Not much to report as of now, but the next few weeks are filling up pretty quickly. Rolando, by boss, and his crew are coming by this Wednesday to do their 3 month visit and check up on how everything is going. Then I have a meeting Thursday at the school here in the town and with the health promoters to plan our little environmental talks and recycling events. Saturday is our trip to the beach to raise money for the ADESCO here. The Monday following, I am supposed to go to a town north of San Vicente to give some talks on organic composting and worm boxes for a Youth Development volunteer to his 9th grade class I think, not sure on the grade. The next three days I will be in San Vicente for our In-Service-Training for Peace Corps. The first and last day I don’t have to go because it’s a Spanish workshop and I just barely made the cuts for not having to attend. I am going to visit the training family though and get some free computer work done in the training center. That’s about all I got right now. Tomorrow is Mass, an hour of internet before the bus leaves, and the ADESCO meeting after lunch to plan more of the excursion….fun stuff.
Random pic of the Lopez girls.
Matthew 6:34
“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day.”
February 11, 2008
Mark the date and time, I finally beat advanced minesweeper. I haven’t played it in a few months, but I played it all the time during training and it would either crash when I got close, or just whoop me. Mwhahahahaha. 9:25pm Central Time, February 11, 2008….in your face Windows Vista.
I can pass on a happy person now.
“In your face, democrats.”
-don’t remember who :)
February 13, 2008
I have spent the past day cleaning and washing and cementing around the house. Yes, cement. They sell it for 15 cents per lb in the town. I patched up my water basin to bucket bath and now its dry so this afternoon I am going to fill it with water again and see how it goes. I washed clothes as well, and then filled up everything I could scrounge up with dirt to start the seedlings that I have. Everything from Teddy Graham things, to random plastic buckets, to old Maple syrup holders from Aaron’s time here. Today I am going to plant some hopefully, if not, I’ll do it tomorrow. This morning I got up and mopped and washed my sheets, and got the house ready for my boss’ visit. Rolando is supposed to be here any minute to do my three month visit and see how things are going. Wahoo. The rest of my time the past few days has been filled with reading about how to control pests naturally without highly concentrated chemicals and fertilizing with existing plant life…. Or some baloney like that, its much easier with chemicals, J…. Hahahahahahaha. No no, that’s not what we are here for, it makes for interesting reading though. They give us bunches of resources when we come out here, its actually coming in handy now. Although, I’m learning all of this stuff in Spanish so, I am not quite sure what to call any of these things in English. Oh well. It was the same when I couldn’t transfer the history terms from the Madrid classes to Furman.
Kevin doing his cursive homework haha.
Well, just finished with Rolando… he gave me more work lol. Go figure. Although I did get to meet some Alaskans that were visiting here. They travel the world homeschooling their kids. Very nice.
St. Francis De Sales:
"What else is the doctrine of the Fathers of the Church except the gospel explained and Holy Scripture expounded? In other words, the difference between Sacred Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers is like that between a whole almond and an almond cracked open so that the nut can be eaten by anyone, or like that between a whole loaf of bread and a loaf broken into pieces and distributed. On the contrary, therefore, it is necessary to make use of such works, for they have been instruments by which God has communicated to us the true meaning of his word."
13 comments:
The Brothers Karamazov, Book Six, The Russian Monk, p. 293. I was a little behind on the blog due to life's circumstances, not lack of interest, and I loved this paragraph. I hope I will remember to pray the prayer mentioned in this blog. I was glad to have it because I never thought of some of the info in the quoted section. I must say that I have to read and reread some of the thoughts on the blog to try to get my thoughts together. All are thought provoking. I am still struggling with the Doctrine of the Trinity. My brother doesn't believe it because it is not spelled out in the Bible, and because of his nonbelief, his church won't let him teach Sunday School. I have been taught from the "beginning" that the Trinity is valid, so, as always, when I consider new info I go through struggles about what I believe, why I believe it, and what impact it has on me as a Protestant born again Christian. The Doctrine of the Trinity is one area that I have thought and thought about but have not come to terms with. I thought I knew, and then I wasn't sure. Is this being doubleminded? The same goes for the rapture theory. I struggle with what comforts me, what is "factual", etc. I have provided a lot of comfort to hurting people because it felt good to me. I have prayed for God's guidance when trying to comfort others but I believe I have acted out of my own desperation in some cases. One time comes to mind when I prayed with a dying man who did not want me to use "God" language. He was a huge Harley biker, so in my mind I prayed to God while praying for him in "Harley" terms in order to help him find some peace. It was different and unusual, and I worried about it, but it worked for him. Finally he was o.k. with me praying in God language. When he died he was at peace with God and his own spirituality. My brother told me I was wrong in doing this. "A moment's insight is sometimes worth a life's experience." Oliver Wendell Holmes
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html This is a very interesting article written by a Bishop in Time magazine. I thought you might be interested in it. If you do get a chance to read it, please comment.
