Of the five folded corners of Generous Orthodoxy, this one requires the least explanation. Brian McLaren quotes Blaise Pascal on a poem – this guy – Pascal, was a prose-happy, rational being who seemingly had a few fleeting hours of heart filled inspiration and gratefulness that expressed itself.

MEMORIAL
The year of grace 1654
Monday, 23 November…
From about half past ten in the evening until about half past midnight
FIRE.
“GOD of Abraham, GOD of Issac, GOD of Jacob”
not of the philosophers of the learned.
Certitude. Certitude. Feeling. Joy. Peace.
GOD of Jesus Christ.
“My God and your God…”
Forgetfulness of the world and of everything
except GOD.
He is to be found only in the ways taught in the Gospel.
Greatness of the human soul.
“Righteous Father, the world has not known you,
but I have known you.”
Joy, joy, joy, tears of joy.
I have departed from him:
“They have forsaken me, the fount of living water.”
“My God, will you leave me?”
Let me not be separated from him forever.
“This is eternal life,
that they might know you, the one true God,
and the one that you sent, Jesus Christ.”
Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ.
I left him;
I fled him,
renounced,
crucified.
Let me never be separated from him.
He is only kept securely by the ways taught in the Gospel:

Renunciation, total and sweet.
Complete submission to Jesus Christ and to my director.
Eternally in joy for a day’s exercise on the earth.
Not to forget your words. Amen.

I think it is one of the most beautiful and honest things I have ever read.

Books Christianity Words

I nearly wrote a post about a post of a certain Christian teenage blog that I at times heartily disagree with, then read this:

From all my lame defeats and oh! much more
From all the victories that I seemed to score;
From cleverness shot forth on Thy behalf
At which, while angels weep, the audience laugh;
From all my proofs of Thy divinity,
Thou, who wouldst give no sign, deliver me.

Thoughts are but coins. Let me not trust instead
Of Thee, their thin-worn image of Thy head.
From all my thoughts, even from my thoughts of Thee,
O thou fair Silence, fall, and set me free.
Lord of the narrow gate and the needle’s eye,
Take from me all my trumpery lest I die.
-C.S. Lewis, Poems

Although I don’t fully ‘get it’ (because I haven’t given it enough time). I am convicted. Stupid brilliant literature – even though it rhymes. I am not going to write that post. Even though I really really want to.

props to Bob.

General

267535pw269.jpgI don’t need to go write my many posts on a Generous Orthodoxy (Brian McLaren) now, Mak has said lots of it for me. I’m sure I may go back to those folded corners, but for now I’ll sit in my blergh too much homework state or whatever else is turning my mood sour.

Isn’t sour an awful word when used like that?

Christianity Post of the Day

still_life_warp.jpgI should be a little disgruntled. I am up ‘early’ (*cough, *8:30am) because of an online real-time 20th Century Design History subject and happened to forget that the second week we begin at 9:00 and have thus forgone and extra half hour of sleep. Mercifully it is my only early class. Despite this, I am quite enjoying myself. The house is quiet, my earl-grey tea is hot, the sun is coming in over my hands, I’m still in my pj’s and I can simultaneously check email, do other homework, trawl the web for interesting stuff or write blog posts. I wish all \ uni was online sometimes.

All the above considered, Wednesday mornings could become a time for my keys to spit out some more interesting blog posts. The subject requires the use of a discussion board – I think quickly, I type quickly, I write fairly quickly, it works in my favor and shouldn’t be an issue. I have been sitting on several posts for weeks now and haven’t had the time or quite the opportune shove to get them out. Hello Wednesday. You have been warned.

Blogging Uni

Click to view my Personality Profile page

Get yours here. It is interesting as my Myers Briggs stuff seems to have swung back to INTJ (from ISTJ), I am still by far less J than I used to be… perhaps I have mellowed. I am also less ‘T’ which I’ll need to think about. I approve of this test, the questions were broad and seems to have conveyed stuff fairly accurately.

Personality