John of Damascus
I had never heard of John of Damascus before, but as I did my readings this morning, I discovered that this is his feast day. Out of curiousity – and because I love Damascus – I read up on him. It is a fascinating reading, by James Kiefer, on The Lectionary pages, and has to do with the use of images, an area where Islam and Christianity differ. It makes for some fascinating reading.
HYMN-WRITER, DEFENDER OF ICONS (4 DEC 750)
John is generally accounted “the last of the Fathers”. He was the son of a Christian official at the court of the moslem khalif Abdul Malek, and succeeded to his father’s office.
In his time there was a dispute among Christians between the Iconoclasts (image-breakers) and the Iconodules (image-venerators or image-respectors). The Emperor, Leo III, was a vigorous upholder of the Iconoclast position. John wrote in favor of the Iconodules with great effectiveness. Ironically, he was able to do this chiefly because he had the protection of the moslem khalif (ironic because the moslems have a strong prohibition against the religious use of pictures or images).
John is also known as a hymn-writer. Two of his hymns are sung in English at Easter (“Come ye faithful, raise the strain” and “The Day of Resurrection! Earth, tell it out abroad!”). Many more are sung in the Eastern Church.
His major writing is The Fount of Knowledge, of which the third part, The Orthodox Faith, is a summary of Christian doctrine as expounded by the Greek Fathers.
The dispute about icons was not a dispute between East and West as such. Both the Greek and the Latin churches accepted the final decision.
The Iconoclasts maintained that the use of religious images was a violation of the Second Commandment (“Thou shalt not make a graven image… thou shalt not bow down to them”).
The Iconodules replied that the coming of Christ had radically changed the situation, and that the commandment must now be understood in a new way, just as the commandment to “Remember the Sabbath Day” must be understood in a new way since the Resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.
Before the Incarnation, it had indeed been improper to portray the invisible God in visible form; but God, by taking fleshly form in the person of Jesus Christ, had blessed the whole realm of matter and made it a fit instrument for manifesting the Divine Splendor. He had reclaimed everything in heaven and earth for His service, and had made water and oil, bread and wine, means of conveying His grace to men. He had made painting and sculpture and music and the spoken word, and indeed all our daily tasks and pleasures, the common round of everyday life, a means whereby man might glorify God and be made aware of Him. (NOTE: I always use “man” in the gender-inclusive sense unless the context plainly indicates otherwise.)
Obviously, the use of images and pictures in a religious context is open to abuse, and in the sixteenth century abuses had become so prevalent that some (not all) of the early Protestants reacted by denouncing the use of images altogether. Many years ago, I heard a sermon in my home parish (All Saints’ Church, East Lansing, Michigan) on the Commandment, “Thou shalt not make a graven image, nor the likeness of anything in the heavens above, nor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth — thou shalt not bow down to them, nor worship them.” (Exodus 20:4-5 and Deuteronomy 5:8-9) The preacher (Gordon Jones) pointed out that, even if we refrain completely from the use of statues and paintings in representing God, we will certainly use mental or verbal images, will think of God in terms of concepts that the human mind can grasp, since the alternative is not to think of Him at all. (Here I digress to note that, if we reject the images offered in Holy Scripture of God as Father, Shepherd, King, Judge, on the grounds that they are not literally accurate, we will end up substituting other images — an endless, silent sea, a dome of white radiance, an infinitely attenuated ether permeating all space, an electromagnetic force field, or whatever, which is no more literally true than the image it replaces, and which leaves out the truths that the Scriptural images convey. (One of the best books I know on this subject is Edwyn Bevan’s Symbolism and Belief, Beacon Press, originally a Gifford Lectures series.[note – now out of print]) C S Lewis repeats what a woman of his acquaintance told him: that as a child she was taught to think of God as an infinite “perfect substance,” with the result that for years she envisioned Him as a kind of enormous tapioca pudding. To make matters worse, she disliked tapioca. Back to the sermon.) The sin of idolatry consists of giving to the image the devotion that properly belongs to God. No educated man today is in danger of confusing God with a painting or statue, but we may give to a particular concept of God the unconditional allegiance that properly belongs to God Himself. This does not, of course, mean that one concept of God is as good as another, or that it may not be our duty to reject something said about God as simply false. Images, concepts, of God matter, because it matters how we think about God. The danger is one of intellectual pride, of forgetting that the Good News is, not that we know God, but that He knows us (1 Corinthians 8:3), not that we love Him, but that He loves us (1 John 4:10).
