended church regularly, she said her prayers, and lived the life she was supposed to live. And when she gave it up, THAT is what she gave up. The culture. Because her faith never moved beyond that. It was a way of life, and nothing more.
Whenever I have doubts - and they are inevitable, those questions of "what if I'm WRONG? What if all of us are WRONG?" - there are certain things that immediately pop into my head to refute those doubts. Undeniable things. Concrete things. Like the miracles that have happened in our lives. My son's healed kidney, the prophecy of Reagan's birth. I can't deny those. I was THERE, I witnessed them with my own eyes, and they can't be explained by any other means. Just as in Biblical times, the miracles bear witness to the truth. And I stop to think of the bigger questions - I step outside the church walls, and look at our world, and I SEE how there is a God. That any other explanation for this world, this Universe, can only be incomplete or wrong. And if there's a God, would He send His son? The evidence for Christ, when one stops to actually LOOK at it, is compelling. SOMEONE came, SOMEONE caused quite a stir, that changed the history of the world FOREVER. That could not have been just "some nice guy", some normal rabbi. There's the Shroud of Turin, the Veil of Manopello. How do we explain those? We can't. So if there's a God, if there's a Jesus, then what of the Church? And that's when I go back and read the writings of the Early Church, and I know. We aren't WRONG. There is a TRUTH. And I have blessedly, thankfully, by the grace of my Father, found it. It's not simply what was handed down to me from my parents, although I am eternally grateful that it WAS. It is more than that now, as an adult. It is sown in my heart, in my head. I am imperfect in it's practice, and at times stifle it's growth in my life. I don't live this TRUTH fully in my life at every moment, but it is HERE. I KNOW IT. It is WITH ME. And I am so grateful. And I pray , pray, pray that this TRUTH takes root in my children as well, never to be shaken loose. They will need it desperately in this life, to lead them safely to the next. It's more than trappings, more than culture - although that is an inevitable part of it. It is the WAY. He is the WAY.
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Alex Jones on the Early Church
Excellent talk by a pentecostal minister on the influence of the Early Church, and how reading about it changed his life.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Bedtime Theology
"Mom, if it was God's plan that Jesus was supposed to die for us, why is Pontius Pilate in Hell?"
Okay. Where does this stuff come from? I mean, the kid is SIX YEARS OLD, and spends most of his day talking about farts. I actually DID ask him where that question came from, and he said "I don't know. I was just wondering about it."
Wow. Sheesh. If he was going to ask such good questions, I was going to have to come up with some pretty good answers.
"Well, first off, no one knows whether or not Pontius Pilate is in Hell. Only God knows that. And second... God doesn't make anyone do anything. But He knows what choices we're going to make before we make them, and sometimes He can take our BAD choices, and turn them into GOOD things, by using them to accomplish the things that He plans to do. "
It was the best explanation I could come up with, taken aback as I was by the very question. He seemed to understand the simple answer, and was content with that.
The faith of a child. There's definitely more there than meets the eye.
How I pray that my children keep their faith as they grow.
The Blessings of Discomfort
I read a blog post recently about a woman who didn't go to her 20th high school reunion because she had felt so miserable in highschool (she had WANTED to be a cheerleader, and WASN'T!) that she didn't want to relive the pain. She had so wanted to be popular, and go to parties, and date lots, but didn't.... and so had hated highschool. She was talented, funny, and had good, close friends, but wasn't "popular" by her own standards. In many ways, her experience was my experience... with one crucial difference. I wasn't miserable not being popular. Now, as an adult.... I see what a blessing it was to NOT be.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think there's quite enough money in the world to lure me back into highschool. I still have a recurring dream wherein, as a college-educated adult, it's discovered that I (GASP) hadn't completed a semester of highschool, and I have to go back! It's never a good dream, and usually consists of me getting lost in the hallways, forgetting my locker combination, and having to take a calculus exam after not attending the class for an entire semester. I fully admit that I do not miss highschool. Not one. little. bit.
In my real, non-dream junior high and highschool days, I was painfully shy. PAINFULLY. Like, it physically hurt at times. I remember distinctly the first day in my new junior high, pretending that I wasn't there, that I was merely an observer to what was going on. I remember getting flustered when someone spoke directly to me. I remember the awkward dread of being in a room full of unfamiliar people, and not having the slightest inkling on what to say or how to act. It improved some over the next few years, but by the time highschool came around, and there was to be a new transition, I made a conscious decision to reinvent myself into a vivacious, beautiful, popular-acting person. Like my sisters - both of who WERE cheerleaders and popular. I changed my look, bought miniskirts and big earrings. I walked down the hallway, making eye contact (!!!) with others. And.... I failed miserably. Because I didn't know how to be that person, and I ended up losing my sense of self so drastically that I slipped into a depression for months on end. I slept all the time. I withdrew. I became quiet and sullen - even with my family. And then, one day the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I had realization. A God-given realization about myself. I.... am a NERD. End of story. I liked to read. I liked BAND. I liked being goofy and immature. I liked hanging out with my parents. And I liked getting good grades. Big. Deal. It was incredibly freeing, this self-acceptance. Like a big weight being lifted off of me. I didn't have to try and be something I wasn't. I was only me -- nerdy, goofy, awkward, goody-two-shoes me. When others were sneaking alcohol at the back of the bus - I refused. While a good friend of mine ended up pregnant at 17, I had just had my first, innocent kiss. While others were out partying, I was at home watching movies with a few good friends. And it was OKAY.
The other thing this self-realization did for me was stopped me from focusing on MYSELF. I was able to "get over myself" so to speak. Being that miserable was very much a form of self-centeredness. Being hypercritical of oneself is just as self-centered as being vain. And I realize now, regardless of how uncomfortable this introvertedness was THEN, what a blessing it was. It was a gift from God, protecting me from temptations that others had to deal with. He granted me my few close friends who I still keep in contact with today. I'll take those few, deep friendships over scores of shallow ones any day.
Much in our life is the same way. We who are blind to God's plans don't necessarily understand what life event's are meant to teach us. I'm reminded of Corrie TenBoom, during her time in a German concentration camp.... she thanked God every day for the lice she and her cellmates suffered with. LICE. Because the lice kept the prison guards at bay, and that allowed them some sembelance of freedom from the guard's constant supervision and torture.
I have had heartbreak in my life. Difficulties, tribulations. Minor in comparison to some (even most), I admit readily. I have been overwhelmingly blessed. As I struggle through each difficulty life has to offer, though, I am slowly learning that sometimes, there are blessings hidden there as well. Once, during a miscarriage, I remember crying to a friend that the hardest part of losing the baby was that I couldn't see God's plan, because I knew it was there, but I didn't know what it was. After the birth of my last child, the purpose of that miscarriage became abundantly clear. Not that God WANTED my baby to die. But He used the experience to manifest His glory.
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships - so that we may live deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people - so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war - so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world - so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen.
Don't get me wrong. I don't think there's quite enough money in the world to lure me back into highschool. I still have a recurring dream wherein, as a college-educated adult, it's discovered that I (GASP) hadn't completed a semester of highschool, and I have to go back! It's never a good dream, and usually consists of me getting lost in the hallways, forgetting my locker combination, and having to take a calculus exam after not attending the class for an entire semester. I fully admit that I do not miss highschool. Not one. little. bit.
In my real, non-dream junior high and highschool days, I was painfully shy. PAINFULLY. Like, it physically hurt at times. I remember distinctly the first day in my new junior high, pretending that I wasn't there, that I was merely an observer to what was going on. I remember getting flustered when someone spoke directly to me. I remember the awkward dread of being in a room full of unfamiliar people, and not having the slightest inkling on what to say or how to act. It improved some over the next few years, but by the time highschool came around, and there was to be a new transition, I made a conscious decision to reinvent myself into a vivacious, beautiful, popular-acting person. Like my sisters - both of who WERE cheerleaders and popular. I changed my look, bought miniskirts and big earrings. I walked down the hallway, making eye contact (!!!) with others. And.... I failed miserably. Because I didn't know how to be that person, and I ended up losing my sense of self so drastically that I slipped into a depression for months on end. I slept all the time. I withdrew. I became quiet and sullen - even with my family. And then, one day the summer between my sophomore and junior year, I had realization. A God-given realization about myself. I.... am a NERD. End of story. I liked to read. I liked BAND. I liked being goofy and immature. I liked hanging out with my parents. And I liked getting good grades. Big. Deal. It was incredibly freeing, this self-acceptance. Like a big weight being lifted off of me. I didn't have to try and be something I wasn't. I was only me -- nerdy, goofy, awkward, goody-two-shoes me. When others were sneaking alcohol at the back of the bus - I refused. While a good friend of mine ended up pregnant at 17, I had just had my first, innocent kiss. While others were out partying, I was at home watching movies with a few good friends. And it was OKAY.
The other thing this self-realization did for me was stopped me from focusing on MYSELF. I was able to "get over myself" so to speak. Being that miserable was very much a form of self-centeredness. Being hypercritical of oneself is just as self-centered as being vain. And I realize now, regardless of how uncomfortable this introvertedness was THEN, what a blessing it was. It was a gift from God, protecting me from temptations that others had to deal with. He granted me my few close friends who I still keep in contact with today. I'll take those few, deep friendships over scores of shallow ones any day.
Much in our life is the same way. We who are blind to God's plans don't necessarily understand what life event's are meant to teach us. I'm reminded of Corrie TenBoom, during her time in a German concentration camp.... she thanked God every day for the lice she and her cellmates suffered with. LICE. Because the lice kept the prison guards at bay, and that allowed them some sembelance of freedom from the guard's constant supervision and torture.
I have had heartbreak in my life. Difficulties, tribulations. Minor in comparison to some (even most), I admit readily. I have been overwhelmingly blessed. As I struggle through each difficulty life has to offer, though, I am slowly learning that sometimes, there are blessings hidden there as well. Once, during a miscarriage, I remember crying to a friend that the hardest part of losing the baby was that I couldn't see God's plan, because I knew it was there, but I didn't know what it was. After the birth of my last child, the purpose of that miscarriage became abundantly clear. Not that God WANTED my baby to die. But He used the experience to manifest His glory.
