Happy Birthday Dear Jesus!
This is my new Christmas present. I feel like a kid and also like a very responsible grown up. That is a good sign that I am becoming more fully integrated as a person. I get to be it all!
First I want to thank David Bruce and everyone else who has allowed me to come out and play. This has got to be one of the funnest and most enriching things I’ve ever been allowed to take part in. I am deeply honored.
Then I want to thank all my friends in the WWW who have helped and encouraged me and who I have never met and hope to someday in the Grand Forum in the Sky; Joey, Mikell, Cytem, FlamingoChavez, all those who I remember but I need more time to track down the names from the Project86 site, all those who helped me from The Cult Forums, The Matrix Forums , any other Forum which I have participated in, a tallhobbit at Bay Area Christian Goths , David Dellman at Gothic Christianity and fellow bloggers who inspired & responded to me: Bobbie Anonymous at Emerging Sideways and Jason Clark at Emergent. Thanks also to Len Sweet whom I think I frightened nevertheless he did the best he could under the circumstances.
Then thank you to those who have strongly influenced me for good in my local world; Dana, Macabre Schwab, Randeath, Dail, The Hatchet, mark, Paul, Kevin, Larry, Jim, Rodger.
And in the wonderful tradition I learned from my great teachers Project 86, NO THANKS TO: every one who may have recognized that I had a gift but did nothing to help me, those who harmed me or damaged me or weakened me, those who were part of the Problem which resulted in so much pain and suffering for myself and those loving people who are trying to make this world a better place. Unfortunately, you probably don’t know who you are. But God does. If I am ever clearly instructed to name you, I will.
And now a moment of silence for those who still suffer...
...
Then:
St. Patrick's Breastplate
I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spiced tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.
I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,T
he glorious sun's life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.
I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.
Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.
Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
[translated by Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander in 1889.]
It is also known as a Lorica. And you will meet her who goes by that name soon enough.
And one last prayer which I love from C.S. Lewis:
“Lord, forgive me of my trumpery, lest I die!�
And now I am ready to begin...
I want to let everyone know that my seemingly narcissistic perspective is actually forced because in my local world I tend to be overly attentive to the needs and feelings of others. It is a compensation. As a method of contemplation it is also supported by the likes of Sister Wendy who has graced the world with not only her knowledge of art, but her ability to teach us to understand and benefit from art. She reinforces my instinct to take in the piece with all my senses, then go inside myself and observe its effects. I also would pass this suggestion on to you and encourage you to do the same. Try not to force the piece to fit into a pre-fabricated lesson or category, but simply let it alter your life and emotions and then see what happens. I’m convinced that it’s okay to be changed by the forces around us because God can come to us at any time this way. He is Lord, and there is no door locked to Him. Once we are His, these forces can be used by us for good while we must not be mastered by anything. If it is not beneficial, then don’t go there. Every individual eventually has to make that call for their self.
God, bless you and enjoy swimming in the deep end.
First I want to thank David Bruce and everyone else who has allowed me to come out and play. This has got to be one of the funnest and most enriching things I’ve ever been allowed to take part in. I am deeply honored.
Then I want to thank all my friends in the WWW who have helped and encouraged me and who I have never met and hope to someday in the Grand Forum in the Sky; Joey, Mikell, Cytem, FlamingoChavez, all those who I remember but I need more time to track down the names from the Project86 site, all those who helped me from The Cult Forums, The Matrix Forums , any other Forum which I have participated in, a tallhobbit at Bay Area Christian Goths , David Dellman at Gothic Christianity and fellow bloggers who inspired & responded to me: Bobbie Anonymous at Emerging Sideways and Jason Clark at Emergent. Thanks also to Len Sweet whom I think I frightened nevertheless he did the best he could under the circumstances.
Then thank you to those who have strongly influenced me for good in my local world; Dana, Macabre Schwab, Randeath, Dail, The Hatchet, mark, Paul, Kevin, Larry, Jim, Rodger.
