As I grew up I never gave the phrase "in the fullness of time" much thought, but as my knowledge and understanding of history has grown so has my consideration of "the fullness of time." The first real revolutionary change was when I began to learn more about Alexandria, Egypt. I thought about the implication the city had on the time Jesus' birth. The major change was that I began to pay much more attention to the geopolitical situation and factoring it into God's plan for the world.
In the past year and a half I read a tremendous amount about Rome, just for general knowledge at first, but later for more specific reasons. I have always liked Rome for several reasons. As a kid my interest was just in fascination with Antiquity. As a teen I learned a little more about Rome and was fascinate with her military power. In my Twenties it became because of Christ that I was fascinated with Rome and that is what it remains with me today. All of Jesus' life on Earth was spent in the Roman Empire and that recently struck me as vitally important information. Less than sixty years after the annexation of Judea by the Roman state Jesus was born. About a decade after Rome became an Empire Jesus was born (maybe even less than that). It began to look to me like God had a purpose for the Roman Empire, and I maintain that is true - God wanted to become a man and live under the dominion of the Romans because they would best fit His purpose.
The first question that occurred to me was why didn't God manifest Himself under an independent Jewish state? Well, Judea was almost entirely independent under Roman rule at the time of the birth of Jesus. One example of the privilege they enjoyed was their taxes. Eight years after their annexation Judea was given the right to collect their own taxes. This was almost unheard of and was even the cause of complaint in other areas of the Empire. Then I thought Why Rome? What made the Roman Empire desirable over all others who ruled over Israel? What distinguished Rome from Assyria, Babylon, Greece and Egypt? It is easy for me, so in love with Rome, to come up with quick answers, but I do not think we would come to see the complete picture by doing that.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Saturday, January 5, 2008
Putting Priorities In Order
Every once in a while I get the feeling I am not doing enough in the service of The Man, so I take it as a sign and I begin to look for something else to start doing. I got that feeling one day walking out of Mass and as I skimmed over the bulletin I saw an advertisement that Nathan Adelson Hospice needed volunteers. So for the next two and a half years I did any number of things, which I found to be one of the most fulfilling things I ever did in my life. When I moved here to San Dog I signed up for the local hospice. We finally began volunteer training this past Thursday and had a full day today.
One of the main topics today was the spiritual care of the patient, the bereaved and the volunteer. Of course this is a subject always near and dear to my heart. One of the things we did to close the day was a guided exercise in which we wrote down twenty things we value under five different categories. Then we put ourselves in the position of a terminally ill cancer patient and had to let go of the things we valued, usually one at a time but on two occasions several at a time. The exercise is designed for us to take a look at our own mortality and values. That was not the first time I confronted my own mortality, but it did not turn out exactly as I expected it to. A big surprise to me was that I wanted to die in Anchorage, Alaska. I never had a particular place I wanted to die before. I was also surprised at how readily I was willing to let go of everything. My priorities were not exactly as I originally placed them - I had to shuffle three cards. My three top priorities in order of least valuable to most were originally: 3) taking comfort in solitude/silence/prayer; 2) the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church; 1) going to Heaven. When I was down to the last three and had to consider letting go of solitude/silence/prayer I decided to let go of the Church instead.
One other thing that surprised me was my lack of fear that God would tell me I did not do enough, which was a big fear before. As I imaged what would transpire after the event of my death all I felt was joy and anticipation. I also thought of four people, two of them were unborn siblings, one my own unborn child and one the first hospice patient I know for certain I made a significant difference for. That was a really rewarding experience.
One of the main topics today was the spiritual care of the patient, the bereaved and the volunteer. Of course this is a subject always near and dear to my heart. One of the things we did to close the day was a guided exercise in which we wrote down twenty things we value under five different categories. Then we put ourselves in the position of a terminally ill cancer patient and had to let go of the things we valued, usually one at a time but on two occasions several at a time. The exercise is designed for us to take a look at our own mortality and values. That was not the first time I confronted my own mortality, but it did not turn out exactly as I expected it to. A big surprise to me was that I wanted to die in Anchorage, Alaska. I never had a particular place I wanted to die before. I was also surprised at how readily I was willing to let go of everything. My priorities were not exactly as I originally placed them - I had to shuffle three cards. My three top priorities in order of least valuable to most were originally: 3) taking comfort in solitude/silence/prayer; 2) the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church; 1) going to Heaven. When I was down to the last three and had to consider letting go of solitude/silence/prayer I decided to let go of the Church instead.
One other thing that surprised me was my lack of fear that God would tell me I did not do enough, which was a big fear before. As I imaged what would transpire after the event of my death all I felt was joy and anticipation. I also thought of four people, two of them were unborn siblings, one my own unborn child and one the first hospice patient I know for certain I made a significant difference for. That was a really rewarding experience.
Friday, January 4, 2008
The Lightbringers – The Emissaries of Jahbulon
There is a video posted on the internet called “Lightbringers – The Emissaries of Jahbulon” which puts out fallacious information. It can be found here http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7447140689352016786. Whatever it says about Freemasonry is really of no consequence to me. My contention is its attempt to connect the Freemasons to the Templar Knights. There is no supporting evidence to lead to such a conclusion; in fact the verdict of history would show the opposite. There are three main claims by the producers of this video to connect the Freemasons to the Templar Knights. It claims several knights escaped arrest and fled to Scotland, continued to practice “secret rites,” then founded the order of Freemasonry in Scotland. Only one claim is true – several knights and sargeants did escape to Scotland because their nobles were strong supporters of the Order of the Templar Knights.