May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships - so that we may live deep within our hearts. May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people - so that we may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war - so that we may reach out our hand to comfort them and to turn their pain into joy. And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in the world - so that we can do what others claim cannot be done, to bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.
Amen.
Monday, June 13, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
From the Mouths of Babes, Redux
I know I've said this before - lots of times - but it happened again. My child popped off with a Biblical truth that surprised the pants off of me, because it was profound and completely unexpected. The scenario? Riding in the car, all three kids in tow, listening to the radio. This is what Quinn says from the back seat....
Quinn: "Mom, it's really true that we don't always understand what we're saying and doing when we go to church."
Mom: "Uh, yeah."
Quinn: "I know something that we say that alot of people don't understand... what it means to be 'born again'."
Mom: (utterly surprised at the entire conversation) "You're right Quinn. Alot of people don't know what that means, even if they think they do."
Quinn: "I know what it means."
Mom: "You do?"
Quinn: "Yes. We become 'born again' when we become a child of God."
Mom: "Yup. When does that happen?"
Quinn: "When we're baptized."
Mom: "Exactly."
I am the fist to admit that my children are FAR from holy. Mischieveous, yes. Over-exuberant, yes. Holy??? Not so much. BUT, they continue to amaze me at the level of their understanding, and at the simplicity and profound TRUTH of their faith. They GET IT, in a way so many adults don't. And they're only six. And it's really not because of anything I taught them. They just KNOW somehow. And it pops out at the most unexpected times.
Quinn: "Mom, it's really true that we don't always understand what we're saying and doing when we go to church."
Mom: "Uh, yeah."
Quinn: "I know something that we say that alot of people don't understand... what it means to be 'born again'."
Mom: (utterly surprised at the entire conversation) "You're right Quinn. Alot of people don't know what that means, even if they think they do."
Quinn: "I know what it means."
Mom: "You do?"
Quinn: "Yes. We become 'born again' when we become a child of God."
Mom: "Yup. When does that happen?"
Quinn: "When we're baptized."
Mom: "Exactly."
I am the fist to admit that my children are FAR from holy. Mischieveous, yes. Over-exuberant, yes. Holy??? Not so much. BUT, they continue to amaze me at the level of their understanding, and at the simplicity and profound TRUTH of their faith. They GET IT, in a way so many adults don't. And they're only six. And it's really not because of anything I taught them. They just KNOW somehow. And it pops out at the most unexpected times.
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Mother's Day
Colby, at our Mother's Day luncheon with the family today, unexpectedly launched into a long description of a recent dream that he had.
Colby: "Mom, I dreamt that we had two babies instead of one, and that she was like you and was an identical twin."
I stopped cold. What was he talking about?
Me: "So, this was your dream?"
Colby: "Yeah, but it seemed really real. Not just like a dream. There were two babies, and they were identical and looked exactly alike, but one lived with us, and one lived in a house in the woods."
Me: "Was it me and Aunt Elle? People used to say we looked alike."
Colby: "No, it wasn't her. It was our baby that looked like you, and she had an identical twin, who lives in the woods now, in a house."
I gave a pointed look across the table at Rob ("are you hearing this???"), but he couldn't make out the conversation above the noise. I was flabbergasted.
What Colby DOESN'T know, because I don't think we ever discussed it with him, and he was 3 years old when it happened, so he COULDN'T know (could he?) - is that Reagan was an identical twin, and we miscarried her sister early on in the pregnancy. We DID have "two babies", and one DOES live with us, and the other doesn't. The other thing that struck me is that he didn't say the baby was REAGAN. He called her "the baby that looked like you". A few years ago before Reagan was born, I had an autistic boy predict her birth, down to the month, by saying that we'd have a "girl who looked like you", to be born in November. Colby used the same phrase, which I found odd. Obviously the little girl in his dream didn't look exactly like Reagan looked now, because he equated to her looking like ME, not Reagan. And even though he kept talking about "two babies", his description led me to believe that they were older girls that he was seeing in his dream, because a baby wouldn't look like ME in a six year old's dream. He had already said earlier in the day that he wondered what I looked like as a child, because he had no idea. He wouldn't have recognized someone who looked like me as a child. He WOULD recognize someone older, who looked like I do NOW. Am I making any sense at all? I'm sure I'm analyzing this too much, but it just makes me go "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm".
In all honesty, I really felt like I was just wished Happy Mother's Day from our little girl up in Heaven. See, she's okay! Living in a house in the woods, and talking to her brother at night while he sleeps. Sweet girl. I can't wait to meet you someday.
Colby: "Mom, I dreamt that we had two babies instead of one, and that she was like you and was an identical twin."
I stopped cold. What was he talking about?
Me: "So, this was your dream?"
Colby: "Yeah, but it seemed really real. Not just like a dream. There were two babies, and they were identical and looked exactly alike, but one lived with us, and one lived in a house in the woods."
Me: "Was it me and Aunt Elle? People used to say we looked alike."
Colby: "No, it wasn't her. It was our baby that looked like you, and she had an identical twin, who lives in the woods now, in a house."
I gave a pointed look across the table at Rob ("are you hearing this???"), but he couldn't make out the conversation above the noise. I was flabbergasted.
What Colby DOESN'T know, because I don't think we ever discussed it with him, and he was 3 years old when it happened, so he COULDN'T know (could he?) - is that Reagan was an identical twin, and we miscarried her sister early on in the pregnancy. We DID have "two babies", and one DOES live with us, and the other doesn't. The other thing that struck me is that he didn't say the baby was REAGAN. He called her "the baby that looked like you". A few years ago before Reagan was born, I had an autistic boy predict her birth, down to the month, by saying that we'd have a "girl who looked like you", to be born in November. Colby used the same phrase, which I found odd. Obviously the little girl in his dream didn't look exactly like Reagan looked now, because he equated to her looking like ME, not Reagan. And even though he kept talking about "two babies", his description led me to believe that they were older girls that he was seeing in his dream, because a baby wouldn't look like ME in a six year old's dream. He had already said earlier in the day that he wondered what I looked like as a child, because he had no idea. He wouldn't have recognized someone who looked like me as a child. He WOULD recognize someone older, who looked like I do NOW. Am I making any sense at all? I'm sure I'm analyzing this too much, but it just makes me go "hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm".
In all honesty, I really felt like I was just wished Happy Mother's Day from our little girl up in Heaven. See, she's okay! Living in a house in the woods, and talking to her brother at night while he sleeps. Sweet girl. I can't wait to meet you someday.
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Things I've Been Pondering
Life is much more busy than it should be, and I don't have time to write as much as I'd like, but these are the things I've been pondering of late (to be expounded upon someday when "things settle down")
- The face of Jesus - as a man, an indivdual, in the earthly confines of time, and how amazingly icons and images corroborate with each other. The miraculous nature of some images amazes and humbles me.
- Life after death
- The Judgement, and what that means -- I'm coming to realize how much we condemn ourselves with our actions, running away from God's overwhelming love, and how He allows us to live with the consequences of those actions.
- Why Reagan always points to the ceiling at church and yells (loudly, irreverently) "BUTTERFLIES! BUTTERFLIES!" Or - in two year old speak - "FUFFERFLIES". Is she seeing something the rest of us can't?
- The loneliness of our human lives, despite the busyness and chaos. How we each crave, at the core, to be loved, accepted, and to BELONG. And Who exactly fills that longing.
- How much an atheist has to DENY about the world around them, and deny about their own humanity, in order to substantiate their theory that this is all there is. The tragedy of that, and how I often feel that they're really just asking the wrong questions, and looking for answers in all the wrong places.
- Confession and forgiveness. Taking responsibility for our own sins enough to ADMIT them, outloud, to a spiritual leader. Because it's no different than me making my son look his father in the eye and admit why he got in trouble in school, even though Dad KNOWS why he got in trouble, and my son is already SORRY for getting in trouble. Taking responsibility. Being washed clean.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Why The Early Church Matters
For me, this REALITY hit like a sledge hammer the first time I read Ecclesiastical History by Eusebius. Crazy that a book written 1700 years ago would have that effect, but it did. It took things (for me) from a theological, intellectual realm to a concrete “this really happened” realm. Here was the “rest of the story” after what we know from the Bible. Where did the apostles travel after Jesus’ death? What churches were established? What happened to Herod? What were the names, dates and circumstances of the early martyrs? It made the early church come so alive, made that world become so corporeal, that it blew me away. These are events that happened inside history. These are people that lived in a location, these are artifacts that can still be seen, these are events that were written down and remembered. I was drawn to the writings of the early church because I could look around THAT world and see mine. It took Christianity out of my head as an abstraction, and gave it solid flesh. I’ve been fascinated with the early church ever since.
Easter is quickly approaching, and for Lent this year I decided to give up my excessive Facebook time and replace it with a more comprehensive study of the writings of the Early Church. So far, I’ve focused on the works of those earliest Christians – the first 200-250 years of Christianity, as found in Volume 1 of “The Faith of the Early Fathers” compiled by William Jurgens. These are the letters and homilies of the first great orthodox Christians - some were the students of the Apostles themselves, others only a few generations removed. This, to me, is Christianity in it’s purest form. This is what it means to be Christian. It’s mentioned only briefly in the introduction to each author, but the realization of how many of these men were martyred for the faith is staggering. The deaths of these Christians give testimony to the TRUTH of what they were preaching and living. They believed it so much, they were willing to die horrible deaths because of it. Just as my first reading of Eusebius brought the people of early Christianity alive for me, these studies are illuminating the Church for me. I’ve been staggered to discover how complete, and developed the theology was, so early in Christianity. It was not a theology that grew from simplicity to complexity over time. It was there, completely, right off the bat. To me, that gives additional witness to the TRUTH of that deposit of faith.
Matthew 16:18
18"I also say to you that you are (A)Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of (B)Hades will not overpower it.
I Timothy 3:14-15
14I am writing these things to you, hoping to come to you before long; 15but in case I am delayed, I write so that you will know how one ought to conduct himself in (AB)the household of God, which is the (AC)church of (AD)the living God, the (AE)pillar and support of the truth.