And in the wonderful tradition I learned from my great teachers Project 86, NO THANKS TO: every one who may have recognized that I had a gift but did nothing to help me, those who harmed me or damaged me or weakened me, those who were part of the Problem which resulted in so much pain and suffering for myself and those loving people who are trying to make this world a better place. Unfortunately, you probably don’t know who you are. But God does. If I am ever clearly instructed to name you, I will.
And now a moment of silence for those who still suffer...
...
Then:
St. Patrick's Breastplate
I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ's incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spiced tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself the power
Of the great love of cherubim;
The sweet 'Well done' in judgment hour,
The service of the seraphim,
Confessors' faith, Apostles' word,
The Patriarchs' prayers, the prophets' scrolls,
All good deeds done unto the Lord
And purity of virgin souls.
I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,T
he glorious sun's life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind's tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.
I bind unto myself today
The power of God to hold and lead,
His eye to watch, His might to stay,
His ear to hearken to my need.
The wisdom of my God to teach,
His hand to guide, His shield to ward;
The word of God to give me speech,
His heavenly host to be my guard.
Against the demon snares of sin,
The vice that gives temptation force,
The natural lusts that war within,
The hostile men that mar my course;
Or few or many, far or nigh,
In every place and in all hours,
Against their fierce hostility
I bind to me these holy powers.
Against all Satan's spells and wiles,
Against false words of heresy,
Against the knowledge that defiles,
Against the heart's idolatry,
Against the wizard's evil craft,
Against the death wound and the burning,
The choking wave, the poisoned shaft,
Protect me, Christ, till Thy returning.
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
[translated by Cecil Frances Humphreys Alexander in 1889.]
It is also known as a Lorica. And you will meet her who goes by that name soon enough.
And one last prayer which I love from C.S. Lewis:
“Lord, forgive me of my trumpery, lest I die!�
And now I am ready to begin...
I want to let everyone know that my seemingly narcissistic perspective is actually forced because in my local world I tend to be overly attentive to the needs and feelings of others. It is a compensation. As a method of contemplation it is also supported by the likes of Sister Wendy who has graced the world with not only her knowledge of art, but her ability to teach us to understand and benefit from art. She reinforces my instinct to take in the piece with all my senses, then go inside myself and observe its effects. I also would pass this suggestion on to you and encourage you to do the same. Try not to force the piece to fit into a pre-fabricated lesson or category, but simply let it alter your life and emotions and then see what happens. I’m convinced that it’s okay to be changed by the forces around us because God can come to us at any time this way. He is Lord, and there is no door locked to Him. Once we are His, these forces can be used by us for good while we must not be mastered by anything. If it is not beneficial, then don’t go there. Every individual eventually has to make that call for their self.
God, bless you and enjoy swimming in the deep end.
3 Comments:
Oh, I get to be first in the blog comments! I am so happy for you. May you indeed change the world. And I say Amen to the Lorica.
Love you much.
Lorica
Okay, so this is the best way to stick it in without editing it in because I want it to be with this post. So here's the C.S. Lewish quote on art that Lorica emailed me.
"The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Recieve. Get yourself out of the way. There is no good asking first whether the work before you deserves such a surrender, for until you have surrendered you cannot possibly find out."
-C.S. Lewis in An Experiment in Criticism
Outstanding.
You might want to be aware that Christmas isn't actually Jesus's birthday. Although that is a wide spread beleif it isn't actually true.
Jesus was born on March 1, 7 b.c. In order to regulize his status he was allocated the official birthday of 15 September in line with the Messianic requirment.
It was in a.d. 314 the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great changed the date of Jesus's birthday to December 25. Sad to say this date is still believed by many to be his birthdate.
Constantine had two reasons for making the change. Firstly it separated the Christian celebration from any Jewish association. In doing so Constantine was trying to suggest Jesus was a Christian, not a Jew.
The second reason was so that the new birthdate of Jesus would coincide with and then eventually replace the Pagan Sun Festival. The reality is that December 25 is the Pagan Sun Festival.
Post a Comment
<< Home