Oh, Happy Valentine's Day! Enjoy the day and go dancing with your new friend!
Dear Froglegs,
There is a story about St Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest theologians of all time, relating a dream he had during a period when he was struggling with the mystery of the Trinity.
He dreamt he was walking along the edge where the water meets the shore. A small boy was stationed there digging a hole amidst the rolling waves. Augustine asked the boy what he was trying to accomplish.
The boy said, "I am trying to place all of the ocean into my hole."
Augustine laughed and said, "But that is impossible. You will never be able to make a hole large enough for the vast seas."
The boy turned to Augustine and said, "You know this is true. Why then do you try to put the whole mystery of God into your head."
Even the greatest of minds have struggled and need to realize the limits of humanity. If someone doesn't struggle with the Trinity, they haven't though about it enough yet. :)
froglegs,
Your comment has been the most inspiring for me because it has been the most sincere thing yet to be written on the blog, along with the fourth comment below you as well. I thank you for that.
The Trinity is something that I think many Christians who have really pondered the subject realize that our human understanding can only go so far. In my personal journey, I came to this junction in my study of the Eucharist, preparing to enter the Catholic Church. I was first drawn to this point in the Mass for a reason beyond me. I got really excited and giddy during this part as a non-Catholic. When my intellectual study finally won me over, or as you mentioned, you believe a point to be "valid", assimilating that Truth totally in my brain after, was just beyond me. I couldn´t do it. There is no way I could comprehend the power involved in this action. Later I realized that I was really just in awe of the Incarnation. God becoming man...that seems so simple and obvious, but then, really think about that. An all powerful God confining himself to a human body and life, is beyond us...well at least beyond me.
At this point, froglegs, I found a theme that really helped me, as the anonymous commenter alludes to in his nice addition. I found the idea of the "mysteries of faith" in the Early Church Fathers. The concept arose with many of these mind bending concepts...Communion (eucharist), Incarnation, Salvation, Trinity.... all at times referred to as mysteries which are being celebrated. I found comfort that those closest to the time of Jesus, some overlapping the lifetime and being taught by the Apostles, found these things just as mysterious as I do now.
God brought us to a certain point in knowing him through his Incarnation and teachings, but the "how" of Gods workings once it reaches our limits of understanding, passes into mystery for us. Not that we still dont know its true, or exists, but to try and fully comprehend it, is folly.
So, froglegs, in this mystery, you are among brothers....not as to whether we have a Triune God or not, but in being in awe of how it can be. Eventually, if we persevere in our pilgrimage to heaven, God can explain it to us in "Harley" terms. I dont think hed see anything wrong with that if its what is necessary.
I would suggest maybe checking out some of the early doxologies (early expressions of praising the Christian God) of the Church that show some very early and well formed ideas of a Triune God. Maybe the canons of Nicaea and Ephesus. A good source as well is the Catholic Encyclopedia that has a nice explanation appealing to Biblical passages and Traditional sources as to how the Trinity has been viewed and defined throughout the ages.
Please continue to comment froglegs, for you remind me of a verse, to which we must keep in mind in these discussions:
1If I speak in the tongues[a] of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames,[b] but have not love, I gain nothing.
4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians
Thank you for your thoughts. I believe with all of my heart that you are the epitomy of 1 Corin 1-13. Your comments touched my heart and also those of anonymous. I will try to research some of the early doxologies. Take care my friend.
No prob froglegs, although I don't know about the whole epitome thing, if you have read the previous comments on the blog, you can see that I still have much to learn about how to write in and be understood in a I Corinthians manner. Live and learn I guess.
