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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 3 years

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15th January >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 2:1-12 for Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘We have never seen anything like this’.

Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Except USA)

Mark 2:1-12

The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins

When Jesus returned to Capernaum, word went round that he was back; and so many people collected that there was no room left, even in front of the door. He was preaching the word to them when some people came bringing him a paralytic carried by four men, but as the crowd made it impossible to get the man to him, they stripped the roof over the place where Jesus was; and when they had made an opening, they lowered the stretcher on which the paralytic lay. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven.’ Now some scribes were sitting there, and they thought to themselves, ‘How can this man talk like that? He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God?’ Jesus, inwardly aware that this was what they were thinking, said to them, ‘Why do you have these thoughts in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say to the paralytic, “Your sins are forgiven” or to say, “Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk”? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he turned to the paralytic – ‘I order you: get up, pick up your stretcher, and go off home.’ And the man got up, picked up his stretcher at once and walked out in front of everyone, so that they were all astounded and praised God saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’

Gospel (USA)

Mark 2:1-12

The Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth.

When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days, it became known that he was at home. Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even around the door, and he preached the word to them. They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd, they opened up the roof above him. After they had broken through, they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to him, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves, “Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus immediately knew in his mind what they were thinking to themselves, so he said, “Why are you thinking such things in your hearts? Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, pick up your mat and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” –he said to the paralytic, “I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home.” He rose, picked up his mat at once, and went away in the sight of everyone. They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, “We have never seen anything like this.”

Reflections (8)

(i) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Today’s first reading says that ‘we must do everything we can to reach this place of rest’. This place of rest is, ultimately, the kingdom of heaven. We often pray that eternal rest would be granted to those who have died. ‘Rest’ in that rest is not just the absence of activity, but a renewal of our spirit. The psalm, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’, says of the Lord, ‘near restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit’, The Lord wants us to experience ‘rest’ in that sense not just beyond this earthly life but during our earthly lives. He is always at work to revive our drooping spirits and he wants to work through us to revive the drooping spirits of others. In today’s gospel reading, a very concerned group stop at nothing to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus, even going as far as making a hole in the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching. They wanted their friend to reach a place of rest; they brought him to Jesus so that he would revive their friend’s drooping spirits by healing him of his paralysis. A group of men making a hole in the roof above would normally be experienced by a teacher as an unwelcome interruption to a lesson. However, Jesus saw the faith which drove these men to take such desperate measures and he immediately responds to the plight of the paralytic. He not only heals him physically, but assures him that he is loved by God by declaring his sins forgiven. Jesus heals the whole person, physically and spiritually. He brings him to a place of rest. The Lord works in the same healing way in all our lives. He also wants to work through us for the holistic healing of others. The Lord needs us to play the role of the paralytic’s friends today, so that the broken in body, mind and spirit can experience his healing power to the full.

And/Or

(ii) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

When some people listen to or read the passage they have just heard they wonder why the first words that Jesus spoke to the paralyzed man were, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven’. Why didn’t Jesus say immediately to him what he went on to say to him, ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher and go off home’. Why this focus on the man’s sin? At the time of Jesus, many people understood that there was a direct correlation between a person’s illness or disability and that person’s sin. Jesus rejected any such connection. On one occasion Jesus and his disciples came upon a man who had been blind from birth and his disciples asked him, ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents?’ Jesus rebuked them with the statement, ‘Neither this man nor his parents sinned’. Perhaps the paralyzed man in today’s gospel reading had been made to feel that his disability was because of some sin in his life, and that God was punishing him. Jesus wanted to reassure him that was not the case, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven’. If he is a sinner, he is a forgiven sinner, and in that regard he is the same as everyone else. The misfortunes that befall us, whatever form they take, are never a sign of God’s displeasure. The Lord is always with us in our misfortunes and struggles, supporting us and strengthening us. He can display his presence through the goodness and kindness of friends and neighbours, just as God displayed his presence to the paralyzed man through the goodness of his friends who carried him to Jesus. The God in whom we believe is a God of light and life who is always at work to bring us into a fuller life and a greater light.

And/Or

(iii) Friday, First week in Ordinary Time

When it comes to our faith journey we are all very dependent on one another. We are supported on our journey towards the Lord by the faith of others, and our own faith supports others on their journey towards the Lord. This morning’s gospel reading shows this in a very graphic way. Jesus was in a house in Capernaum, probably Peter’s house, preaching the word of God. A paralysed man wanted to get to Jesus but he was completely dependent on others to carry him to Jesus. Fortunately, he had good friends who were determined to bring him to Jesus, to do for him what he could not do for himself. Such was their determination, that they created an opening in the roof of the house where Jesus was preaching so as to lower their friend in front of him. The paralysed man’s faith in Jesus was matched by their faith in Jesus. Their struggle to get their friend to Jesus was inspired by their faith in him. The gospel reading shows that Jesus saw their efforts not as an unwelcome disturbance but as a powerful act of faith, ‘Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “My child, your sins are forgiven”’. It was the faith of his friends which allowed this man to meet Jesus personally and to hear Jesus’ very personal and liberating word to him. Even before his physical healing, the paralytic needed reassurance that God loved him unconditionally and had forgiven his sins. It was his friends that made it possible for him to hear this liberating word from God. Each one of us has a role to play in helping others to hear God’s live-giving word, spoken to us through his Son who is with us until the end of time.

And/Or

(iv) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

I am always struck by that image in today’s gospel reading of four men carrying a paralytic to Jesus. When the normal route to Jesus was closed off because of the crowd, they resorted to creating an opening in the roof to let down the paralytic before Jesus. The gospel reading says that when Jesus saw the faith of these four men, he turned his attention to the paralytic. No mention is made of the faith of the paralytic. It is the faith of those who carried the paralytic that created the space for Jesus and the paralytic to meet, and for Jesus to bring to the paralytic both spiritual healing, ‘your sins are forgiven’, and physical healing, ‘pick up your stretcher and walk’. The faith of the four men was truly life giving for the paralytic. The gospel reading reminds us that the faith of others can create a space for us to encounter the Lord, when our own faith is weak or even non-existent. In a sense that is how we began our Christian journey. It was the faith of our parents and our grandparents that carried us to the Lord in baptism, at a time when we had no faith of our own because of our young age. How we begin our life of faith is how we continue. We remain reliant upon the faith of others, just as others will be dependent upon our faith. We are baptized into a community of faith. There are times when each of us is carried by members of that community and other times when we help to carry others. Sometimes we will be like the paralytic; at other times we will be like those who carried him. If we are to truly encounter the Lord in all his life-giving power, we need each other’s faith.

And/Or

(v) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

There may very well come a time in our lives when we need to be carried in one way or other, whether it is physically or emotionally or spiritually. Hopefully, if that time comes along for us, we will find people who are willing and able to carry us. Some of us may be doing or have done such carrying or perhaps have experienced it for ourselves. In this morning’s gospel reading the paralytic needed to be carried physically. He needed others to help him to get where he wanted to go. Fortunately, he was a man who had good friends. When he desperately wanted to be placed before Jesus, his friends stopped at nothing to make sure that happened, even going as far as creating a hole in a perfectly good roof. The energy of those friends was the energy of love. It was also the energy of faith. The gospel reading comments on Jesus seeing their faith. The energy of their faith and love created a space for this man to pass over into a fuller life, through the power of Jesus. We can never underestimate the power for good that resides within our energy of love that is rooted in our faith. The Lord can work powerfully through our faith-filled love for the wellbeing of others. Paul in his letter to the Galatians declares, ‘the only thing that counts is faith working through love’.

And/Or

(vi) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

We all start off life by being carried. As babies we were carried by our mothers, our fathers, our brothers and sisters, our aunts and uncles and grandparents. There can even be quite a bit of competition between those who want to carry the child. As we move towards adulthood we can find that we are being called upon to carry others, perhaps a member of our family who is unwell. There will certainly be times when we ourselves will need to be carried; hopefully we will always have family and friends who are ready to do that for us when we need it. That is the image we have at the beginning of this morning’s gospel reading. A paralysed man is being carried by four men to Jesus. Such is their determination to get this man to Jesus that they make a hole in the roof above Jesus to lay their friend down in front of them. The extraordinary energy they showed there was the energy of faith, ‘seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic…’. Their faith carried this man to Jesus. There is a powerful image there of our Christian lives. We are called to grow in faith, so that we can carry each other to the Lord. My own growth in faith has consequences for others. As I grow in my relationship with the Lord, I help others to grow in their relationship with the Lord.

And/Or

(vii) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

The image of the four men carrying the paralytic to Jesus in today’s gospel reading is a very graphic one. They were so determined to get him to Jesus that they opened a hole in the roof above Jesus when their way through the door was blocked because of the crowd. They wanted to get their friend to Jesus because they recognized Jesus as the source of health and life. They were taking their friend to a fuller life. There are times when we can do very little for ourselves and we are completely dependant on others for health, for life, for safety. There are other times when we might find ourselves in the role of the four friends in the gospel reading, in a position to help others to their feet, to bring others from darkness to light, from death to life. We are called to carry each other’s burdens. When we are faithful to that calling we align ourselves with Jesus who said, ‘Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened and I will give you rest’. The Lord looks to us to help him to carry the burdens of others and to bring them to a greater fullness of life.

And/Or

(viii) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In today’s gospel reading it may seem strange to us that when the paralytic was brought before Jesus the first thing he said to him was ‘Your sins are forgiven’. It was only after making this statement that Jesus went on to say ‘Get up pick up your stretcher and walk’. The friends of the paralyzed man would probably have expected Jesus to say ‘Get up, pick up your stretcher and walk’ immediately. They had brought their friend to Jesus for physical healing. However, Jesus perceived that this man was in need of a deeper form of healing, a spiritual healing. He had a spiritual wound which needed healing before his physical disability could be addressed. Jesus came to heal the whole person, body and soul. In declaring himself before all to be the Son of Man who had authority on earth to forgive sins Jesus was stating that the primary focus of his ministry was the healing of our relationship with God. As Paul would go on to say, ‘In Christ God was reconciling the world to himself’. Regardless of our physical well-being, we all stand in need of that deeper healing; we all need to hear the Lord speak those words to each of us personally that he spoke to the paralytic, ‘My child, your sins are forgiven’.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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pip-n-flinx · 3 years

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Among Us

So this is going to get long, this is going to get personal, this is going to be about prejudice and race and self-serving bad-faith arguments and flawed rhetoric. And for all of these reasons I’m going to leave the rest of this under the cut.

As a few of my friends will know, earlier this week I was delivered an ultimatum from my landlord/roommate. He disguised it well, telling me he was ‘concerned for my mental health’ that my ‘negativity was dragging the whole house down’ and that I was simply too filthy to live with. I won’t pretend I’m a neat freak, and I can honestly say that I have taken some pains to clean more since, to his surprise and delight, though its particularly hard to take coming from him.

“You’re always so down. It’s making you lazy and thin skinned” You know its funny you should say that, now specifically, because I’ve actually been on the up and up this last week and you didn’t mention this at all in January when I was actually at my worst, or February when I was afraid I was going to have to quit my job, or back during the holiday season when retail work was breaking my back... Only now do you think to check in on me?

“You left a pair of gloves, a letter, and a small wooden trinket on the table!” Indeed I have, as you have left your pair of gloves, well over 21 letters, and regularly set your packages on this same table, including today two packages to be returned to amazon. I didn’t realize I didn’t get to use the table the same way you do.

“You don’t do dishes! except that you did this week, which is cool I guess but still!” You do realize that I actually hand-wash every dish I use within 24 hours of using it, right? And that often the dishes you come to me bitching that I never cleaned are in fact your fiances, yes? Ok good, next question.

“You’re always complaining about work. I don’t mind that you vent, but its all you talk about anymore!” I have either lost or walked away from 4 jobs in this last year, and that has not been easy, or fun. I have worked essential retail jobs the entire pandemic thus far. Additionally, in the months leading up to you storming out of your 75k a year salaried sales job, I had told you to leave it because I could see that it was killing you. You got so fed up with the job that for 4-5 months before you left your grandma-paid-off-my-second-mortgage capitalism-knows-best-pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-ass spent more time playing valorant and league of legends on the clock than doing actual work. Need I remind you that every time I stepped into your office, or simply stepped upstairs to get ready for work, you would complain about how awful your managers were, or how shitty someone had been to you over the phone? DID I EVER BELITTLE YOU FOR ANY OF THESE THINGS????

The real kicker was that the spark, the moment that started this (at least for him) was me trying to explain why racism and ‘cultural supremecy’ was bad. I had brought to him something I thought we could both agree on, that we could both laugh at. I brought him a series of tweets about how problematic Van Gogh was for studying and imitating traditional japanese painting techniques. He took this, and immediately turned into a piece of the culture wars. Now, I agree, this is an egregious example of trying to ‘cancel’ someone. How cancelling a long dead artist who couldn’t sell his art while he was alive is important is beyond my comprehension, its not as though the market value of these comes up very often, and almost no-one will ever have a chance to buy or reject a Van Gogh. But to him this was emblematic of ‘liberals’ cancelling Seuss and Rowling.

He even went so far as to say that Van Gogh probably ‘did it better’ than the artists he was studying/imitating. Now, this is a huge red-flag to me because this is straight out of the Nazi playbook. This is William Shenker, proposing a theory of music to proof ‘German cultural superiority.’ This, if you will pardon my language, is the real culture war: trying to supplant other cultures art and history with western figures and events.

Now, for those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, this man is sexist. He doesn’t believe women are equal, complains about women’s sports, and rejects a woman’s right to choose. This man is a transphobe, questioning the logic of ‘safe-spaces’ and allowing people to change their pronouns. This man is a Trump supporter, and voted for him twice. And all of these things I found out years after we became friends. I have in the past contemplated what it would take to cut him out of my life wholesale. Despite our wealth of shared experience and our shared interests, we’ve been drifting apart as he drifts further and further to the right. And he has been drifting. He’s parroted more bad-faith arguments from Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson in the last 6 months then he ever did when I first moved in with him.

I have been trying to push back, especially when he says the quiet parts out loud. I try to let him know that it is not acceptable to say he would rather an unarmed black man die that risk that a police officer might be injured. When he compares the people in control of Seuss’ intellectual property and works choose to stop printing less than 6% of his published works to the book burnings in Mao’s china. When he says that its more important to protect teacher from students trolling them by changing their pronouns than it is to protect trans or NB kids. When he espouses his belief that trans and NB kids are ‘just mentally ill.’ Whenever he says any of this shit, I have pushed back. I have tried to halt, or at least slow, his descent towards eugenics and white supremacy and fascism.

It has been to no avail.

And to be honest its exhausting. I wanted to believe that he would trust me, not just to be a moral and thoughtful person, but to be educated and informed on these issues. We went to school together, spent countless hours solving homework and trying to crack games together. If I don’t know the answer to his questions immediately, he often jokes ‘C’mon, you’re supposed to know everything!” and has frequently told me that I’m selling myself short.

But apparently all that trust and all that respect goes out the window when I challenge him. Suddenly I’m ‘overly negative’ or ‘too sensitive’ or he’ll ‘need to look into that, but...’