It’s apparent that, from its earliest beginnings, there were attempts to corrupt the Church’s message. There were schismatics nearly as soon as there was a Christian Church from which to divide. From the get-go, people decided to interpret Jesus and what He taught in their own ways. And it was undeniably the Orthodox Church’s job to call foul – to protect what they had been handed down from the Apostles themselves, because that was the “gold standard” for determining truth. The entire hierarchy of the church was obviously developed for the sole purpose of protecting this information, this deposit of faith. Not just anyone could preach. It was not a democracy. Only those who were instructed by those who could trace their lineage back to the apostles directly had the imposition of hands that gave them the authority to teach and preach.
There are those today who claim that the truth of the Church’s message was infiltrated and corrupted by paganism and other influences, concluding that what it teaches today is not what was intended by Christ. My question to them would be this: WHERE are those people, then, who “had the truth”? Where was Christ’s message protected, if not within the walls of His church? Where is the physical record throughout all of Christian history? Jesus promised that His Spirit of Truth would NEVER leave the Church. He didn’t say that the Spirit of Truth would go away for 1500 years or so, and suddenly return. That He would keep millions in the dark, only to reveal Himself years later, ala Joseph Smith. And He didn’t say that the spirit of Truth would be in written form only. Rather, He told Peter that on this rock He would establish His CHURCH, and the gates of Hell would not overcome it. The pillar and support of the truth was the household of God, which is the church of the living God. If you don’t believe that the universal catholic Church was the safeguard of that deposit of faith given from Christ to the Apostles, then you should be able to pinpoint exactly who WAS. Because it was what Christ promised. Who, then? The Gnostics? The Marcionites? Who? All of those schismatic sects are dead, replaced by thousands of new, unrelated ones. What message survives with unbroken continuity? Where do we find that deposit of faith that can be traced in a direct line to Christ and His Apostles? The orthodox Church is the only entity that can make such a claim.
As I read, I started jotting down a list of the theology and customs that were already an integral part of the early church by 250 AD . This was before the time of Constantine – before Christianity had even become LEGAL. And it wasn’t just one author that painted such a picture of their Church. There was a harmony to the teaching amongst ALL of the writers. The same concepts were taught over and over and over. Where the schismatics had numerous differing theologies, the catholic church had ONE, regardless of location. It’s what made it “catholic” – it was universal. This is what I found:
1. The church had a hierarchy of a pope, bishops, presbyters, deacons, lectors and more
2. Rome was the center of the church, and the successor of Peter was its head.
3. The Church was active in promoting seven sacraments: baptism, marriage, holy orders, confession, Eucharist, confirmation, and anointing of the sick. If the modern names were not used, the sacraments themselves certainly were.
4. The Church believed in the free will of man to obey or disobey God
5. The Church was active in fighting against heresies and schisms, in order to protect the truth that was handed down to them from the Apostles
6. The Eucharist was undeniably the TRUE presence of Christ – His literal body and blood, and necessary for salvation and grace
7. Baptism was regarded as the washing clean from the stain of sin, a re-birth into the family of Christ, and necessary for salvation
8. Infant baptisms were widely practiced
9. There was a well-developed theology that man can cooperate with God’s will on earth, and that it is God’s will that we actively love Him and one another in works of service
10. The perpetual virginity of Mary
11. The nobility of celibacy and virginity when serving Christ
12. The idea of virgins becoming the “Brides of Christ”
13. The entire cannon of scripture, Old and New Testament, including that which Protestants see as “Apocrypha”
14. The idea that Hell was a separation from God, brought on by our own sin and choices – that we live with the consequences of our actions
15. The idea of penance for sins after confession to the church, before full reconciliation
16. The idea that bishops can act to forgive sins that are confessed to them
17. The need for confession and repentance in the church for the forgiveness of sins
18. Purgatory, or a time of cleansing prior to entrance into Heaven, for those who are saved by faith
19. The Trinity
20. A difference between minor and major sins
21. Original sin
22. Apostolic succession, continued on by the imposition of hands
23. Oral tradition – a passing on of what one was taught by those that went before
24. Worship in a liturgy, with readings from the scriptures, the Eucharist being shared, a kiss of peace, music, litanies, prayers and creeds being recited
25. Sacrifice as a way to make one holy, and martyrdom the ultimate sacrifice, as a baptism of blood
26. The celebration of the lives of saints and martyrs, with preservation of their graves and relics, as well as recognition on the anniversaries of their deaths.
27. The well-developed concept that Jesus calls all to Him to be saved, and that there is no compulsion to Christ. If a man is not saved, it is because he chooses to reject the call of Christ, and not because Christ does not WANT him.
28. The idea that man was created good, and fell because of disobedience, but has the capacity still for choosing good because he is made in the image and likeness of God.
29. An interpretation of scripture that was deep, well-developed, exegetical, and not merely literal and at face value.
And so, I have to ask....where is THIS SAME church today? If an early Christian were to arrive 2000 years into our modern world, where would they find their church? What would they recognize as the faith they were willing to sacrifice their lives for?
One of the tragedies of Sola Scriptura is that it robs modern Christians of their own history, their roots, and their ability to see the whole picture of Christianity. It leaves interpretation up to an individual’s reasoning or feeling – both highly subjective processes. It makes an individual the final authority on interpretation, and not Christ and His apostles, through the wisdom they passed on in the Church. Truth is not subjective. So how do we know the TRUTH? And if the Bible alone is the only means of understanding Christ, who is protecting the Bible??? It was under attack from the utter beginning, and continues to be under attack today! THIS is why the early church matters. This is why the authority of that same church today matters. This is why we cannot be myopic in our view of history. If there is a question on interpretation of scripture, then logic states that we go back to those closest to the source (those directly taught by Christ and the Apostles), and not someone literally thousands of years later, in a different culture, to interpret those questions. And what awes me is that the what the church was teaching and being back THEN, is the same as what it is NOW – fully 2000 years later.
The record is there for us. We just have to pay attention to it, rather than ignore it.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Rerun of a post from 2008. Because I've been thinking alot about such things lately.
Makes me Wonder
My interpretation of this conversation I had with Colby may be overly "Catholic" of me, but it really DOES make me wonder. So here's the scenario... yesterday after school, I was TRYING to get overly tired four year olds to take a nap. So I, too, could take a nap. I let them lie on my bed, and I had the tv on while I was feeding the baby. I was looking for something BORING that they wouldn't be interested in. I settled on the Catholic channel, where there was a show (in SPANISH) on Our Lady of Guadaloupe. I don't know if you all know that story... if not, you can read about it here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgin_of_Guadalupe. Synopsis: an Aztec Indian by the name of Juan Diego saw the Virgin Mary in the 1500's, who told him to tell the bishop to build a church. She told him to fill his cloak with roses (which suddenly appeared) and take them to the bishop. When Juan Diego unfurled his cloak (tilma) to the bishop, the image of Mary was imprinted on the inside. This cloak almost single-handedly converted the native Aztecs in Mexico - more than missionaries ever could. Massive Christian conversions - in the hundreds of thousands - in the few years after it's appearance, and ended human sacrifice in Mexico. This cloak still exists, and is on display in Mexico. Anyways. That's the story, and this program was about modern day Mexicans celebrating and worshiping in the church where the cloak is. It didn't retell the story, just showed pictures of people singing and praying, and even if it HAD, the whole show was in SPANISH. So that's the scenario, when the tv flashes a picture of the Tilma (cloak).
C: "Mom, who's that?"
M: "Mary".
C: "She came out of the picture."
M: "What?"
C: "She came out of the picture."
M: "What do you mean, Mary came out of the picture?"
C: "She was a person. Like you. She came out of the picture."
M: "Why did she do that?"
C: "Because she loves EVERYBODY."
Now, I have not told my children anything about Mary besides the nativity story and that she was Jesus' mother. WHERE did THAT come from? There were other pictures of Mary on this program, and Colby would ask who they were, but when the show returned to the picture of the Tilma (cloak), he said it again....
"Mary came out of the picture!"
Sometimes I think God speaks through children. And sometimes I think kids are a little more in touch with the spiritual world than we realize. It really makes me wonder.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Faith vs Belief... a blog entry
This is an excellent blog post - it summarizes every truth eloquently.
Do you believe in Christ? Or do you “live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20)? The two do not necessarily mean the same thing, though if you are in fact doing the latter you are also thereby doing the former. (more)
Do you believe in Christ? Or do you “live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal. 2:20)? The two do not necessarily mean the same thing, though if you are in fact doing the latter you are also thereby doing the former. (more)
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Faith ALONE?
I've been thinking about this alot lately - this supposed "divide" about whether our salvation rests on faith ALONE, or faith and something else. Personally, I think it's a false argument for the majority of Christians, who realize that faith is active. The implications, for those that take things to extremes on either side are what bother me. Faith vs. works. Do we simply BELIEVE and that's it?. Or do we simply DO SOMETHING and that's it? Actually, the resounding answer is NO. To both questions. Christ died for us, so that we might live eternally through His sacrifice. That's not something we deserved, not something we even come close to "earning". Having an active faith has nothing to do with wanting to "earn" anything. It's being obedient. This has become clear to me in two examples that have been popping up alot in my mind lately. First is this....
When God told Noah that He was going to flood the earth, and that He was going to save Noah and his family, Noah didn't say "I don't need to build an ark, because God is going to save me! I have faith and that's enough!" I feel like so many of today's Christians take this stance. "I have faith! Jesus saved me, so that's it! End of story! Anything I do is a 'work' and we don't earn our way to heaven." I have spoken to some who take this so far as to say that BAPTISM isn't necessary for salvation, that the Eucharist isn't necessary for salvation, because it constitutes a "work", and if we have to do ANYTHING, then we're trying to earn our way to heaven. Ridiculous. Utter nonsense. Jesus was extremely clear about the role of both, and it's necessity to enter to the kingdom (John 3:5, John 6:53). Because Noah had faith, he was OBEDIENT to what God told him to do. And God told him how to build an ark to save him and his family. God told him to act, in order to receive the salvation that He was offering. Very specifically. Here's the size of the boat, here's what it needs to look like, and here's what you're going to do with it. God, the author of creation, knows that we are of flesh and blood. He does not act merely spiritually in our lives. He has given us concrete tools to receive His grace - God the author of our senses, has used His creation in order for us to see, and feel, and TOUCH a way to receive His grace in our lives. Through water, bread, and wine. Not figuratively. REALLY. Concretely. Because He knows that WE are concrete, and need Him concretely. He has told us that faith is necessary for salvation, and He has given us more than one means to His grace in order to increase that faith. When we respond to that call, we are merely accepting the help and grace He offers us, and are by no means, in no way, trying to "earn" our way to heaven. I have heard it said that those partaking of daily communion are merely working their way to Heaven. Jesus is truly offering Himself to those that wish it, to live INSIDE, to strengthen the faith of those receiving the eucharist. Why would we NOT take Him up on that offer? Jesus is offering Himself to us, and we say "No thanks, as long as I pray, I don't need it?" By what arrogance would we EVER refuse the help and grace that Christ offers us in our faith journey? Why would we EVER want to do only "enough to get by"???
