The Baptist's Task

"The task set before the Baptist as he lay in prison was to become blessed by this unquestioning acceptance of God's obscure will; to reach the point of asking no further for external, visible, unequivocal clarity, but, instead, of discovering God precisely in the darkness of this world and of his own life, and thus becoming profoundly blessed. John even in his prison cell had to respond once again and anew to his own call for metanoia or a change of mentality, in order that he might recognize his God in the night in which all things earthly exist. Only when we act in this manner does another - and doubtless the greatest - saying of the Baptist reveal its full significance: 'He must increase, but I must decrease' (Jn 3.30). We will know God to the extent that we are set free from ourselves."

- Pope Benedict XVI

The Food of Strong Men

Dreams are strange. It goes without saying, I realize, but nevertheless it seems the thing to say here before I share this dream with you. There's something captivating about dreams - all this forceful emotion and clear thought injected into sorting, nonsensical images that flicker arbitrarily in our brains.
     And so I dreamed all last night of receiving the Eucharist - the Mystery that is our very Lord. But I dreamed of potato chips with ridges instead of communion wafers. And as we sat in our pews, the bowl of chips was passed around the pews as if I were an Evangelical. The bowl was passed to me and somehow, terribly, the bowl spilled all over the floor at my feet. I was horrified. Here at my feet was our Lord. I waited until the liturgy was over and approached a woman who knows how such matters are handled and she said they had a special vacuum cleaner to handle such mishaps. But then, five minutes later, she returned and said it was unavailable, that it would have to wait until after the following liturgy. And so I crawled onto the floor and shielded my fragile Lord with my body, wrapping myself around Him as the pews filled with worshippers. One man began to stamp the chips with perverse delight. So I began to eat the body of our Lord off the floor. I filled myself with Him.

     “I am the food of strong men; grow and you shall feed on me; but you shall not change me, like the food of your flesh, into yourself, but you shall be changed into my likeness” (St Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, on Christ and Eucharist).

     I know it sounds ridiculous, but of course it didn't feel so - the stuff of dreams. My only desire was to bow before our Lord and to worship Him. It seems, perhaps, like some gross idolatry to see a man pressing his forehead onto the floor before Bread. But I worship there nonetheless. Before this Mystery, I must.
     And in this Mystery, this incarnation of Kingdom, in this taste, this mouthful of what is and what will be, Now, I am changed. The bad made good. I pray that it might be so.
     Save us, O Good One.

Baby, It's a New Day

Here are the lyrics of "New Day" by the Robbie Seay Band's soon-to-be-released Give Yourself Away. Pick this one up - it's excellent. The lyrics are rough: I copied them while listening and, since it was so late, didn't want to clean up the capitalization, punctuation and such. This is a great song. I love it.

i'm gonna sing this song
to let you know that you're not alone
and if you're like me you need hope and coffee, melody
so sit back down and let the world keep spinnin' round
yesterday's gone and today's waiting on you to show your face

and it might not be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
and it might not look like a beautiful sunrise
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day

i'm a pilgrim soul
i've traveled far and come back home
and this land is hard and cold for those who long to love
and i know it might seem that the world is crumbling
but it's me and you dancing in the kitchen at 2 am and we're still in love

and it might not be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
and it might not look like a beautiful sunrise
but it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day

it's a calm of the storm that comes blowing in
it's the springtime saying i'm back again
the clouds are rolled back, crossing moonlight
me and you live, everything's all right
standing in the rain with nowhere to go
laughing and we're spinning and i hope that you
remember this day for the rest of your life
me and you live everything's gonna be all right

and it just might be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
well it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
if you look outside to see a beautiful sunrise
it's a new day, ah, new day, it's a new day

oh and it just might be the prettiest thing that you'll ever see
well it's a new day, ah, baby, it's a new day
if you look outside to see a beautiful sunrise
ah, it's a new day, it's a new day, it's a new day

it's the calm of the storm that comes blowing in
it's the springtime saying i'm back again
the clouds are rolled back, crossing moonlight
me and you live, everything's all right
standing in the rain with nowhere to go
laughing and we're spinning and i hope that you
remember this day for the rest of your life
me and you live, everything's gonna be all right

i'm gonna sing this song to let you know that you're not alone
and if you're like me you need hope, coffee, melody.

I downloaded the album for free here, but I'm not sure if it's still available. Otherwise, it's released August 28.

Divine Comedy

Today was the fifth or sixth day of August where the temperature was 100 degrees or hotter. It reached 102 today. I don't know what the heat index was. Don't want to know. On the days where it hasn't been 100, it's been mighty close.
     On one of those 100-degree days I was without A/C. My own fault of course - hadn't changed the filters in two years. The unit froze up and I got to spend some of the day in the blessedly cool mud of my crawl space, dethawing the ice from the unit and cleaning the filters. I only lost two children to the heat, which frees up space in the house and lowers stress and the grocery bill. I was also not attacked by any of the giant slugs or cave crickets, God be praised, though some looked at me curiously. Thusly, I learn. (The A/C is working beautifully now thank you very much.)
     And there's been no rain to spit at either. The good thing about no rain is that the lawn stays crunchy and brown and doesn't require me to mow it that often. The bad thing about no rain is that everything dies without water.
     But I suspect things will become happier and cooler and rainier in time. August doesn't last forever, not even in North Carolina.

Our lawn, currently.

Church Sign

If you eat the Devil's corn
He'll choke you on it's [sic] cob.

Personally, Tested

A non-thinking, poor, head-in-the-clouds, gusher - Ah, happy me. The good news is that my personality is the same (theoretically) as Shakespeare's, Tolkien's, Annie Dillard's, and A.A. Milne's.

LoTR: Alternative Ending

HT: Bob Hyatt

"I just want a decent, normal church - is that too much to ask?"

While working on an article about stability and our local churches, I remembered this video. It's hilarious. It says everything I wanted to say in my article, only better. Enjoy.

Habanero Means Hot

"Habaneros?" I scoffed. "I don't think that farmer down at the market knew what he was talking about - these are jalapeños."
     I washed the jalapeño, halved it, and removed the seeds and white spines. I sliced it for my taco salad. I picked up a small piece - maybe, all together, the volume of a pea - popped it into my mouth, and began chewing.
     Suddenly Johnny Cash was singing "Ring of Fire."
     I spit the itty-bitty piece of pepper into the trash can and begged my wife to get me a slice of bread. It helped. Some.
     My nose began to run violently. I asked for a tissue. I blew my nose and seconds later regretted the action. Apparently, I had blown some of the oils into my nose. My nose hairs were singed and withered as my nose caught fire. It felt red and swollen for thirty minutes. I was tempted to drink milk and try to squirt it out my nose. Or stuff bread into my nostrils. In the end, I simply offered up my suffering to God, who was laughing at me.
     The pepper was not a Habanero. I'm pretty sure of it. But it was also no jalapeño. It may have been a serrano. I don't know for sure. But, baby, it was hot.

"I Batman"

The vestigial sword shoved into a diaper that suggests limitations, the floppy hat with a pink bow, the "utility bags," and the horse-and-star sock is how he made his announcement in the kitchen Sunday morning.
     Joker beware.