Pigeon on Street Water Tap

Pigeon on Street Water Tap
taken by Barcelona Photoblog

As we are told, don't bother trying to feed this pigeon. It is street art so realistic that it fooled the photographer. More about this pigeon and this tap at Barcelona Photoblog.

To have a child

Many young adults these days eschew having children because it would take the attention off of them. I have a niece who willingly uses this excuse. But perhaps at the bottom of it lies this unacknowledged truth.

To have a child is to embrace a future you can't control.

Tom French, RadioLab, 23 Days 6 Weeks episode

What they can't know is that the lack of control brings rewards and joys that can't be imagined from their vantage point before parenthood. In this way, it is like obeying God when he asks something that is going to be uncomfortable. (And doesn't he do that a lot?) One must take on his task obediently only to find the surprise, the joy, the love that often is interwoven with the discomfort.

One must not be afraid of adventure. As Saint John Paul II said, "Be not afraid."

Portrait of a Knight of Santiago

Jusepe de Ribera, Portrait of a Knight of Santiago
The Meadows Museum

This is another of my favorite pieces from Dallas's best kept secret, The Meadows Museum.

Guess why?

Ok, it's true that I really like Ribera's work. Of course, it is the glasses. This knight had the latest tech and was going to show it off.

As Tom said, "Can you get my smartphone in this one? I want people to know I had the newest thing."

Notes on Mark: Mark the Lion

Martin Schongauer, The Lion of Saint Mark

I can never keep track of the traditional symbols of the four Gospel writers. Since we're launching into Mark, I wanted to find out just why he's represented in art by a lion. The Word on Fire Bible: The Gospels takes us to St. Jerome's wonderfully succinct reasoning which links each evangelist to the opening passage of its corresponding Gospel.

The man represents Matthew because his Gospel begins with the genealogy of Christ a device that emphasizes Jesus' humanity.

The lion is Mark's Gospel, comparing its opening passage—John the Baptist's urgent proclamation in the desert—to the roar of a wild lion.

The ox symbolizes Luke, whose Gospel narrative begins with the story of the temple priest Zechariah. Through this lens, the ox represents the sacrificial animals that were associated with priestly duties.

The eagle is John's Gospel, which begins by "flying upwards to the heights of the theological realm in its spectacular prologue: "In the beginning was the Word..."

I like that key to the symbolism! Let's see if I can keep it straight the next time I'm trying to identify who's who in stained glass windows!

The winged lion of St Mark at the Scuola Grande di San Marco, Venice.

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index

God Likes Matter. He Invented It.

There is no good trying to be more spiritual than God. God never meant man to be a purely spiritual creature. That is why He uses material things like bread and wine to put the new life into us. We may think this rather crude and unspiritual. God does not: He invented eating. He likes matter. He invented it.

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

I think this is such a wonderful way to remind us that all the things of everyday life matter.

Palazzo Albrizzo

Palazzo Albrizzo, Antonietta Brandeis
via Lines and Colors

Isn't this incredibly lovely? I can't stop looking at it. 

Tandoori Chicken Sandwiches

 A flavor explosion that doesn't involve hot peppers! We're trying to actually make some of the many recipes we've clipped over the years. This one is the first of the New Year that's been a real winner!

Get it at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

God Will Fit You for Your Work

Cast yourself with confidence into the arms of God. And be very sure of this, that if he wants anything of you he will fit you for your work and give you strength to do it.

St. Philip Neri

Never have I had greater proof of than than in my volunteering as a St. Vincent de Paul Society advocat. Whew!

Jewess with Oranges

Jewess with Oranges, Aleksander Gierymski

 

If a NFL coaching legend quotes scripture in a press conference, does it make a sound?

 The excellent Get Religion, which sadly will be stopping publication soon, points out that John Harbaugh read from the Bible during his post-win press conference. C.J. Stroud gave praise to Jesus in a brief intro during his post-game interview. Secular media ignored both, going to far as to edit Stroud's comments.

C'mon what is everyone scared of? That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow? Would that it were so.

Read the whole thing. And be sure to watch the videos they included.

Notes on Mark: The Author and the Manuscript

I'm rereading the Gospel of Mark along with various commentaries and will be reposting episodes of my previous notes that last ran 12 years ago. I'll intersperse them with new material as it is appropriate. Kind of an old again, new again thing that we'll be doing. 

Here's a touch of background to get us started.

Pasquale Ottini
St. Mark writes his Gospel at the dictation of St. Peter

I like the fact that the Gospel of Mark was requested by the Roman Christians so they had a copy of Peter's stories.

