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Hans Memling ca. 1430 – 1494
a quote for decade four(!)
Shared by DZ on Saturday night at my B-day party:
We have this notion in this country, not only of endless economic growth but of endless personal growth. I have a certain characterological antipathy to the notion of we’re all getting better and better all the time. And it’s so clearly belied by our experience. You may get better in certain ways for 10 years, but one day you wake up and although things are a little bit different, they’re not a lot different. And I think if one can get more accustomed to that somewhat more tragic view of life, that people would think yeah, ‘We don’t actually need to have a bigger and bigger house, and a bigger and bigger car, and more and more things in the house.’ That there might some way to think of the world in different terms, so it was more about being and less about growing.
Jonathan Franzen
I think, on entering my 30s, I’m at a place where I’m more concerned with removing obfuscation than self-improvement/growth. Trying to learn accept the self and the world just as they are, without too much judgment. Trying to rest in the fact that God has a place for me in this world independent of my striving and inclinations.
Curiously Wrought
Scenes from the Passion of Christ
Scenes from the Passion of Christ
Hans Memling ca. 1430 – 1494
oil on panel (57 × 92 cm) — 1470-71
Galleria Sabauda, Turin
This is my favorite depiction of the Stations of the Cross.
Here is a explication of the 23 scenes of Jesus’ last days, as well as large format scan of the painting. There is also a “lo-fi” animation that walk you through the events on the page as well.
Merciful God, creator of all the peoples of the earth and lover of souls: Have compassion on all who do not know you as you are revealed in your Son Jesus Christ; let your Gospel be preached with grace and power to those who have not heard it; turn the hearts of those who resist it; and bring home to your fold those who have gone astray; that there may be one flock under one shepherd, Jesus Christ our Lord.
– from the Solemn Collects
God loves us where we are, but He loves us too much to leave us there
A faith that costs nothing and demands nothing is worth nothing.
– Martin Luther
Interesting blog post I stumbled upon today via a Facebook update from my friend Sam. Its about a forthcoming book, Already Gone, which focuses on the claim that 2/3 of those young-adults who have grown up in evangelical churches are leaving.
It would be too recursive for me to write on a blog post about a review of a book, but I leave some choice quotes to entice/provoke you to read the article:
I get too many things in the mail from churches that say, ‘Come just the way you are, you don’t have to change.’
While God loves you where you are, he expects you to change. We don’t put the fear of God in our churches, we don’t have that respect. We’ve made Jesus our homeboy. He’s not our homeboy, he’s our Saviour.
They (young people) have written church off as a moralistic bad guy that wants to keep them from enjoying their life.
God isn’t a vending machine of good gifts. This (joining the church) will not be the easiest thing you have done.
I think there is a hunger where entertainment is the approach to worship. It doesn’t really satisfy. I think there is a richness in the ancient traditions that speaks at levels where contemporary music fails.
the Lamb
Sung this today in Evensong. Mesmerising
Little Lamb, who make thee
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, wolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,Making all the vales rejoice?
Little Lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee?
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee;
Little Lamb, I’ll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb
He is meek, and He is mild,He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name.
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
Little Lamb, God bless thee!
– William Blake
The Lamb was written twenty-two years ago for my then 3-year old nephew, Simon. It was composed from seven notes in an afternoon. Blake’s child-like vision perhaps explains The Lamb’s great popularity in a world that is starved of this precious and sacred dimension in almost every aspect of life.