In regards to “secret rites” of the Templar knights, there were no such creatures. The reason this rumor arose is because the order was cloistered and laymen were not allowed to attend Mass at a Templar commanderie. Templar Knights were not just knights. First, they were monks. They took vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, just like other monks, but they were also allowed to make temporary vows if they did not want to devote their entire lives to the order. They lived under a very strict monastic rule written originally by Bernard of Clairvaux, with a couple of additions later. One of the reasons laymen were not allowed to attend the liturgies observed by the Templar Knights was one of the rules they observed was no contact with women, this was to help them preserve their chastity. The “secret Templar services” were in actuality the Liturgy of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, both of which were practiced daily. I can easily see how someone might confuse these things with occult practice because of a documentary video I have seen about Cistercian monks (interestingly enough Bernard of Clairvaux was a Cistercian). In one of the scenes the monks are all up on the altar, surrounding it in a circle. I am deeply and intimately familiar with several different forms of liturgical practice and my initial thought of that scene was, “Wow, that looks kind of creepy!” Something to note specially is the fact that many Templar chapels were built “in the round.” This would place all the celebrants of the liturgy in a circle around the altar and chanting in Latin. If someone who did not know Latin and was ignorant of liturgical practice saw what was going on they might think the Templar Knights had some cult or some form of demon worship going on that no one else was allowed to attend! Yea, I can see exactly where that’s going!
It was true that the Scottish nobles were friendly towards the Templar Knights. Many did escape to Scotland, as well as to Spain and Switzerland. These were mainly French knights and sergeants because in England, Spain and Germany the Templar Order did not fall under the persecution it did in France. There are several reasons for that. First and foremost the Order was wealthy, so wealthy it was able to bail kings out of bankruptcy, and did so on more than one occasion. King Louis was broke and needed lots of money because of the prosecution of a war. He also wanted to start another order of knights in which his own son would be grandmaster. He browbeat the Pope into suppressing the Templar Knights on trumped up charges, ceased their lands and treasuries and cleared the path for his brand new order all in one fell swoop. It would be important to point out that the Templar Order did not undergo the same maltreatment in any other country, nor were they ever convicted of the crimes alleged against them elsewhere. It was only in France, and under the direct intervention of the king, that convictions were drawn and punishments handed out. This all began on October 13th, 1307. The film claims that in 1420 the Templar Knights that escaped from France founded the order of Freemasonry in Scotland. What gives!? Were they immortal? Did they have extra long lives like Moses and Noah? Or is the claim simply untrue?
In regards to “secret rites” of the Templar knights, there were no such creatures. The reason this rumor arose is because the order was cloistered and laymen were not allowed to attend Mass at a Templar commanderie. Templar Knights were not just knights. First, they were monks. They took vows of celibacy, poverty and obedience, just like other monks, but they were also allowed to make temporary vows if they did not want to devote their entire lives to the order. They lived under a very strict monastic rule written originally by Bernard of Clairvaux, with a couple of additions later. One of the reasons laymen were not allowed to attend the liturgies observed by the Templar Knights was one of the rules they observed was no contact with women, this was to help them preserve their chastity. The “secret Templar services” were in actuality the Liturgy of the Mass and the Liturgy of the Hours, both of which were practiced daily. I can easily see how someone might confuse these things with occult practice because of a documentary video I have seen about Cistercian monks (interestingly enough Bernard of Clairvaux was a Cistercian). In one of the scenes the monks are all up on the altar, surrounding it in a circle. I am deeply and intimately familiar with several different forms of liturgical practice and my initial thought of that scene was, “Wow, that looks kind of creepy!” Something to note specially is the fact that many Templar chapels were built “in the round.” This would place all the celebrants of the liturgy in a circle around the altar and chanting in Latin. If someone who did not know Latin and was ignorant of liturgical practice saw what was going on they might think the Templar Knights had some cult or some form of demon worship going on that no one else was allowed to attend! Yea, I can see exactly where that’s going!
It was true that the Scottish nobles were friendly towards the Templar Knights. Many did escape to Scotland, as well as to Spain and Switzerland. These were mainly French knights and sergeants because in England, Spain and Germany the Templar Order did not fall under the persecution it did in France. There are several reasons for that. First and foremost the Order was wealthy, so wealthy it was able to bail kings out of bankruptcy, and did so on more than one occasion. King Louis was broke and needed lots of money because of the prosecution of a war. He also wanted to start another order of knights in which his own son would be grandmaster. He browbeat the Pope into suppressing the Templar Knights on trumped up charges, ceased their lands and treasuries and cleared the path for his brand new order all in one fell swoop. It would be important to point out that the Templar Order did not undergo the same maltreatment in any other country, nor were they ever convicted of the crimes alleged against them elsewhere. It was only in France, and under the direct intervention of the king, that convictions were drawn and punishments handed out. This all began on October 13th, 1307. The film claims that in 1420 the Templar Knights that escaped from France founded the order of Freemasonry in Scotland. What gives!? Were they immortal? Did they have extra long lives like Moses and Noah? Or is the claim simply untrue?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