I forgot to include the address for that Catholic Encyclopedia I mentioned, its www.newadvent.org. Just click on T and fire away. Also if you would like to discuss that subject more in depth, feel free to email me at Rhettbwilliams@yahoo.com. Forming ourselves to reflect the Trinitarian life is a whole other part of this that we will not bore our readers with haha.
Also, Fried Chicken, I'm going copy that article by the Anglican Bishop over to my computer and read it tonight. I hope to comment on it Sunday morning.
Hope you enjoyed the fasting FRIDAY!
Fried Chicken, mmmmm good.
Anyways, I read that article (http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html) by the Anglican Bishop Wright of Durham. I had to laugh though when the author called him a conservative Christian hero for his book The Resurrection of the Son of God, “which argued forcefully for a literal interpretation of that event.” My question is, do liberal Christians not believe that?....I wasn’t aware that you could be a Christian without that, haha.
I found a few things interesting about the article. The main gist seemed to be that he was shifting the focus of Christians away from their liberation in death, and more to the resurrection of the body at the very end (focusing on the fact that our bodies are of value). Because of this he likes to call our (hope of) life after death an “intermediate” stage, because our final destination is the resurrection of the body. I got no problem with that….although I don’t see a problem calling the time between our death and bodily resurrection, for those in who are granted entry into Christ, “heaven.” He seems to like to reserve that for the very end though…semantics. It’s all good.
I did find the mentioning of those who shun the mortal bodies as evil as kind of funny. The early Church fought those same ideas in the persons of the Gnostics and later their children in the Albigensians (Cathars sometimes in a general naming) and many others. Many heresies took to those ideas. It is only fair to mention that there are bits of truth in every heresy (unorthodox teaching), but their extreme unorthodox positions make it impossible for communion. It’s hard to find “new” teachings nowadays that were not recorded as being fought from the very beginning. Right on Bishop.
Finally, I thought he was off base on Dante and Michelangelo. He cites them for why people today think the way they do about the afterlife to the detriment of the body’s resurrection. How many people today (Catholics and Orthodox aside) believe anything these people wrote, much less have read it in writing? Haha. I am critical of his treating of Dante, because the souls in Paradise explicitly mention that they away the resurrection of their body, but in the meantime dwell in the Trinity (p.500 which I actually quoted on the blog not too long ago). And Michelangelo’s depiction is to finish off the sequence of events pictured in the chapel from the Bible, and the Last Judgement, is just that, the LAST judgment after his “intermediate” time. So I don’t really agree when he says that “both had enormous influence on Western culture, so much so that many Christians think that is Christianity.” I tried not to read into the fact that what they believe is not Christianity :)
So yeah, the first three or four times I read it, I really couldn’t find the point, but he just seems to want to shift focus to the final resurrection of the body, instead of our making it to “heaven.” Now, that may just be me missing something radical he said….please tell me if that is so haha.
Fried Chicken, you seem in your comment to have found some things interesting yourself in the article, I would love to listen to them more specifically if you care to post them….or anyone else of course.
I saved a copy of the doc with my original comments on it if you are really curious and want me to send it.
Yes, I would love to see your original comments. I will have to go back and reread the article before I can comment because it has been over ten minutes since I read it. I am not sure I can talk about it with the intellect you have, but I will see if I can put some thoughts together. I won't be able to comment for a few days but did want you to know that I had read your last commments and will get back to you. I do remember that I didn't agree with much of the article but I do not possess the knowledge and understanding you have. Still searching.....
Thanks for the address for the Catholic Encyclopedia you mentioned, I will use it.
I went back to the Time article and it had been moved. If you have time, will you email it to me? I wasn't sure how to search for the article. Thanks.
Hah, I loved the 10 minutes comment that made me laugh.
This link should work
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1710844,00.html
You can search "bishop heaven" on their website and it should come up if the link doesnt work.
The whole intellect thing though is unnecessary Id say. We search because there is so much to learn. The minute we stop searching, we stop learning...and if we are not learning, we are regressing.
Theres an augustine quote to that effect, Ill have to look it up later.
I look forward to your comments on the anglican bishop chickenlegs. I have a stellar article I came across that I think youll like for the next blogpost.
aahhh.. blogger is cutting off the link.
add this to the end of the previous link
44,00.html (after the eight)
or search under "bishop heaven" at the error page
suerte.
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