"This is about forming a friendship that will last through eternity," Davis writes. And that's exactly the foundation she's set for each reader of this volume.Go read the rest at NCR and then stop by Amazon to pick up your own copy!
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| Elisabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria (1865). Franz Xaver Winterhalter (German, 1805-1873). |
It was lovely to be cooking with actual food. There's something so grounding about it. It's not that I was doing any magic, beyond the magic it is to take big flat mushrooms and raw potatoes and turn them into something totally delicious. I was just making dinner. But I wonder how much of cooking for someone else is magic anyway, more than I know about. I think it might all be.This evokes a sense of place and activity that speaks strongly to me, even if it is "just making dinner." And she's right, cooking for others is magical though it is usually felt most strongly when you all come together for the meal.
Jo Walton, Among Others
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| Sun and Sundial, Wettenhausen monastery emblem |
May the gods confound the man who first found out how to distinguish hours, and the man who put this sun-dial here to cut my day to pieces.
Plautus
If you feel like fighting fire with fire, remember real firefighters use water.I love this. It goes hand in hand with the quote someone used at dinner last night.
Anonymousvia Lynn Underwood
An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.
Anonymous(attributed to many, confirmed for none)
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| Francesco Hayez, Esau and Jacob reconcile |
Common sense isn't all that common. In fact, the common thread in many decisions is that they don't make sense. Esau's life was filled with choices he must have regretted bitterly. He appears to have been a person who found it hard to consider consequences, reacting to the need of the moment without realizing what he was giving up to meet that weakness. He also chose wives in direct opposition to his parents' wishes. He learned the hard way.All material quoted is from the Life Application Study Bible. This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.
Strengths and accomplishments:
Weaknesses and mistakes:
- Ancestor of the Edomites
- Known for his archery skill
- Able to forgive after explosive anger
Lessons from his life:
- When faced with important decisions, tended to choose according to the immediate need rather than the long-range effect
- Angered his parents by poor marriage choices
Vital statistics:
- God allows certain events in our lives to accomplish his overall purposes, but we are still responsible for our actions
- Consequences are important to consider
- It is possible to have great anger and yet not sin
Key verses:
- Where: Canaan
- Occupation: Skillful hunter
- Relatives: Parents - Isaac and Rebekah. Brother - Jacob. Wives: Judith, Basemath, and Mahalath.
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. See that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son. Afterward, as you know, when he wanted to inherit this blessing, he was rejected. He could bring about no change of mind, though he sought the blessing with tears." (Hebrews 12:14-17)
Esau's story is told in Genesis 25-36. He also is mentioned in Malachi 1:2, 3; Romans 9:13; Hebrews 12:16, 17.
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| Inside of Notre-Dame Basilica (Montreal) |
The Telegraph revealed the results of the study, stating that, “Around 13 percent of teenagers said that they decided to become a Christian after a visit to a church or cathedral.”Philip Kosloski reports on this as well as considering how U.S. parishes have begun building traditionally beautiful churches again.
Even more surprising was the report’s finding that the “influence of a church building was more significant than attending a youth group, going to a wedding, or speaking to other Christians about their faith.”
In fact, “The study suggests that new methods invested in by the Church, such as youth groups … are less effective than prayer or visiting a church building in attracting children to the Church.”
The study suggests that new methods invested in by the Church, such as youth groups and courses such as Youth Alpha, are less effective than prayer or visiting a church building in attracting children to the church.Yes, the good old fashioned ways of personal encounter with Christ still work just fine.
One in five said reading the Bible had been important, 17 per cent said going to a religious school had had an impact and 14 per cent said a spiritual experience was behind their Christianity.
“Things which we would class as old hat methods are some of the more effective ways."
“Commander, I always used to consider that you had a definite anti-authoritarian streak in you."
"Sir?"
"It seems that you have managed to retain this even though you are authority."
"Sir?"
"That's practically zen.”
Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay
The gardens of Blandings Castle are that original garden from which we are all exiled. All those who know them long to return.
Evelyn Waugh on P.G. Wodehouse's Blandings Castle series
The words [of the Rosary] are like the banks of a river and the prayer is like the river itself. The banks are necessary to give direction and to keep the river flowing. But it is the river with which we are concerned. So in prayer it is the inclination of the heart to God alone which matters ... As the river moves into the sea, the banks drop away. So, too, as we move in to the deeper sense of God's presence the words fall away and ... we shall be left in silence in the ocean of God's love.I don't pray the rosary often but I do find it very helpful occasionally for getting me back on target, getting me back in the river so to speak.
Robert Llewelyn
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| John Singer Sargent, An Out-of-Doors Study, 1889, depicting Paul César Helleu sketching with his wife Alice Guérin |
And Esau was forty years old and he took as wife Judith the daughter of beeri the Hittite and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite. And they were a provocation to Isaac and to Rebekah. ...Darn it. Just made me feel worse for him.
And Rebekah said to Isaac, "I loathe my life because of the Hittite women! If Jacob takes a wife from Hittite women like these, from the native girls, what good to me is life?" ...
And Esau saw that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him off to Paddan-aram to take a wife from there when he blessed him and commanded him, sayng, "You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan." ... And Esau saw that the daughters of Canaan were evil in the eyes of Isaac his father. And Esau went to Ishmael and he took Mahalath daughter of Ishmael son of Abraham, in addition to his wives, as a wife.
Genesis 26:34-35; 27:46; 28:6, 8-9, Robert Alter transl.
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| Peter Paul Rubens, The Reconciliation of Jacob and Esau, 1624. |
...when today as believers in our age we hear it said, a little enviously perhaps, that in the Middle Ages everyone without exception in our lands was a believer, it is a good thing to cast a glance behind the scenes, as we can today, thanks to historical research. This will tell us that even in those days there was the great mass of nominal believers and a relatively small number of people who had really entered into the inner movement of belief. It will show us that for many belief was only a ready-made mode of life, by which for them the exciting adventure really signified by the word credo was at least as much concealed as disclosed. This is simply because there is an infinite gulf between God and man; because man is fashioned in such a way that his eyes are only capable of seeing what is not God, and thus for man God is and always will be the essentially invisible, something lying outside his field of vision. ...Benedict never forgets that Truth can only be found by not ignoring all truth when we come across it, even when that truth is something we would rather gloss over. Such as the fact that people are people both in the Middle Ages and now ... and that nominal believers are not something only found in our time.
Vimes smiled. Someone was trying to kill him, and that made him feel more alive than he had done in days.
And they were also slightly less intelligent than he was. This is a quality you should always pray for in your would-be murderer.
Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
Colon thought Carrot was simple. Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was.
Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.
Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms
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