The Litany of Humility

I did not write this.

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O Jesus meek and humble of heart, Hear me.  

From the desire of being esteemed, Deliver, me, Jesus.

From the desire of being loved, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being extolled, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being honored, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being praised, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being preferred to others, Deliver me Jesus.

From the desire of being consulted, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the desire of being approved, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being humiliated, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being despised, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of suffering rebukes, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being calumniated, Deliver, me, Jesus.

From the fear of being forgotten, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being ridiculed, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being wronged, Deliver me, Jesus.

From the fear of being suspected, Deliver me, Jesus.

That others may be loved more than I, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be esteemed more than I, Jesus grant me the grace to desire it.

That in the opinion of the world, others may increase, and I may decrease,
Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be chosen and I set aside, Jesus grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be praised and I unnoticed, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may be preferred to me in everything, Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

That others may become holier than I, provided that I become as holy as I should,


Jesus, grant me the grace to desire it.

Amen

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To find out about who composed this prayer, and when, you can consult this website.

Dag Hammarskjold, Scandinavian Christian

.      I think I was a freshman in college when a close family friend gave me the book, Markings, by Dag Hammarskjold. The book was like nothing I had read before. Neither fact nor fiction, it was a kind of spiritual diary that he began at the age of twenty, and to which he kept adding entries up until the time of his death. It is a life-long memoir of what I will call Scandinavian Christianity.

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.     Dag Hammarskjold, as you may know, is best remembered as a Swedish diplomat who, in the post-World-War-II era, rose to become the highly respected Secretary-General of the United Nations. He served from 1953 to 1961. President Kennedy called him, “the greatest statesman of our century.” Who was this man?

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.     He was born in 1905 into a noble Swedish family (his father was Prime Minister of Sweden during his youth and very early teens). The family name, Hammarskjold, literally means “Hammer shield.” (Since I don’t know what is the function of a hammer-shield, I feel free to imagine old  Thor wielding a shield along with his hammer.  Which, if Thor was any good as a good god, that hammer-shield would have to have been a shield of faith, as all shields must eventually be.  Anyway.)

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.     Young Dag, the fourth of five brothers, grew up in the city of Uppsala. Apparently, he soon found the time to hike, mostly in solitude, in the forests and snows and mountains and by the lakes and shores of Sweden. His own title for his book was Vaegmaerken, which literally means Waymarks, which almost certainly alludes to cairns of stones, whether simple or elaborate, that have been stacked beside trails, ever since men made trails. He would later say, “He is one of those who has had the wilderness for a pillow, and called a star his brother. Alone. But loneliness can be a communion.”

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.     His university studies led to two advanced degrees, in philosophy and law, by the time he was twenty-five. Not surprisingly, he became known as a man who could succeed in both the world of contemplation and the world of action. In his own words, “In our era, the road to holiness necessarily passes through the world of action.”

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.     His thinking matured over time, in interesting ways. He says, “I do not know Who — or what — put the question. I don’t even remember answering. But at one moment I did answer Yes to Someone — or Something — and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.”

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.     “God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder the source of which is beyond all reason.”

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.     And again, “It is not we who seek the Way, but the Way which seeks us. That is why you are faithful to it, even while you stand waiting, so long as you are prepared, and act the moment you are confronted by its demands.”

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.     He could be specific: “He who has surrendered himself to it knows that the Way ends on the Cross — even when it is leading him through the jubilation of Gennesaret or the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Do not seek death. Death will find you. But seek the road which makes death a fulfillment.”

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.     “Forgiveness,” he said, ” is the answer to the child’s dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.”

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.     He was no fatalist, and he was not a perfectionist. He saw life as a meaningful personal response to revealed duty, which he summed up in these famous words:

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.     “For all that has been, Thanks. To all that shall be, Yes!”

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.     If you would like to read about the impact of his book upon a current diplomat, read here:

https://diplomaticjottings.blogspot.com/2011/10/dag-hammarskjold-and-journey-inward.html

— rh 23 April 2020

C. S. Lewis on Fear in an Atomic Age

This post appeared on FaceBook at the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic.

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Just received this from dear friends:

C. S. Lewis on how to respond to threats like COVID-19:

In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. “How are we to live in an atomic age?” I am tempted to reply: “Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents.”