And the thing is, he is capable of great acts of kindness. He offered to rent me a room in his completely paid-off house, no mortgage at all, simply because he could see living at home was killing my mental health. He offered me 50-75% off of market rate. He buys gifts all the time, has landed tenants job interviews, set people back on their feet, and refused to press charges for several major financial loses he’s taken on the determination that it would do more harm to the defendant than he could ever recoup from it.

But he does not extend this kindness, this generous soul, to everyone. And lately, his circle grows smaller, and his kindess has waned, and it’s been so devastating to see him slip further and further towards his own worst impulses.

I know there will be people who think I should have cut him out of my life years ago, who can’t believe we never talked enough to know that he voted for Trump in 2016. I think back then he was genuinely ashamed, or at least guilty, about that vote. Now? It’s almost a matter of pride for him. I can’t tell you the number of times in the last 4 months that he’s told me that Biden “couldn’t possibly” be as “great” a President as Trump.

And he hides behind this “praise them when they do good, cuff them when they do bad” line and I used to take comfort in it but now... Now it’s clear that it was just a front or excuse for liking these abhorrent people.

I’ve had a couple of hard conversations with some of our mutual friends about what this means for me, and how I interract with the whole group of friends as a whole, in the last 3 days. None of our mutual friends seem to take any of these things as seriously as I do, with my oldest friend even telling me that he ‘can’t imagine’ breaking a friendship off over politics.... I know I know, the caucasity of it all, yes ha ha. And it does make me genuinely worried that I’ll wind up losing the 5-6 close friends that I actually rely on these days over this horrible sonuvabitch. But all this personal venting aside, there’s something bigger here I want to address:

I sat down this evening to watch Last Week Tonight and I was struck by this piece about Tucker Carlson, because while I knew some of what was said on his show, he is remarkably confident for a man who spouts the quiet parts of racism/sexism/homophobia on TV. I have a hard time imaging a more blatantly racist thing to do then declare that a woman who suggested ‘dismantling systems of oppression wherever they are found’ wants to dismantle the American system...

And I have to say, we should go back to punching Nazis. I want these fuckers afraid. I want them to crawl back to the furthest reaches of the internet, relegated to be laughed at for their bigotry by pundits of every political ideology. I want their vile vitriol hidden away where it doesn’t embolden others. I want them to know that they are out of line, out of touch, out of time. I want them to feel ashamed, like the relics of a bygone and worse era that they are, and for them to quietly fade to an ignominious death. I’m tired of seeing them on National News. I’m tired of Pewdiepie’s channel and influence refusing to die despite all the horrible things he’s said and done. I’m tired of Ben Shapiro spouting off about a woman’s place and rights, as if he has any fucking authority on the matter. I just want these people to lose their platforms and their followers. And for me the fact that they haven’t yet is so incredibly discouraging.

I know I didn’t offer any answers here I’m just tired of being alone with this defeated attitude and I guess I needed to get this off my chest as I try to disentangle myself from the losing battle of trying to save a friend from alt-right radicalization.

#tw/ white supremecy #tw/ sexism #tw/ racism #tw/ transphobia #wooow this got longer than I expected #meta: alt right radicalization #and how they're reaching people my age #plus a lot of personal venting

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orthodoxydaily · 4 years

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Saints&Reading: Sat, Aug., 29, 2020

Commemorated on August 16

The Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of our Lord Jesus Christ

The Transfer from Edessa to Constantinople of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of our Lord Jesus Christ occurred in the year 944. Tradition relates, that during the time of the preaching of the Saviour, Abgar rules in Edessa. He was stricken all over his body with leprosy. Reports about the great miracles, worked by the Lord, spread throughout Syria (Mt. 4: 24)and reached even Abgar. Without having seen the Saviour, Abgar believed in Him as the Son of God and wrote a letter with a request to come and heal him. He sent with this letter to Palestine his own portrait-painter Ananias, having commissioned him to make a depiction of the Divine Teacher. Ananias arrived in Jerusalem and caught glimpse of the Lord, surrounded by people. He was not able to get close to Him because of the large throng of people, listening to the preaching of the Saviour. Then he stood on an high-up rock and attempted from afar to render the image of the Lord Jesus Christ, but this for him turned out in no wise successful. The Saviour Himself caught sight of him, called to him by name and gave over to him for Abgar a short letter in which, having praised the faith of this ruler, He promised to send His disciple for both healing from leprosy and guidance for salvation. Then the Lord asked that there be brought Him water and a cloth (linen, or washcloth). He washed His Face, drying it with the cloth, and upon it was imprinted His Divine Countenance. Ananias took the cloth and the letter of the Saviour to Edessa. With reverence Abgar took the holy thing and he received healing; only a small part of traces of the terrible affliction remained upon his face until the arrival of the disciple promised by the Lord. He was the Disciple from the Seventy Saint Thaddeus (Comm. 21 August), who preached the Gospel and baptised the believer Abgar and all the people of Edessa. Having inscribed upon the Image Not-Made-by-Hand the words "O Christ God, let no one hoping on Thee be ashamed thereof", Abgar adorned it and placed it in a niche over the city gates. For many years the inhabitants kept a pious custom to bow down before the Image Not-Made-by-Hand, when they went forth from the gates. But one of the great-grandsons of Abgar, later ruling Edessa, fell into idolatry. He decided to take down the Image from the city wall. In a vision the Lord ordered the Edessa bishop to hide His image. The bishop, coming by night with his clergy, lit a lampada before it and walled it over with a pottery-board and bricks. Many years passed, and the people forgot about it. But in the year 545, when the Persian emperor Chosroes I besieged Edessa and the position of the city seemed hopeless, the MostHoly Mother of God appeared to Eulabios and ordered him to secure the Image from the walled-in niche, and it would save the city from the enemy. Having opened the niche, the bishop found the Not-Made-by-Hand Image: in front of it was burning the lampada, and upon the pottery-board, closing in the niche, was the imaged likeness. After the making of church procession with the Image Not-Made-by-Hand along the city walls, the Persian army withdrew. In the year 630 Arabs seized hold of Edessa, but they did not hinder the reverencing of the Image Not-Made-by-Hand, the fame of which had spread throughout all the East. In the year 944 the emperor Constantine Porphyrigenitos (912-959) wanted to transfer the Image to the then capital of Orthodoxy and he paid a ransom for it to the emir-ruler of the city. With great reverence the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of the Saviour and that letter, which He had written to Abgar, were transported by clergy to Constantinople. On 16 August the Image of the Saviour was placed in the Tharossa church of the MostHoly Mother of God. About what happened later with the Not-Made-by-Hand Image there exist several traditions. According to one, – crusaders ran off with it during the time of their rule at Constantinople (1204-1261), but the ship, on which the sacred thing was taken, perished in the waters of the Sea of Marmora. According to another tradition, the Image Not-Made-by-Hand was transported around 1362 to Genoa, where it is preserved in a monastery in honour of the Apostle Bartholomew. It is known, that the Image Not-Made-by-Hand repeatedly gave from itself exact imprints. One of these, named "On Ceramic", was imprinted when Ananias hid the image in a wall on his way to Edessa; another, imprinted on a cloak, wound up in Gruzia (Georgia). Possibly, the variance of traditions about the original Image Not-Made-by-Hand derives from the existence of several exact imprints. During the time of the Iconoclast heresy the defenders of Icon-Veneration (Ikonodoules), having their blood spilt for holy icons, sang the tropar to the Not-Made-by-Hand Image. In proof of the veracity of Icon-Veneration, Pope Gregory II (715-731) dispatched a letter to the Eastern emperor, in which he pointed out the healing of king Abgar and the sojourn of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image at Edessa as a commonly known fact. The Image Not-Made-by-Hand was put on the standards of the Russian army, defending them from the enemy. In the Russian Orthodox Church it is a pious custom for a believer, before entering the temple, to read together with other prayers the tropar of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image of the Saviour. According to the Prologue there are known 4 Not-Made-by-Hand Images of the Saviour: 1) at Edessa, of king Abgar – 16 August; 2) the Kamulian, – Sainted Gregory of Nyssa (Comm. 10 January) wrote about its discovery, while according to the Monk Nikodemos of the Holy Mount (+ 1809, Comm. 1 July), the Kamulian image appeared in the year 392, but it had in appearance an image of the Mother of God – 9 August; 3) in the time of emperor Tiberius (578-582), Saint Mary Syncletika (Comm. 11 August) received healing from this; 4) on ceramic tiles – 16 August. The feast in honour of the Transfer of the Image Not-Made-by-Hand, made together with the After-Feast of the Dormition, they call the third-above Saviour Image, the "Saviour on Linen Cloth". The particular reverence of this feast in the Russian Orthodox Church is also expressed in iconography – the icon of the Not-Made-by-Hand Image was one of the most widely distributed.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

26For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.27But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;28and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are,29that no flesh should glory in His presence.

Luke 9:51-56; 10:22-24

51Now it came to pass, when the time had come for Him to be received up, that He steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem,52and sent messengers before His face. And as they went, they entered a village of the Samaritans, to prepare for Him.53But they did not receive Him, because His face was set for the journey to Jerusalem.54And when His disciples James and John saw this, they said, "Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?"55But He turned and rebuked them, and said, "You do not know what manner of spirit you are of.56For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them. And they went to another village.

22All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.23Then He turned to His disciples and said privately, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things you see;24for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, and have not seen it, and to hear what you hear, and have not heard it.

#orthodoxy #orthodoxchristian #spirituality #ancientfaith #firstchristian #holyscripture #sacredtext #gospel #wisdom

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beyond-the-mirror · 5 years

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Music of the Night (V x Reader)

Hello everyone! Another chapter done and ready. Now that I got some few chapters done, I’ll go back to writing Nocturnal Encounters as well, so stay tuned.

Special thanks to @minteyeddemon and @thedyingmoon for being awesome writers. If you want to be tagged too, you are free to ask me anytime.

…………

Chapter 5: Revelation

“Bravi! Bravi! Bravissimi!”

A standing ovation was right before you. Tears started forming in your eyes as you curtsied gratefully to the audience. You had just finished performing Elissa’s aria ‘Think of Me’, and judging by the reaction of all the spectators, your performance was an utter success.

The velvet curtains closed in front of you, allowing you to retire back towards the green room where all your colleagues congratulated you warmly for the amazing job you did on the stage.

As an intermission was announced at the end of the act, the Vicomte stood from his seat at one of the boxes and excused himself from his companions. As Raoul walked out and into the hallway, he contemplated what he had just witnessed happening on stage. The way you moved across the stage in smooth and airy strides, the divine emotion conveyed in your voice as you sang the aria, the authenticity and sheer bliss in your smile and your eyes…

Such a wonderful woman you were, skilled, hardworking… When he first laid eyes on you, he felt a unique and tender sensation flowing inside of him. You had bewitched him, and enthralled him to no extend.

As a smile formed on Raoul’s face, he quickly made his way through the hallway.

…………

“What a wonderful night! I am proud to announce that this production has been an outstanding success!” Firmin entered the crowded green room. The opera had just finished and the all the performers and staff members were now reunited there. “Thank you everyone, for we know that tonight’s show couldn’t have been made possible without each and every single one of you. And now, it’s time for a celebration!”

Every time after a successful premiere, one of Fortuna’s most prestigious venues would close off for the day to host a party for all the staff members of the Opera House. Now everybody was looking forward to a nice hangout with food and drinks after all the effort they put in the production finally paid off.

You were currently sitting at your vanity inside your very own private dressing room, given to you since you were now the new lead soprano and actress for ‘Hannibal’. The heavy makeup had finally been removed and your hairdo was already undone, your locks of hair cascading freely down your back. All the accessories and jewelry had now been discarded and carefully put away, your usual earrings now back on your ears, and a lovely white silk robe now over the red and gold costume dress you had been wearing for the musical.

You sat there thoughtfully as you held the portrait of your father in your hands. You had taken it with you and placed it on the vanity of the dressing room for good luck, so that you could feel his spirit right at your side supporting you.

Placing the picture up to your chest, you gently smiled. “Thank you papa.” And with a soft kiss on the image of your father, you placed the picture once again on the vanity before moving a scented candle next to it, carefully lighting it up.

A knock on the door distracted you from your train of thoughts. Moving to open it, you were greeted by Nico as well as…

“Kyrie?! Nero?!” you squealed as the red haired woman ran towards you and pulled you into a warm tight hug. “Why didn’t you tell me you were here in Fortuna?!”

“Wanted to surprise you.” Nero gently hugged you as soon as Kyrie pulled off and let you breathe again. “Although to be honest, we were the ones surprised when we suddenly saw you as the main character.”

“Indeed. Why didn’t you tell us before?” Kyrie questioned you with curiosity and confusion in her eyes. “You were absolutely divine on stage! And your voice was so beautiful, you completely owned that aria!”

Kyrie’s words made a blush appear on your cheeks, that is until Nero asked a question you definitely didn’t want to answer.

“Where did you learn to sing like that?”

“Umm…” you trailed off, unsure of what to tell them. “I-It’s a very long story actually. Let’s just say a… ‘special’ person for me has been giving me a few lessons.”

“Well, whoever this person is hun-” Nico wrapped an arm around your shoulder “-they definitely taught you well judging by that blessed performance of yours. By the way, you going to the party later?”

“Thank you Nico but I’m still not sure. I’m feeling a little tired, that’s all.”

“In that case you should rest, but if you change your mind you can call us anytime and we’ll take you there.” You continued chatting, catching up with every detail that’s happened in your lives. Kyrie has been doing excellently since ‘Wicked!’ turned out to be a huge success in Broadway, and you promised you would save enough money to go see her perform live. You also mentioned the quite eventful times when famous soprano Carlotta Giudicelli used to work at the Opera House, dealing with her meltdowns were a serious handful for everyone and especially for Madame Trish.

After some time, your friends decided to leave so they could get ready for the party, hugging you goodbye and wishing for you to rest enough so that you could join them later. You were about to change out of your costume when another knock sounded on your door.

“Talk about receiving so many visitors in my dressing room.” You thought as you quickly put on your robe and made your way to open the door. Outside was no other than the Vicomte himself, holding a bouquet of luscious red roses.

“Vicomte de Chagny! What do I owe the honor of your visit?”

“There’s no need to keep the formalities dear, you may call me Raoul if you like.” He offered you a warm and charming smile. “May I come in?”

“Oh sure, please do.” You stepped aside to let him enter.

“I came her to congratulate you personally for the outstanding performance tonight, a gifted voice like yours deserves all the praise this world have to offer.” Raoul handed you the bouquet, which you hesitantly accepted since it was a present you didn’t expect at all from the Vicomte.

“I would also like to request, if it’s not too bold for me to ask, if you wanted to assist to our party as my date for the night.”

Your eyes widened in surprise at his request. “Oh… please excuse me Vi- I mean, Raoul, but I’m afraid I… I do not have a proper dress for the occasion.” You weren’t sure to accept Raoul’s invitation, he was the Opera’s patron after all.

“Oh that’s no problem at all, I’m sure we can find an appropriate dress for you in no time. There are a few local designers I know personally who can gladly lend you a gown. ” Now you didn’t know what to say, your eyes glanced around the room, still unsure wether to go with the Vicomte or not.

