Advent Sunday I, 2023

By

[I]n Advent, in that day, we all become – as it has been said – Jews once more. We relearn the lessons of the first covenant: that we cannot make God, however we long for him; that we must be surprised, ambushed and carried off by God if we are to be kept from idols. [...] The Christian in Advent needs to listen to that, listen to such a degree that this season becomes both a season of joyful expectancy and a season of ‘poverty’ – of the knowledge that we cannot talk and touch ourselves into life; of that deep poverty of the imagination which can only stand helplessly before the outrages and miseries of our world, utterly at a loss for a word of meaning or hope to speak. We are here at all, celebrating Advent (as the Jew celebrates the Passover) because there has been a word spoken, a word of unexpected interruption, a word that establishes for good the difference between the God we expect and the God who comes, a word that shows us once and for all what an idol looks like in face of the truth. (Rowan Williams, Open to Judgement: Sermons and Addresses, 2014)

Popular posts from this blog

Front Matter (Preface) The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

By Anonymous
Image
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky Verily, verily I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. John xii,24 Preface I N STARTING out on the life of my hero, Alexei Fyodorovich Karamazov, I feel somewhat at a loss. By this I mean that, although I refer to Alexei (Alyosha) as my hero, I am well aware that he is by no means a great man, and this leads me to anticipate such obvious questions as: “What is so remarkable about your Alexei Karamazov that you should choose him as your hero? What exactly did he accomplish? Who has heard of him and what is he famous for? And why should I, the reader, spend time learning the facts of his life?” The last question is the fateful one because all I can answer is: “You may find that out for yourself from the novel.” But what if they read the novel and are still unconvinced that my Alexei is a remarkable man? I say this because I sadly anticip...
Read more

Library Booklist (H:cSt)

By
Image
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison   Anna Christie, The Emperor Jones, The Hairy Ape by Eugene O'Neill   The Chosen by Chaim Potok   Dissolution by C. J.  Sansom   Richard II by William Shakespeare   The Reef by Edith Wharton   The Fifth Son by Elie Wiesel   Meet Mr. Mullner by P. G. Wodehouse
Read more

Library Booklist (H:cStb2)

By
Image
Dostoevsky by Nicholas Berdyaev   The Inklings by Humphrey Carpenter   The Guggenheim's: The American Life by John Davis   The Prime of Life by Simone de Beauvoir   Bernadette of Lourdes by Rene Laurentin   Lives of the Artists by Vasari   The Wandering Scholars by Helen Waddell   One Writer's Beginnings by Eudora Welty
Read more