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Today is the fourth day of the octave of Trinity, which is an “extended” celebration for this very important feast (Pentecost had one too). Sunday was the main celebration but the entire week afterwards repeats the very same Daily Office of prayer and meditations, albeit with some variations, in order to more fully appreciate the deeper meaning of the spiritual lesson of the Trinity…
Read MorePentecost, or Whitsunday as it’s known in the Anglo Catholic tradition deserves some recognition, if not for its theological importance, then for being the last day of Eastertide. Here’s how our family acknowledges the day through symbolism, and a touch of ritual…
Read MorePentecost is this Sunday, 23 May, 2021 and is the last day of Eastertide. There’s actually a pretty profound relationship between the feasts of Easter, and The Ascension and Pentecost, so it’s worth celebrating them all. I’ll provide some suggestions to acknowledge the sacredness of the day based on our family’s Pentecost celebrations later, but first let me explain what Pentecost is and how it relates to the Easter story…
Read MoreI was watching my 2-year-old son playing a few months ago and noticed how easy it was for him to take things apart. He dumped his toys on the ground, scattered everything around and pulled apart all the Lego pieces. He wanted to influence his surroundings by interacting with the world, and with his limited understanding, the only way that he knew how was to “deconstruct” things. As most parents know, a toddler can leave a wake of destruction and chaos in their path. While I’m sure this is a very common stage of human development, it led me to think about the relationship we have with the world and by extension, what God is to the world…
Read MoreAscension Day is coming up this Thursday, 13 May 2021. The feast of the Ascension is one of the Ecumenical feasts of Christianity (according to Wikipedia), one of the oldest (celebrated for eighteen centuries give or take), and also one of the hardest to wrap one’s head around.
The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus Christ celebrates the end of Christ’s ministry on earth after his resurrection. It’s always a Thursday, but since it’s 40 days after Easter Sunday, the calendar date changes from year to year (i.e. 13 May 2021, 26 May 2022, etc). If you can accept that Christ conquered death, or if that’s hard for you to swallow, that Christ gave us faith that death is an illusion, then the end of his earthly life couldn’t have ended in death… again. The Ascension story is the end of that beginning.
Read MoreAllow me to present to you Chuck Feeney, another inspiration in the field of non-attachment. One of the themes behind this Blog is the F.I.R.E. movement, which essentially boils down to the idea that any one can actually have more freedom if one is willing to spend drastically less than one earns. Mr Feeney apparently lived this idea well before it became the subject of so many blogs… before there were blogs… or the internet for that matter…
Read MoreI don’t have trouble sleeping anymore. Maybe that’s not a very novel statement, but it seems to me that there are a lot of people that could benefit from a good, sound night’s sleep — parents with young children I’m talking to you — so I’ll let you in on the secret of how. In the history of Christianity, and especially amongst the Desert Fathers, it seems that the ascetic practice was to deprive oneself of sleep, which does have its merits as a practice of self-discipline, but I’ve found that for me, 8½ hours of sleep (7 if I’m really active) makes me more focused, more motivated, and less prone to irritation, which are all qualities I’m trying to cultivate on my spiritual journey. That’s not to say that I never deprive myself of sleep, I just try to do so deliberately — more on that next Advent or Lent…
Read MoreFor me, deliberately and conscientiously setting aside time to meditate, or pray, or “be”, or listen, or whatever you want to call it, is the surest way to establish a relationship with the divine. And just like my relationships with family and friends, the more time I spend on it, the stronger the relationship is. And given the current “work-from-home” situation, which has provided me with more flexibility (hello between meetings childcare!) and more time (goodbye 90 minute commute!), I’ve been able to pray the Liturgy of the hours, also known as the Divine Office, with varying degrees of rigour.
Read MoreLet me tell you about an English performance artist, Michael Landy. I was interested in the idea of “non-attachment” so I read (most of) Ends and Means by Aldous Huxley — especially because Ends and Means was cited as a source of inspiration for one of my favourite modern Christian Mystics, Thomas Merton. In Ends and Means Huxley surmises on the ideal society, and as its basis, the ideal person. Huxley frequently returns to the idea of non-attachment…
Read MoreDid you know that Easter is actually fifty days? No? It starts on Easter day, and lasts until Pentecost which is 49 days later. Here are a few ways our family makes the entire “season” special:
No abstinence or fasting on Fridays. Just as every Sunday in the year is meant to recall the Pascal feast, for our family every Friday throughout the year recalls the death and passion of Jesus. So most of the time we have some of the same customs on Fridays as we do on Good Friday: Not eating three full meals, not eating meat, not having dessert, no whisky (for me). During Easter however we have a curry feast every Friday instead of fish, and there’s lots of Easter cookies and candy — even on Fridays. Plus, Wisedad can have Scotch and a cigar…
Read MoreI made mention earlier about the relativity of simultaneity. Take a minute to reflect on what that means: If two things happen at the same according to one observer… but event “A” happens before event “B” according to a different observer… and event “B” happens before event “A” according to someone else… then all three people have experienced a different timeline, yet each is completely correct in their experience. Admittedly, this description applies to people travelling close to the speed of light relative to the events they’re observing, but it’s correct nonetheless: The sequence of time, the order of events, and cause and effect are all relative.
Read MoreFor my inaugural Blog post (after the Apology), I’d like to comment on another inspiration for this blog: The F.I.R.E. movement and the Mr Money Moustache blog, which is something I’ll return to often in the Asceticism category. F.I.R.E. stands for Financial Independence Retire Early. The concept is to radically reduce one’s spending such that only a fraction of what is earned is needed for living expenses, with the remainder being saved. For example, if one makes $80,000 a year, but only spends $30,000 of that, one would only need to work for twelve years to accumulate $850,000 in savings, which would then generate enough interest to “retire early”. Said another way: Consuming less and shedding the unnecessary trappings of Capitalism is the key to self-fulfilment. The Mr Money Moustache blog is a practical example of this approach and expounds the first theme relevant to this blog: Minimalism…
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