You took a seat at the vanity. “I’m deeply sorry Raoul, but to be honest I’m feeling a little exhausted after everything that has transpired.” Pausing for a few seconds, the next words came out your mouth without you realizing. “Besides, i don’t think he would agree…”

Raoul raised an eyebrow in confusion “He wouldn’t agree? Your father or… a boyfriend perhaps?”

You mentally scolded yourself. “Oh! Um no… my voice teacher actually. He is a very strict professor and I’m not sure he would like me going.” It was technically true, the phantom took discipline very seriously just like Trish with every rehearsal. He expected you to be always on time and focus on your lessons, no late partying and such shenanigans since he considered them mere earthly matters that would only get in the way of your career.

Still, Raoul kept insisting, always keeping a charming smile and kind eyes. “Please (Y/N), everyone is waiting for our main star to join us to celebrate the premiere’s success. Maybe your professor wants you to relax and have some fun as a reward for all your efforts this season, I’m sure he’ll understand.”

He had a point. Besides, you could still leave the party at a reasonable hour too and still arrive at your lessons on time.

You nodded your answer. “Alright then, I gladly accept your invitation Raoul. I’m just gonna need some time to change and I’ll see you later.”

He flashed a bright grin before taking your hand in his, kissing the knuckles gently. “I shall leave you then, I’m going to wrap up some business affairs with Firmin and Andre and then I’ll come back to you.” He walked to the door, pausing right before stepping out. “See you later, dear (Y/N).”

As door closed, you turned to your father’s portrait. “I’m not sure papa. I mean, he seems to be a nice man, but…” You let out a sigh. Although at first glance it seemed like Raoul was trying to make an advance on you, there was the possibility that maybe you were simply misunderstanding his actions and that he was just being nice to you. Besides, you didn’t consider too appropriate having a close relationship with the very own patron of the Opera, with you choosing to rather keep things as professional as possible.

“Oh papa… what should I do?”

Suddenly, a chill ran down your spine, feeling as if you were no longer alone in the dressing room.

“Such an insolent boy!” the Phantom’s voice resonated through the entire room, a startled gasp leaving your lungs at the anger in his tone. “How dare this young suitor bask in your glory? Requesting you to ditch your singing lessons for a simple night out.”

“No Phantom, do not speak ill of him.” You searched around the room for the source of his voice, but couldn’t find him. “He’s only being nice. My friends want me to go too, everyone has the right to celebrate after a job well done.”

“I hope you haven’t forgotten what I always tell you about earthly matters.” His voice was now calm but chilling, but you didn’t falter. After all, your family has raised you to always stand up and assert yourself in any situation, and if if your decision was to go and celebrate with your friends then the Phantom has no right to decide over you.

“I haven’t Phantom. ‘Detach yourself from all earthly connections, for they only drive you further from the heavenly music’, those are the words you gave me. I did promise you to never forget them, for you have become my guide, my mentor and my guardian after all this time.”

The Phantom hummed thoughtful before speaking once again.

“Flattering, my child. I am glad to have proven myself worthy of your trust, a precious treasure I shall keep with me always.” He now spoke in a very soft tone, the deepness of his voice almost enrapturing you. “And to show my gratitude for the trust you have confided me these last years, I shall now reveal myself to you, see why in shadow I hide.”

Reveal himself? Were you about to truly meet the Phantom? He kept his identity a total secret ever since he appeared to you that day inside the darkness of the storeroom, and now he was about to reveal his real identity to you!

So many questions filled your mind. Who is he really? Was he an actual ghost? What was his real name?

“Phantom, where are you now?”

“My lovely nightingale, look at your face in the mirror behind you. I am there inside.”

You turned back. Hanging on the wall in front of you was a full body mirror that was normally used during fitting tests for the costumes and when putting on big and complex gowns for the play. You slowly approached it while staring at your own reflection, wondering what the Phantom meant with him being ‘inside the mirror’.

You were now standing right in front of it, the only reflection on its surface being yours. It was then that strange a silhouette appeared right next to your own reflection, it was barely visible and you tried your best to identify what it was.

As the image became clearer, you almost fell to the ground in fear. The faint image of a tall man had appeared next to your own reflection, he appeared to be wearing an all-black outfit consisting in a tailored suit, a long cape on his back and an elegant wide brim hat that obscured the upper half of his face.

There was no doubt about it. It was him.

“Phantom… Is that really you?”

“Yes, my child. I am your angel of music, the one watching over you all this time.” A clicking sound rang in your ears, and right before you, the mirror began sliding to the side, revealing what appeared to be an old set of stairs that descended deeply into the dark.

And right at the entrance, was the Phantom itself. The exquisite black suit fitted perfectly over his lithe body, the collar sporting a twin pair of intricate silver brooches at the lapels of his shirt joined together by two silver chains and each piece decorated with tiny green jewels. Right over the knot of his black silk tie, another similar brooch was pinned, this one bigger and crowned with a beautiful emerald. Under the brim of his hat, you noticed a white mask covering the left side of his face, making you wonder about a possible reason for the man to obscure his face.

“My angel of music, hide no longer from me.” Soft plump lips parted as the words left his mouth, his voice deep, full of mirth and power.

He raised a hand dressed in a black glove, offering it to you.

“Come to me, my angel of music.”

Something inside you started pulling you towards him, this man that towered over you and held such power and magnificence in his presence. It was like your mind somehow disconnected itself from reality, and unconsciously, you were already taking steps towards the Phantom.

“Come to me, my angel of music.”

He repeated. Your eyes darkened and half-lidded, your lips slightly parted as steady puffs of air left your lungs. His elegant and mighty figure towered over you, tall and proud, an oddly familiar cane held firmly on his other hand. Why was it so familiar? Why?

“Come to me, my angel of music.”

Entering the passage inside the mirror, you stood right before him. And with a sway of his cape, the Phantom closed the mirror back to its former place right behind you.

youtube

…………

“What a performance I say! I even dare to assure we have made the greatest discovery of the year with Miss (Y/N)!” Andre exclaimed loudly as they all made their way towards the main foyer of the theatre, now that the business side had been sorted, the only thing left to do was to celebrate.

“I completely agree, I can see a bright and successful career ahead of her.” Raoul added to the new owners’ compliments about you. “Now if you excuse me, gentlemen, I shall fetch Miss (Y/N) from her dressing room. I assume she must be ready by now to go to the party.”

“Very well then Vicomte, we’ll see you both there.” Andre bowed before leaving alongside Firmin.

Once outside your dressing room Raoul politely knocked at the door, but to his surprise, no answer came. He knocked again, twice, still not answer.

“(Y/N)? Is everything alright there?” No answer.

Fearing something might have happened to you, he quickly opened the door… only to find the dressing room completely empty.

“(Y/N)?” His eyes searched everywhere, but couldn’t find you. Looking down, a single rose from the bouquet he had gifted you earlier had fallen to the floor and now laid forgotten in the middle of the room.

#devil may cry #phantom of the opera au #dmc V #V x reader #V x you #self-insert #fanfiction #fanfic

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lifesizehysteria · 5 years

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Journey to You - Chapter 13 | An AdamsFoster Fic

A/N: I know the last chapter was a rough one and the road ahead is still a rocky one but hopefully it all ends up worth it in the end. Thanks for all the comments and love and for sticking with me!

Almost two weeks had passed since coming out to her dad and the days went by in a blur. The weight of rejection from both him and Lena, different as those rejections were, was crushing. The shame she felt made her long for the familiarity of her own ignorance and she tried to wrap herself up in it again, to close herself back behind that door. But now the lights were on. She could see the walls were too close, the space too small and no matter how tightly she curled into herself, she didn’t fit. Her knuckles turned white and her fingers ached from holding so hard and still, that damn door wouldn’t stay closed. Coming out felt impossible but she was quickly realizing that not coming out would be just as hard.

The problem was, she didn’t know how to exist as a gay person. She didn’t know how to go through life so… different from everyone else, so conspicuous. If she came out, her sexuality would be the only part about her that mattered. People would no longer see her as Stef, the police officer or as Brandon’s mom. They wouldn’t care that she was good at basketball or that she loved hiking and camping. Her sense of humor and her confidence would disappear and she would just be Stef, the lesbian. She hated that of all the things she was, that was the only piece that people would care about.

The time she spent with Brandon was when she felt the most herself. Being a mom was second nature and it was easiest to lose herself in that role. He didn’t know or care about her personal crisis. He demanded her attention and most of the time, it kept her distracted. But every day, being in the closet became less tolerable and as she began to contemplate coming out with real seriousness, she had moments with him that made her question everything. Summer was coming to an end and he was about to start kindergarten. Was she really going to make him that kid? The kid with the gay mom, who had to explain what that meant to every friend he made? What if he was embarrassed of her? What if he resented her for it? How would she feel knowing that she was going to be that mom in his class, every year? It tied her stomach in knots just thinking about it and every time she was sure she was ready to pick up the phone to call Mike, it was the one thing that stopped her.

On the Wednesday before the first day of school, Stef had spent the afternoon getting ready for the Open House where she and Brandon would get to see his classroom, meet his teacher, and get acquainted with his classmates. After changing her outfit four times, putting extra effort into her usual basic makeup routine, and even taking the time to curl her hair, by the time she was ready, Brandon had been moping around her room and she was feeling way over-dressed for meeting a kindergarten teacher. But it was a school function which meant Lena would likely to be there somewhere and if there was even a chance she might run into her… Well, she probably wouldn’t but Stef felt the need to look her best anyway.

The school was bustling with wandering parents and chattering children. Stef navigated the busy hallway, following construction paper signs to the elementary wing and searching for the right room while Brandon clung to her hand, sticking close by her side. Crowds always made him nervous.

“Here it is: Room 15.” She guided Brandon through the doorway that had a handmade sign reading “Mrs. Atkins” hanging on the door.

“Cool! Frogs!” Brandon exclaimed as he halted in the middle of the room, taking it all in. Frogs were plastered all over the room. On the border around the bulletin board, on posters. There were construction paper frogs on the walls and a large blue square of carpeting at the back of the class with little, round green mats that looked an awful lot like a lily pond. It was charming.

“Look, Mommy!” Brandon pointed across the room to a giant stuffed frog.

“Whoa! How cool!”

“Can I go look?”

Stef scanned around the room. There were only a couple other families there but there didn’t seem to be any kind of structure and she hadn’t spotted the teacher yet. Since she didn’t know how this thing was supposed to go, she figured mingling at this point couldn’t hurt.

“Sure, bud.”

Brandon darted over to the giant toy and as Stef trailed behind him, she didn’t even notice her nervousness about Lena fade away. Her mind was busy with Brandon and the classroom and all of her other worries disappeared, the way they usually did when she was with her son.

Taking in the layout of the room, Stef’s imagination wandered. She could see Brandon sitting at one of the desks with his head bent over his work or bouncing in his chair with his hand raised, eager to answer a question. Sitting on one of the green mats during story time. Making friends. Oh, she hoped he would make friends. Her boy was so shy and she worried so much about him being able to open up to other kids.

“Mommy, mommy, it’s taller than me!” he said as he reached up, not quite able to touch the top of the frog’s head.

“Look at that! How tall do you think it is?”

“A hundred feet!” he stated with certainty.

“A hundred, huh? That’s really tall.”

Brandon gave a firm nod, oblivious to the laugh his mother was failing to suppress.

“I see you’ve met Mr. Frogsworth,” an unfamiliar voice interjected. The arrival of a stranger had Brandon back by Stef’s side, clamped onto her leg. “I’m Mrs. Atkins. Welcome.” She extended her hand to Stef. She was a thin but sturdy white woman. Though she stood almost a full head shorter than Stef, she held herself with a confidence that made her stature unremarkable. Her black hair was cropped at her shoulders, straight with streaks of silver at her temples. Her smile was warm and her handshake firm.

“Hi. Stef Foster. And this is my son, Brandon.”

“Hello, Brandon. It’s nice to meet you.” Brandon peeked at her from around Stef’s leg as she smiled down at him. “Are you going to be in my class this year?” she asked and received only a small shrug of one shoulder in response.

“Sorry, he’s shy,” Stef apologized as she rubbed her son’s back.

“Don’t worry. He’ll warm up soon enough,” Mrs. Atkins assured her. “So, Brandon. Do you like to color?”

Brandon looked up at his mom. When she encouraged him with a smile he gave the smallest nod.

“Oh good! Then you’ll love what I have to show you. Why don’t you and your mom follow me?” She didn’t wait for an answer before heading toward a long table at the far side of the room. Stef dislodged Brandon from her leg and led him by hand in the same direction. “Alright, now, everyone in my class has to have one of these.” She held up a sheet of paper with the black outline of a frog’s head in the center. “We’re going to put your name on the top in big letters and then this will go on the front of your desk so everyone knows which one is yours. But it’s a little plain, don’t you think?” Brandon nodded again. “Would you like to decorate it? And then, when you’re done, you can pick which desk we tape it to so you know right where to sit when you come to school on Monday.”

He looked up at Stef again and she could see the excitement in his eyes behind the nervousness.

“I think that sounds like a great idea, huh, bud?”

Brandon nodded again, this time with a timid smile as he took the offered paper from his teacher.

Steering him toward a seat beside another child, Stef got him settled at the table with a handful of markers and sat down beside him. He was busy trying to color in the lines, dragging his marker with precision as more kids filtered into the room. The table filled up and eventually Stef gave her seat up to a little girl with her hair in two black, curly puffs on top of her head.

"I'm going to go talk to your teacher real quick, okay, B? I'll be right back." Brandon nodded, engrossed in the activity enough to have forgotten to worry. Stef ruffled his hair before turning in search of Mrs. Atkins. She was at the other end of the table praising some of the kids' artwork and handing out chocolate chip cookies.

"Hi, Mrs. Atkins?" Stef gently interrupted.

"Oh, hi, Mrs. ..."

"Foster," Stef supplied. "But call me Stef. Please."

"Of course." Mrs. Atkins offered a warm, polite smile. "What can I do for you, Stef?"

"Well, you saw how shy my son Brandon is. I'm just concerned about him making friends. He doesn't spend a lot of time with other kids and even when he does, he usually prefers to play by himself."

"I wouldn't worry too much. That’s called parallel play and it's a perfectly healthy and natural way for kids to play. Some kids get overstimulated by constant interaction and prefer the quietude of singular play, even in the company of others. But even just the small interactions that come from, say, sharing the same box of crayons helps foster relationships and build friendships."

Stef nodded. That all sounded good but he would barely talk to other kids. "How is he supposed to make friends if he won't talk to anyone?" she asked. He was so different from her that way. Being social, making friends had come so easily to her as a kid. She didn't know how to help him and sending him off to school where she wouldn't be there with him scared her.

"That's him over there, isn't it?" Mrs. Atkins pointed in his direction. Brandon was showing his picture to the little girl next to him. His face was bright with a smile and she could hear him giggle. "Like I said, I don't think you have anything to worry about," she said with a knowing smile.

Stef let out a little burst of surprised laughter. "Well, I'll be damned!" she said before remembering who she was speaking to. "Wow, I can't believe I just said that. I'm so sorry!" She gave a nervous laugh and shuffled her feet.

"It's fine–”

"Excuse me, I'm so sorry to interrupt,” another voice, approaching from behind Stef, broke into their conversation. “Robin, could I speak to you for a moment?”