(Incidentally, it was customary in my parish in those days for the preacher to preach a short “Children’s Sermon,” after which the children were dismissed for Sunday School, and the regular sermon and the rest of the service followed. What I have described above was the Children’s Sermon. I remained for the regular sermon, but found it a bit over my head — a salutary correction to my intellectual snobbery.)
In the East Orthodox tradition, three-dimensional representations are seldom used. The standard icon is a painting, highly stylized, and thought of as a window through which the worshipper is looking into Heaven. (Hence, the background of the picture is almost always gold leaf.) In an Eastern church, an iconostasis (icon screen) flanks the altar on each side, with images of angels and saints (including Old Testament persons) as a sign that the whole church in Heaven and earth is one body in Christ, and unites in one voice of praise and thanksgiving in the Holy Liturgy. At one point in the service, the minister takes a censer and goes to each icon in turn, bows and swings the censer at the icon. He then does the same thing to the congregation — ideally, if time permits, to each worshipper separately, as a sign that every Christian is an icon, made in the image and likeness of God, an organ in the body of Christ, a window through whom the splendor of Heaven shines forth.
Happy Birthday, Law and Order Man
Thrills change as life goes on. We had a big thrill this week. We got a call from our son, a felony prosecutor, and we could tell from the second we answered the phone that he was happy, more than happy. You don’t hear this kind of happy all that often – it’s exaltation. It’s the call when he met “the ONE,” the look on his face when he graduated from law school, the sound of his voice when he snagged the exact job he wanted – prosecutor – in his field, his joy on the day he was married, and now, putting a bad guy away.
He just won a major case. You would think that this is a common occurrence, but it isn’t necessarily. The police have to gather the right evidence, the chain of custody has to be flawless, your witnesses have to be strong . . . one time, for example, his prime witness against the accused got on the stand and said SHE did it, not the gal she was supposed to be testifying against. She changed her story. Our son thinks they may have been watching Law and Order, or something, and figured out how to screw with the court.
This time, though, he had a major win, and put a bad man away for a long time. Every now and then, you get that exhilarated feeling that you are doing exactly what you are created to do – and we could hear it in his voice.
Thanks be to God. As parents, all you want is for your children to find their happiness, to find the purpose for which they were created, to find a good mate/partner to walk through life with. We don’t wish our children a life without struggles – struggles help you become who you are meant to be. Struggles are normal. Oh, how we dance with joy when you struggle and you prevail. We are dancing for joy for you, son.
Happy Birthday, dear son. We wish you a year full of wonderful new experiences.
Signs, Signs
I love signs. The very first sign I remember photographing was in Kenya, where it said “Elephants have the right of way.” This is a couple signs we came upon while walking along the waterfront, and it occurred to me that in this very law-abiding community, there were all kinds of signs telling you what you can’t do . . . LOTS of them!
And because we ate at the Rock Tavern, I keep hearing this song going through my head and thinking my sign says “Thank you very much, Lord!”
Snow on the Mountains
The very first morning I was here, as you might imagine, I was up very early. As the sun rose, I was heading down the hill to my Mom’s and saw, off in the distance, the Olympic Mountains, covered with snow. Totally awesome. It is the first snow of the season, and everyone is talking about it. In spite of all the rain, which washes down into Puget Sound, this area also suffers from occasional droughts. Temperatures are rising, and a good snow pack on the mountains is critical to maintaining a good supply of water through the year. Seeing the first snow on the mountain lifts everyone’s spirits.
Mr. Plopper
The plane was filling up fast, but so far, so good – the seat next to me is empty! I can tell that the cabin crew is getting ready to fly – they have started closing up all the bins. I’m afraid to even hope that I will have the serenity of an extra seat, the space, the silence – it’s a very long flight.
“I was hoping this seat would be free!” says a long, tall man who has just plopped himself into the empty seat next to me. I didn’t pay for that seat, it isn’t MY seat, but neither am I feeling particularly friendly to this very tall man who sat himself down so emphatically next to me, and then FLUFFED himself up so that he is everywhere!
His shoes are over on my side, so while he is busy shaking his paper noisily (more fluffing) I quickly scoot them back on his side with my feet. He is leaning over into my seat and OUR SHOULDERS ARE TOUCHING and he isn’t apologizing or moving back away or anything, I guess I have lived in Kuwait for too long but this is a STRANGE MAN and his shoulder is over the arm rest touching my shoulder!