In my mind, then, I've always seen "sola fide" as incomplete, and felt like what TRULY should be our dogma was "faith and obedience". After all, the demons "believe" in the Lordship of Christ. I was reminded this morning that demons not only recognize and "believe" in Christ, they OBEY Him as well. When Christ demanded something of the demons, they cowered in fear and obeyed (Matthew 8:16, 31). Even the mention of Christ's name sends the evil ones scurrying away. So maybe faith and obedience aren't the full picture. What is, then? Faith ALONE is not enough, and obedience alone (following the law for the law's sake) is not enough. There goes the entire faith vs. works argument. It's kaput. It is a false divide. So then, what remains? What is the fufillment of the law (Luke 10:27)? What did the demons lack? What does Jesus call us to do? On what will be judged someday? What IS GOD? LOVE. God sees the content of our heart, instills in us His essence, which is LOVE. It's the key to everything. And too often, in our theological disputes and desire to be "right", we forget the most important thing of all. LOVE.
1 Corinthians tells us "faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is LOVE."
When God told Noah that He was going to flood the earth, and that He was going to save Noah and his family, Noah didn't say "I don't need to build an ark, because God is going to save me! I have faith and that's enough!" I feel like so many of today's Christians take this stance. "I have faith! Jesus saved me, so that's it! End of story! Anything I do is a 'work' and we don't earn our way to heaven." I have spoken to some who take this so far as to say that BAPTISM isn't necessary for salvation, that the Eucharist isn't necessary for salvation, because it constitutes a "work", and if we have to do ANYTHING, then we're trying to earn our way to heaven. Ridiculous. Utter nonsense. Jesus was extremely clear about the role of both, and it's necessity to enter to the kingdom (John 3:5, John 6:53). Because Noah had faith, he was OBEDIENT to what God told him to do. And God told him how to build an ark to save him and his family. God told him to act, in order to receive the salvation that He was offering. Very specifically. Here's the size of the boat, here's what it needs to look like, and here's what you're going to do with it. God, the author of creation, knows that we are of flesh and blood. He does not act merely spiritually in our lives. He has given us concrete tools to receive His grace - God the author of our senses, has used His creation in order for us to see, and feel, and TOUCH a way to receive His grace in our lives. Through water, bread, and wine. Not figuratively. REALLY. Concretely. Because He knows that WE are concrete, and need Him concretely. He has told us that faith is necessary for salvation, and He has given us more than one means to His grace in order to increase that faith. When we respond to that call, we are merely accepting the help and grace He offers us, and are by no means, in no way, trying to "earn" our way to heaven. I have heard it said that those partaking of daily communion are merely working their way to Heaven. Jesus is truly offering Himself to those that wish it, to live INSIDE, to strengthen the faith of those receiving the eucharist. Why would we NOT take Him up on that offer? Jesus is offering Himself to us, and we say "No thanks, as long as I pray, I don't need it?" By what arrogance would we EVER refuse the help and grace that Christ offers us in our faith journey? Why would we EVER want to do only "enough to get by"???
In my mind, then, I've always seen "sola fide" as incomplete, and felt like what TRULY should be our dogma was "faith and obedience". After all, the demons "believe" in the Lordship of Christ. I was reminded this morning that demons not only recognize and "believe" in Christ, they OBEY Him as well. When Christ demanded something of the demons, they cowered in fear and obeyed (Matthew 8:16, 31). Even the mention of Christ's name sends the evil ones scurrying away. So maybe faith and obedience aren't the full picture. What is, then? Faith ALONE is not enough, and obedience alone (following the law for the law's sake) is not enough. There goes the entire faith vs. works argument. It's kaput. It is a false divide. So then, what remains? What is the fufillment of the law (Luke 10:27)? What did the demons lack? What does Jesus call us to do? On what will be judged someday? What IS GOD? LOVE. God sees the content of our heart, instills in us His essence, which is LOVE. It's the key to everything. And too often, in our theological disputes and desire to be "right", we forget the most important thing of all. LOVE.
1 Corinthians tells us "faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is LOVE."
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Just what I needed to hear....
This blog was literally an answer to a prayer I made yesterday.
http://wordincarnate.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/useful-servants/
http://wordincarnate.wordpress.com/2011/02/05/useful-servants/
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Out of the Mouths of Babes
Quinn was introspective on the way home from Cub Scouts last night. I have no idea where the following thoughts came from. They certainly seemed to spring from nowhere. But this was what he asked me from the back seat.....
Quinn: "Mom, why did Jesus say 'God, take this cup from me?"
I was really taken aback by this question. Number one, that he REMEMBERED that line from the Passion drama. He said he remembered it from the cartoon about Easter I had them watch. LAST YEAR. Just taken aback by that. And that it would stick in his head. And come out again, a year later, on the way home from cub scouts. Randomly. And that THIS single line had so much significance on so many levels. And that he was understanding my response.
Mom: "Well, what was going to happen right after that?"
Quinn: "He was going to die on the cross." Yup.
Mom: "Do you think that might've been scary?"
Quinn: "Yeah. But He didn't HAVE to do it. He could've stopped it."
Mom: "Yes. He didn't have to. But He did, because He loves us. Even though He was scared about it."
Quinn: "Why did he say a cup?"
Mom: "Well, what do we do during Communion each week? What do we drink out of the cup?"
Colby: "It's Jesus' blood! The bread is His body!" Yup.
Mom: "He was about to shed His blood for us. The blood that the wine turns into every Sunday. That we drink from the cup. So He can live inside us -- really, not just pretend".
Quinn: "Mom, do we earn our way to heaven?" Again... WHOA. Where is he getting this stuff?? Rob and I have been talking about this a whole lot, and maybe he overheard us, but usually we talk about it after the kids have gone to bed at night.
Mom: "Nope, Quinn. We don't. We can't. Our job is to have faith, to believe, in Jesus. And to love God with all our hearts. And love other people as ourselves."
Colby: "And Jesus!"
Mom: "Yup, and Jesus. Someday, God will show us how we lived our lives, and ask us if we loved Him and each other like He told us to."
Quinn: "Well, how can He tell us? He's in HEAVEN!"
Colby: "We have to use our imaginations, Quinn."
Mom: "Well, He tells us in the Bible. And when we pray, and we listen very carefully, sometimes He speaks to us. I think that's what you mean by imagination, Colby."
Quinn: "Mom, do we have birthdays in heaven?"
Mom: "Well, there's no time in heaven, so I don't know. But maybe the day we die here on earth is the day we celebrate our new birth in Heaven. Actually... no. The day we were BAPTISED is the day we enter into God's family, so that would be the day that would be our 'spiritual' birth in Heaven."
Quinn: "So, when was my baptism?"
Mom: "You and Colby were baptised on July 14th, when you were 5 days old. While you were in the intensive care unit at the hospital. And Reagan was baptised on March 25th, when she was 3 months old."
Quinn: "When was your baptism day?"
Mom: "I don't really know. I don't remember."
Quinn: "You'll have to ask Grandma Betty." Yes, I will.
Quinn: "Mom, how old is the oldest person?"
Mom: "About 120 years or so, I guess."
Quinn: "I don't think I'm going to live to be old."
Mom: "Why do you say that?"
Quinn: "Well, remember how I have an angel in my heart? Making it bigger?" OK.... This was in reference to something he said when he was FOUR... fully two years ago... that we haven't talked about SINCE. I blogged about it here. This was really starting to weird me out.
Mom: "No, Quinn, your heart is just fine. You are healthy. An angel helps you get stronger, helps you heal."
Then he was quiet the rest of the way home, leaving his mother to think and ponder about what just came out of the mouth of her six year old son.
Quinn: "Mom, why did Jesus say 'God, take this cup from me?"
I was really taken aback by this question. Number one, that he REMEMBERED that line from the Passion drama. He said he remembered it from the cartoon about Easter I had them watch. LAST YEAR. Just taken aback by that. And that it would stick in his head. And come out again, a year later, on the way home from cub scouts. Randomly. And that THIS single line had so much significance on so many levels. And that he was understanding my response.
Mom: "Well, what was going to happen right after that?"
Quinn: "He was going to die on the cross." Yup.
Mom: "Do you think that might've been scary?"
Quinn: "Yeah. But He didn't HAVE to do it. He could've stopped it."
Mom: "Yes. He didn't have to. But He did, because He loves us. Even though He was scared about it."
Quinn: "Why did he say a cup?"
Mom: "Well, what do we do during Communion each week? What do we drink out of the cup?"
Colby: "It's Jesus' blood! The bread is His body!" Yup.
Mom: "He was about to shed His blood for us. The blood that the wine turns into every Sunday. That we drink from the cup. So He can live inside us -- really, not just pretend".
Quinn: "Mom, do we earn our way to heaven?" Again... WHOA. Where is he getting this stuff?? Rob and I have been talking about this a whole lot, and maybe he overheard us, but usually we talk about it after the kids have gone to bed at night.
Mom: "Nope, Quinn. We don't. We can't. Our job is to have faith, to believe, in Jesus. And to love God with all our hearts. And love other people as ourselves."
Colby: "And Jesus!"
Mom: "Yup, and Jesus. Someday, God will show us how we lived our lives, and ask us if we loved Him and each other like He told us to."
Quinn: "Well, how can He tell us? He's in HEAVEN!"
Colby: "We have to use our imaginations, Quinn."
Mom: "Well, He tells us in the Bible. And when we pray, and we listen very carefully, sometimes He speaks to us. I think that's what you mean by imagination, Colby."
Quinn: "Mom, do we have birthdays in heaven?"