“Of course. Stef, this is our Assistant Vice Principal–”

“Lena,” Stef said in unison as Lena came to stand beside her.

Surprise flashed across Lena’s face for just an instant before she covered it with a mask of cool professionalism.

“So you’ve met,” Mrs. Atkins said, looking between the of them.

Stef could feel her cheeks blazing. She cleared her throat and a nervous grin tugged at her lips.

“We have,” she said, her words airy despite the purposeful steadiness of her voice. She couldn’t drag her eyes away from Lena.

“Oh good,” the teacher said, a bright smile on her face. “Because if you ever need anything from the school, Lena is the one to go to. She’s got all the connections, she knows everyone. No one will work harder for you than Lena will. Did you know, she actually helped found the charter?”

Still watching Lena, Stef’s eyebrows raised in surprise.

“No, she never told me. That’s very impressive.”

“She’s really amazing.”

“Yes, she is.” A soft smile pulled across Stef’s face. “She’s really one of a kind.”

Lena’s demeanor shifted but it seemed only Stef noticed. She could feel the tension coming from her as it changed from uncomfortable to angry. She could see it in the vein visible down the center of her forehead and the way her smile twitched at the corners of her mouth, like she was fighting to keep it there. Stef’s eyes finally turned away and she cleared her throat again.

“I’m sorry. I um, I should– I’ll just–” Stef motioned over her shoulder with her thumb, “let you ladies talk.” When she smiled it was more of a grimace. “Thank you, by the way,” she said to Brandon’s teacher. “I’m sure Brandon’s going to have a great time in your class.” Her eyes darted back over to Lena whose own were wide beneath eyebrows arched dangerously high. Stef gave a nervous chuckle. “Yeah, okay then.” She gave a half-hearted wave before turning and walking in the opposite direction, her cheeks flaming and her hands shaking.

When she had put enough distance between them, Stef stood in a loose crowd of other mingling parents. She glanced at Lena from across the room between attempts at studying the tan floor tiles. When the two women had finished their conversation and Lena headed toward the classroom door, Stef’s heart started beating in her throat. She glanced back at Brandon. He was immersed in his artwork and unaware of her absence. After a brief hesitation, with sweaty palms and a lack of better judgment, Stef headed for the door.

Lena was halfway down the corridor by the time Stef was out of the classroom.

“Lena, wait,” she called. She saw Lena hesitate, then continue without looking back. “Lena,” she said again as her walk turned to a jog. “Lena, please wait.” As she caught up to her, Stef grabbed her wrist. Lena spun on her heel and pulled her wrist from Stef’s grasp. Her mouth was pursed and her nose flaring, her black eyes were hard and cold as steel.

“What the hell are you doing, Stef?” The edge in her hushed voice was sharp and unforgiving.

“I just want to talk to you.”

“We don’t have anything to talk about.”

“Okay, but– You seemed mad at me in there and I’m… Did I do something wrong?”

“I don’t know, Stef. How about trying to flirt with me in front of my coworker, in a classroom full of parents and students?”

Stef gaped at her. “I didn’t– I wasn’t flirting.”

“Weren’t you?” Lena put her hands on her hips, straightening to her full height. “‘That’s very impressive,’” she mimicked in a fawning tone. “‘She’s one of a kind.’”

“Come on, Lena. I was just agreeing with her. What was I supposed to say? How terrible you are?”

“No, Stef. You shouldn’t have said anything.”

Stef sighed and shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Lena, okay? I wasn’t trying to make you uncomfortable or, or say anything inappropriate. I just–”

“I don’t care what you were or weren’t trying to do,” Lena interrupted. “You can’t do this, Stef. You can’t bring this here. My job is very important to me and I will not let you jeopardize it because you can’t keep your thoughts to yourself.”

“I’m sorry,” Stef said again, the words quiet and genuine this time.

“The fact of the matter is, with Brandon going to school here, we will see each other. And I need you to be able to handle that without making a scene or turning everything into… this.” When she gestured between them, Stef took a small step back. She hadn’t even realized how close she’d gotten to her.

“Okay,” Stef uttered toward the floor.

“Thank you,” Lena said and let her arms fall down by her sides.

A beat passed and Stef turned her eyes up to Lena’s. They were a bit softer and Stef’s heart ached as she searched them. There was a voice in her head telling her to just tell Lena she’d come out to her dad and that she understood what Lena needed from her and that she was ready to do it. Because then, in that moment, with Lena there as a reminder of everything that could be, she was finally ready. But how could she tell her any of it after what she’d just promised?

She could feel Lena already pulling away and she didn’t know how to deal with that again. She couldn’t lose her. Not again. Not completely.

“You asked me before, when this all started, if I could have feelings for you and still be friends. I think– Can we just, go back to that?” Lena started to shake her head.

“You said that you could do that and–”

“That was when I thought it was one-sided.” Lena shrugged. “And even then, it wouldn’t have worked. It was naive of me to think that it could. And now? After everything? There’s no way we can go back.”

“I miss you, Lena. Maybe we can’t be more than friends but… I don’t want to lose you.”

“I’m sorry but…” Looking down, she worried her lips together. “I’m not doing this. I can’t. I–” Her eyes drifted back up to meet Stef’s. “I’m done, Stef.”

Lena turned to leave but Stef grabbed her wrist again.

“Lena.”

Lena stopped and looked at Stef over her shoulder. Her eyes were unreadable but when she spoke, her flat tone barely concealed the tremble in her voice.

“Don’t make this harder than it already is. Please. Just let me go.”

Stef held on for just another moment before she let go of her wrist and watched Lena walk the entire length of the hall without even looking back. It wasn’t until she disappeared around a corner that she began to accept that she really wasn’t going to turn around. It was over and there wasn’t a damn thing she could do about it.

#jty #adamsfosterfic #otp: adamsfoster #the fosters #fanfiction #written by lifesizehysteria

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romancatholicreflections · 5 years

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18th January >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 2:1-12 for Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘We have never seen anything like this’.

Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe. Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Mark 2:1-12

The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins

Gospel (USA)

Mark 2:1-12

The Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth.

Reflections (7)

(i) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

We often speak of a faith that can move mountains. In today’s gospel reading, the faith of a small group of people moved the roof of a house. A paralyzed man and his four friends who carried him had such faith in Jesus’ healing power that they would allow no obstacle to prevent them from reaching Jesus, including the obstacle of a crowd that blocked the way to Jesus and the obstacle of the roof of the house where Jesus was teaching. When the paralytic made his unorthodox entry to the house, Jesus immediately recognized the depth of faith from which it sprang, not only the faith of the paralytic but the faith of his companions as well. As the gospel says, ‘Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic’. The faith of a number of people together is often stronger than the faith of just one person. The faith of a community can accomplish a great deal more than the faith of one isolated individual. There was a community of faith in action in today’s gospel reading, which Jesus recognized, ‘seeing their faith’. The Lord can work more powerfully through a community of faith than through one person’s solitary faith. We each belong to a community of faith. We refer to that community of faith as the church, and the parish is the local church. We are called to work together in faith, so that the Lord’s ministry to the broken can continue today. We need each other’s faith. The faith of any one of us builds up the faith of the community, and the faith of the community strengthens our own personal faith.

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In this morning’s gospel reading we are given Mark’s account of the call of Levi, the tax collector. In Matthew’s gospel, he is given the name Matthew not Levi. Some of you may be familiar with the wonderful painting of the call of Matthew by Caravaggio. It is one of my favourite paintings. Levi or Matthew would have seemed an unlikely enough candidate to be a disciple of Jesus. Tax collectors or toll collectors were considered to be very mercenary, with good reason. Yet, in this morning’s gospel reading, Levi got us from his customs house and followed Jesus. He did a complete about turn, going from one way of life to a completely different way of life. There was something about the presence and the word of Jesus, ‘Follow me’, which brought about a complete transformation in Levi’s life. The presence and the word of the Lord continue to have the same transforming power among us today. The most unlikely things can happen in our own lives when we open ourselves fully to the power of the Lord’s presence and word. Our relationship with the risen Lord always has the potential to be a truly transforming experience, moving us towards an ever more generous way of life.

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

When I read the gospels I am often struck by the questions that people ask. Jesus himself asks many questions on the pages of the gospel, as do many of the other characters who appear in the gospels. In this morning’s gospel reading, the scribes and the Pharisees ask the question, ‘Why does Jesus eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ As far as they were concerned, to eat with tax collectors and sinners was to risk being contaminated by them. They would have argued that it was better to keep yourself separate from such people in order to preserve your moral health. However, Jesus did not share this concern. Rather than the sin of others infecting him, he knew that his goodness, God’s goodness in him, would transform them. The Lord is never diminished by our failings; rather, we are always ennobled by his holiness. That is why the Lord does not separate himself from us, even when we might be tempted to separate ourselves from him, because of what we have done or failed to do. The Lord is always ready to sit with us, to share table with us, to enter into communion with us, in order that in our weakness we might draw from his strength and in our many failings we might draw from his goodness and love.

And/Or

(iv) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In the gospel reading this morning the religious experts, the scribes, express surprise at the company Jesus kept. They ask his disciples, ‘Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?’ Someone like Jesus, a religious teacher, was expected to keep better company than that; he should be in the company of religious people like himself. However, Jesus clearly did not restrict his company to those who were seen to have measured up in some way. He was happy to keep the company of those who were considered sinners, just as doctors are normally found in the company of the sick, at least during their working hours. The gospel reading reminds us that the Lord is happy to be in our company, even when we have fallen short of what some people expect of us, even when we are far from being all that God is calling us to be. Our failings and weaknesses do not drive the Lord away or drag him down, rather his presence to us in our failings and weaknesses lifts us up. We always come before the Lord in our brokenness and he never drives us away. His table is always set for us and there is always a place for us there, regardless of where we are at in life.

And/Or

(v) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Jesus did not hesitate to call people from a great variety of backgrounds to follow him. Having called a group of fishermen, he went on to call a tax-collector, someone who collector tolls on behalf of the Roman administration. Such a person would not have been judged ‘religious’ at the time; along with a lot of other people, he was considered to be a sinner. The gospel reading suggests that those considered ‘sinners’ were drawn to Jesus in a special way. The professionally religious of the time found this scandalous and asked the question, ‘Why does this man eat with tax collectors and sinners?’The reason why those who were considered sinners and who thought of themselves as sinners were drawn to Jesus was because he revealed God’s merciful love. Jesus was the doctor who came for the sick; his mission was to bring God’s merciful and healing love to the sinner. One of the great themes of Pope Francis since he became Pope is the availability of God’s mercy to sinners. In a very revealing interview he gave, in response to the question of the interviewer, ‘Who are you?’ he replied very simply, ‘I am sinner’. Only someone who had a personal experience of and conviction about God’s mercy could give such an answer. He knows himself to be a forgiven sinner. We are all forgiven sinners, and it is to forgiven sinners that the Lord says what he said to Levi, the tax collector, ‘Follow me’.

And/Or

(vi) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

In the time of Jesus tax collectors and toll collectors were generally regarded as dishonest people who sought to exploit others. Their evidence was not allowed in court and their alms were not acceptable in the synagogue or the temple. No Jewish religious leader at the time would have engaged with such people. They were religious and social outcasts. In calling Levi, the tax collector, to follow him, Jesus was doing something very unconventional. He was showing that no one was beyond the reach of God’s grace or call. Jesus not only calls Levi. According to the gospel reading, he shared table with him. Present at table were other tax collectors who, like Levi, decided to follow Jesus. In sharing table with Levi and people like him, Jesus was entering into communion with them. The gospel reading shows us that the Lord does not wait for us to reach a certain moral standard before he reaches out towards us. He enters into communion with us as we are, in all our frailty and brokenness, with all our faults and failings. Indeed, he is at home with us in our weakness and imperfections, as a doctor is at home with the sick. It is easier for him to enter the lives of those who know they need his help. If we are open to his desire to be in communion with us, we will be empowered by his presence to move beyond where we are. We will be inspired by his Spirit to keep turning from our more self-centred ways towards his way of serving God and each other.

And/Or

(vii) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Pope Francis wrote a book whose title is ‘The Name of God is Mercy’. It takes the form of an interview with Pope Francis by an Italian journalist. In the course of that lengthy interview, Pope Francis says that God’s logic is a logic of love that scandalizes the doctors of the Law. I was reminded of what the Pope said there by this morning’s gospel reading. Jesus scandalizes the doctors of the Law, the scribes of the Pharisees, by sharing table with people who were considered sinners by the same doctors of the Law. Pope Francis has spoken of Jesus as the human face of God’s mercy. God’s logic of love is reflected in everything Jesus says and does. Jesus reveals a God who doesn’t wait for us to be perfect or blameless before engaging with us. Jesus engaged with people as they were, in all their frailty and weakness. That is how the Lord engages with each one of us. In the gospel reading we have just heard, Jesus calls Levi, or Matthew, as he is named in one of the other gospels, to become one of his disciples. Levi was a tax collector. The doctors of the Law would have considered such people to be beyond redemption because they kept breaking the Law. However, that was not Jesus’ logic; it is not God’s logic of love. Jesus called Levi out of love, just as he calls each one of us out of love. Jesus went on to share table with Levi’s friends, other tax collectors and sinners. To share table with people in that culture was to enter into real communion with them. In sharing table with tax collectors and sinners Jesus was showing that God wants to be in communion with us just as we are. It is that experience of God’s loving communion with us that will empower us to become the person God wants us to be and to live the life God calls us to live.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam.

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starshineskyandthepowerofrock · 3 years

Text

Evening Announcements

Part 10 of Starshine, Sky, and the Power of Rock.

The dreams are getting worse, somehow. This one gets me so bad I hit my head trying to escape my casket. I make it halfway out before reality catches up with me and I sink to the floor, trying to calm down some.

"Is this going to be a nightly thing with you?" a voice hisses from the other side of the room. Gossamer Glade, face lined in moonlight, is sitting up in her own bed. Her lacy eye mask is pushed up to reveal big green eyes that glare at me with pure fury.

I feel around on the nightstand for my CD player. "Can you at least wait 'til I'm wearing a bra before you start getting on my ass?"

Gossamer throws herself back on one of her many silk pillows, her arms above her head in the most dramatic pose I've ever seen. "I don't appreciate having my internal clock thrown off because you can't handle bad dreams. Do you realize I've been getting tired while the sun is up? My body thinks it's nighttime while I'm at school. You're confusing my body and if this keeps up it'll affect my grades."

Ignore her. Ignore her. I rummage through my treasure trove for the right CD. Blood in the Ducts? No he introduced me to that one. Chains on Bone? No he whistled track four all the time...

"But I imagine you're not one to care about grades, are you, vampire?" Gossamer says. "My father says you're doing very poorly in his class."

I could say something right now but... No, keep looking, keep looking... Grave's Dust... Black Morning... No Answers — What?

The clear jewel case shakes in my hand. A once-blank CD stares back at me, the name No Answers scrawled in marker on plain white in my handwriting. We made this song together. We made a lot of songs together. They'd almost joined the bonfire I'd built for my Band of Darkness uniform but I have this thing about destroying art. Plus I hear the fumes from doing that are dangerous and I didn't need any of the animals near me getting hurt. So I'd settled for leaving them all at home. At least I thought it was all of them.

