Straightaway

Notes:
The Good-News of Jesus-Christ is the Beginning of the New Creation.  (See, I like to use lots of capitals!!!)
Elijah & Elisha and John The Baptist & Jesus parallels: except the greater of each pair is reversed. (Much like the New Creation fulfills and surpasses the First Creation ~ ML's comment)

Now that I know Mark's use of the word we have translated as "at once" is actually "straightaway" and is a pun in both Greek and English, I'm thrilled to read (Mark 1:12) "Straightaway the Spirit drove [Jesus] out into the desert..."  Yes!  Even (especially?) Christ's being tempted (much as each of us are) is part of God's making His Way straight!  God can make things right even through temptation!  Each temptation can be viewed as a hardship, but even if it is, it can also be received as an invitation to join w/ God in making things right.

When we are initially aware of a temptation, we can think we are being given an invitation or opportunity to sin.  It is at least equally true that we are being given an invitation and opportunity to become (w/ the Spirit's help) more Christ-like.

Praise be to Jesus!
Holy are You, Lord-God of all creation!
:)

Commentaries on Mark's Gospel

I'm reading books w/ commentaries on the Gospel according to Mark.  One I find especially exciting is Marie Noonan Sabin's commentary of The Gospel According To Mark, which is part of the New Collegeville Bible Commentary series.  I'm just into the introductory section, but I'm already digging into the Scripture more.  I love learning more of God, especially through the stories and accounts He Himself has given us through inspired Word.  Thanks be to God!  Praise be to Jesus!

I just finished the intro.  SO excited!  I especially value Rabin's remarks re Mark's relating the New to the Old Testament, his use of keywords, and his over-all design using patterns of two's and three's.  How Rabin does/ n't use capitals is explained but is not completely clear to me.  I hope as I read and make my own lists comparing what other translations capitalize and she doesn't, or vice a versa, along w/ what I would like to capitalize and why, maybe what's being high-lighted or not will help make the text clearer and richer for me.  We'll see.  But I'm so excited to dig in!  Here we go! :)

Sacred Relationship

Notes taken from Scott Hahn's course re Biblical Covenants as found on St. Paul Center For Biblical Theology and his book A Father Who Keeps His Promises.

The nature of Biblical Covenants: Sacred Relationship
Five (+one) elements:
(oath)
mediator
blessings
consequences/ curses
sign
relationship

Six major Covenants in Old & New Testaments:
Each of these is between God and a group of people, mediated by:
Adam
Noah
Abraham
Moses
David
Jesus

Scripture reveals to us how God is forming His Covenant w/ His People.
Covenants are different from Contracts in that Contracts are promises between two parties (doesn't include God) exchanging property or services; whereas Covenants are oaths between one or more parties and God, forging a relationship.

Reading Rome Sweet Home and A Father Keeps His Promises, both by Hahn.  Also reading Silf's Inner Compass.

Today I'm going back to "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."  I want to get better acquainted w/ Flannery O'Connor and her context, and then to read Regis Martin's work about her.

It suddenly occurred to me how much I need to take stock of the fact that these people whom I feel are worth reading lived on this same earth that I do now.  I don't really believe that is altogether true.  The world today feels like such a different time and space than even what it was when I was growing up that I couldn't feel more alien than if this were a different planet, an alternate earth.  I live with that view daily, so prominent in my mind, that I tend to forget the rest of the truth: although things are changing, this is still the same earth, this is still the on-going story of human-kind, God is still present, and His Story of redemption is still unfolding.

I think of the hymn "God Is Working His Purpose Out"

God is working His purpose out

As year succeeds to year;

God is working his purpose out,

And the time is drawing near;

Nearer and nearer draws the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

From utmost east to utmost west,

Where’er man’s foot hath trod,

By the mouth of many messengers

Goes forth the voice of God:

“Give ear to Me, ye continents,

Ye isles, give ear to Me,”

That the earth may be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

What can we do to work God’s work,

To prosper and increase

The brotherhood of all mankind,

The reign of the Prince of Peace?

What can we do to hasten the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

March we forth in the strength of God,

With the banner of Christ unfurled,

That the light of the glorious Gospel of truth

May shine throughout the world;

Fight we the fight with sorrow and sin

To set their captives free,

That the earth may be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

All we can do is nothing worth

Unless God blesses the deed;

Vainly we hope for the harvest-tide

Till God gives life to the seed;

Yet near and nearer draws the time,

The time that shall surely be,

When the earth shall be filled

With the glory of God

As the waters cover the sea.

This hymn is so grand and focuses on the sovereignty of God, and while it is all true, I need to focus on how this same great God who has worked in the past is yet working today, and sometimes in very small (seemingly insignificant) and subtle ways, more to the point: through individuals and the circumstances of their ordinary lives.

I've been reading more of Chesterton's St. Francis.  St. F. could be such a great role-model for me!  Except that I don't dream of being as free and generous as he, yet part of me longs to be like him.

What I like most about St. F is his embodiment of musician-beggar-fool-prophet-evangelist-all-through-simple-although-radical-life-choices.  He could say like Saint Paul "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation."  (Philippians 4:12)

That's what I really want: to be content in all things, to keep my contentment anchored in Christ, regardless of the circumstances.  That is true freedom.

Authors Who Inspired Authors

A Beginning List of Authors and Books 
     that Inspired Authors who Inspire Me

Read by Day, Merton, O'Connor, & Percy
(According to Paul Elie's book The Life You Save May Be Your Own)

• Augustine
• Balzac
• Blake
• Agathe Christie
• Joseph Conrad
• DeQuincey
• Dickens
• Dostoevsky
• Dumas
• T.S. Eliot
• Galsworthy
• Gorky
• Gerard Manley Hopkins
• Victor Hugo
• William James' The Varieties of Religious Experience
• James Joyce
• Thomas a Kempis' The Imitation of Christ
• Kierkegaard
• Peter Kropotkin
• Jack London
• De Maupassant
• Frank Norris
• O'Neill
• The Papal Encyclicals
• The Psalms
• Upton Sinclair's The Jungle
• Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath
• St. Teresa of Avila
• St. Therese of Lisieux
• Tolstoy