In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways. We had, indeed, one very great advantage over our ancestors—anesthetics; but we have that still. It is perfectly ridiculous to go about whimpering and drawing long faces because the scientists have added one more chance of painful and premature death to a world which already bristled with such chances and in which death itself was not a chance at all, but a certainty.

This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things—praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts—not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our minds.

— “On Living in an Atomic Age” (1948) in Present Concerns: Journalistic Essays

 

H/T to S. C. B.

— rh 2 Apr 2020

 

 

A Song for Burley Coulter

This song might need some explaining.  It is a conversation between a small-town farmer and a small-town banker who have been lifelong neighbors and friends.  The farmer, Burley Coulter, and the banker, unnamed here, are both inhabitants of Port William, Kentucky.  The community and its characters are fictional; but they come fully alive through dozens of books and short stories that Wendell Berry has been writing for well over fifty years.  It is the banker who is singing the song.

The song — ‘Burley Coulter In The Bank’ — is here<– https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGQMJphviLY&feature=youtu.be

The lyrics of the song can be found separately —here<– https://www.folkmusic.com/ghostlightlyrics.html

The song is written by John McCutcheon, and was posted on Youtube about two years ago.  As of this posting, it registers a total of 515 views.  It is probably not going viral, though I don’t think it would hurt if it did.

If you’d like to know more about songwriter, you can read about him here:

<–https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McCutcheon

 

— rh 1-Apr-2020

Jordan Peterson’s Sixth Rule

A part of a book review

.     Jordan B. Peterson is a recent public phenomenon who has become famous — some would say infamous — for directly challenging two things:  the political correctness, and the limitations on free speech, that are being enforced, right now, both legally and socially, in Canada.
.     He has just written and published a book, 12 Rules For Life: An Antidote to Chaos.
.     The title is well-chosen. I here offer an extended quote from the middle of his discussion of Rule 6: ‘Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.’

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Clean up your life

.     Consider your circumstances. Start small. Have you taken full advantage of the opportunities offered to you? Are you working hard on your career, or even your job, or are you letting bitterness and resentment hold you back and drag you down? Have you made peace with your brother? Are you treating your spouse and your children with dignity and respect? Do you have habits that are destroying your health and well-being? Are you truly shouldering your responsibilities? Have you said what you need to say to your friends and family members? Are there things that you could do, that would make things around you better?
.     Have you cleaned up your life?
.     If the answer is no, here’s something to try: Start to stop doing what you know to be wrong. Start stopping today. . .
.     . . . Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.

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.     I believe that this is a valuable, truthful, and important message.  I urge you to get and read his book.  As always, your comments here are most welcome.

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.     Jordan Peterson wrote another book some years ago.  You can read his comments about it here:  https://jordanbpeterson.com/maps-of-meaning/

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Trolls on My Timeline, part 2

.     Part 1 is linked here.

.     Once upon a time there were two old friends of mine.   Each of them (separately — they do not know each other) seems to have become embroiled in some personal crisis of mind.  Some disappointment, perhaps, that turned into a twist in their personal belief systems.  In one case, it seems to be purely political; in the other, it seems to be purely religious; in both cases, they appear to be deeply frustrated, and are projecting their frustrations outward into Facebook world.  (There I go, sounding like a psychologist.)

.     At any rate, the result was, in both cases, a series of Facebook posts that were extremely negative, and projected criticism and hostility on all their friends, and upon whole sets of people whom they have never met and do not know, but whom they think they understand, and whom they hold in profound contempt.

.     So I let them go.

.     As a numbers game, it’s pretty good — many, many good friends on Facebook, and only two trolls.  Still, I’m sorry to see it happen; they are not only long-term friends of mine, but also of many other people.

.     I hope they get past their angers, with God’s help.

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Trolls On My Timeline, part 1

I’ll be dropping some trolls from my Facebook timeline.  It’s time.