"This has been the worst month of my life. How am I supposed to spend four years living like this?" Gossamer whines into her pillow.

"The feeling's mutual," I say, finally picking a CD and sliding my earbuds in place.

💙💙💙

Assigned seats make sense in this place. I normally hate them but I get it here. Bands should sit together so all the teachers have, well, sat us together. Mr. Glade basically did this too. Almost.

Alright so first day of the first "Academic Week" was already gonna be a bummer because we get no music classes. Not to mention I wasn't thrilled to meet the guy halfway responsible for the demon spawn I've been forced to room with. But then I finally walked into his class, only to find out my seat was nowhere near anyone else's in my band. I didn't feel like starting a conversation with him so I waited for everyone else to sit and found the only empty seat was all the way in the back. And it had my name on it.

I went up to his desk. "Mr. Glade?"

"Yes?" he asked, his back turned to me.

"I can't sit back there."

He chuckled. "What makes you say that?" he asked, then turned around. His smile snapped into a scowl the moment he'd realized who he was talking to.

"I, uh, have albinism," I said. "It makes my vision real bad. I'm supposed to sit near the front in all my classes-"

"Oh, you're 'supposed to,' are you?"

Instincts told me to stop but I kept going. "Yeah, I put it in my application and they said there'd be accomoda-"

"If your sight is so bad, why don't you wear glasses?"

"I-I'm wearing contacts but they don't fix everythi-"

"Are you giving me attitude?"

"No, I just-"

Gossamer stood up. "Could you stop?"

That's when the whispers came. Eyes on me from the whole class. I turned to Star but she wasn't about to argue with a teacher. So I've been sitting back here ever since and I haven't been able to read a single thing on the board. I also don't have a large-print textbook in here like I'm supposed to. And I'm a slow note-taker so I've only been getting bits and pieces of his rapid fire lectures down. And now I can't make out the quiz right in front of me.

No way he didn't know what he was doing. I'm having a hard time believing kids with 20/20 vision could read this, the print's so small. My eyes dart up for a moment (last time I lifted my head I got accused of cheating) and I look around. Kids are squinting some. A few have to bring the paper closer. But they work through it. At least they can read this. And of course there's no multiple choice questions because I could have at least guessed on that.

I bring my head closer and closer to the desk until the tip of my nose touches the paper. The words blend together in a mass of spotty black. I still can't tell where one letter ends and the next begins. Alright this is hopeless.

For question one I put, "I'd answer if I knew what this said." For the rest I put, "See question one." I'll get a zero and he'll say it's my fault but we'll both know what's true.

💙💙💙

For the past couple weeks I've been hearing snippets of whispered conversation from the older kids. "Poor First Years." "They don't know what's coming." "Glad that's behind me." "Aw, I thought it was cool!"

I try to listen in every time, but of course they quiet down and scurry away when they notice the vampire's near them. There's been a spike in these whispers lately. Even Star let something slip.

"Dinner can't come soon enough," I'd told her during transition today.

She'd giggled and said, "Honestly, I'm kinda dreading it."

"Why's that?"

She panicked. "Um, no reason!" Then she changed the subject to how to get rid of my dark circles.

Now I can't focus on dinner at all because the older kids keep rubbernecking every First Year that walks by their tables. Odds are I won't get anything out of Star but it's worth a shot.

"Something happening tonight?" I ask her.

Crescent chimes in with, "Yeah, kids keep talking about the First Years. What's going on?"

Star picks at her smoked salmon. "What? What? What are you talking about?" she asks, not looking at either of us.

"I'll take that as a yes," I say.

Crescent leans in. "Spill!"

Before Star can answer a hush falls over the room and is soon replaced by a chorus of "Your Majesty"s. Kids left and right bow and curtsy as Queen Sunshine enters. She nods her head of bright yellow braids, holding a microphone and making her way to the cleared-out center of the room. Following her is a guy holding what looks like a big, old-looking box of some kind. Sunshine taps the mic and clears her throat to make sure everyone's listening. We are.

"Good evening, students," she says.

"Good evening, Your Majesty," everyone says in unison. It's a big change from the usual scattered mumbles I've seen most principals get after saying that.

Sunshine continues. "You may have heard from whispers around, but tonight is a very important night for our First Years."

Everyone was listening before but now the First Years perk up even more. Even Pearl looks up from her lunch and I haven't seen her act like she knows anyone's there since the night I found out her name.

"Now, First Years, I wouldn't be surprised if you were wondering: just how are you supposed to lug around and care for what can be very cumbersome instruments? When the Band of Darkness can attack at any moment, how are you supposed to be ready in time? Even seasoned members of the Band of Light had been wondering the same thing for years, until the innovators in magical technology behind the Soul Key created this." She gestures to the box, which the guy holds up for everyone to see.

Kids are standing, stretching, some are putting their feet on their chairs to get a better look. A merboy nearby says, "That's what this is about!" to his buddy. A catgirl whispers to her band, "I don't see what people are freaking out over, this is awesome!" Crescent bounces in her seat, squealing to herself. So I guess I'm the only one who doesn't know what I'm looking at.

Sunshine smiles. "Yes, yes, I'm sure all of you have been anxious for this moment, and I won't waste your time with formalities." The formalities would have been appreciated if they meant I knew what she's talking about. "Star," Sunshine calls.

Star immediately stands at attention. "Yes, Mama."

"Would you like to demonstrate?" Sunshine asks.

Star barely holds back a squeal as she makes her way to her mother. She unhooks her Soul Key from her skirt and raises it high for everyone to see. Then she slides the key into what I guess is a lock on the box and cranks it a few times. So it's a music box.

The only sound in the room is the tune coming from this box. No one can take their eyes off it, including me because I wanna know why everyone else is so invested.

Then the top of the box cracks open, a brilliant hot pink light spilling out. Star excitedly reaches in and pulls out a midnight blue cassette player accented with pale pink and purple gems and stars. She holds it up and the whole room cheers.

"Congratulations, Star," Sunshine says. "You're one step further in your journey to being a rock star."

Star hugs her mother then happily accepts praise all the way back to her seat, waving, curtsying, blowing kisses and more. I can't imagine what that feels like. Once she's next to me again and Sunshine starts calling bands up, Crescent and I both want a better look at her new cassette player.

"Ohmigoodness," Crescent whispers as more kids get their own sparkly music players. "The Heir to Light's Soul Player is right in front of me! They're gonna put this in a museum one day!"

"What's a Soul Player?" I ask.

Star explains, "Its a magical device that provides you with the instrument you need to fight the Band of Darkness whenever you need." A wide grin lights up her face. "And it gives you a super cute outfit to go with it! I wonder what you guys' will look like." She gasps. "I wonder what mine will look like!" She holds the Soul Player to her chest, probably seeing something real frilly in her mind's eye. "But yeah, you basically need one if you want to call yourself a rock star around here."

Interesting. That sounds like it'd shave off a lot of valuable time getting ready to battle. No wonder the Band of Light was there so fast to save Star and me after we got ourselves in trouble.

Watching kids get their own Soul Players I see they don't only come as cassette players. They can be MP3 players, CD players, a few kids even get small boomboxes, which don't seem very practical. They also come in a rainbow of pastels and sparkles and cute shapes like hearts and stuff. They sure love form over function here, and back home come think of it, but what can you expect from kingdoms run by performers?

Soon it's the rest of our band's turn. Too many eyes bore into me as we make our way up. Gossamer shoves past me and uses her gilded Soul Key first. She pulls out a yellow and green MP3 player from a burst of green light then goes back to sit with her sisters without a word to any of us. Crescent gets a candy colored wireless speaker. Pearl gets a turquoise tablet encrusted with shimmering shells.

Now it's my turn. The room quiets down like they did for Star but for a very different reason. As if I didn't know before, I'm suddenly really aware that I'm the only monster here. Feeling the whole school stare, I unhook my Soul Key from my belt loop with trembling hands. Far off whispers lick the back of my neck. I'm doing something wrong, aren't I? I'm gonna screw this up somehow. I'm wasting their time, how did I even get accepted into this school-

"Ms. Acdalur?" Sunshine says.

"Huh?" I've just been holding the key here in front of the box. The whispers get louder, like bees buzzing, ready to sting. The key slips from my clammy hands and I just barely catch it. Now they're snickering. Stone face. Stone face. Don't show a thing, Sky. Stop shaking, what's wrong with you?

Sunshine leans near me to say in an undertone I hope only I can hear, "What's wrong, hon?"

I shake my head. My voice doesn't work right now.

Sunshine doesn't speak for a second, instead staring at my key. "That's a lovely Soul Key you've got there," she says. "You know, you're the first monster to ever have one. And I'm sure no one would've expected it to be so beautiful. It makes me wonder what your Soul Player will look like."

That's right, I guess it's supposed to reflect my soul or something. I do really like the way my Soul Key looks, which is surprising. I wouldn't really consider anything about me beautiful, let alone my soul. Well, my ex called me beautiful. But she was crazy.

I'm stalling. I guess getting it over with will get everyone's eyes off of me. I hope.

I slide the key in the box's keyhole, and crank the way I've seen everyone else do it. The tune is as long as it's been every time, but this time it feels way longer. Finally, the box cracks open. I'm flashed with a bright pink flash of light that I have to look away from to keep from hurting my eyes. When I'm able to turn back, there's a CD player sitting in the box. It's glossy black, accented with a pastel rainbow spiderweb design. In the middle is a big, translucent, hot pink heart. I reach into the box. It's really warm in there. In fact, I flinch once my fingers touch the Soul Player, because it's pretty hot.

Kids won't stop whispering to each other the whole way back to my seat, and I can only imagine what they're saying.

Star clamors to get a better look at my Soul Player. "Yours is cute, too! They're all so cute!" At least I know someone has something good to say about what just happened.

Once all the First Years have their Soul Players I'm just about ready for dinner to go back to normal, but Sunshine stays put in the center of the room, even after the guy with her leaves and takes the music box with him. I figure she's just there to say some stuff about how it's the next stage of our something something blah blah blah, but she's still standing there even after saying all that. The older kids are back at it with the whispering.

"There is... another announcement for our First Years," Sunshine says tentatively.

We all lean in a bit closer.

"See, we have a little tradition here that's older than anyone in this room. The First Years are sent into Hillside's Serpentine Forest-"

An uproar is sent throughout the First Year tables, which doesn't bode well for whatever's going on in this forest.

Sunshine winces at the response then continues, "You will camp out there overnight-"

An even bigger uproar.

"Okay, yes, I understand your concern," Sunshine says. "When I was your age, I wasn't too thrilled to go through with this either. But I came to understand its importance as a bonding exercise. That's why, ever since I've been in charge, I've updated it to make things a bit easier on you. You will be provided with all the necessary supplies, including your Soul Player for self-defense purposes. If you do not find your way back to the palace after 24 hours, we'll send for you."

Over the chorus of complaining First Years I say to Star, "What's so bad about camping?"

"Yeah, that sounds like fun!" Crescent says.

Star shakes her head. "The Serpentine Forest is not fun, trust me."

I can't get myself too worked up over this, honestly. My family goes camping every year and you don't wanna know the kind of stuff lurking in the woods on the Isle of Isolation. What's the worst this kingdom of pastels and sparkles can throw at me? Granted I've already almost been killed this year... but I survived that, didn't I? Because Star and I make a pretty good team. So we'll be fine.

Sunshine says, "One last thing about that: you and your roommate will be camping in a team of two."

"WHAT?" Gossamer shouts, standing straight up. Her head snaps to me, filled with rage, as if I was the one that decided this.

Suddenly, I'm as upset as everyone else.

#vampire oc #magical school #magical girl oc #magical girl WIP #magical girl idol #vampire #skylar acdalur

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sufferthesea · 7 years

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Can you do some headcanons for Kakashi, Iruka, and Gai and if they started getting love notes from a secret admirer?

asdfghjkl you’re like the sweetest person ever!!! I love you!! 🍓 Also this is so me, you have no idea.

Hey guess who can’t write short stuff? It me. These always turn into headcanon-scenarios. But it’s not going under the cut, sorry! Please forgive misspellings and errors. I started watching Death Note on a whim while editing this.

KAKASHI, IRUKA AND GAI GETTING LOVE NOTES FROM AN ADMIRER

KAKASHI

I feel like Kakashi isn’t a stranger to randos fawning over him. Either they’re in awe because “it’s Kakashi, the Copy Ninja!”, or they somehow sneak a peek at him maskless, or they spend 30 seconds around him (let’s face it, he’s that cool) but he doesn’t think about it much because it’s all very shallow to him. He doesn’t like the attention and most people don’t know the “real Kakashi”, so he feels that most people’s idea of him is very false and inaccurate. His mindset is, “They love me for who they’ve made me out to be, but they would hate me for who I actually am.”

When Kakashi first finds a love note from a secret admirer, he’s not sure what to do about it. He’s gotten confessions of love before but he’s always ignored them because - as stated - they’re seemingly shallow and only confess to loving the person everyone thinks he is. But this letter seems different - it doesn’t gush about his abilities, or how sexy he is because of the air of mystery around him, or simply fangirl because he’s Kakashi of the Sharingan. The letter doesn’t try to explain away his issues (”I know you’re like this because of what happened, but …”) and it doesn’t come across as someone with a savior complex (”I know that if you let me, I can heal you with my love!”) so he’s pretty intrigued. Who is this person? How do they know him, and how have they managed to cut through all the nonsense the village praises him for?

It kind of scares him if this person seems to know a truer version of Kakashi. He’s afraid of being found out, afraid of people seeing he’s scared and weak and royally messed up. But he’s also drawn to this mysterious writer - how did they manage to see right through him? Does he know them? And he’s really curious depending on where he finds the letter. If it’s delivered to him through the post, he’ll figure it’s just someone who’s seen him on his walk home/has known him for a while and knows where he lives. If it’s given to him via a teammate or by the Hokage during a meeting, he’ll be kind of suspicious. (”How do they know who I’m working with? Is it … one of them?” Then he’ll study all the people he’s working with or that passes in and out of the Hokage building and see if any of their eyes linger a bit too long on him.) If he finds it in his book or his gear, he’ll be bound and determined to find out who it is because how the heck did they get into his stuff without him noticing?!

After a couple of notes (and failed attempts to figure out who it is), Kakashi has 2 tactics he goes for. The first is to enlist Pakkun and the rest of his ninken into sniffing out the culprit. He’ll give them the letters to pick up the scent and then send them off into the village. The ninken try to pick up clues in the note (if there is any perfume or lotions, or certain smells that’d only be present at a particular shop or area of Konoha - such as ramen or varnish or flowers). (But I imagine the letter writer is too scared about being discovered, so each and every letter smells different and the ninken can’t figure out who it is for the life of them. How many different perfumes and lotions does this person own? Do they write these at restaurants and cafes? “LISTEN KAKASHI, FIVE PEOPLE HAVE HANDLED THIS LETTER BEFORE YOU GOT IT, OKAY? THE ORIGINAL SCENT IS GONE. SO UNLESS YOU WANT ME TO CHASE DOWN THE MAILMAN LIKE SOME KIND OF COMMON DOG, YOU’RE NOT GOING TO FIGURE THIS OUT.”)