Just in the nick of time, I discover I have one of those slipping-back seats, where you put it in the old “full upright position for take-off” but it won’t stay there, it keeps slipping back, although not too far; the seats don’t seem to be able to go back farther than five inches or so, even when broken. Anyway, for the next ten hours, every time that shoulder encroaches back into my space I hit the button that brings the seat back up with a jolt, hitting his shoulder and reminding him to keep to his own seat.
All this is done without raising my eyes from my book.
This man desperately wants my attention. He has discovered his shoes, back under his own feet, and he gives a deep, disturbed sigh. You can kind of tell that this guy arranges the universe to suit himself, and he is not used to being crossed.
He leans across me and shuts the window shade and says “I am going to be using my laptop and this creates a glare,” and I lean over and open it back up about three inches and say “and I am using it for reading, so we will have to compromise.”
He says “you can use the light” and I reply “and you can turn your laptop” and I give him a huge, insincere smile, the kind with your mouth closed and sort of tight. I am sending a strong strong message – don’t screw with me, buddy. I can’t keep you from sitting here, but you are not going to encroach on ME.
I ignore his deep sighs, which continue every time I press that button to hit his encroaching arm.
I ignore whatever it is on his laptop. I think I am supposed to look and understand that he is an important man, but here it is – I don’t care. I don’t care. I don’t care. You can sit in that seat; I can’t stop you, but I don’t have to interact with you and I don’t have to share my space with you.
It’s a great book. Ken Follet’s new book, the follow up to Pillars of the Earth, called World Without End.
When I finish my book, I sleep for a couple hours so I arrive in Seattle rested enough to pick up my rental car and drive through Seattle. In Kuwait, KLM was kind enough to put big PRIORITY tags on my bags, which, we all know, means “take these bags off the plane last of all” so it took me a while to get through the airport.
It is, once again, L’heure bleu a la Seattle. It may be four in the afternoon, but it is raining and dark, and traffic is slow enough on the interstate heading north that I can even take (very carefully, of course) a couple shots to share with you the thrill of coming into Seattle in November:
Kinda different from L’heure blue in Kuwait, hmmmm? 😉
Care Package
From the time our son was seven years old, we began praying for the girl he would marry – we knew she was probably somewhere in the world! We asked that God keep her sweet, and that when she and our son met, they would recognize one another and love one another faithfully.
Our prayers were answered bountifully. When he met his wife-to-be, he called us and said “there is someone I want you to meet.” He wasn’t talking about marriage – they had just met – but he knew she was special. From the time they started dating, they both kind of knew – this was it.
We knew from the beginning we would love this young woman. What we didn’t know is that we would love her family so much. As we partied together before the wedding, we had so much fun! Her family, like ours, has a great traditions of “aunthood” and “the cousins” and family gatherings. The cousins all attend one another’s weddings, gather together for special weekends (they went white water rafting and hiking this last summer, and are already planning the next gathering.) We all value family.
As my Mother has undergone surgery recently, one of my sweet daughter-in-law’s aunts has called my Mother twice, just to chat, and totally brightened her day. She also sent us a most wonderful Care Package – Texas Pecans!
It doesn’t take much to thrill my heart. I feel so blessed.
St Anthony, St Anthony, Please look around
I am in a muddle. I have put something in “a safe place” which at the time it seemed a very logical, very clever place, and now I can’t find it.
There is an old verse that keeps running through my head.
St. Anthony, St Anthony, please look around,
Something is lost and must be found.
So this morning, I looked up who St. Anthony was, after all, I need his help. St. Anthony was a contemporary of St. Francis of Assisi, and was sometimes called the “hammer of heritics.” He is reputed to be the patron saint of lost things because a valuable book went missing and he prayed for it’s return. As he was praying, the person who had the book saw an apparition of St. Anthony, and quickly returned the missing book, or so the legend goes.
I found this on a Catholic Education Page by Fr. William Saunders where you can find more information on St. Anthony.
Operation Hope Newsletter
Hot off the press!
Greetings OH Family,
Lots of exciting news to share with you! On Wednesday, by God’s grace 1,027 bags were distributed!! The grateful recipients of our labor bore mile-wide smiles, while some had looks of disbelief as we handed out winter bags to them. If you haven’t been on a distribution this (or a previous) year, please DO try as you’ll be blessed beyond measure as you come face to face with our needy brothers and sisters. You’ll never be the same after the experience ~ but don’t just take my word for it ~ come out with us to find out for yourself!