The unanimous early tradition of the Church was that Mark's Gospel captured the narrative of the apostle Peter. According to St. Jerome, "Mark, the disciple and interpreter of Peter, write a short Gospel at the request of the brethren at Rome, embodying what he had heard Peter tell. When Peter had heard this, he approved it and published it to the churches to be read by his authority." Jerome wrote these words in A.D. 392, but the tradition went back to apostolic times. Bishop Papias of Hierapolis, who died around the year 120, used to quote an unnamed "elder" in the Church whotold him that "Mark, having become the interpreter of Peter, wrote down accurately, though not in order, whatsoever he remembered of the things said or done by Christ."

Suppose Papias heard the "elder" say this in A.D. 100, and the elder was about seventy years old. This elder would have been a mature man of around forty years when Peter was martyred i Rome in A.D. 67. Papias was a disciple of John the evangelist, and he was a friend of Polycarp. Papias' testimony, then, reaches right back to the apostles.

The Memoirs of St. Peter

Even though Mark was writing based on Peter's authority, he also knew Jesus himself.

We can be sure that Mark knew Jesus Christ personally, although he was not one of the twelve Apostles: most ecclesiastical writers see in Mk 14:15-52, the episode of the young man who leaves his sheet behind him as he flees from the garden when Jesus is arrested, as Mark's own veiled signature to his Gospel, since only he refers to this episode. If this were the only reference it would be ambiguous, but it is supported by other circumstantial evidence: Mark was the son of Mary, apparently a well-to-do widow, in whose house in Jerusalem the first Christians used to gather (Acts 12:12). An early Christian text states that this was the same house as the Cenacle, where our Lord celebrated the Last Supper and instituted the Holy Eucharist. It also seems probably that the Garden of Olives belonged to this same Mary; which would explain Mark's presence there.

The Navarre Bible: Mark

More interesting, historical stuff about the book itself.

There is a very interesting thing about Mark's gospel. In its original form it stops at Mark 16:8. We know that for two reasons. First, the verses which follow (Mark 16:9-20) are not in any of the great early manuscripts; only later and inferior manuscripts contain them. Second, the style of the Greek is so different that they cannot have been written by the same person as wrote the rest of the gospel.

But the gospel cannot have been meant to stop at Mark 16:8. What then happened? It may be that Mark died, perhaps even suffered martyrdom, before he could complete his gospel. More likely, it may be that at one time only one copy of the gospel remained, and that a copy in which the last part of the roll on which it was written had got torn off. There was a time when the church did not much use Mark, preferring Matthew and Luke. It may well be that Mark's gospel was so neglected that all copies except for a mutilated one were lost. If that is so we were within an ace of losing the gospel which in many ways is the most important of all.

The Gospel of Mark
(The Daily Bible Series*, rev. ed.;)

* Not a Catholic source and one which can have a wonky theology at times, but Barclay was renowned for his authority on life in ancient times and that information is sound.

UPDATE (from 2012)
I have been contacted by a gentleman who begs me to stop quoting Barclay's comment that Mark 16:9-20 is not in any of the early great manuscripts.

Therefore, I turned to Mary Healy's excellent Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture to see what she said. Here we go, sports fans!

Verses 9-20, commonly called the Longer Ending, do not appear in the earliest manuscripts of the Gospel. Scholars are virtually unanimous in holding that these verses were not written by Mark but by a Christian of the late first or early second century who sought to fill out the abrupt ending of verse 8. (Footnote: a few ancient and medieval manuscripts of Mark insert other brief endings, which the Church does not accept as canonical.) Yet the Church accepts this addendum as part of the canon of inspired Scripture. The Holy Spirit's gift of inspiration is not limited to the original writer, but encompasses each biblical book in its final edited form.

The author of the Longer Ending was apparently familiar with all four Gospels (or with the oral testimonies on which they were based), and compiled these verses from the resurrection accounts in Matthew, Luke and John. ...

 ===== 

Sources and Notes Index

The Snowball

The Snowball, Otto Seitz

Leaving the Table

Leaving the Table, Laurits Tuxen

The Expressive Voice of the Longhorn

"No wild animal, or domestic either, has as many vocal tones as the Longhorn. In comparison, the bulls and cows of highly bred varieties of cattle are voiceless. The cow of the Longhorns has one moo for her newborn calf, another for when it is older, one to tell it come to her side and another to tell it to stay hidden in the tall grass. Moved by amatory feelings, she has a low, audible breath of yearning. In anger, she can run a gamut. If her calf has died or otherwise been taken from her, she seems to be turning her insides out into long, sharp, agonizing bawls. I have heard steers make similar sounds. They seemed to be in the utmost agony of something so poignant to them that the utterance meant more than life and would be willingly paid for by death."