His other tactic is to leave his own notes where he’s found the love letters. If they’re in his stuff, he figures that the person will find his notes when they go to hide theirs. He’ll tuck some into his scroll pouches, pockets, in the pages of Icha Icha, wherever he found them. (But he’s kind of nervous about it and doesn’t want the person to miss his letter - so he’ll leave another piece of paper that says something like “Check front left pocket” or “Go to page 138”, asdghjkl Kakashi that defeats the purpose of “finding” the letter on your own!!)

If it’s delivered through the post, he’ll hand over his own letter to the mailman and say, “Give this to the person who sends me these notes.” (But that’s super vague and Kakashi gets a lot of mail from people - even though he hardly reads it, and it sits in a pile on his table - so the mailman is like “??? Sure??” and there’s a 100% chance it ends up going to someone like Kotetsu or Gai or even Tsunade and everyone is really confused and Kakashi is horrified because they’ve just read his love letter?!?!? It happened like once, and Kakashi is now so paranoid and embarrassed that he either stops this idea altogether or gives the mailman the most serious, deadpan look and says, “GIVE THIS TO THE PERSON WHO SENDS ME THESE *flips love note*, OKAY?”)

(Or he’ll write a note and give it to Lady Tsunade and just say, “This … goes to whoever’s been leaving me notes …” And she’s like, “Uh-huh … You know, you’d think with all of your capabilities, you’d have found out who it is by now.” And he’s like, “?? Wait, do YOU know?” And she’s like, “Hello? I give you these letters all the time; I sit in this office all day and see who comes in and out of the building from that window. For a guy who can copy every jutsu with his Sharingan, you sure aren’t all that observant. Maybe if you uncovered that half of your face for a while you’d be able to see who it is. But it’s none of my business …”)

Kakashi is basically just a huge dork and tries to play it cool but inside he’s freaking out because there’s somebody out there in the village who is leaving him love notes and it’s driving him insane because he DOESN’T KNOW WHO IT IS. He knows he tells a lot of people to “let things go”, but this is something he needs to know and he probably won’t stop until he finds his secret admirer. (And when he FINALLY finds them, he’s so flippin’ nervous he’ll mess things up and that once they spend time around him they’ll realize he’s a loser and give up, so he almost wishes he hadn’t figured it out.)

IRUKA

Iruka has had his fair share of women flirting with him. Usually single moms, aunts, or grannies of the kids in his class that show up during Parent-Teacher Conferences/school events (like graduation), but that’s about it. He is pretty oblivious with most of the flirting tactics the women employ, but a few of the more bolder ones make him a little nervous so he tries his best to brush them off. (”Dinner? Oh, aha ha ha … I’m sorry but I’m incredibly busy grading homework tonight … and for the rest of the week. But I’ll see you at the next Parent-Teacher Conference!”) What a dork. (He hates this memory, but half of his coworkers will randomly bring up the time a drunk obaasan was having a good time at one of the village’s summer festivals and followed him around all night, pinching his face, grabbing his butt, and playing with his ponytail. Genma volunteered him to “walk the poor woman home” at the end of the night and Iruka was horrified to find out how strong such a small and old woman was, because he had to basically fight her off when she tried to drag him inside. RIP.)

When Iruka first gets a love note from a secret admirer, his first thought is, “Oh, please don’t let it be a student.” He’s very likable and personable and more than one student has developed a crush on him. It’s always a little awkward for him but he does his best to discourage them and let them down gently. So when he reads the note and sees that the handwriting and the level of skill the writing took, he gives a huge sigh of relief because oh my gosh, it’s not a student, thank goodness. But now he has a new question - who IS it from? Another teacher? A parent? (Urck, he’s not sure how he feels about dating a student’s mom tbh.) Someone else? His list of suspects narrows depending on where he found it - in his desk drawer, hidden between a stack of ungraded homework assignments, or delivered to his classroom by a teacher’s aide.

The note makes him quite flustered, ngl. Whether it’s super articulate and poetic, or just a short and blunt note, he’s blushing like mad because someone out there took the time to write it and leave it for him to find. (For a moment he thinks it’s a mistake and it’s meant for another teacher but - nope! His name is on the front, it’s definitely for him. He also wonders if it’s a prank by his co-workers since they know how he feels about women flirting with him but something about this seems genuine.) He hides his note somewhere close - either on his person or in his bag - and thinks about it for the rest of the day until he can do some investigative work.

Iruka is, like, 10000x more per perceptive now and he pays attention to everything and everyone. He needs to know if his admirer left the note themselves, or if they had someone else drop it off. He’s almost suspicious of anyone who comes by his classroom and even briefly thinks that one of the kids was employed by their parent to hide the note in his desk. He has so many wild conspiracies running through his head, and he seems a bit like a madman. (Like … imagine the Pepe Silvia scene from It’s Always Sunny.) So anyway, he mostly watches intently and keeps track of who comes into his classroom, who has access to his papers, and who seems to be acting strange. (It drives him absolutely bonkers if he finds ANOTHER love note and didn’t even see anyone leave it!! How could he miss it?!)

People at the Academy notice how weird he’s acting and he finally breaks down and confesses to one or two close friends that he’s been trying to figure out who’s leaving him notes (he may or may not leave out the “love” part). They agree to help him figure it out, but they think this is really funny because of how stressed and flattered he is. Mostly they’re not much help because they end up delivering a few love letters to Iruka hidden between copies of assignments, shrug and say, “Oh I don’t know, I got this from so-and-so in the break room. Must’ve been stuck in there earlier.” They have their own suspicions but don’t say anything because it’s more fun to let him figure it out.

Finally Iruka is near his breaking point, so he ends up stalking around the Academy, practically harassing everyone there as he watches their every move. He hangs around the break room and copy room, watching with eagle eyes to see anyone shuffling love letters into his mailbox or papers. 90% of the teachers have no idea what’s going on, and the people who do know think it’s hilarious and terrifying.

Lord help the person Iruka catches hiding the love notes in his papers. He runs over to them, grabs the note, shoves it in their face, laughing hysterically as he says, “I CAUGHT YOU! FINALLY! IT WAS YOU THE WHOLE TIME!” If the person he caught is only the delivery person for the secret admirer, they’d probably quit right then. (”Are you sure you like this guy? He’s so weird. You should’ve seen him when he saw me with your letter! I’m never doing that again!!”) They’d also straight up tell him, “Yeah, I left them for you but I didn’t write them. And I took a vow of silence so I can’t tell you who they’re from.” And after a lot of confusion and begging on Iruka’s part, the delivery person would give up and say, “OKAY. I can’t tell you who it is but if you write a letter, I can get it to them …” (Cue the fastest letter writing in the history of the world and Iruka frantically saying, “Here! Take it! Let me know what they say!”)

If it IS the secret admirer he’s caught, they’re probably horrified - especially since Iruka wasn’t very subtle and there were other people in the room with them … and now they’re all staring … and now they all know they were writing love notes … to Iruka … It’s so embarrassing omg. But once he’s calmed down, he’s blushing again because this is the person who was writing love notes to him oh my gosh they’re so cute !!! and he gets enough sense in him to talk to them in private and ask about the letters, and about themselves, and he’s still so confused why they like him but he’s happy he found them - and everyone else is happy too because HE FINALLY STOPPED FOLLOWING THEM AROUND AND WATCHING THEIR EVERY MOVE, THEY’RE FINALLY FREE!!! Iruka gets a little overzealous sometimes …

MAITO GAI

First reaction: crying about how youthful it is to receive love notes. Second reaction: a hearty chuckle of success because he realizes no one can resist the Green Beast of Konoha. Third reaction: he shoves the letter into Kakashi’s face and asks, “Did YOU receive such a youthful and lovely letter, filled to the brim with kind words and compliments, signed anonymously - too shy to reveal their true selves?! There is something so wonderful about the unsure confession of love by a secret admirer.” Everyone is in shock that not only does someone like Gai, but they’re actually writing him love notes.

Gai is probably the type to make an assumption about who wrote the letter, find himself around them, give a “knowing” laugh when they say/do something contradictory to liking him, wink, give a thumbs up and say, “Don’t worry about it … We both know the truth. There’s no need to be shy!” And they ?? have no idea ?? what he’s talking about ?? (Tenten looks on in secondhand embarrassment, trying to gingerly break the news, “Gai-sensei … I don’t think it was them …” Gai is confused because, no - he’s sure it’s them. Right? It’s obvious. They’re just shy! Gai they’re not shy, they’re wondering why the Green Beast of Konoha is trying to make the moves on them when they have done absolutely nothing to indicate that they’re interested.)

Rock Lee is just as invested in this as Gai because he thinks it’s so lovely; Neji is wondering who in the world would send a love note to his teacher; Tenten very surprised but also intrigued; they all end up helping Gai find his secret admirer because they’re all curious (and Gai definitely sees this as an opportunity to turn it into a training exercise in information gathering, stealth tactics, and teamwork - as well as trying to one-up Kakashi by proving that he too has hoards of fangirls). (”Gai-sensei, it was ONE note …”)

Gai’s secret admirer would have to be pretty creative and sneaky to get the notes to him if they didn’t want to get caught, especially now that he’s looking for them. They probably do something ridiculous like tie the note to a bird, set the bird off towards the training fields, train the bird to steal something/pester the genin or Gai until they can’t take it anymore so they’ll grab the bird and find the note (all the while the secret admirer watches from a distance as Gai reads the letter). Or they tack love letters on the trees all along the path Gai takes when he jogs in the morning, so that only he can find them. He is both in awe by their dedication, and really impressed because only he and Rock Lee get up that early to train - so this person knows his schedule pretty well. (Is it really a crush if you haven’t stalked them a little bit?)

Gai respects boundaries and he understands some people are more reserved about their feelings (he’s been friends with Kakashi since forever), so he won’t try to do anything to embarrass or publicly out his secret admirer. As stated above, he may get a little ahead of himself and start hinting towards someone that he knows it’s them - even if it’s not. But as soon as he understands that’s not the person, he backs off and apologizes, saying, “I’m sorry - I thought you were the person I’d been corresponding with.” (He doesn’t want so many other people to know this person has a crush on him - it’s not his secret to tell, so he tells little lies like that they’re a penpal or something.)

He isn’t super perturbed if he can’t immediately find this secret admirer. There are some moments when he clenches his fist in frustration because he just wants to meet them - but he also enjoys the surprise of finding a new letter for him on the training field, waiting for him at the counter of a weapons shop, or even slipped under the door of his apartment. (He cried once when he got a poem instead of a letter, and it compared his green jumpsuit to the “comforting forests outside the village”, his hair to “the blackest of starless skies, still aglow with the halo of a new moon” and his smile to “the most radiant beam of sunshine to warm the hearts” of those around him.) He saves all of these and keeps them where he can read them every day. The poems he tacks to his fridge door, and the very first one he received he keeps in his vest pocket.

Since this secret admirer knows Gai’s schedule pretty well, they’ve been watching him to make sure he doesn’t catch them leaving notes - and they’ve seen him mistakenly think a few other shinobi/civilians were writing the love notes. They can see that he isn’t turned off or weirded out by it all, so they gain some confidence and decide to reveal themselves. They show up to the training grounds at 4am (when Gai shows up to start his morning routine) and Gai is there alone, already training. He notices them right away but doesn’t say anything so he won’t scare them off. When they get close enough, he stops his training and looks at them, giving them a gentle smile. Nervously, they approach and shove a final letter at him. He reads it and then grins at them, “So it’s you. I’ve been waiting for you to show up. Would you like to take a walk?”

Gai totally walks them down the same path he jogs every day and he points at every tree that used to have a love note attached to it, recounts which note it was, and he’ll tell them his favorite part about the note, and when they get to the end of the walk he’ll pull out the very first letter he got so they could see he kept it “close to my heart, where it belongs!” And then, in a final act (with his genin watching from the bushes), Gai pulls out another piece of paper, unfolds it, and proudly starts reading a poem that HE wrote for his secret admirer. Rock Lee cries, Neji shakes his head seemingly in resignation (but he’s secretly happy for his teacher), and Tenten is honestly surprised at how talented Gai is (”Who knew he would write like that? Do you think he ever did a writing competition with Kakashi-sensei?” Don’t give him any ideas, Tenten). Of course, after all of this Gai would ask his secret admirer if they were okay with other people knowing who wrote the letters. If yes, then he’d proudly tell everyone so he could brag about their talent and their kindness. If not, then he’d quietly keep the letters to himself and when people asked about it, he’d just say he hadn’t figured it out yet but he would eventually. (Way too sweet, 10/10 best person ever.)

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maxmollon · 5 years

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(via Who the Fuck is Jacques Ranciere? | Critical-Theory.com)

WHO THE FUCK IS JACQUES RANCIERE?

A French critical theorist and philosophical troll in a world of ivory tower intellectualism, bourgeois academics, and Jean Baudrillard, Ranciere stands out as a kind of anti-philosopher. A University of Paris professor and former student of Louis Althusser, Ranciere has committed his intellectual project to destroying its foundations.

While that may sound a lot like Baudrillard, who wants to remind everyone that everything is simulation and nothing matters, or Nietzsche who attacks the foundations of Western metaphysics, Ranciere takes a different approach. Namely, by accusing every other philosopher of being a shitty Platonist and hating democracy.

While other philosophers deconstruct the metaphysical tradition and replace it with their own project, Ranciere’s philosophy can be summed up by “meh, people will figure it out.” And thus we present: the thought of Jacques Ranciere.

#1 “Fuck the Police” is Pretty Much his Definition of Politics

This counts.

In his “Ten Theses on Politics”, Ranciere makes a simple claim. There are two kinds of politics in the status quo, fake poser bullshit masquerading as politics and the real thing. Ranciere calls the poser politics the “politics of the police”. Ranciere calls “real” politics “dissensus.”

What the Fuck is Dissensus?

Dissensus is the process by which actors disrupt the politics of the police.

You see, the police are all about telling you what to do and where to do it. Remember that time that cop got all up in your grill for skateboarding in front of 7-11? Or, if you’re a person of color, remember that time a cop arrested you and planted drugs on you for skateboarding in front of 7-11? That’s the police order; the partitions that the police put in place for what can be seen, said and done, and where they can be done. When that cop drove away and you kept skateboarding, you totally disrupted the police partitioning of that space (sort of).

The police says that there is nothing to see on a road, that there is nothing to do but move along. It asserts that the space of circulating is nothing other than the space of circulation. Politics, in contrast, consists in transforming this space of ‘moving-along’ into a space for the appearance of a subject: i.e., the people, the workers, the citizens: It consists in refiguring the space, of what there is to do there, what is to be seen or named therein. It is the established litigation of the perceptible. – Ten Theses on Politics

We can see how these police partitions work in the events of Occupy Wall Street.

You see, some bankers made this park on stolen native land for them to eat lunch in while they rested from robbing the world of millions of dollars with complicated derivatives and other bullshit nobody understands. When some hipsters decided they wanted to camp out on Wall Street, the police were like “GTFO bro”. And when those hipsters started camping out in Zuccoti Park and ruining those bankers lunches, the police calmly reminded the protesters that the park belonged to white people in suits. The police reminded the protesters that if they want to take part in this “politics” business they need to vote like everyone else, or at least have some sort of “concrete demands”. But they didn’t, so then they started pepper spraying kids.

