#(but he’s not a better Christian than Des be so fr) | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

theprettyinthemundane · 4 years ago

Text

Who’s right about the myths and what does it mean to be culturally Christian? (using Pan as an example)

Thanks to @will-o-the-witch for looking over the part on Judaism!! : )

Disclaimer:

The ancient world was incredibly diverse and ideas about the gods themselves and the myths varied a lot across space and time, which is something I’ll be mentioning again later. I feel like it’s important to have a better understanding about the myths since they’re so prevalent in culture. Essentially, while many people today may tend to think there’s only one “right” way to see the myths or a god this was and is not the case for many faiths. To show this, I wanted to use Pan and his parentage as an example. This also connects to a broader idea: cultural Christianity (which isn’t “bad” or “good”, it’s just something to be aware of). This isn’t about Christians either, just about how cultural Christianity can affect peoples’ perception of other faiths. Whether or not someone is Christian themselves, growing up in a Christian place can incorrectly inform how they learn about other faiths which can lead to misinformation being spread. Sometimes it can (even accidentally) reinforce very harmful ideas that can contribute to bigotry like antisemitism, which we have to fight against! (Seriously, bigotry sucks! Also I hope the way I word all this makes sense because it’s something I care a lot about!)

So, who are Pan’s parents and who’s right?

Pan is often known as Hermes’ son, even the Homeric hymn to Pan says so (1). Hermes is widely known as the “second youngest Olympian”, which would make Pan among the very youngest if this genealogy is considered (2).

However, that isn’t the genealogy everyone in the ancient world used to describe Pan. There are many variations on his parentage, and I think it’s worth going over because of how interesting it is. Who Pan’s parents are often changes depending on who you ask or where you ask it. For example, at times he has been called the son of Hermes (1, 3: pg90,151), if you ask 5th century Athenians he is the son of Chronos (3: pg42, 88), he was also known as the son of Zeus and twin of Arcas’ (3: pg43), the great grandson of Pelasgos who was a mortal, bother or foster brother of Zeus (3: pg113) and in Thebes he was believed to be the son of Apollo (3: pg180). He was also called Son of Aix (the solar goat too bright to look at, equated with Amalthea nurse of Zeus) (3: pg100). There were likely other variations too that were lost to history.

One thing worth noting is that Pan originated in Arcadia and before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE, his worship was mainly preformed here and it was only after that battle that his worship spread widely to the rest of Greece (4, 5). So, the myths of Pan from Arcadia are typically older and reflected older views that worshipers held of him. One example is that Pan helped Zeus in the war against the titans and these myths point to Pan’s father being Chronos (or at least placing him before Hermes’ birth):

Pan has been described as “the source of that "panic" fear with whose aid he helped the gods in their war against the Titans …” and the son of Cronos and a she-goat (3: pg42). In fact, Aeschylus believed Pan to be two gods: both of which had the power of panic and one of them fought against the titans with Zeus (3: pg42) this is interesting because in other myths Pan was able to split up into a swarm of pans, so Pan being a multiplicity of gods and also a single god isn’t unheard of (3: pg100). Overall, most people understood him to be one god (like we do today), but this just shows how much diversity there was in how people saw him.

And in Egypt he was viewed similarly to the Pan who fought in the war with the titans (as one of the oldest gods):

“…the Egyptians Pan is considered very ancient and one of the eight gods said to be the earliest…(6)”

Here he was identified with the Egyptian god Min, which may seem a bit problematic to some because otherwise they were revered as different gods (6). However, the practice of identifying gods with other gods (aka syncretism) was not uncommon in the ancient world; Hekate-Artemis, Selene-Hekate, and Selene-Artemis were identified with each other commonly (7, 8). Other syncretisms were between Isis and Demeter, Isis and Persephone, Isis and Aphrodite, and Isis and Venus (9: pg 20). I am not a classics student, but what I have taken away from this is that the identity of the ancient gods is somewhat fluid and many worshipers could have differing and even contradictory views without either of them being “wrong”, even though some likely did argue or disagree to some extent (6). I’m not claiming there wasn’t debate in the ancient world about the gods, there definitely was. What I’m saying is that people did not fight to discredit new or different ideas just because they conflicted with already established ideas. There was a great deal of variation in how people worshiped and most weren’t interested in a one “right way” to do things.

This isn’t only an ancient practice: it still happens today in Shinto in general and with the kamisama* Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神), who has been portrayed as a group of kamisama, as masculine, androgynous, and feminine (10). So in general this practice of seeing kamisama (or supernatural beings, or gods) in many different ways with acceptance is more common than one might expect (10, 11). This also happens today in Judaism, where debate is very common:

“Nevertheless, the general trend throughout Jewish history is to value debate and not to stifle it, and the history of Jewish texts supports that trend. (12)” Some examples of this are how many Jewish people debate the Talmud (a religious text) and how there are many different sects of Judaism.

One important thing for people who are interested in this subject and were raised in a Christian culture (even if they aren’t religious) is to not overextend the characteristics of Christianity onto other religions ancient or modern (this is often accidental, which makes it even more important to be aware of it). This is relevant to both ancient and modern religions such as Shinto and Judaism because misunderstanding these faiths can contribute to terrible things like antisemitism and xenophobia (more so with Judaism). So, we need to guard against bigotry like that by being open to learning and changing our opinions when they are wrong both for learning and fighting bigotry.

