Musings of an Expagan

STANZAS OF THE SOUL

St. John of the Cross

1. On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings—oh, happy chance!—
I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.

2. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised—oh, happy chance!—
In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.

3. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.

4. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me— A place where none appeared.

5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!

6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.

7. The breeze blew from the turret As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.

8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

Yeah,

I need to do a bit of work on this place.  I love blogging but the problem is time.  With 5 kids, it seems that there is no time in the world.  That and the dog wants to be walked all the time.

Well I am going to be working on more stuff for this place.

Just acknowledging that I am a bit behind here.

John

When tempted into lust, I have been told to automatically say this psalm.  The reasons is that 1)  It lifts the subject matter to God, and 2) It reminds you that the Lord made all things.  Especially beautiful women.

Yesterday I picked up a sim from AT&T and put it in my original iPhone.

Gave it to my wife.

My 19 year old daughter was at the point she needed a cell so this was the cheapest way to go for now.

Now I am going to have to go over the wireless plans so I can see if we need to go to the ATT unlimited plan.

People say that I make it look easy.  It isn’t.  Carbs are easy because you can get to them.  The USDA’s food chain uses carbs as the base.

So anyhow..  almost 50 down, and my guess is the next 40 is going to be the harder the half.

Earlier we learned that my father in law will be going in for surgery.  He has a growth on his kidney and it is most likely cancer.  So for us the Joy of Easter now becomes another Lent.  My Father In Law’s surgery isn’t till May 17th, so this means we have more than a month of waiting, a month of stress, a month of unknowing.

His surgery will be to remove the kidney.  So he will be functioning with one, but that isn’t the issue, the issue is the waiting and thinking.

If you are the praying type and you read this blog, then please pray.  If you aren’t the praying type, then I simply ask that you do whatever you do when you hear this type of news.  If you used to be the praying type, and can summon up the strength, please send prayers for my Father In Law.

My parents always said that when I married my wife, I got two of the best In Laws in the world.  They were right.  My father and mother in law are both loving and generous.  My life has been made much richer by them and they are wonderful.

So as I enter into this next lent, pray for me.  For it reopens my own wound of my Father’s death of Cancer.

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

So… Who said this?

Rush Limbaugh?

Sean Hannity?

Try PRAVDA – Which used to be the mouth piece for the Soviet Communist Party.

And you would think that they would at least know what they are talking about on this issue.

Many out there know I am Eastern Rite Catholic, which is more akin to Orthodoxy than to Roman Catholicism (well it should be, however it seems the leadership of the Eastern Churches are hell bent on making us theologically RC than EC.)  This is NOT a slam at the Roman Catholic Church.  The East and West are parts of the same body who look at things with different views.  The base theology is the same, but in the Eastern Church it may sound different, or we may look at a different aspect of the same idea.

A very good example of this is what is called the Feast of the Epiphany and in the East we Celebrate the Theophany (the baptism of Christ in the Jordan.)  They are both sides of the same coin.  Christ reveals himself in two ways, the West looks at the revealing of Christ to the Wise men, the East looks at Christ’s manifestation of the Triune God in the baptism of our Lord.

Now we enter Holy Week, or what we call Great Week in the Eastern Churches

Beginning on the evening of Palm Sunday we enter the services of the Bridegroom.  This name is given from the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25:1-13.

The first part of Great week gives us many themes that are based on the Passion of our Lord.  Which are centered on Jesus’ divine sonship, the kingdom of God, the Parousia, and Jesus’ contempt of the corruption of the religious elders of the time.  The first three days constitute a single liturgical unit.

The Orthros of each of these days is called the Service of the Bridegroom (Akolouthia tou Nimfiou). The name comes from the central figure in the well-known parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13). The title Bridegroom suggests the intimacy of love. It is not without significance that the kingdom of God is compared to a bridal feast and a bridal chamber. The Christ of the Passion is the divine Bridegroom of the Church. The imagery connotes the final union of the Lover and the beloved. The title Bridegroom also suggests the Parousia. In the patristic tradition, the aforementioned parable is related to the Second Coming; and is associated with the need for spiritual vigilance and preparedness, by which we are enabled to keep the divine commandments and receive the blessings of the age to come. The troparion “Behold the Bridegroom comes in the middle of the night…”, which is sung at the beginning of the Orthros of Great Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, relates the worshiping community to that essential expectation: watching and waiting for the Lord, who will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Here is the troparion for Monday Night.

Democrats just voted for the largest entitlement program in the history of our Nation, the middle class is just about to be *****d.

http://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/otr.cfm?id=5243

The problem here is that the Bishops can set up all the programs they like, but the fact is that until the truth is taught in the pulpits, nothing will happen.  You still have a majority of priests that were ordained during the 60s 70s and 80s who are dealing with the baggage of CRAP seminary teaching that was going on back then.

It started to get better in the 90’s but it isn’t going to change over night.  It is going to take a while for the bad to move out of the system and the good to replace it.  I am afraid that I will not be here to see the final results.  I believe that we re looking at a good 150 to 200 years for this to shake out.