That’s what the police order does, it tells you to take part in the fake politics – casting a ballot, going to a town hall – and tries to divest energy from what Ranciere calls real politics. After all, the Egyptian revolution didn’t start because people started sending nicely worded petitions to the government. It started when people manifested themselves in the public spaces that were once apolitical.

#2 He Doesn’t Get Along with his Colleagues

Ranciere got his first exposure by contributing to Reading Capital with his teacher Louis Althusser.

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https://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Lire_le_Capital Dialectical materialism is a philosophy of science and nature developed in Europe and based on the writings of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. In contrast to the Hegelian dialectic, which emphasized the idealist observation that human experience is dependent on the mind's perceptions, Marxist dialectics emphasizes the importance of real world conditions, in terms of class, labor, and socioeconomic interactions. - Historical materialism, also known as the materialist conception of history, is a methodology used by some communist and Marxist historiographers that focuses on human societies and their development through history, arguing that history is the result of material conditions rather than ideas. This was first articulated by Karl Marx (1818–1883) as the "materialist conception of history." I

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It may be surprising that a few years later Ranciere put out Althusser’s Lesson which might have well been a raging “fuck off” to his teacher and mentor. The quarrel started over the events of May ’68. While Althusser and other Marxists were asserting the importance of Marxist academia in the French student revolts, Ranciere began to break away from this traditional mode of thought. Marxist intellectuals accused the revolts of being bourgeois and undisciplined. To which Ranciere accused Marxists of being a bunch of little shits:

The underlying idea, to focus solely on the theoretical level, is not only that Marxism is learned exclusively through books, but also that it is learned only from the classics. It is that every development is a betrayal, that every application of Marxism is a deviation into pragmatism, ideology, and political manipulation. We can see quite clearly from the phrase, ‘to focus solely on the theoretical level’, that what was at stake on the practical level was the rejection of the ‘developments’ that Khrushchev, with his successors and emulators, had introduced to ‘classical’ Marxism. This was the time, for example, when it was common to teach that peaceful coexistence was the supreme form of class struggle . . . The purism of theory could not but have political effects. And that was really all that mattered: we could say everything, provided nothing that we said had practical effects. – Althusser’s Lesson

But that was just the start. Ranciere’s project became more and more defined as time went on. From a criticism of Althusser and orthodox Marxism, Ranciere’s message soon became “Philosophy – it’s a big bag of dicks.” Writing Hatred of Democracy, Ranciere attacks the Platonic tradition and ties it to practically every Marxist philosopher. He argues that everyone in the Western tradition, from Plato to Marx, wants to become a philosopher king to shovel Truth into the mouths of the blind ignorant masses. Ranciere carries this line of thought to his other books such as “Disagreement” where he accuses every theorists of democracy of being a Platonic saboteur.

One of his most famous feuds is with fellow Althusser alumn Alain Badiou for his self-professed Platonism.

Badiou, whose goal is to revive an “egalitarian Platonism,” penned an essay about Ranciere titled “The Lessons of Jacques Ranciere: Knowledge and Power After the Storm,” whereby Badiou acknowledges that the shittiest thing he could ever to do Ranciere is agree with him:

“To speak only well of Jacques Ranciere is not an easy task, given the positions that the two of us occupy. Perhaps my constant praise might, in fact, be the worst fate that I could have in store for him. Would doing so be precisely the most underhanded way to attack him? If, for example, I were to announce that we are in agreement on a number of important points, how would he take that? Would he rather just as soon change his mind on all those points and leave me behind?” – Jacques Ranciere: History, Politics, Aesthetics

And then there’s Jean Baudrillard. Baudrillard, who started his career by telling everybody to “Forget Foucault” is an academic troll par excellence. The theorists of simulation has taken Guy Debord’s Society of the Spectacle and turned it into a nihilistic portrait of doom and despair. But Ranciere ain’t got time for that. Writing in “The Misadventures of Critical Thought” he says “theorists of simulation” (a not-so-subtle reference to Baudrillard) are at the heart of simulation itself.

The Marxism of the denunciation of the mythologies of the commodity, the fallacies of consumer’s society and the empire of the spectacle. Forty years ago, it was supposed to unmask the machineries of domination, in order to provide the anti-capitalist fighters with new weapons. It has turned to exactly the contrary: a form of nihilist knowledge of the reign of the commodity and the spectacle, of the equivalence of anything with anything and of anything with its image

…The current disconnection between the critical procedures and any perspective of emancipation only reveals the disjunction at the heart of the critical paradigm. It may make fun of its illusions but it remains enclosed in its logic. This is why I think it is necessary to re-examine the genealogy of the concepts and procedures of that logic and the way in which it got intertwined with the logic of social emancipation.

– The Misadventures of Critical Thought

#3 He Thinks Your Professor is Worthless

It might seem ironic for a teacher to conclude “fuck smart people.” But in The Ignorant Schoolmaster, Ranciere makes that very claim. You see, Ranciere has been hating on philosophers from the very beginning. From his very start in Althusser’s Lesson, to Hatred of Democracy, to The Philosopher and his Poor, Ranciere is constantly accusing philosophers of proposing a capital T truth to reign down in a golden shower of truth onto ignorant masses. That makes a really compelling case for why I shouldn’t be reading Ranciere at all, and maybe just fucking up the police on my own terms.

But in The Ignorant Schoolmaster, Ranciere takes teachers to task. You see, teachers are trying to make you stupid. Really stupid. Like you would be better off thinking about shit really hard instead of taking a class on something. Why does he say that?

There was this dude named Jacotot, and he was awesome. He was a French guy who went to teach in Belgium after the French Revolution. He was teaching French, but his students only spoke Flemish. He, by the way, did not speak Flemish. So doing what any responsible teacher would do, Jacotot gave them a recent version of this book Telamaque that had the French on one side of the page and the Flemish on the other side and said “figure it out.”

And they did.

Ranciere advocates this form of “universal education” and says the traditional teacher/student model is only meant to perpetuate societal inequality and keep students in a state of stultification. Stultification – that’s a fancy word for stupid. The implications of this philosophy are A) You don’t need a teacher like Ranciere to teach you anything and B) An illiterate parent could teach their children to read by plopping a book down and saying “figure it out.”

The crazy part? This shit works, and not just around random corners of Europe where the tradition was born.

You know how your dumb ass can barely figure out how to change the settings on your Kindle? Remember that fancy college degree you spent more than $100k on? Well fuck you, because kids in Ethiopa who don’t even know what a tablet is can not only fix your settings but remove any pesky security measures while they’re at it.

You see, someone at One Laptop Per Child had the bright idea of just dumping a bunch of Motorola Zoom tablets in an Ethiopan village full of kids. The children did not speak English, which was the language loaded on the tablet, and they had never seen a computer before. Within weeks these kids were fucking wizards with the things so much so that they actually figured out how to jailbreak them.

“We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes! Within four minutes, one kid not only opened the box, but found the on/off switch. He’d never seen an on/off switch. He powered it up. Within five days, they were using 47 apps per child per day. Within two weeks, they were singing ABC songs [in English] in the village. And within five months, they had hacked Android. Some idiot in our organization or in the Media Lab had disabled the camera! And they figured out it had a camera, and they hacked Android.”

There’s more. These other researchers decided to give this whole universal education thing a shot and gave a bunch of molecular biology textbooks to a bunch of Tamil-speaking kids in South India. The text books were in English.

Left on their own for two months, without external help or instruction, the researchers felt that surely this task would demonstrate that ‘yes, we need teachers for certain things’ (Mitra 2010). Indeed, after two months, when Mitra asked them what they understood of molecular biology, the children confirmed that they understood nothing. What gets the biggest laugh at Mitra’s numerous talks, however, is the response of one girl from the group, who explained: ‘Apart from the fact that improper replication of the DNA molecule causes genetic disease, we understood nothing else.’ – Of Slumdogs and Schoolmasters – Jacotot, Ranciere and Mitra on Self-Organized Learning

When given an exam on the material, however, the kids all failed. And by failed, they averaged 30%, which is exactly 4 points lower than I scored on my high school physics final that was administered in a language I speak.

Want to Learn More About Ranciere?

If you’d like to explore the thought of Jacques Ranciere, you can read his Ten Theses on Politics for free on Scribd. You should also check out this Ranciere blog, run by Paul Bowman and Michael O’Rourke.Paul Bowman, by the way, is really into writing about the intersections of Bruce Lee and Ranciere.

#theory #Resources #philosophy #society #politics

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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 3 years

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7th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Luke 5:17-26 for Monday, Second Week of Advent: ‘We have seen strange things today’.

Monday, Second Week of Advent

Gospel (Except USA)

Luke 5:17-26

'Your sins are forgiven you: get up and walk'

Jesus was teaching one day, and among the audience there were Pharisees and doctors of the Law who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem. And the Power of the Lord was behind his works of healing. Then some men appeared, carrying on a bed a paralysed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front of him. But as the crowd made it impossible to find a way of getting him in, they went up on to the flat roof and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, ‘My friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ The scribes and the Pharisees began to think this over. ‘Who is this man talking blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, ‘What are these thoughts you have in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven you” or to say, “Get up and walk”? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he said to the paralysed man – ‘I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.’ And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home praising God. They were all astounded and praised God, and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

Gospel (USA)

Luke 5:17-26

We have seen incredible things today.

One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– he said to the one who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”

Reflections (8)

(i) Monday, Second Week of Advent

Very often in the gospels we find people of faith making their way to Jesus. Many of those people are in need of healing of some sort, whether it is physical healing, like the two blind men, or spiritual healing, like Zacchaeus. In today’s gospel reading, a person of faith cannot make his way to Jesus because of his physical condition of paralysis. He needed other people of faith to bring him to Jesus. He was fortunate enough to have such people of faith around him. These men would stop at nothing to bring the paralytic to Jesus, even going as far as removing the tiles of the roof of the house where Jesus was at the time. When Jesus saw the paralyzed man on a stretcher coming down towards him from a hole in the roof, he didn’t get annoyed, rather, according to the gospel reading, he saw their faith; he recognized the faith of this little community around the paralytic. This man was fortunate to belong to a little community of faith. This community created an opening, not just in the roof, but in the life of this paralytic to experience from Jesus a wonderful healing that was both spiritual and physical. Just as the paralytic needed a little community of faith to bring him to Jesus, we need the community of faith to come to Jesus. We don’t come to the Lord on our own. As people of faith, we bring each other to the Lord. That is one of the reasons we gather as a community of faith, whether physically in the church or virtually through the parish webcam. As people of faith, we feel the need to be together in some way. We need each other’s faith to find the Lord. I need other people of faith for me to meet the Lord and others need my faith to come to the Lord.

And/Or

(ii) Monday, Second Week of Advent

In the gospel reading we have a very good image of faith in action. The friends of the paralyzed man were so intent on getting their friend to Jesus that they went to the extreme of creating an opening in the roof of the house where Jesus was and letting their friend down in front of Jesus. They clearly would stop at nothing to place their paralyzed friend before Jesus. The gospel reading states, ‘Seeing their faith Jesus said, ‘My friend, your sins are forgiven you’. It was not so much the faith of the paralyzed man that caught Jesus’ attention as the faith of his friends. The man was literally carried to Jesus by the faith of his friends. There is an image there of what all of us are called to be for each other within the church. We are called to carry each other by our faith. Our own faith in action carries others. Sometimes we need the faith of others to carry us when our own faith seems weak. Paul says in his letter to the Romans that the life and death of each one of us has its influence on others. He would also have said that the faith of each one of us has its influence for good on others.

And/Or

(iii) Monday, Second Week of Advent

Very often in life we come across barriers of one kind or another that we have to negotiate. We set ourselves a worthwhile goal and barriers are put in our way. We head in a particular direction and we discover that obstacles stand or are put in our way. The temptation can be to lose heart, to give up or to turn back. In this morning’s gospel reading, the friends of a paralysed man wanted to get their friend to Jesus but they found that other people were blocking their way; they encountered a significant obstacle or barrier. Rather than give up or turn back, they found a way around the barrier, climbing up onto a roof with their friend and letting him down through the tiles before Jesus. Jesus was very taken by their faith, their persistent faith. Here was a little community of faith, the paralytic and his friends, who kept their focus on the Lord and on journeying towards him, in spite of the obstacles and setbacks they encountered along the way. In many ways this little community of faith can be an inspiration for us this Advent season when we are called to keep journeying towards the Lord, to keep our focus on him, in spite of whatever may be at work in our lives to keep us from the Lord. Jesus surprised them all by first saying to the man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’. The paralytic needed spiritual as well as physical healing and his spiritual healing took priority. As we keep our focus on the Lord this Advent, we look to him for our own spiritual healing.

And/Or

(iv) Monday, Second Week of Advent

I am always struck by the expression of friendship show by the four men in this morning’s gospel reading. They were determined to get their paralyzed to Jesus, by hook or by crook, as we say in Ireland. When the crowds around Jesus were too big to get their friend to Jesus through the conventional route of the front door of the house, they got up onto the roof of the house and created an opening to lower their friend in front of Jesus. True friendship is the kind of friendship that opens up people to the presence of the Lord. The friends of the paralyzed man certainly did that. It was a combination of their friendship and their faith that carried this man to Jesus. The energy behind their unorthodox actions was their faith in Jesus and their love for their friend. When their friend was lowered down in front of Jesus, it was the faith of his friends that Jesus recognized. The gospel reading says, ‘seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man’. Paul in his letter to the Galatians speaks about faith working through love. In this Year of Faith, these four friends model for us the faith in Jesus that finds expression in our love for others. We pray for an increase of such faith in our lives this year.

And/Or

(v) Monday, Second Week of Advent

There are a number of different individuals and groups in today’s gospel reading. We find Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees, the crowd, the paralysed man and those who were carrying this man. I have always been struck by that small group of men who were carrying the paralyzed man. What impresses me above all is their determination to bring this man to Jesus. They could not get the paralyzed man to Jesus because of the crowd who were inside and outside the house. As they say nowadays, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. Undeterred by the crowd, they walked up the steps which were on the outside of the house, created an opening in the roof, and let the man down in front of Jesus. I suppose you could say that this is a particularly brazen example of skipping the queue. Yet, according to the evangelist, Jesus saw the unorthodox actions of these men as an expression of their faith. ‘Seeing their faith, he said (to the paralyzed man), “Your sins are forgiven”’. There is no reference to the faith of the paralyzed man; it is the faith of his friends that Jesus notices. It was their faith who brought this man to Jesus. He was literally carried to Jesus by the faith of others. There is an image here of our own calling as members of the church. We are called to carry each other to the Lord by our faith. The faith of any one of us may be weak, at any particular time, but when our own faith is weak we can be carried to the Lord by the faith of others. Within the community of faith, there are times when our faith will carry others to the Lord, and there are other times when we need the faith of others to carry us to the Lord.