Mom: "Well, there's no time in heaven, so I don't know. But maybe the day we die here on earth is the day we celebrate our new birth in Heaven. Actually... no. The day we were BAPTISED is the day we enter into God's family, so that would be the day that would be our 'spiritual' birth in Heaven."
Quinn: "So, when was my baptism?"
Mom: "You and Colby were baptised on July 14th, when you were 5 days old. While you were in the intensive care unit at the hospital. And Reagan was baptised on March 25th, when she was 3 months old."
Quinn: "When was your baptism day?"
Mom: "I don't really know. I don't remember."
Quinn: "You'll have to ask Grandma Betty." Yes, I will.
Quinn: "Mom, how old is the oldest person?"
Mom: "About 120 years or so, I guess."
Quinn: "I don't think I'm going to live to be old."
Mom: "Why do you say that?"
Quinn: "Well, remember how I have an angel in my heart? Making it bigger?" OK.... This was in reference to something he said when he was FOUR... fully two years ago... that we haven't talked about SINCE. I blogged about it here. This was really starting to weird me out.
Mom: "No, Quinn, your heart is just fine. You are healthy. An angel helps you get stronger, helps you heal."
Then he was quiet the rest of the way home, leaving his mother to think and ponder about what just came out of the mouth of her six year old son.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Puppetry
Was thinking about how amazing it is that we are the sons and daughters of God, and what that means, exactly. To be the adopted children of the divine. It seems (at least to me), easy to acknowledge God as our creator. And to assume that creator is somehow the equivalent of "Father", but that's not entirely true. Father is much MORE than creator, because it implies a likeness of being, of substance. Creators create out of any substance. A Father creates out of His own. Take, for example, Gepetto, the toymaker who constructed Pinocchio out of his skill, and desire to have a son. But as a puppet, whose every movement was controlled by the puppetmaster, Pinocchio was not a SON. He was a CREATION. 
Gepetto loved Pinnochio, but he wanted him to LOVE HIM BACK. And to do that, he had to "cut the strings", so to speak. Pinnochio had to have a free will - to be able to move and decide and speak for himself. Otherwise he was just a creation, who could never choose to love a Father.
Once "string-free", Pinnochio's job was to become "a real boy", because it was only then - once he was no longer a puppet made of wood, but a boy of flesh and blood - that he would TRULY and fully become Gepetto's son. I feel like during our sojourn on earth, we are all "stringless wooden puppets". So, how did we, lifeless wooden puppets, become animated? Through the sacrifice of God's true and only Son. His death gave us the opportunity for life. In Pinocchio, it was a Blue Fairy. On Earth, no one less than God's only Son would suffice. As such, we are allowed to make mistakes, and follow our paths, because our Master desires us to love Him back, and to become truly His REAL children. But He does not want puppets. He wants children. And like Pinochio, we mess up a whole lot, and are easily led down the wrong paths.
Gepetto loved Pinnochio, but he wanted him to LOVE HIM BACK. And to do that, he had to "cut the strings", so to speak. Pinnochio had to have a free will - to be able to move and decide and speak for himself. Otherwise he was just a creation, who could never choose to love a Father. Once "string-free", Pinnochio's job was to become "a real boy", because it was only then - once he was no longer a puppet made of wood, but a boy of flesh and blood - that he would TRULY and fully become Gepetto's son. I feel like during our sojourn on earth, we are all "stringless wooden puppets". So, how did we, lifeless wooden puppets, become animated? Through the sacrifice of God's true and only Son. His death gave us the opportunity for life. In Pinocchio, it was a Blue Fairy. On Earth, no one less than God's only Son would suffice. As such, we are allowed to make mistakes, and follow our paths, because our Master desires us to love Him back, and to become truly His REAL children. But He does not want puppets. He wants children. And like Pinochio, we mess up a whole lot, and are easily led down the wrong paths.
The little "cricket" on our shoulder does not always speak loudly enough for us to heed it's good advice. Gepetto searched and searched for Pinochio when he was led astray, just as our Father searches relentlessly for us, calling us ever home to Him. At the end of our journey, though, it's God's plan that we become truly sons and daughters of Him - to become "REAL" boys, as it were - of the same substance as the Father, of the same flesh and blood, fully real, fully able to love Him back as He loves us. That is the gift He gives to us - the gift of Himself, of being forever a part of His family, of His divinity. Not just figuratively. Literally. And THAT is awe-inspiring.
Letter of Augustine to the Catechumen Honoratus AD 412
"This is the grace of the New Testament, which lay hidden in the Old, though there was no end of its being prophesied and foretold in veild figures so that the soul might recognize its God and, by God's grace, be reborn to Him. This is truly a spiritual birth, and therefore it is not of blood nor of the will of the man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God. This is called adoption. For we were something before we became sons of God, and we received benefit by wich we became what we were not. One who is adopted is not yet, before he is adopted, the son of him by whom he is adopted; nevertheless, he is at that prior time one who can be adopted. And from this begetting by grace we distinguish that Son, who, when He was Son of God, came that He might become the son of man; and He thereby enabled us, who were sons of man, to become sons of God."
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Guardian Angels
Mom: "No. Angels are BIG and STRONG. They are God's warriors! Gabriel and Michael are two of the head angels."
Colby: "HEY! Gabriel was around when Jesus was a baby!"
Quinn: "How do you know their names, and why do you know what they look like?"
Mom: "Some people have seen them before, and the angel's told them their names."
Quinn: "I've never seen my angel. I don't even know if it's a boy or a girl".
Colby: "When I was a baby I saw an angel. It was a boy angel with wings. He told me to not be afraid, he would protect me. I spoke to him in baby language, but I still remember".
Mom: "Well, in the Bible, that's the most common thing angels tell us. Do not be afraid!"
Quinn: "Why?"
Mom: "Because God is more powerful than the most evil villain, the most horrible monster. If God is protecting us, what can hurt us? So there's no reason to be afraid!"
Quinn: "What's heaven look like?"
Mom: "It's the most beautiful place. Think of the most beautiful place you've ever seen, and multiply that by a million. There's a gate made of pearls, and the streets are of gold, and there are houses that Jesus has made for us to live in."
Quinn: "Can we fly to heaven in an airplane?"
Mom: "Nope. It's not a place on earth."
Colby: "Gabriel spoke to Joseph in his dream."
Quinn: "How does an angel get inside our HEADS????"
Colby: "And Jacob climbed a ladder in his dream all the way to heaven."
Quinn: "So, Jacob knew how to get there. It was really far!"
Mom: "Well, that was only in his dream."
Colby: "Heaven's on a cloud".
Mom: "Well, not exactly. It's hard to explain."
An in depth discussion on heaven, souls, earthly bodies, and time ensued. If there's no time in heaven, how do we need know when to eat? How can souls move around if they have no bodies to move them?
Mom: "Your soul is FREE without a body. It can fly higher than the birds, or swim below the water."
Colby: "Your soul can swim like a duckbill platypus."
Mom: "Uhhh, right".
Quinn wanted to know how a body could turn young again when Jesus came again. So many questions! And such GOOD questions! And Colby seemed to have a lot of answers, orthodox or not ;). It's alot to wrap your mind around, isn't it little men? It's alot to wrap my mind around, too.
Angel of God, My Guardian Dear
to whom God's love commits me here.
Ever this day be at my side
to light and guard and rule and guide.
Amen.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
Faith of A Child
Friday, December 31, 2010
Authority
I've been thinking alot about how, when Jesus was alive and preaching, He wrote nothing down. His followers, as they watched Him perform miracle after miracle.... wrote nothing down. There is some evidence that someone wrote down what Jesus said, (Q), but that is merely a theory, and no one knows for sure. Surely no such manuscript survives in any form. Muhammed reportedly dictated to scribes the Quaran as it was "revealed" to him. Jesus did nothing of the sort. The first Christians knew how to read and write. Their Jewish heritage had taught them that. But they were too busy DOING, ACTING, CONNECTING to write something down right then and there. Jesus spread His message, revealed His Father, not by sitting at a desk and writing dialogues and letters (as others after Him would do). No. Jesus WAS the Word. The Word made flesh. And He acted in the flesh. He spread the Truth through His words, His touch, His actions. He connected with PEOPLE. When He died on the cross, later when He ascended to Heaven... He didn't tell those He left behind to "go, write a book". He told them to go ACT, to establish a Church, HIS Church, to make disciples of all men. Go spread the truth to the corners of the Earth, and baptize them. ACT. DO. TOUCH. TELL. ESTABLISH RELATIONSHIPS. BUILD. MY. CHURCH. That infant church spread by word of mouth, by one person telling another, by one person seeing the work of the Holy Spirit in another, by witness of the lives those very first Christians led. It was later, after His death by several years, that the apostles and first followers started writing down what they had seen and heard, what they had learned as the TRUTH. The earliest New Testament books - written by Paul and James - are thought to be from about 45 AD... 13 years after Jesus' death. The first gospel account (Mark) wasn't written until about 70 AD. These followers of Christ wrote the Truth down, because, as the Christian church grew, they needed tools to communicate to distant others what they had first learned in person. To encourage each other. These writings were infused with the Holy Spirit, sacred, inerrant. But they were tools of the early church, to reflect what it was already doing, spreading, teaching. Passing down to the next generation of believers. It was several hundred years before those sacred writings were compiled into a definitive book. The church came first, and then the book. There is no book without the church. So when questions today arise about how to interpret the book... it is natural and logical to go to the source, to the place where Christ divested His authority.... HIS CHURCH. (Matthew 16:18). Because that's how Christ designed it to be. He left behind HIS church to teach the WAY, the TRUTH, and the LIGHT.
Pope Bendict XVI (December 25th, 2010): "... an eclipse of reason has taken place ... man no longer uses his intellect in search of God ... but is driven by his passions and desire for self-gratification."
Pope Bendict XVI (December 25th, 2010): "... an eclipse of reason has taken place ... man no longer uses his intellect in search of God ... but is driven by his passions and desire for self-gratification."
