Feast of the Annunciation

Today is the Feast of the Annunciation, when the St. Mary the mother of God became the theotokos/Mother of God because St. Gabriel the Archangel (don't ask me how angels are saints they just are) told her that she would be 'with child' or whatever the Hebrew equivalent would be, and she started singing what would eventually become the Beattles song "Let it Be".

But most importantly as in the case of any liturgical celebration it has become a time for the Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox and others to come together and to bicker about who has the "Real" Church of the Annunciation on the actual location. I wonder if they'll be another fight like the epic Church of the Holy Sepulcher's 'battle on the burial ground' slugfest of '08 (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2004362684_christians21.html)

Anyway, getting back to the original annunciation we have this photo either taken by Nazarene Paparrazzi at the time or drawn by some Italian artist who is actually depicting goddess worship in hopes that Dan Brown might one day write a book about it. To clear things up, contrary to what the picture portrays, there is no conclusive proof that Our Lady had down syndrome but that the creator of it merely took artistic license and went with it to add some drama.

But cynicism and joking and blasphemy I'll have to be absolved for aside, here's the story according to the not-eyewitness St. Luke the evangelist:

"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.’ Mary said to the angel, ‘How can this be, since I am a virgin?’ The angel said to her, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God. And now, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.’ Then Mary said, ‘Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word.’ Then the angel departed from her. " - Luke 1:26-38

Blessed Virgin Mary, pray for me that God might forgive me for blasphemy, it was for humor's sake, and I'm willing to do some more purgatory for it if necessary. Amen

Lent: True Repentance

Today was the rite of election for Catechumens and Candidates at our Roman Catholic Cathedral. Our bishop presided and preached an amazing and passionate sermon which spoke to me powerfully. The text was St. Mark's account of the desert temptation and his sermon was all about temptation and conversion. To explain why this was anything more than your average sermon let me QUICKLY explain recent happenings in my life.

I had a Christian friend almost died and still in hospital, I got bluntly rejected by a girl I (sort of) asked out, I found out I have a dentist appointment this monday (one of my biggest fears), I had a terrible night at work, my computer got a virus and is completely destroyed meaning that I've lost all my lecture notes and school work for this year. The computer part was probably the worst as it happened while I was trying to look up the lyrics for "Abide with me" which was going to be my worship song to God in spite of my terrible week. ....and then my comp broke...and I pretty much decided to follow Job's Wife's advice: "Curse God and die". So God and I have been on rough ground recently.

SO, at mass today our Bishop was discussing how Christ is the essence of the Kingdom of God and that unless Christ is sovereign in our hearts/souls then we are denying God's sovereignty in our lives, and excluding ourselves from the Kingdom of God. He tied this to the Rite of Election which he defined as 'the process where God in sovereign freedom chose you to join the body of Christ and to turn your life to him'. Which wasn't Calvin or Augustine, but was still good. So he tied this idea of sovereignty in the Kingdom of God to sovereignty in our own lives. He also said that Satan is never so obvious as to tempt us to openly disown God and side with him (satan). But rather he said Satan tempts us with good things which we overglorify and these become the temples or idols in our hearts. He says this leads us to spiritually write a declaration of independence from God (sorry to the Americans). And so the purpose of Lent is to deprive ourselves of inherently good things to remind us that we need to destroy these temples in our own hearts and lives. As the Lord led Jesus into temptation, so he will lead us, and this is done to remind us who is sovereign in our lives. Is Christ's flag flying in our lives, or have we set up our own rule, our own independence.

I'm reading a book by Brother Andrew called "The Calling" with all these wild evangelistic stories. One of them recounts how difficult it was to get the gospel into China, and how the borders are closed, and the only book permitted is 'Mao's little red book of sayings'. He talks about how they smuggled in bibles disguised as these books, etc, and began by evangelizing the borders and gradually made their way in.

I thought about my own life this afternoon, have I declared a revolution in my heart, have I closed off the gospel and built idols to lust and gluttony and self-centredness. Is my heart more populated with 'Andrew's red book of rationalizations' or sayings that excuse me of my own sin and responsibility, than with God's Word. Is the Lord trying to penetrate the borders of my soul.

Well, today I learned a little more about true repentance, and tried to remember whose side I am on and re-declare my allegiance to Christ. Today's readings also talked about authorities and rulers in the heavenly realms, and so in the language of spiritual warfare, I realized today that maybe Lent will be a beneficial time for God's hostile takeover of my soul, for my unconditional surrender, and for the flag of the gospel to fly high once more. All of this state/warfare/kingdom language and metaphors remind me of something the Ven. John Henry Cardinal Newman said in a sermon on the prodigal son:

"The most noble repentance (if a fallen being can be noble in his fall), the most decorous conduct in a conscious sinner, is an unconditional surrender of himself to God—not a bargaining about terms, not a scheming (so to call it) to be received back again, but an instant surrender of himself in the first instance. Without knowing what will become of him, whether God will spare or not, merely with so much hope in his heart as not utterly to despair of pardon, still not looking merely to pardon as an end, but rather looking to the claims of the Benefactor whom he has offended, and smitten with shame, and the sense of his ingratitude, he must surrender himself to his lawful Sovereign. He is a runaway offender; he must come back, as a very first step, before anything can be determined about him, bad or good; he is a rebel, and must lay down his arms. Self-devised offerings might do in a less serious matter; as an atonement for sin, they imply a defective view of {97} the evil and extent of sin in his own case. Such is that perfect way which nature shrinks from, but which our Lord enjoins in the parable—a surrender. The prodigal son waited not for his father to show signs of placability. He did not merely approach a space, and then stand as a coward, curiously inquiring, and dreading how his father felt towards him. He made up his mind at once to degradation at the best, perhaps to rejection. He arose and went straight on towards his father, with a collected mind; and though his relenting father saw him from a distance, and went out to meet him, still his purpose was that of an instant frank submission. Such must be Christian repentance: First we must put aside the idea of finding a remedy for our sin; then, though we feel the guilt of it, yet we must set out firmly towards God, not knowing for certain that we shall be forgiven. He, indeed, meets us on our way with the tokens of His favour, and so He bears up human faith, which else would sink under the apprehension of meeting the Most High God; still, for our repentance to be Christian, there must be in it that generous temper of self-surrender, the acknowledgment that we are unworthy to be called any more His sons, the abstinence from all ambitious hopes of sitting on His right hand or His left, and the willingness to bear the heavy yoke of bond-servants, if He should put it upon us." -John Henry Cardinal Newman (http://www.newmanreader.org/works/parochial/volume3/sermon7.html)

May God show you this Lent, the heart of true Christian repentance.

Thoughts on Lent: My Ash Wednesday

This is just an excerpt from my journal about Ash Wednesday written at about 1pm yesterday and a picture of me in the Brock library with my faint ashes:

So I just got ashes on my forehead for Ash Wednessday. [a mennonite friend] went with me and I think it was very strange indeed for him, to see me cross myself, etc. A deacon presided, I think he was Roman Catholic, and the Reformed/Anglican (he represents both I think) Chaplain also did readings and prayers. It was ecumenical. I felt strange knowing that there were actually these ‘hidden’ Christians (Anglicans and Catholics in this case) who were devout enough to want to identify themselves publicly. It feels like the University hammer of Atheistic Positivism/Secular Liberalism is somehow striking lighter now. I always felt like it was almost perfect in it’s job at crushing our souls, but today I saw the proverbial ‘remnant’. They weren’t ‘cool evangelicals’ with music that sounds normal, it wasn’t a ‘youth meeting’ where pizza was served. It was an amalgamation of those who recognized the tradition of the church and scripture, and followed it penitentially. Our whispered singing and faltering voices, the general nervousness around the place, as we sung “Amazing Grace” was terribly authentic in the tiny room with students passing by the open door.



It was like the early Christians, huddled together in a room. Afraid of everyone else ‘finding them out’. I think this will be one of the best experiences this year for my faith. It was a blessed time. [my friend] noticed that his pale complexion and the firmness of the deacon made his ashes much more visible – indeed they were – but maybe the worst for me was before I even saw my own, before, when I was so worried what people would say or think, believing them (my ashes) to be visible from miles away ... and then I looked in the reflection of the computer and saw that they were much fainter than I thought, and I could easily move my bangs to cover this marking. It made me realize that perhaps on days like today when all is brought out to the light, that maybe I am in need of an increase of faith and fervor. It’s a preview to judgment day in essence. I used to be very zealous, but time in the world weakens you. In subtle ways at first. But before long you are back into it with everyone else, and you are no longer what scripture calls ‘one of the peculiar people’. Maybe that’s why public penance in the Early Church was good, maybe that’s why the Jews did it. Maybe my entire life it wasn’t the “religion” and “dead ritual” of it all that troubled me. Maybe I was using that as an excuse just to not look funny, to not be peculiar, and to fit in like everyone else."

Thats where my journal left off, but I remember talking with my friend about why on earth he would want to get ashes if he wasn't even Roman Catholic or Anglican and he said it was to try out 'new' religious experiences. But we also discussed how it forces you to be public with your faith. I laughed about how embarrassed I was about it, even though I could argue for Christianity/against atheism in seminars all year long, suddenly this became much more problematic, and how the early christians would've probably excommunicated people like me. So even though I've missed the point of Lent in this post (repentance, prayer, fasting, almsgiving) at the same time I learned a good lesson. Echoed by Saint Paul:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation" - Romans 1:16

I also have to say as a funny story that a guy I met from Campus Crusade for Christ (or whatever new nice name it has) came up to me and saw me reading the bible and then looked at my forehead and was utterly confused. He just looked at me like I had stabbed him in the back and said "I thought you were a Christian?" and I said "I am a Christian, I have been my whole life, but I'm not an evangelical, I go to the Catholic Church". He then proceeded to look at me like a Magic Eye Picture, really confused and a bit troubled. Then he picked up his books and left. lol nothing more scary to an Evangelical Protestant than Traditional Christianity I guess.