And/Or

(vi) Monday, Second Week of Advent

Jesus exercised a unique authority during his public ministry. One expression of that authority was when he cleansed the Temple of those who sold animals for sacrifice and exchanged coins for the Temple currency, all within the Temple precinct. Another expression of his unique authority is found in today’s gospel reading. When he is brought face to face with a paralyzed man, Jesus speaks as the Son of Man who has authority on earth to forgive sins. This was a very striking claim because it was understood that only God could forgive sins and there were various Temple rituals and sacrifices to gain God’s forgiveness for the sins of the people. It is not surprising that it scandalized the religious experts of the day, the Pharisees. ‘Why is this man talking blasphemy?’ they asked. Yet, as Pope Francis never tires of saying, Jesus is the face of God’s mercy. The now glorious Son of Man, the risen Lord, continues to make present God’s mercy to all who seek it in faith. It is striking that nothing is said of the paralytic’s faith in the gospel reading. It was the faith of his friends that Jesus saw - ‘seeing their faith’. It was the faith of the little group around the paralytic that opened him up to an experience of God’s healing and merciful love in Jesus. Our own faith can continue to do the same for others today. By each of us seeking the Lord in faith we can lead others to encounter the face of God’s mercy in Jesus.

And/Or

(vii) Monday, Second Week of Advent

The men who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus were, in a sense, a little community of faith. The gospel reading says that when they lowered the paralytic down through the roof to Jesus, he immediately recognized the faith of these men, ‘seeing their faith, he said…’ The paralytic was carried to Jesus by the faith of his friends as much as by their physical strength. There is an image here of the church. We are a community of faith. Part of our calling is to carry each other to the Lord, through our faith. The faith of any one of us helps everyone else on their journey towards the Lord. Faith is personal to each one of us, but it is never purely private. Faith always has a communal dimension. Our relationship with the Lord impacts on everyone else in the community of faith. As we grow in our faith, we help everyone else to grow in theirs, even though we may not be consciously aware of doing so. We need the faith of others on our own journey of faith. There are times when we are like the paralyzed man in the gospel reading; we need the faith of others to carry us to the Lord and to open us up to hearing the Lord’s healing and life-giving word. There are other times when we are like those carrying the paralytic; our own faith helps to carry someone else to the Lord who is struggling to get there on their own. We journey together towards the Lord, carrying others by our faith and being carried by the faith of others. This is the essence of what it means to be church.

And/Or

(viii) Monday, Second Week of Advent

There is a striking image of community in today’s gospel reading. A paralysed man wanted to get to Jesus. However, he was completely dependent on others if he was to get close to Jesus. On this occasion, his community did not let him down. They went to great lengths to get him as close to Jesus as possible. Having carried him to the house where Jesus was teaching, they saw immediately that they would never be able to get through the crowd to Jesus. Far from being put off by this obstacle, they went around it. Indeed, they literally went over this obstacle, bringing the paralyzed man up onto the roof of the house, removing some tiles and letting him down in front of Jesus. Here was an interruption that could not be ignored! Jesus recognized the faith not just of the paralyzed man but of those who carried him, ‘seeing their faith’. The man was not just being physically carried by others, but he was being carried by their faith. We are part of the community of faith which we call the church. Within that community we are called to carry each other. We can do that in very practical, concrete ways, such as physically taking people where they can’t go themselves, as that little groupdid in the gospel reading. We can also carry each other spiritually, by our faith. Whenever we live out of our faith in the Lord, we carry others spiritually. There are times in our lives when, like the paralyzed man, we need to be carried by others, and there are other times when, like the man’s helpers, we have the strength and the faith to do the carrying. The gospel reading suggests that whenever we carry others or allow ourselves to be carried by others, we will encounter the Lord. The Lord will be there in all his healing and life-giving presence.

Fr. Martin Hogan.

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frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 5 years

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18th January >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflections / Homilies on Mark 2:1-12 for Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time: ‘We have never seen anything like this’.

Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel (Europe. Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Mark 2:1-12

The Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins

Gospel (USA)

Mark 2:1-12

The Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth.

Reflections (7)

(i) Friday, First Week in Ordinary Time

And/Or

(ii) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

And/Or

(iii) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

And/Or

(iv) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

And/Or

(v) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

And/Or

(vi) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

And/Or

(vii) Saturday, First Week in Ordinary Time

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam.

Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC.

Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf.

Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

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romancatholicreflections · 6 years

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11th December >> Fr. Martin’s Gospel Reflection on Luke 5:17-26 for Monday, Second Week of Advent: ‘They were all astounded’. Monday, Second Week of Advent Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada) Luke 5:17-26 Jesus was teaching one day, and among the audience there were Pharisees and doctors of the Law who had come from every village in Galilee, from Judaea and from Jerusalem. And the Power of the Lord was behind his works of healing. Then some men appeared, carrying on a bed a paralysed man whom they were trying to bring in and lay down in front of him. But as the crowd made it impossible to find a way of getting him in, they went up on to the flat roof and lowered him and his stretcher down through the tiles into the middle of the gathering, in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith he said, ‘My friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ The scribes and the Pharisees began to think this over. ‘Who is this man talking blasphemy? Who can forgive sins but God alone?’ But Jesus, aware of their thoughts, made them this reply, ‘What are these thoughts you have in your hearts? Which of these is easier: to say, “Your sins are forgiven you” or to say, “Get up and walk”? But to prove to you that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins,’ – he said to the paralysed man – ‘I order you: get up, and pick up your stretcher and go home.’ And immediately before their very eyes he got up, picked up what he had been lying on and went home praising God. They were all astounded and praised God, and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’ Gospel (USA) Luke 5:17-26 We have seen incredible things today. One day as Jesus was teaching, Pharisees and teachers of the law, who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem, were sitting there, and the power of the Lord was with him for healing. And some men brought on a stretcher a man who was paralyzed; they were trying to bring him in and set him in his presence. But not finding a way to bring him in because of the crowd, they went up on the roof and lowered him on the stretcher through the tiles into the middle in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, he said, “As for you, your sins are forgiven.” Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– he said to the one who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.” Reflections (6) (i) Monday, Second Week of Advent The men who carried the paralyzed man to Jesus were, in a sense, a little community of faith. The gospel reading says that when they lowered the paralytic down through the roof to Jesus, he immediately recognized the faith of these men, ‘seeing their faith, he said…’ The paralytic was carried to Jesus by the faith of his friends as much as by their physical strength. There is an image here of the church. We are a community of faith. Part of our calling is to carry each other to the Lord, through our faith. The faith of any one of us helps everyone else on their journey towards the Lord. Faith is personal to each one of us, but it is never purely private. Faith always has a communal dimension. Our relationship with the Lord impacts on everyone else in the community of faith. As we grow in our faith, we help everyone else to grow in theirs, even though we may not be consciously aware of doing so. We need the faith of others on our own journey of faith. There are times when we are like the paralyzed man in the gospel reading; we need the faith of others to carry us to the Lord and to open us up to hearing the Lord’s healing and life-giving word. There are other times when we are like those carrying the paralytic; our own faith helps to carry someone else to the Lord who is struggling to get there on their own. We journey together towards the Lord, carrying others by our faith and being carried by the faith of others. This is the essence of what it means to be church. And/Or (ii) Monday, Second Week of Advent In the gospel reading we have a very good image of faith in action. The friends of the paralyzed man were so intent on getting their friend to Jesus that they went to the extreme of creating an opening in the roof of the house where Jesus was and letting their friend down in front of Jesus. They clearly would stop at nothing to place their paralyzed friend before Jesus. The gospel reading states, ‘Seeing their faith Jesus said, ‘My friend, your sins are forgiven you’. It was not so much the faith of the paralyzed man that caught Jesus’ attention as the faith of his friends. The man was literally carried to Jesus by the faith of his friends. There is an image there of what all of us are called to be for each other within the church. We are called to carry each other by our faith. Our own faith in action carries others. Sometimes we need the faith of others to carry us when our own faith seems weak. Paul says in his letter to the Romans that the life and death of each one of us has its influence on others. He would also have said that the faith of each one of us has its influence for good on others. And/Or (iii) Monday, Second Week of Advent Very often in life we come across barriers of one kind or another that we have to negotiate. We set ourselves a worthwhile goal and barriers are put in our way. We head in a particular direction and we discover that obstacles stand or are put in our way. The temptation can be to lose heart, to give up or to turn back. In this morning’s gospel reading, the friends of a paralysed man wanted to get their friend to Jesus but they found that other people were blocking their way; they encountered a significant obstacle or barrier. Rather than give up or turn back, they found a way around the barrier, climbing up onto a roof with their friend and letting him down through the tiles before Jesus. Jesus was very taken by their faith, their persistent faith. Here was a little community of faith, the paralytic and his friends, who kept their focus on the Lord and on journeying towards him, in spite of the obstacles and setbacks they encountered along the way. In many ways this little community of faith can be an inspiration for us this Advent season when we are called to keep journeying towards the Lord, to keep our focus on him, in spite of whatever may be at work in our lives to keep us from the Lord. Jesus surprised them all by first saying to the man, ‘Your sins are forgiven’. The paralytic needed spiritual as well as physical healing and his spiritual healing took priority. As we keep our focus on the Lord this Advent, we look to him for our own spiritual healing. And/Or (iv) Monday, Second Week of Advent I am always struck by the expression of friendship show by the four men in this morning’s gospel reading. They were determined to get their paralyzed to Jesus, by hook or by crook, as we say in Ireland. When the crowds around Jesus were too big to get their friend to Jesus through the conventional route of the front door of the house, they got up onto the roof of the house and created an opening to lower their friend in front of Jesus. True friendship is the kind of friendship that opens up people to the presence of the Lord. The friends of the paralyzed man certainly did that. It was a combination of their friendship and their faith that carried this man to Jesus. The energy behind their unorthodox actions was their faith in Jesus and their love for their friend. When their friend was lowered down in front of Jesus, it was the faith of his friends that Jesus recognized. The gospel reading says, ‘seeing their faith, Jesus said to the man’. Paul in his letter to the Galatians speaks about faith working through love. In this Year of Faith, these four friends model for us the faith in Jesus that finds expression in our love for others. We pray for an increase of such faith in our lives this year. And/Or (v) Monday, Second Week of Advent There are a number of different individuals and groups in today’s gospel reading. We find Jesus, the scribes and the Pharisees, the crowd, the paralysed man and those who were carrying this man. I have always been struck by that small group of men who were carrying the paralyzed man. What impresses me above all is their determination to bring this man to Jesus. They could not get the paralyzed man to Jesus because of the crowd who were inside and outside the house. As they say nowadays, ‘where there is a will, there is a way’. Undeterred by the crowd, they walked up the steps which were on the outside of the house, created an opening in the roof, and let the man down in front of Jesus. I suppose you could say that this is a particularly brazen example of skipping the queue. Yet, according to the evangelist, Jesus saw the unorthodox actions of these men as an expression of their faith. ‘Seeing their faith, he said (to the paralyzed man), “Your sins are forgiven”’. There is no reference to the faith of the paralyzed man; it is the faith of his friends that Jesus notices. It was their faith who brought this man to Jesus. He was literally carried to Jesus by the faith of others. There is an image here of our own calling as members of the church. We are called to carry each other to the Lord by our faith. The faith of any one of us may be weak, at any particular time, but when our own faith is weak we can be carried to the Lord by the faith of others. Within the community of faith, there are times when our faith will carry others to the Lord, and there are other times when we need the faith of others to carry us to the Lord. And/Or (vi) Monday, Second Week of Advent Jesus exercised a unique authority during his public ministry. One expression of that authority was when he cleansed the Temple of those who sold animals for sacrifice and exchanged coins for the Temple currency, all within the Temple precinct. Another expression of his unique authority is found in today’s gospel reading. When he is brought face to face with a paralyzed man, Jesus speaks as the Son of Man who has authority on earth to forgive sins. This was a very striking claim because it was understood that only God could forgive sins and there were various Temple rituals and sacrifices to gain God’s forgiveness for the sins of the people. It is not surprising that it scandalized the religious experts of the day, the Pharisees. ‘Why is this man talking blasphemy?’ they asked. Yet, as Pope Francis never tired of saying during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Jesus is the face of God’s mercy. The now glorious Son of Man, the risen Lord, continues to make present God’s mercy to all who seek it in faith. It is striking that nothing is said of the paralytic’s faith in the gospel reading. It was the faith of his friends that Jesus saw - ‘seeing their faith’. It was the faith of the little community around the paralytic that opened him up to an experience of God’s healing and merciful love. Our own faith can continue to do that today. By our own seeking of the Lord in faith we can lead others to encounter the face of God’s mercy in Jesus. Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland. Email: [email protected] or [email protected] Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam. Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC. Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf. Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

0 notes

frmartinshomiliesandreflections · 6 years

Photo

11th December >> Fr. Martin's Gospel Reflection on Luke 5:17-26 for Monday, Second Week of Advent: ‘They were all astounded’.

Monday, Second Week of Advent

Gospel (Europe, Africa, New Zealand, Australia & Canada)

Luke 5:17-26

They were all astounded and praised God, and were filled with awe, saying, ‘We have seen strange things today.’

Gospel (USA)

Luke 5:17-26

We have seen incredible things today.

Then the scribes and Pharisees began to ask themselves, “Who is this who speaks blasphemies? Who but God alone can forgive sins?” Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them in reply, “What are you thinking in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”– he said to the one who was paralyzed, “I say to you, rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

He stood up immediately before them, picked up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God. Then astonishment seized them all and they glorified God, and, struck with awe, they said, “We have seen incredible things today.”

Reflections (6)

(i) Monday, Second Week of Advent

And/Or

(ii) Monday, Second Week of Advent

And/Or

(iii) Monday, Second Week of Advent

And/Or

(iv) Monday, Second Week of Advent

And/Or

(v) Monday, Second Week of Advent

And/Or

(vi) Monday, Second Week of Advent

Jesus exercised a unique authority during his public ministry. One expression of that authority was when he cleansed the Temple of those who sold animals for sacrifice and exchanged coins for the Temple currency, all within the Temple precinct. Another expression of his unique authority is found in today’s gospel reading. When he is brought face to face with a paralyzed man, Jesus speaks as the Son of Man who has authority on earth to forgive sins. This was a very striking claim because it was understood that only God could forgive sins and there were various Temple rituals and sacrifices to gain God’s forgiveness for the sins of the people. It is not surprising that it scandalized the religious experts of the day, the Pharisees. ‘Why is this man talking blasphemy?’ they asked. Yet, as Pope Francis never tired of saying during the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Jesus is the face of God’s mercy. The now glorious Son of Man, the risen Lord, continues to make present God’s mercy to all who seek it in faith. It is striking that nothing is said of the paralytic’s faith in the gospel reading. It was the faith of his friends that Jesus saw - ‘seeing their faith’. It was the faith of the little community around the paralytic that opened him up to an experience of God’s healing and merciful love. Our own faith can continue to do that today. By our own seeking of the Lord in faith we can lead others to encounter the face of God’s mercy in Jesus.

Fr. Martin Hogan, Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin, D03 AO62, Ireland.

Email: [email protected] or [email protected]

Parish Website: www.stjohnsclontarf.ie Please join us via our webcam.

Twitter: @SJtBClontarfRC.

Facebook: St John the Baptist RC Parish, Clontarf.

Tumblr: Saint John the Baptist Parish, Clontarf, Dublin.

0 notes