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Showing posts from November, 2004

The Hellfire Club

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  “Just past the weir (going up) is Danes’ Field, where the invading Danes once encamped, during their march to Gloucestershire; and a little further still, nestling by a sweet corner of the stream, is what is left of Medmenham Abbey.   The famous Medmenham monks, or “Hell Fire Club,” as they were commonly called, and of whom the notorious Wilkes was a member, were a fraternity whose motto was “Do as you please,” and that invitation still stands over the ruined doorway of the abbey. Many years before this bogus abbey, with its congregation of irreverent jesters, was founded, there stood upon this same spot a monastery of a sterner kind, whose monks were of a somewhat different type to the revellers that were to follow them, five hundred years afterwards.  The Cistercian monks, whose abbey stood there in the thirteenth century, wore no clothes but rough tunics and cowls, and ate no flesh, nor fish, nor eggs. They lay upon straw, and they rose at midnight to mass. They spen...
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Approach, my soul, the Mercy Seat

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“You should tell the devil “Just by telling me that I am a miserable, great sinner you are placing a sword and a weapon into my hand with which I can decisively overcome you; yea, with your own weapon I can kill and floor you. For if you tell me that I am a poor sinner, I, on the other hand, can tell you that Christ dies for sinners and is their Intercessor… You remind me of the boundless, great faithfulness and benefaction of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The burden of my sins and all the trouble and misery that were to oppress me eternally He very gladly took upon His shoulders and suffered the bitter death on the cross for them. To Him I direct you. You may accuse and condemn Him. Let me rest in peace, for on His shoulders, not on mine, lie all my sins and the sins of all the world.” --Martin Luther
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Wanna see something scary?

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The quote below is an excerpt from a book I recommend everyone read at some point and time. I think of these paragraphs as a "depth guage", so I ask the question: "where are we now in the age of so-called 'Post-modernism'?" "Contrary to common belief even among the educated, Huxley and Orwell did not prophesy the same thing. Orwell warns that we will be overcome by an externally imposed oppression. But in Huxley's vision, no Big Brother is required to deprive people of their au­tonomy, maturity and history. As he saw it, people will come to love their oppression, to adore the technologies that undo their capacities to think. What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell f...
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a muse

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O Scholarly Pen! (Where to begin?) Touching your lips to the dry desert page, Caressing that plane, A dance not in vain, Swirling true art from the mind. O Unlearned Keys! (who credits these?) Standing in rows on old bleachers like troops. A-fiction romance and diction, no dance, Stamping the mark from the hand. O Sapient tyro*! (how will you go?) Seeking to eat from the table of lore. A home-sculptured meal, Or “a fast-food deal”? Glean from the ones who take time! ********** "[T]hat's what learning has come to nowadays. The Latin language is hardly understood, Hebrew is unknown and Greek is so little esteemed that it is not considered ignorant for even the most learned men to pass over a Greek word without reading it." -- Victor Hugo ********** * an interesting word referring to a student in general, implying the kind of student he is: ignorant or learned. That he is "sapient" suggests he is "learned."
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thinking through

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"There are two selves: one that reacts to circumstances; the other responding from God to the situation." These words open a study on depression and despair. This is an intriguing thought as it exposes one of the most unique wonders of the universe found in man that will not be found in any other place or event in nature, namely that man can exist as two separate beings when he is only one. This is found in the statement "there are two selves"--by definition, man should not be able to exist in two selves simultaneously, yet he does. The book of James (in so many words) gives examples of how this strange phenomenon of works out in mankind. James begins right at the heart of the issue: temptation. Man has a choice of responses to temptation that he will go through--when it is set before him he cannot do anything but experience it. Man has a choice in his experience of temptation: he can either be joyful because the endurance of the temptation (and non-submittal to it...
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