J. Frank Dobie, "The Longhorns," 1941

Photo and quote via Traces of Texas

Psalm 40 — Waiting Patiently

During the attack, as you suffer the afflictions and wish to learn the advantage of steadfast patience, sing Psalm 40.

Athanasius, On the Interpretation of the Psalms

This one has been long regarded as praise and patience as one waits for an answer to prayer. Peter Kreeft points out that waiting is the first step in finding out what God wants from us.

"I have waited, waited for the Lord." The Psalmist says it twice because waiting always feels too long and tries our patience. But we must never, never, never, never, never give up. because God will always respond.

The second thing the Psalmist tells us is what God does in response to our waiting for him: he "heard my cry." Waiting is a "cry," a cry from the heart. Waiting is an active, passionate, and painful thing, not a passive, easy, comfortable thing. If we wait for God in this way, he will always hear us and answer us. And in answering us, the Psalmist says, he "stooped toward me," as a tall adult stoops to talk to a tiny child. He humbled himself. He came down to our level, since we cannot raise ourselves up to his level by ourselves.

Food for the Soul, Year C, Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Look at this image to see under just what conditions the psalmist is imagined patiently waiting. Yikes!!!! But it does go along with what the psalm tells us.

There are two kinds of patience being mentioned here. The first is patient endurance for a long time. The second is enduring hope and expectation that doesn't fade. God doesn't always act quickly but He's worth waiting for.

"I waited patiently for the Lord"
Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, Musée Condé

This is lengthy but I was fascinated by all the possibilities that the language indicates. All of these kinds of muck and mire are familiar. All make us long even more for a secure rock with firm footing.

Stuck in the Muck

The psalmist is seeking deliverance from sin, so it is interesting to see how its consequences are described as being mired down in a slippery place, with no secure footing or ability to escape. Several images are attached to the vocabulary used here. (1) One appears to refer to the clay pounded out into a smooth surface in building village streets. While in most circumstances this must have provided a relatively hard surface, on occasions of rain or perhaps the spilling of blood in battle, the clay could become slippery and muddy (cf. Zech. 10:5).

(2) A second image connected with the slippery mire is the shifty sediments of the sea bed. Isaish 57:20 describes the restless sea that tosses up slimy seaweed and mud. Similarly, Psalm 69:14 describes the desperate plight of one who is sinking into the mire while the sea waves crash over him.

(3) The final image associated with slippery mud refers to the sediment left in the bottom of an abandoned cistern or pit. Jeremiah 38:6 describes the circumstances in which the prophet was abandoned to die by his enemies in a cistern having "no water in it, only mus, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud." When the kind learned of Jeremiah's fate, he sent men with ropes to draw him up out of the muck and mire of the pit. Similarly Joseph's brother threw him into an empty cistern before drawing him out in order to sell him to passing Midianites (Gen. 37:19-28). Lamentations 3:53 describes the poet being thrown into a cistern and left to die while the "waters closed over my head." Apparently these accounts draw on a common practice of using cisterns for imprisonment. ...

Psalms Volume 1 (The NIV Application Commentary)

An index of psalm posts is here.

Polycarp's Zinger

For more than half a century Polycarp devoted himself to teaching sound doctrine and opposing heresy. Once on a visit to rome he had snubbed the heretic Marcion. "Don't you know who I am, Polycarp?" he asked. "Oh yes," said the saint, "I know the firstborn of Satan when I see him."

Bert Ghezzi, The Voices of the Saints

I wish I was that quick with a witty quip.

Evening Elegance: Birch Ambiance

Evening Elegance: Birch Ambiance, Remo Savisaar

This reminds me of growing up in Kansas and Missouri where winter weather gave us gorgeous snow covered trees.

Hot Pepper Popcorn

Once again we have the playoffs coming and once again I bring you this popcorn that will delight anyone who enjoys a little spice with their popcorn crunch. Get the recipe for Hot Pepper Popcorn at Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen.

Dream During the Dance

Dream During the Dance (Ensueño durante el baile)
Rogelio de Egusquiza

Click on the image to see the details close up. This is just beautiful work and, of course, I'm always a sucker for a gorgeously painted gown.

Genesis and cell phones

To read Genesis for its views about evolutionary theories is like reading Genesis for its views about cell phones.

Dr. Chrostopher Kaczor,

Word on Fire Bibel: The Pentateuch

That's just so spot on it made me laugh out loud. What a perfect comparison to get the point across.