Thursday, December 16, 2010
A Pat on the Back
Being a mom is hard. It's cliche to say that it's a "thankless" job. It sounds whiny, so pretend I didn't say it. I noticed this morning, as I got the kids on the bus for school, that I was giving myself a little pat on the back, because HEY, I got the kids on the bus for school! Getting everyone up, fed, brushed, dressed, snow-clothed, lunches made and back packs packed and out the door by 7:40 am, while the baby is screaming and wanting to be held. It's HARD! It's a monumental struggle each and every day. And when the kids are successfully on the bus - with or without matching gloves - I give myself this little "you go girl!" And I feel like a good mother. Momentarily. For all my internal self-awarded gold stars, it occurred to me that getting the children off to school is not an accomplishment in anyone else's eyes. It's just EXPECTED. ALL the moms do it. And probably do it far better than I, with less frantic yelling, with less chaos. The same is true when I make dinner, help kids with homework, do the laundry, decorate for Christmas, make cookies for the school bake sale, when I change the sheets. I feel like I'm working HARD, and I'm patting myself on the back for that effort, and I realize that... not ONE other person on the entire planet considers any of these things even remotely an accomplishment. It's simply my job. Expected, nothing unique because there are many moms who do the same things, and do them better than I. And here I am, saying "YES! I DID it!", feeling like I just hit the winning home run, or climbed Mt. Everest or something. There should be crowds cheering, banners flying. Because I'm putting THAT level of effort into it,and I feel like the job is THAT hard. Despite it's unglamorous ordinariness. And yet, I look around this mess of a house and realize that even that effort isn't enough for the job. I can't EVER keep up with the laundry, or the dishes, or the mopping. Getting the kids to practice the piano, do their homework, eat with SILVERWARE. This Mom job. It's a tough gig. Wouldn't trade it for anything in the world, but I have to admit that it'sa heck of alot harder than those days I go into the office and put in a full day "at work". At least there I get feeback, appreciation, respect, a PAYCHECK.
So, to all you mom's out there, just know that I KNOW that every night your children are safely asleep in their beds, it's because you have done countless, anonymous things to make that happen. And I'm here to say "YOU GO GIRL".
So, to all you mom's out there, just know that I KNOW that every night your children are safely asleep in their beds, it's because you have done countless, anonymous things to make that happen. And I'm here to say "YOU GO GIRL".
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
An Exercise
I'd love to hear what anyone comes up with for this. A scenario and an exercise....
OK. Let's imagine that YOU are a geneticst and microbiologist in a newly-developing country. You are brilliant, even though you aren't well-known. In the course of your research, you discover that a cohort of yours has engineered a virus that can evolve slowly over time to wipe out all of humanity. This evil cohort has his reasons, but basically, he feels that humans are the cause of everything bad, and need to just eventually go away. You do some calculations on the rate of mutational change in this virus. 2000 years, give or take. Then, WHAMMO. No more humanity. It's inevitable. It's going to happen.
Only YOU have discovered this impending doom. It's more than a little hard to believe, and it's so far in the future... who would care? So you work tirelessly to figure out a way to stop it. You research, you test, and ONE DAY, you discover that the cure is something astounding... your own DNA. YOU just happen to have the EXACT genetic code to divert impending doom. But it can only "cure" the virus in 2000 years, when the virus is fully mutated. There's no one else in all of history with YOUR exact DNA. Only YOU have the answer to save the world.
What do you do from here? Those people, 2000 years from now, need to know how to combat the destruction that's coming. That's a long time, and you can't count on civilization looking like it does today. Society's collapse... they have before, and they will again. You can't rely on electricity, computers, the internet. Technologies change and become obsolete. You can't know what language people will speak at that time. This is not time-capsule stuff. This information has to be OUT THERE, in order to do it's job.
What would you do?
OK. Let's imagine that YOU are a geneticst and microbiologist in a newly-developing country. You are brilliant, even though you aren't well-known. In the course of your research, you discover that a cohort of yours has engineered a virus that can evolve slowly over time to wipe out all of humanity. This evil cohort has his reasons, but basically, he feels that humans are the cause of everything bad, and need to just eventually go away. You do some calculations on the rate of mutational change in this virus. 2000 years, give or take. Then, WHAMMO. No more humanity. It's inevitable. It's going to happen.
Only YOU have discovered this impending doom. It's more than a little hard to believe, and it's so far in the future... who would care? So you work tirelessly to figure out a way to stop it. You research, you test, and ONE DAY, you discover that the cure is something astounding... your own DNA. YOU just happen to have the EXACT genetic code to divert impending doom. But it can only "cure" the virus in 2000 years, when the virus is fully mutated. There's no one else in all of history with YOUR exact DNA. Only YOU have the answer to save the world.
What do you do from here? Those people, 2000 years from now, need to know how to combat the destruction that's coming. That's a long time, and you can't count on civilization looking like it does today. Society's collapse... they have before, and they will again. You can't rely on electricity, computers, the internet. Technologies change and become obsolete. You can't know what language people will speak at that time. This is not time-capsule stuff. This information has to be OUT THERE, in order to do it's job.
What would you do?
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
A Thought on the Creation Story
My son crawled into bed with me this morning, and began reading his new "Action Bible" for kids. He started on page one. "In the beginning, God created Light."
All of a sudden, as he read that, it came to me what Light meant. I'd always thought the Creation story was so.... out of sequence. God creates light on day 1, but doesn't make the sun until day 4. So... how did that work? IN my ego-centric, earth-centric mind, light came from the SUN. But that's DAYLIGHT. Not LIGHT. And it says that God separated the Light from the Dark. Could that mean Heaven? Is the story describing the separation of Good from Evil, Love from Hate, God from the Devil? He CREATED light - the dark was just the void without light. So often we use words to describe God, as if they're analogies, but sometimes I think certain created things in our experience are actually BEYOND analogies. Light. Water. God's not just "like" light. It's not merely a description. I think LIGHT is an imprint of God on His creation, the universe. Jesus is the LIGHT of the World. There's a reason that Jesus appeared bright as the sun during the Transfiguration. Radiance, life-giving energy. That which allows us to SEE the world around us, causes all things to grow. That which reveals what is hidden. That which is pure energy. Light. God's first creation.
HMMMMM.
All of a sudden, as he read that, it came to me what Light meant. I'd always thought the Creation story was so.... out of sequence. God creates light on day 1, but doesn't make the sun until day 4. So... how did that work? IN my ego-centric, earth-centric mind, light came from the SUN. But that's DAYLIGHT. Not LIGHT. And it says that God separated the Light from the Dark. Could that mean Heaven? Is the story describing the separation of Good from Evil, Love from Hate, God from the Devil? He CREATED light - the dark was just the void without light. So often we use words to describe God, as if they're analogies, but sometimes I think certain created things in our experience are actually BEYOND analogies. Light. Water. God's not just "like" light. It's not merely a description. I think LIGHT is an imprint of God on His creation, the universe. Jesus is the LIGHT of the World. There's a reason that Jesus appeared bright as the sun during the Transfiguration. Radiance, life-giving energy. That which allows us to SEE the world around us, causes all things to grow. That which reveals what is hidden. That which is pure energy. Light. God's first creation.
HMMMMM.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
An entry in A Blog I Follow
By Jennifer Fulweiler
Reach for the Light: The moment I was no longer an atheist
These cucumber sprouts my husband put on our window sill caught my eye this morning as I was washing dishes. I noticed that they were growing at an angle, reaching out towards the sun rather than standing vertically. It reminded me of a key moment in my conversion.
Somewhere in this plant’s DNA are instructions that say something like, “By default, grow vertically. Unless the sun can only be found one side; in which case, reach for the light.”
BY DEFAULT, GROW VERTICALLY…REACH FOR THE LIGHT…
If I were to see these statements written on a piece of paper, I would understand them to be information. Instructions. I would take it for granted that someone wrote them. It would never occur to me to think that random forces constructed those sentences. The idea of creator-less information is an absurdity.
I remember back in 2005, when I had barely dipped my toe into the world of agnosticism after a life of atheism. I wasn’t sure if I believed in God or not, though I was leaning toward not. One afternoon I was reading about the subject of DNA, and I got butterflies in my stomach when I realized: DNA is information. It’s a set of instructions.
The implications of this realization could not be overstated. I leaned back in my chair, thought for a moment, and asked myself: “Can information — instructions — ever come from a non-intelligent source?”
I realized that the answer is no. And my life was never the same again.
Reach for the Light: The moment I was no longer an atheist
Somewhere in this plant’s DNA are instructions that say something like, “By default, grow vertically. Unless the sun can only be found one side; in which case, reach for the light.”
BY DEFAULT, GROW VERTICALLY…REACH FOR THE LIGHT…
If I were to see these statements written on a piece of paper, I would understand them to be information. Instructions. I would take it for granted that someone wrote them. It would never occur to me to think that random forces constructed those sentences. The idea of creator-less information is an absurdity.
I remember back in 2005, when I had barely dipped my toe into the world of agnosticism after a life of atheism. I wasn’t sure if I believed in God or not, though I was leaning toward not. One afternoon I was reading about the subject of DNA, and I got butterflies in my stomach when I realized: DNA is information. It’s a set of instructions.
The implications of this realization could not be overstated. I leaned back in my chair, thought for a moment, and asked myself: “Can information — instructions — ever come from a non-intelligent source?”
I realized that the answer is no. And my life was never the same again.