     What’s a troll? they will ask, as if they did not know.  Well, the website “Urban Dictionary” has an answer that goes back 15 years:

troll
One who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument
     Who’s a troll? they will ask, as if they did not know.  Well, that depends on where you are.  But on my timeline, they are the ones who, on important religious or political or social subjects  . . .
     1)  routinely “share” posts and memes that they got from some wholesale troll-post-and-meme-generator (thus proceeding from wholesale provocations to retail provocations)
     2) who on any subject of importance recklessly disregard contrary facts, mitigating factors, or indeed any other point of view than their own, (in other words, false witness)
     3) perceiving themselves to be on-stage (which they are), and imagining that they must give, and are giving, a great and significant dramatic performance (which they are not),  just like the celebrities and sports figures and media darlings that they have idolized (who are also not, for the most part, particularly great or significant)
     4) who haven’t, for a long time, thought for themselves, and are hostile to (or frightened of) people who think for themselves
     5) and therefore feel fully justified when they throw around personal insults, and false accusations, against whomever they happen (to have been told by their media mentors or their social circle) not to like.
*
     Who is not a troll?  According to the definition above, most people are not trolls. Trolls are people who post “a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument.”  They prefer disruption over constructive conversation, and argument over the affirmation of truth.
     In my (fairly long, so far) life I, like you, have many friends and acquaintances who genuinely and sincerely hold points of view that are quite different from my own.  Some of them are on Facebook.  You know the list:  liberal, conservative, libertarian, apolitical, Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, atheist, agnostic, etc.  With them I have no quarrel; indeed, I look forward to engaging conversations.  Their posts and memes may be pointed, pithy, and even astringent.  They are not trolls, not in my book.
     But there are a couple of trolls that I am going to drop from my timeline, soon–unless, of course, they drop me first.  And after I do, I plan to get back to you and tell you why.

A Different True Hermit

A Book Review.

Michael Finkel.  The Stranger In The Woods:  The Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit.  New York:  Vintage Books, 2017.

 

.     You could have legitimate doubts as to whether this book tells a true story.

.     First of all, the story itself is pretty incredible.  A twenty-year-old man disappears in the Maine woods and reappears at the age of forty-seven.  In that time, from 1986 to 2013, he has survived twenty-seven Maine winters.  In that time, he only twice meets another human being, and only once says a word — “Hi.”    All of which would make him not merely one hermit among many, but a pretty remarkable specimen of a rare breed of men, known the world over from ancient times, who are perhaps noble, but perhaps just peculiar.

.      Secondly, you might have doubts about the truth of the story when you learn that the author, Michael Finkel, got in trouble back in 2002 for writing a story for the New York Times about a boy supposedly caught up in modern human trafficking, when in fact the boy was a actually a composite of several characters, not a specific individual as claimed.  So there’s that.  (Although we should mention that Mr. Finkel has gone on to write a true story  — whose title is True Story: Murder, Memoir, Mea Culpa — that has won awards and been turned into a film.  Which might reasonably cause one to suppose that he has firmly put sloppy journalism behind him.)

.     And thirdly, there is this fact about the strange man:  that the people who lived nearest to him on the shores of North Pond, in Maine, knew him not as a hermit, but only as a thief whom they never saw,  but who pilfered food and other supplies from their homes and summer cabins while they were gone.  He committed hundreds of burglaries in those twenty-seven years.

.     But the story is true as told.  His trial and incarceration are a matter of public record.  His camp was quickly found . . .

. . . and there we see the picture, the situation, the story.  Read it.  Enjoy it.  Learn something about a strange and interesting man.

.     Comments always welcome.

 

March 9, 2018.

 

Joseph Sobran Comments on The Man They Still Hate

January 4, 2018.

“Jesus is Lord!” are the triumphant words with which Joseph Sobran ends the essay, “The Man They Still Hate,” which was first published in 1999 and reposted about a year ago. He begins his essay with these words:  “The world has long since forgiven Julius Caesar. Nobody today finds Socrates or Cicero irritating. Few of us resent Alexander the Great or his tutor, Aristotle.   No, only one man in the ancient world is still hated after two millennia: Jesus Christ.”  At first reading, that sounds strange to me: hated?

It has been said of great writers and philosophers that if you want to understand them, you must read them in their own words, rather than the words of the commentators and critics who seek to interpret and explain them.  So to understand Greek philosophy, read Plato and Aristotle. not the erudite commentaries; to understand the theory of relativity, read Einstein.  (And yes, his book is pretty straightforward and reasonably short.)

The same goes for Joseph Sobran: if you started in by reading the Wikipedia article about him (which you can, right here, right now), you would have a very different impression of Sobran and his thoughts than if you began by reading a double handful of his relevant essays.

I urge the reading (and re-reading) of his essay — it is a piece of good writing, and good sense — and satisfying like good soup on a cold day.