“A serious house on serious earth it is,
In whose blent air all our compulsions meet,
Are recognized, and robed as destinies.
And that much never can be obsolete,
Since someone will forever be surprising
A hunger in himself to be more serious,
And gravitating with it to this ground,
Which, he once heard, was proper to grow wise in,
If only that so many dead lie round.”
— The final stanza of Phillip Larkin’s Church Going. Mentioned in Part 8 of +Alan Wilson’s series on the Book of Common Prayer.
11:07 am |
October 11 2010
| 2 notes
“The Book of Common Prayer is full of miserable sinning. When, from the 1960s on, use of Cranmer’s eucharistic rite began to fail, the reason often given was distaste at the way he went on about sin. What relevance could such gloom possibly have to a world that was not on the brink of damnation, but a cheerful future built of tower blocks, holidays on Mars and driving to work in your own personal hovercraft? Congregations did not care to think they were miserable sinners once they had twisted to the hit parade, tasted instant mash, feasted off Formica and actually seen Wombles and hot pants.”
— The joy of being a miserable sinner, part seven of Alan Wilson’s insightful series of columns on The Book of Common Prayer.
4:15 pm |
October 4 2010
| 8 notes
Bygone Bureau: Are you religious?
Alice Stanley:
I am religious. This is probably the first time I’ve ever said that so forwardly in public. It’s a nasty thing to be these days. As a liberally-minded twentysomething, I hear religious and think:
- Racist southern evangelical biddies
- Super rich power churches
- People that appear to be average but SECRETLY LIKE SARAH PALIN.
Never do I see myself, even though I just admitted it.”
12:21 am |
October 1 2010
“You can’t convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it’s based on a deep seated need to believe.”
—
Carl Sagan. The title of today’s but does if float. Whilst I concur with the second half of the quotation, I feel very uneasy about the first statement.
berezina replies:
“Scientists have faith that the material world can be explained through observation and logic. So do religious people - at least up to the occurrence of miracles - but also have faith in something beyond observation and logic.”
10:20 pm |
August 19 2010
Quid Est Deus. A live translation
On Monday I had the pleasure of hearing Wolgang Rihm’s epic cantata for choir and orchestra Quid Est Deus (What is God?) performed in Salzburg’s beautiful Kollegienkirche.
It consists of twenty four answers to the question What is God?, taken from a Latin text from the Apocrypha, ascribed to the mythical Hermes Trismegistus. The programme to the Kontinent Rihm concert series, of which this was a part, provided the original Latin alongside a modern German translation.
Following the concert I, along with several other Roche Continents participents, discussed that, rather than plucking a translation straight from the internet, it might be nice to have a stab at remembering some of our schoolboy Latin and have a go at translating from scratch. Please do contribute and help reveal the answers to this most enigmatic of all questions.
6:30 pm |
August 4 2010
| 1 note
“Faith is holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.”
—
C.S. Lewis
Via The Endeavour where John D. Cook describes the requirement of faith to believe in Tuesdays, that men walked on the moon, the Endurance Expedition, various mathematical theorems, and finally God.
1:42 pm |
April 30 2010
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Locus iste a Deo factus est,
inaestimabile sacramentum;
irreprehensibilis est.
This place was made by God,
a priceless sacrament;
beyond reproach.
Anton Bruckner (1824-1896).
The Sixteen, conducted by Harry Christophers.
For the dedication of the votive chapel of Linz cathedral, 1896.
(Via O Antiphon)
5:51 pm |
April 29 2010
| 2 notes