Friday, October 29, 2010
A Timely Article Proving My Point
MY COMMENTARY ON THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE: I found this article online recently, and it pertained exactly to what my previous post discussed. October is obviously the month of "delving into our origins" on this blog ;). Here's what I found fascinating about the article: SO.... 75,000 YEARS AGO, our ancestors were already infinitely more advanced intellectually than even the most "evolved" animal today. They formed tools using sophisticated techniques, and created jewelry and art. We were HUMAN, and far and away different than animals. 2.6 MILLION years ago - before homo sapiens, in the prehistory before the human body was even fully developed in the form it is today, our ancestors were making stone tools, in the Oldowan Industry. So even multiple MILLIONS of years ago, our lineage demonstrated more intellect than even the next most intelligent animal then OR today. We are DIFFERENT from animals, even if our bodies evolved over time in ways similar to other animals. Chimpanzees (sharing greater than 98% of our own DNA) might today be able to take a rock and and bash something with it, and science might call that the use of "tools", but there's vast difference between that and fashioning a tool for a specific purpose, using multiple-step techniques, and then sharing those techniques with others and handing down the knowledge. How far back do we have to go to believe that we are "mere" animals? This is not arrogance. It is objective fact. We bear the image and likeness of God, and were made by a Creator. Evolution might give us a glimpse of HOW our bodies changed over time, HOW God used the natural processes He set in motion to mold and shape us. But on it's best day, it cannot even begin to explain (although it tries) why we are so fundamentally different and MORE than animals. To me, this parallels closely each individual's own human development. We begin as a single cell, a gift from our father and mother united. That single cell multiplies, morphs, changes. At first it looks nothing like the human it is going to become. It looks like a blob. Then a lizard. Then an animal. But it is still a HUMAN. It becomes more and more complex, it's capacity grows, such that when it is born, the newborn infant is the world's most sophisticated unprogrammed computer. A baby may not SEEM intelligent, but all the potential is there - it just needs to grow, and experience the world. Eventually the baby transitions from all fours to upright, learns language, written communication. It is no less human as a single cell than it is as a full-grown adult. Did we evolve from monkey's? I think not. Did we evolve from human predecessors, and did our bodies change over millenia to make them what they are today? I believe so. And yet, we always were what we were meant to become --- human. Regardless of what we looked like. Separate and unique because we were created in the image and likeness of God Himself.
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EARLY HUMANS' WEAPON-MAKING SKILLS SHARPER THAN EXPECTED
Livescience.com
A delicate, sophisticated way to craft sharp weapons from stone apparently was developed by humans more than 50,000 years sooner than had been thought. The finding could shed light on what knowledge people were armed with when they started migrating out of Africa.
The artful technique is known as pressure flaking. Early weapons' makers typically would use hard blows from a stone hammer to give another stone a rough blade-like shape, then would use wood or bone implements to carve out relatively small flakes, refining the blade's edge and tip.
When done right, pressure flaking can provide a high degree of control over the sharpness, thickness and overall shape of sharp tools such as spearheads and stone knives, said researcher Paola Villa, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History.
Pressure flaking has long been considered a fairly recent innovation, with the earliest examples seen roughly 20,000 years ago in the Solutrean culture in France and Spain. Now, however, researchers say Blombos Cave in South Africa yielded what seem to be 75,000-year-old spearheads made by anatomically modern humans using pressure flaking.
"We did not expect to find evidence of this very skillful method for shaping and retouching stone artifacts at such an early time," Villa told LiveScience.
In addition to these sharp points, the site yielded other evidence of modern human behavior, such as artwork in the form of shell beads. These are all linked to the so-called Still Bay industry, a Middle Stone Age tool-manufacturing style that was adopted roughly 76,000 years ago and may have lasted about 4,000 years.
"This finding is important because it shows that modern humans in South Africa had a sophisticated repertoire of toolmaking techniques at a very early time," Villa said. "This innovation is a clear example of a tendency to develop new functional ideas and devices. It adds to the complex of novel behaviors already documented at the site, and shows that the Still Bay was a time when novel ideas and techniques were rapidly developed."
The stone points were made of silcrete, or quartz grains cemented by silica, which needs to be heat-treated before pressure flaking. To confirm that was how the newfound artifacts were made, Villa and her colleagues analyzed microscopic details of 159 silcrete points and fragments, 179 other retouched pieces and more than 700 flakes in Blombos Cave from the Still Bay industry.
The removal of flakes from unheated silcrete produces scar surfaces with a rough, dull texture. However, the surfaces of silcrete that was treated with heat have a smooth, glossy appearance. The researchers concluded that at least half of the ancient, finished points at Blombos Cave involved pressure flaking with heat-treated silcrete.
The scientists also experimentally crafted stone points using both heated and non-heated silcrete chunks collected from outcrops roughly 20 miles (32 km) from Blombos Cave. They found that unheated chunks could not be pressure flaked, while blocks of heated silcrete yielded points very much like the ones discovered.
Villa and her colleagues speculate that pressure flaking was invented in Africa and proved crucial to survival when Homo sapiens migrated from the continent about 60,000 years ago, leading to the technique's widespread adoption in Europe, Australia, North America and later Africa.
"More technological studies like ours, based on experimental replication, microscopic studies and detailed analysis of stone artifacts, supported by statistics, should be applied to other archaeological assemblages in South Africa and in other regions," Villa said. "It is important to understand if there are precursors or antecedents in older industries. It is also important to understand if the method was used in the following period — that is, on the backed blades of the Howiesons Poort, a South African culture dating to 65,000 to 60,000 years ago, thus establishing continuity and cultural transmission between social groups in South Africa.
The scientists detail their findings in tomorrow's issue (Oct. 29) of the journal Science.
Copyright © 2010 LiveScience.com. All Rights Reserved.
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EARLY HUMANS' WEAPON-MAKING SKILLS SHARPER THAN EXPECTED
Livescience.com
A delicate, sophisticated way to craft sharp weapons from stone apparently was developed by humans more than 50,000 years sooner than had been thought. The finding could shed light on what knowledge people were armed with when they started migrating out of Africa.
The artful technique is known as pressure flaking. Early weapons' makers typically would use hard blows from a stone hammer to give another stone a rough blade-like shape, then would use wood or bone implements to carve out relatively small flakes, refining the blade's edge and tip.
When done right, pressure flaking can provide a high degree of control over the sharpness, thickness and overall shape of sharp tools such as spearheads and stone knives, said researcher Paola Villa, an archaeologist at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History.
Pressure flaking has long been considered a fairly recent innovation, with the earliest examples seen roughly 20,000 years ago in the Solutrean culture in France and Spain. Now, however, researchers say Blombos Cave in South Africa yielded what seem to be 75,000-year-old spearheads made by anatomically modern humans using pressure flaking.
"We did not expect to find evidence of this very skillful method for shaping and retouching stone artifacts at such an early time," Villa told LiveScience.
In addition to these sharp points, the site yielded other evidence of modern human behavior, such as artwork in the form of shell beads. These are all linked to the so-called Still Bay industry, a Middle Stone Age tool-manufacturing style that was adopted roughly 76,000 years ago and may have lasted about 4,000 years.
"This finding is important because it shows that modern humans in South Africa had a sophisticated repertoire of toolmaking techniques at a very early time," Villa said. "This innovation is a clear example of a tendency to develop new functional ideas and devices. It adds to the complex of novel behaviors already documented at the site, and shows that the Still Bay was a time when novel ideas and techniques were rapidly developed."
The stone points were made of silcrete, or quartz grains cemented by silica, which needs to be heat-treated before pressure flaking. To confirm that was how the newfound artifacts were made, Villa and her colleagues analyzed microscopic details of 159 silcrete points and fragments, 179 other retouched pieces and more than 700 flakes in Blombos Cave from the Still Bay industry.
The removal of flakes from unheated silcrete produces scar surfaces with a rough, dull texture. However, the surfaces of silcrete that was treated with heat have a smooth, glossy appearance. The researchers concluded that at least half of the ancient, finished points at Blombos Cave involved pressure flaking with heat-treated silcrete.
The scientists also experimentally crafted stone points using both heated and non-heated silcrete chunks collected from outcrops roughly 20 miles (32 km) from Blombos Cave. They found that unheated chunks could not be pressure flaked, while blocks of heated silcrete yielded points very much like the ones discovered.
Villa and her colleagues speculate that pressure flaking was invented in Africa and proved crucial to survival when Homo sapiens migrated from the continent about 60,000 years ago, leading to the technique's widespread adoption in Europe, Australia, North America and later Africa.
"More technological studies like ours, based on experimental replication, microscopic studies and detailed analysis of stone artifacts, supported by statistics, should be applied to other archaeological assemblages in South Africa and in other regions," Villa said. "It is important to understand if there are precursors or antecedents in older industries. It is also important to understand if the method was used in the following period — that is, on the backed blades of the Howiesons Poort, a South African culture dating to 65,000 to 60,000 years ago, thus establishing continuity and cultural transmission between social groups in South Africa.
The scientists detail their findings in tomorrow's issue (Oct. 29) of the journal Science.
Copyright © 2010 LiveScience.com. All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Humanity
When I think of intellectual evolution, I wonder why humanity is the ONLY species that would theoretically undergo such an evolution. A stone-age dog is not supposed by archeologists to be any more or less smarter than a dog of today. The same is true with chimpanzees, repitles, sharks. Why ONLY humans, if such an intellectual evolution is possible? Our brains grew bigger with time. There are other animals with brains far bigger than ours - they do not even remotely approach the sophistication of humans. So the question becomes not how our bodies came to be the shape they are, but what made us HUMAN? And that is something that science can't even begin to grapple with, because it can only be answered by something outside natural processes.... it is the stamp of God, His image on us. We are fundamentally different from animals, as I wrote about here.
Science can't disprove God, because God is the author of science. The Bible can't disprove science, because the Bible is the Word of God, and God would not disprove his own handiwork. The only thing that can be in error on either side of the argument is our INTERPRETATION.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Evidence of a Creator
A Thought:
Watching a Nova special on the “beginnings of humanity”, talking about the evolution of man from chimpanzees. The fossil record is blank for 500,000 critical years – essentially there is a “missing link” in the evolutionary chain. Yet scientists are finding rocks deemed “tools” during this missing era, and are assuming that THIS is when “apes became human”. How do they know they’re tools, and not just odd-shaped rocks? “The way we know this is a tool instead of just a rock is because it was broken in a very particular way…. There is a method behind how this rock was broken into a tool, and it is not a random method.” This made me go “HMMMMM” big time. Don’t many of us look at the world in much the same way, in order to come to the conclusion that it has a Creator? That we see order, and perfection, and balance, and know that this could not have been “random”? Science will make the assumption that a rock was fashioned into a tool by a “creator” based on it’s deliberateness, but refuses to acknowledge the same argument in regards to the creation of our Earth.
Watching a Nova special on the “beginnings of humanity”, talking about the evolution of man from chimpanzees. The fossil record is blank for 500,000 critical years – essentially there is a “missing link” in the evolutionary chain. Yet scientists are finding rocks deemed “tools” during this missing era, and are assuming that THIS is when “apes became human”. How do they know they’re tools, and not just odd-shaped rocks? “The way we know this is a tool instead of just a rock is because it was broken in a very particular way…. There is a method behind how this rock was broken into a tool, and it is not a random method.” This made me go “HMMMMM” big time. Don’t many of us look at the world in much the same way, in order to come to the conclusion that it has a Creator? That we see order, and perfection, and balance, and know that this could not have been “random”? Science will make the assumption that a rock was fashioned into a tool by a “creator” based on it’s deliberateness, but refuses to acknowledge the same argument in regards to the creation of our Earth.