We have had a request to serve the TCN workers at Al Jahra Hospital. A date for that distribution will be forthcoming.
Rumaithiya street cleaners (all 120 of them) received a winter bag on Saturday. Today 250 street cleaners for Salmiya area received their winter bags; and tomorrow, by God’s grace the Salwa cleaners (150) will receive theirs! OH wishes to provide the same for as many neighborhood cleaning crews as possible, SO if you can find out where the buses load and unload for your area we’ll organize a distribution for them.
Thank you to the Catholic Church in Kuwait City for a donation of KD 50 from their summer library proceeds ~ also, to the BLS for their donation of toiletries, which we’ll give to the Philippine Embassy very soon.
Your patronage to the following activities will add support to OH’s fundraising efforts:
· November 10th: Harvest Festival at N.E.C.K
· November 11th: Beauty Bazaar in Salwa
· November 16th: Fall Bazaar in Mubarak Al Kabeer
· November 17th: KTAA Bazaar @ the Dar Al Cid
· December 4th: BLS Bazaar @ Al Hashemi (SAS Hotel)
· December 8th: AWL Charity Bazaar
For more details on exact location and timings, please contact Becky & Chelly on ophopevolunteer@yahoo.com
OH’s 2nd packing of 1,200 winter bags commenced last Friday. Called Student Day we were assisted by scout troops, the ASK National Honor Society, and many other students of varying ages and backgrounds. What an awesome sight to see our children knee-deep in charity work. My hope is that their experience will be remembered (and carried out) for a lifetime! Thank you to everyone who participated!
Thanks also to the New English School teachers who spent their ½ day off on Wednesday to help load vehicles for our deliveries! While they could have spent the day doing something else they chose to spend their time helping us to help others! What a blessing!!
OH needs more volunteers to pack this Friday, November 9th at 3:30 PM. A small set-up team is also needed that day to arrive at 2:30 PM. 1,200 bags must be packed that day so we’ll need a lot of hands on deck! Please RSVP your commitment to Kathleen on ophopevolunteer@yahoo.com
Thanks to Barbara R. for hosting a very fun and successful Bunco fundraising event for us today! We raised KD 125 having fun and so can you! If you are interested in helping to raise much needed funds to cover the cost of our winter bags, please contact Chelly and/or Becky on ohq8fundraiser@yahoo.com. Simply gather your circle of friends for a quiz night, talent show, Bunco, dinner party, or whatever you wish! It gives your friends something fun to do, but moreover it helps us to help others!
Someone asked me a few days ago if I ever get discouraged by the enormity of our job in helping the poor living in Kuwait. The truth is ~ yes. When I am depending upon my own abilities to get the work done I feel very discouraged.
A wise young Australian man who was born without limbs said this, “The awesome thing about the power of God, is that if we want to do something for Him, instead of focusing on our capabilities, we should concentrate on our availability. Once we make ourselves available for God’s work, guess whose capabilities we rely on? GOD”
So when discouragement comes over me I return (with humility) under the authority and leadership of the Almighty in this mission of mercy that I might become available so that His capabilities may be glorified.
Taste and See
In Psalm 34 of the bible is this verse that has always fascinated me:
O taste and see that the LORD is good; How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
What do you think God/Allah would taste like?
I imagine a taste somewhere between caramel and French vanilla, something so sweet and tasty you barely have words to describe it, but some might think of apples or peaches or apricots –
what do YOU think?
One Thing Too Many
I was tempted to volunteer for something yesterday, something I KNEW was wrong for me, but I just wanted to help so badly. Volunteer work can do that – how can you say no? You WANT to help. I have to remind myself that I want to do the things I must do WELL, that taking on commitments and making promises I end up not able to keep is not helpful. It doesn’t help the person I promised to help, and it makes me feel terrible about myself.
I already have a full plate. I really cannot take on more.
Sometimes we get a sign. If we are very lucky, if we have the eyes to see, we recognize it.
Some tomatoes had become overly ripe and I needed to toss them. I could easily hold four, but wanting to do it all in one swoop, I picked up all five, and one fell. When I saw the splat pattern on the floor, my first thought was that it had some artistic merit, and my second thought was that I needed to photograph it as a reminder of what happens in life when we take on one thing too many.
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