икони ценииконихолни масиI’ve been slow on my posting lately as I prepare for my MA exit exam.  I must translate the concluding myth from the Phaedo from Greek into Latin then write a commentary in Latin.  Needless to say, I have plenty to keep me busy.  Soon enough, though, expect some meditations on the Imitation of Christ.

“All mankind is of one author, and is one volume; when one man  dies, one chapter is not torn out of the book, but translated into a  better language, and every chapter must be so translated. God  employs several translators: some pieces are translated by age, some  by sickness, some by war, some by justice. But God’s hand is in every  translation, and his hand shall bind up all our scattered leaves again  for that library where every book shall be open to one another.”

—from John Donne, Meditation XVII.

For some time, my favorite word to study has been the Greek word thlipsis. It has a broad range of meanings and applications. It literally means “pressure,” and is often translated “tribulation” in the New Testament, but a few cases it refers to the “anguish” of childbirth. In verbal form it can mean “to squeeze” or “to pinch.” As an adjective it can even mean “narrow,” as in the path Jesus tells us to walk.

My fascination with this word consists mainly in the implications of seeing life as one big thlipsis. If we pray that Christ would increase, and we would decrease, it naturally follows that in answering this prayer God would put us through tight spots to help the process. He reduces us so that Christ can increase.

Some of us God might even have to put through a big, final thlipsis at the judgment if he finds us still too full of ourselves to wedge through the pearly gates. I think I’d prefer the narrow road beforehand to that eternal embarrassment.

Dennis Kinlaw says it best: “When you come across an opportunity to sacrifice yourself, to lay down your own life,  you ought not run.” What most resembles death and pain to us just may be the birth pangs of new life, the Life.

“One should seriously inquire if to live in a world permeated with God  and the knowledge of God is something they themselves truly desire. If  not, they can be assured that God will excuse them from his presence.  They will find their place in the “outer darkness” of which Jesus spoke.  But the fundamental fact about them will not be that they are there, but  that they have become people so locked into their own self-worship and  denial of God that they cannot want God.”

“Whereas the primal relationship of man to man is a giving one, in the state of sin it is purely demanding. Every man exists in a state of complete voluntary isolation; each man lives his own life, instead of all living the same God-life.”

From The Communion of Saints, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

And this from a man who truely gave.  “Greater love hath no man than this…”

“In a very unique setting over Earth’s colorful horizon, the silhouette of the space shuttle Endeavour is featured in this photo by an Expedition 22 crew member on board the International Space Station, as the shuttle approached for its docking on Feb. 9 during the STS-130 mission. Image Credit: NASA -> You can download the full size (5349×4012!) image here.”

(via Monoscope)

“So blindly do we all rush in the direction of self-love, that every one  thinks he has a good reason for exalting himself and despising all others in  comparison.”

-From Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin.

How easily would I take these words of Calvin and bring them to my neighbor and say to him, “Look! See! This is what I have been trying to tell you.”  All the while ignoring the finger that points at me. Κύριε Ιησού Χριστέ, Υιέ του Θεού, ελέησόν με τον αμαρτωλόν.