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Check out this Site!
I've always wanted to visit historical biblical places, to put something concrete to what I've always imagined in my head. I just found a virtual tour of St. Peter's tomb and the necropolis at the vatican! Totally cool.
http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/necropoli/scavi_english.html
http://www.vatican.va/various/basiliche/necropoli/scavi_english.html
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Spirituality
I want to encourage imagination in my children, but also find that they are so concrete, that they WANT to know what is real and what isn't, and I answer them truthfully. "Are vampires real?" No. "Are monsters real?" No. "Are fairies for real?" No. "Except for the tooth fairy, right mom?" Uhhhhh. I want them to believe in the POSSIBLE, because that's where God begins to take hold in a concrete mind. I want them to think beyond the here and now, beyond what they see around them. I want them to believe that maybe, just maybe, things can happen outside what our senses are telling us, but how do I instill that in them? And still remain truthful?
I was reading First Corinthians this morning, and Paul was talking about our resurrection - about how our earthly bodies are just seeds for the heavenly bodies we will one day have. From corruptible, dishonorable and weak, to incorruptible, glorious, and powerful. Maybe this is just the analogy I need - especially now at this "harvest" time of year, where my children have seen our garden grow from a seed placed in dirt to something much different, fuller, beautiful, and bearing fruit. Something life-sustaining from a tiny, seemingly inert seed. Maybe I can use something concrete here in the natural world to explain about "supernatural" to my children.
Dear Lord, please help me encourage a spiritual imagination in my children, so that they might understand.
Amen.
Monday, August 23, 2010
"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one's own ego and one's own desires . . . "
- Pope Benedict XVI
"It is a very common phrase of modern intellectualism to say
that the morality of one age can be entirely different to the morality of another.
And like a great many other phrases of modern intellectualism,
it means literally nothing at all."
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
"The danger when men cease to believe in God is not that they will believe in nothing,
but that they will believe anything."
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
"He who marries the spirit of this age will be a widower in the next."
- William Ralph Inge, Dean, St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the "Jubilee" in Rome, 2000
Dear friends who have traveled so many miles, in so many ways, to come to Rome, to the Tombs of the Apostles, let me begin by putting to you a Question: What have you come here to find? You have come to Celebrate your Jubilee: The Jubilee of the young Church. Yours is not just any Journey: if you have set out on a Pilgrimage, it is not just for the Sake of Recreation or an Interest in Culture. Well then, let me ask again: What have you come in search of? Or rather, Who have you come here to find?
There can be only One Answer to that: You have come in Search of Jesus Christ! But Jesus Christ has First gone in Search of you. To Celebrate the Jubilee can have no other meaning than that of Celebrating and Meeting Jesus Christ, the Word Who took Flesh and came to Dwell among us.
The Prologue of Saint John's Gospel, which has just now been Proclaimed, is in a sense Jesus' "Visiting Card". These Words invite us to Fix our Eyes on the Mystery that He is. These Words hold a Special Message for you, dear young people: "In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the Beginning with God" (John 1:1-2).
Indicating to us the Word Who is One-in-Being with the Father, the Eternal Word Generated as God from God and Light from Light, the Evangelist takes us to the Heart of the Divine Life, but also to the Wellspring of the World. This Word in fact is the Beginning of all Creation: "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not made anything that was made" (John 1:3). The Whole Created World, before ever it came to be, was in the Mind of God and was Willed by Him in an Eternal Plan of Love. Therefore, if we look at the World in Depth, allowing ourselves to Marvel at the Wisdom and Beauty which God has Poured-out upon it, we can see in it a Reflection of the Word, which Biblical-Revelation Unveils for us Fully in the Face of Jesus of Nazareth. In a sense, Creation is the First "Revelation" of Him.
The Prologue continues with these Words: "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of Men. The Light shines in the Darkness, but the Darkness did not accept it" (John 1:4-5). For the Evangelist, the Light is Life, and Death, the Enemy of Life, is Darkness. Through the Word, all Life appeared on the Earth, and in the Word this Life has its Perfect Fulfillment.
Identifying Light and Life, John is thinking of the Life that is not just the Biological-Life of the Body, but the Life which comes from Sharing-in the very Life of Christ. The Evangelist says: "The True Light that Enlightens every Man was coming into the World" (John 1:9). This Enlightenment was given to Humanity on the Night-of-Bethlehem, when the Eternal Word of the Father took a Body from the Virgin Mary, became Man, and was Born into the World. From that time onwards, every Person who by Faith shares in the Mystery of that Event, experiences some measure of that Enlightenment.
Christ Himself, announcing that He was the Light of the World, said one day: "While you have the Light, Believe in the Light, that you may become Children of Light" (John 12:36). This is a Summons which the followers of Christ Pass-on to one another from generation-to-generation, trying to answer it in Everyday Life. Referring to this Summons, Saint Paul writes: "Walk always as Children of Light, for the Fruit of Light is found in all that is Good and Right and True" (Ephesians 5:8-9).
The Heart of John's Prologue is the Proclamation that "the Word was made Flesh and Dwelt amongst us" (1:14). A little before this, the Evangelist had declared: "He came to His own Home, and His own People received Him not. But to all who received Him, He gave Power to become Children of God (cf. 1:10-12). Dear friends, are you among those who have Accepted Christ? Your presence here is already an Answer to that Question. You have come to Rome, in this Jubilee of the 2,000th Anniversary of Christ's Birth, in order to open your Hearts to the Power of Life which is in Him. You have come here to rediscover the Truth about Creation and to Recover a Sense of Wonder at the Beauty and the Richness of the Created World. You have come to Renew within yourselves the Awareness of the Dignity of Man, Created in the Image and Likeness of God.
- Pope Benedict XVI
"It is a very common phrase of modern intellectualism to say
that the morality of one age can be entirely different to the morality of another.
And like a great many other phrases of modern intellectualism,
it means literally nothing at all."
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
"The danger when men cease to believe in God is not that they will believe in nothing,
but that they will believe anything."
- Gilbert K. Chesterton
"He who marries the spirit of this age will be a widower in the next."
- William Ralph Inge, Dean, St. Paul's Cathedral, London
Pope John Paul II on the occasion of the "Jubilee" in Rome, 2000
Dear friends who have traveled so many miles, in so many ways, to come to Rome, to the Tombs of the Apostles, let me begin by putting to you a Question: What have you come here to find? You have come to Celebrate your Jubilee: The Jubilee of the young Church. Yours is not just any Journey: if you have set out on a Pilgrimage, it is not just for the Sake of Recreation or an Interest in Culture. Well then, let me ask again: What have you come in search of? Or rather, Who have you come here to find?
There can be only One Answer to that: You have come in Search of Jesus Christ! But Jesus Christ has First gone in Search of you. To Celebrate the Jubilee can have no other meaning than that of Celebrating and Meeting Jesus Christ, the Word Who took Flesh and came to Dwell among us.
The Prologue of Saint John's Gospel, which has just now been Proclaimed, is in a sense Jesus' "Visiting Card". These Words invite us to Fix our Eyes on the Mystery that He is. These Words hold a Special Message for you, dear young people: "In the Beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the Beginning with God" (John 1:1-2).
Indicating to us the Word Who is One-in-Being with the Father, the Eternal Word Generated as God from God and Light from Light, the Evangelist takes us to the Heart of the Divine Life, but also to the Wellspring of the World. This Word in fact is the Beginning of all Creation: "All things were made through Him, and without Him was not made anything that was made" (John 1:3). The Whole Created World, before ever it came to be, was in the Mind of God and was Willed by Him in an Eternal Plan of Love. Therefore, if we look at the World in Depth, allowing ourselves to Marvel at the Wisdom and Beauty which God has Poured-out upon it, we can see in it a Reflection of the Word, which Biblical-Revelation Unveils for us Fully in the Face of Jesus of Nazareth. In a sense, Creation is the First "Revelation" of Him.
The Prologue continues with these Words: "In Him was Life, and the Life was the Light of Men. The Light shines in the Darkness, but the Darkness did not accept it" (John 1:4-5). For the Evangelist, the Light is Life, and Death, the Enemy of Life, is Darkness. Through the Word, all Life appeared on the Earth, and in the Word this Life has its Perfect Fulfillment.
Identifying Light and Life, John is thinking of the Life that is not just the Biological-Life of the Body, but the Life which comes from Sharing-in the very Life of Christ. The Evangelist says: "The True Light that Enlightens every Man was coming into the World" (John 1:9). This Enlightenment was given to Humanity on the Night-of-Bethlehem, when the Eternal Word of the Father took a Body from the Virgin Mary, became Man, and was Born into the World. From that time onwards, every Person who by Faith shares in the Mystery of that Event, experiences some measure of that Enlightenment.
Christ Himself, announcing that He was the Light of the World, said one day: "While you have the Light, Believe in the Light, that you may become Children of Light" (John 12:36). This is a Summons which the followers of Christ Pass-on to one another from generation-to-generation, trying to answer it in Everyday Life. Referring to this Summons, Saint Paul writes: "Walk always as Children of Light, for the Fruit of Light is found in all that is Good and Right and True" (Ephesians 5:8-9).
The Heart of John's Prologue is the Proclamation that "the Word was made Flesh and Dwelt amongst us" (1:14). A little before this, the Evangelist had declared: "He came to His own Home, and His own People received Him not. But to all who received Him, He gave Power to become Children of God (cf. 1:10-12). Dear friends, are you among those who have Accepted Christ? Your presence here is already an Answer to that Question. You have come to Rome, in this Jubilee of the 2,000th Anniversary of Christ's Birth, in order to open your Hearts to the Power of Life which is in Him. You have come here to rediscover the Truth about Creation and to Recover a Sense of Wonder at the Beauty and the Richness of the Created World. You have come to Renew within yourselves the Awareness of the Dignity of Man, Created in the Image and Likeness of God.
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