The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

The Pope has said of Atheism: It is no accident that this idea has led to the greatest forms of cruelty and violations of justice; rather, it is grounded in the intrinsic falsity of the claim [ That man can create justice where God has not-Fr. Scott ]. A world which has to create its own justice is a world without hope. No one and nothing can answer for centuries of suffering. No one and nothing can guarantee that the cynicism of power—whatever beguiling ideological mask it adopts—will cease to dominate the world. The document is Here . I like to include a primary reference for what I'm talking about. I'm often dismayed by Atheism. I'm not dismayed by the philosophy, but by the arrogance, that the atheists think that atheism is somehow better than theism, religiosity, or any other religious state. Atheism is just as prone to abusing power as they claim the Catholic Church has been, as any secular religious state has been (a Christian, Buddhist, or Jewish King ( see King...

After a dearth of posting, I think I'm ready to start writing again. Christmas is coming up, and I usually post the esoteric 12 days of Christmas. Perhaps I'll start to include a little more practice with the theory.

I got tagged by my friend and donkey-wrangler Donald at In Puris Naturalibus . I'm supposed to tell you what I was doing ten, twenty and thirty years ago. For those who are mathematically challenged that would be 1997, 1987 and 1977, respectively. 1997 : According to my resume, I was an access programmer in Metairie, LA, just starting to get interested in Theology, hanging with a prophet, and totally not preparing for my father's immanent death. I had just started on the path to Engagement (November 13th) and was starting to sort out the chaos that was my post-collegiate life. I was a tender lad, all of 25, and just figuring out what the Law meant to me. Trying to be an adult. 1987 : I would have been 15, meeting my oldest friends (Debbie and Greg) at that time, and wondering what life had in store. I know I was into role-playing games, girls, and dodging football. I went out with Stephanie for a while, but at this point she would have dumped me, and I'd probably be...

Translated Via Google from Spanish, so the English isn't quite right. I think you can get the gist. The letter is from the OSTMJ , the Sovereign and Military order of the Temple of Jerusalem. The Templar Mystery monopolizes attention before the judgment that will reveal the Vatican Thursday 4 of October of 2007 EFE ROME. - The mysteries that accompany at their service by the Temple and to their dissolution, after a judgment, whose content will reveal the Vatican next the 25 of October, monopolize the attention in Italy today where it has become reason for conference and publishing new features. The announcement that made yesterday the Vatican of the publication of an unpublished volume on the “Processus against templarios”, with acts of the process of the Inquisicion against this order, at the beginning of century XIV, has given back protagonism to the investigations on the Horsemen of the Temple. Next the 13 of October, when the seventh centenary of the process is marked, the lo...

A blogger by the name of Madcap asks some questions in the course of discussing Nietzsche as a Gnostic. I won't speak to Nietzsche as a Gnostic, as I've not read enough of the German Philosopher to have an informed opinion. I do have an uniformed one, but that's neither here nor there. The questions: Do Gnostics, as you define them, think that humanity can come to a point in time where things like starvation and war will be no more? If so, how will this come to pass? Of course not. I've never met one. I've met some Socialists, some Utopians, who thought so, but never anyone who claimed Gnostic as a title, or acted Gnostic in their thought processes. Even the ancient texts recognize that there is something irretrievably fucked up about the world. Not evil, just not working correctly. The key is irretrievably, trying to change it in a permanent way is futile, because the tools you work with contain the seeds of the destruction of what you've built. Do Gn...

I tend to forget. I forget there's a reality we don't see, and even when we only access it quickly and even half-heartedly, it still has an effect. The invisible light shines through us, whether we can see it or not. Yesterday, we did a very, very fast ritual. There was rain, not sun. There was an inability to light a candle, keep the incense going. Nothing worked right, it seemed. We dealt with it with as much humor and good nature as we could. But the invocation worked. The angels were with us: I Reign over you says the God of Justice, in power exalted above the firmaments of wrath, in whose hands the Sun is as a Sword, and the Moon as a through thrusting fire which measures your garments in the midst of my vestures, and trussed you together as the palms of my hands, whose seats I garnished with the fire of gathering and beautified your garments with admiration to whom I made a Law to govern the holy ones, and delivered you a rod with the ark of knowledge, moreover you ...

"The essence of optimism is that it takes no account of the present, but it is a source of inspiration, of vitality and hope where others have resigned; it enables a man to hold his head high, to claim the future for himself and not to abandon it to his enemy." - Dietrich Bonhoeffer

A vision I had three years ago. I kept vigil in the Cathedral, hearing the words of Isaiah before the Rising of the Lord, when the Lord came upon me. And he took me up, and I saw the peoples of the world spread below me. Above their heads was the mark of the Holy Spirit, the tongue of flame seated on their forehead. And the flames formed the Christ, and I saw that all the elect formed the limbs of the body. Here there were those who witnessed to Jehovah, there the Saints of the Last Days. The Ecclesiasts formed the Torso, the Evangelists the Legs. All the nations of the earth sang the praises of Christ and raised the body which were the believers up from their seats. And I saw, and understood, that barring the differences, they were all part of the body, as the legs are part of the body, as the arms, as the head. Different functions, one body. I saw everyone was part of the whole, though all different. And I felt the flame enter me, as it entered them. And the Lord spoke: This i...

I wanted to let folks know (if anyone still reads this) that I'll be in San Francisco from June 8 -12, and will be saying Mass on June 9th. Drop me an email if you want directions and such.

One fine day, a bus driver went to the bus garage, started his bus, and drove off along the route. No problems for the first few stops - a few people got on, a few got off, and things went generally well. At the next stop, however, a big hulk of a guy got on. Six feet eight, built like a wrestler, arms hanging down to the ground. He glared at the driver and said, "Big John doesn't pay!" and sat down at the back. Did I mention that the driver was five feet three, thin, and basically week? Well, he was. Naturally, he didn't argue with Big John, but he wasn't happy about it. The next day the same thing happened-Big John got on again, made a show of refusing to pay, and sat down. And the next day, and the one after that, and so forth. This grated the bus driver, who started losing sleep over the way Big John was taking advantage of him. Finally he could stand it no longer. He signed up for body building courses, karate, judo, and all that good stuff. By the end of the...

May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people so that you may work for justice, equality, and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out in solidarity. May God bless you with the foolishness to think you can make a difference in the world, so that you will do the things that others may tell you cannot be done. And may almighty God bless you all, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. -Father Donal, San Francisco, April 29, 2007

Today, I was given a gift. My photographer stopped by, to drop off a book of pictures from the ordination. It wasn't a chronological rendition of the ordination, nor was it a liturgical following of the ceremony, more of an impressionistic view of a holy and gnostic event. Since ordination, I'd felt kind of unfocused. I was overwhelmed by the enormity of the experience at the time, and I'd had my friends and family in to visit, but since the event, it was like that was that, and they'd left, and it was done. Now what? I thanked him for the book, because I was quite touched that he'd put this much work into it. However, I'm not that visually inclined. I started absentmindedly flipping through it, my mind filled with worldly concerns, figuring I'd take a look at it, then put it on a bookshelf with my other picture books, a curio to be brought out once in a while for visitors who couldn't be at the ceremony. However, from the first page, worldly conce...

Purposes: This blog is going to be an attempt to record some of my thoughts and experiences as I pursue ordination in the Apostolic Johannite Church. AJC is a Gnostic Church, focusing on the Christian tradition. I might also post things here of a general gnostic theme. I posted the above on July 15, 2005. Now, almost 2 years later, I've been ordained. I've had more experiences with gnostic thought and divine reality than I'd even considered at that point. I've begun the process of divorce. I've moved, I've changed jobs, I've considered a new career. Strange, how far I've come. What I posted on back then, what I post on now. I'll keep reviewing. It's good to look back, sometimes, while you're resting.

Lord, remember not only the men of good will, but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us. Remember rather the fruits we have brought, thanks to this suffering: our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart that has grown out of this. And when they come to judgment, let all the fruits we have bourne be their forgiveness. Source: Found on a scrap of paper at the liberation of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in Germany My thoughts and prayers go out to all the victims, students, and teachers at Virginia Tech, and their families. That includes the shooter, and his family. I wish I could do more, I wish more could have been done.

I am trying to post from Google Docs. Let's see if it works.

Ritual has an important place in society. It is often the recognition of work well done, of efforts proposed and successes achieved. Awards, medals, dinners, prizes, promotions, all of these have their own little rituals. Religious rituals should reflect the common human experience, and six of the seven do: Baptism for Birth, Confirmation for Adulthood, Marriage for the formation of a family, Reconciliation for the acknowledgement of wrongdoing and attempting to make amends, Extreme Unction for the final transition, either debilitating sickness or death, and the Eucharist as a spiritual reflection of the meals that sustain us physically. Holy Orders is the only sacrament that is not in the common human experience. In some ways it's simply the recognition of a job that certain individuals are already doing. It's one of the sacraments that few people will experience, for the harvest is great, but the workers are few. And yet, it is a very communal of the sacraments, at least ...

I've been thinking about love quite a bit lately. St. Paul has this to say about love (charity): If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but...

I have been resisting the take over of the world by google, and so have not posted much on here. However, I think I might have to use it, for there are folks who are interested and what I have to say, and much of what I have to say has been on this blog. So, here I am.

"Let me tell you then why the Creator made this world of generation. He was good, and the good can never have any jealousy of anything. And being free from jealousy, He desired that all things should be as like Himself as they could be." – Plato, "Timaeus"

Today is the Twelfth day of Christmas. I'm posting this a little early, because Twelfth Night technically began at sundown. This is a day for mediation on the qualities of Pisces: romance, generosity, emotions, receptivity, affection, and honesty. It is associated with St. Peter. 1. Begin with the sign of the Cross. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. 2 Remain in silence for some minutes. Let your breath attain a natural rhythm. 3. Sing or chant: Kyrie Eleison, Christe Eleison, Kyrie Eleison or Lord have Mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have Mercy 4. Read, repeat, and meditate upon the scripture reading for today: So God created man in his own image. - Genesis 1: 27 5. Memorize and repeat the scripture, taking it into yourself. Let it flow through you, and see how it applies to you, today. 6. Read, repeat, and meditate upon the Gnostic Scripture, The Discourse on the Eighth and the Ninth for the day: "He is perfect, the invisib...