In fact, one scholar noted that even in Arcadia Pan’s cult and myth were not standardized although what I have mentioned before was certainly the more popular (13: pg 63) So, even though Herodotus heard from people in Egypt who worshiped Min, it is not unheard of or unreasonable to understand that some people did understand him that way. To answer the question I asked earlier: each myth about Pan’s parentage has some element of truth to it and none of them are completely “right” or “wrong”. For example, Hermes being Pan’s father echoes the fact that both of them are liminal deities and usually are shown being close to mortals (3: 178).

Conclusion:

Pan is commonly considered the son of Hermes, however there was immense variation in how others saw him, both across space and time. One specific idea- that Pan helped Zeus in the war against the titans and that he is among the eldest of the gods- would contradict the Hermes genealogy and was prevalent in some areas. This is the case in Egypt where he was conflated with the local god Min. While this could seem confusing to modern readers (both the Min thing and the various genealogy thing), many faiths both ancient and modern do not push for one “right way” of seeing things and this is important to understand when learning about these things.

Another way of looking at this concept is the idea of cultural Christianity. It does not matter if a person is religious or even Christian, by growing up in a culturally Christian place their assumptions about other faiths are automatically informed by Christianity, which does not reflect most other faiths. This is not good or bad, it’s just something to be aware of and work around so that we can better understand these other faiths. It is especially important to keep in mind today as misunderstandings about religions can contribute to dangerous bigotry like antisemitism, which we must stand against!

*In Shinto kami (or kamisama) are supernatural beings who inspire awe, they are the main object of worship in Shinto. Please don’t call Shinto kamisama “gods”, it’s inaccurate and doesn’t represent how people see them. Due to how Shinto and Japanese mythology are different from Western mythology we need to take care when talking about it to keep it in its original context.

Citations:

1: Hymn 19 to Pan Hugh G. Evelyn-White, Ed. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=HH+19

2: da Costa Martins, P. A., Leptidis, S., & De Windt, L. J. (2014). Nuclear Calcium Transients: Hermes Propylaios in the Heart. Doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.114.010675

3: Borgeaud, P., & Atlass, K. (1988). The cult of Pan in ancient Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 13: 9780226065953

4: GARTZIOU-TATTI, A. (2013). GODS, HEROES, AND THE BATTLE OF MARATHON. Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement, (124), 91-110. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/44216258

5: Haldane, J. (1968). Pindar and Pan: Frs. 95-100 Snell. Phoenix, 22(1), 18-31. doi:10.2307/1087034

6: Griffiths, J. G. (1955). The orders of Gods in Greece and Egypt (according to Herodotus). The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 75, 21-23. Doi: 10.2307/629164

7: MANOLEDAKIS, M. (2012). Hekate with Apollo and Artemis on a Gem from the Southern Black Sea Region. Istanbuler Mitteilungen, 62, 289-302.

8: E. Hijmans, S. (2012). Moon deities, Greece and Rome. In The Encyclopedia of Ancient History (eds R.S. Bagnall, K. Brodersen, C.B. Champion, A. Erskine and S.R. Huebner). doi:10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah17276

9: Witt, R. E. (1997). Isis in the ancient world. JHU Press. ISBN-13: 978-0801856426

10: Smyers, K. (1996). "My Own Inari": Personalization of the Deity in Inari Worship. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies, 23(1/2), 85-116. Retrieved June 23, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/30233555

11: Lya. 2015. Interview with Gary Cox - Inari Faith International (VO) https://www.equi-nox.net/t10647-interview-with-gary-cox-inari-faith-international-vo

12: Mjl. Conversation & Debate. www.myjewishlearning.com. https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/conversation-debate/

13: Ogden, D. (Ed.). (2010). A companion to Greek religion. John Wiley & Sons. Print ISBN:9781405120548 |Online ISBN:9780470996911 |DOI:10.1002/9780470996911

#pandeity #hellenic gods #cultural christianity #i hope i worded this well enough because i really care about this issue #happy to hear other peoples' thoughts too!#greek mythology #hellenic polytheism

56 notes · View notes

pamphletstoinspire · 4 years ago

Photo

Fifteenth Sunday After Pentecost - Latin Calendar - 09/06/2020

by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1882

“And when He came nigh to the gates of the city, behold! a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow.”–Luke 7.

by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1882

Christ, accompanied by a great multitude, approaches the city of Naim, and behold! the corpse of a youth was just borne out of the city gates, followed by a number of people, and his grief-stricken mother. It seemed an accidental meeting, and yet it was not so. Christ, the life, meets death, and again breathes life into the corpse. This unexpected meeting, especially as the dead body was that of a youth, reminds us of the certainty and proximity of death and of the uncertainty of life. It is ordained that all men shall die, as Holy Scripture assures and experience teaches us; and yet, how careless man is in this regard, and what little benefit he derives from meditating upon this truth. Nevertheless it is a truth which, when duly considered, will exert a most decided influence on our lives, and will urge us to arrange the affairs pertaining to our salvation.

Holy Scripture assures us even in the Old Testament: “It is a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead.” St. Paul speaks of this continual remembrance of death as “The answer of death within us.

How sincerely I wish that, with St. Paul, we may all feel the continual warning of approaching and certain death–the answer of death within us–and that we may not be seized with that forgetfulness of death, which is, alas! so common. Mary, patroness of a happy death, pray for us that we live in such manner, as to die, in your arms, the death of the blessed! I speak in the holy name of Jesus, to the greater honor of God!

When St. Anthony was lying on his death-bed, he was surrounded by hundreds of his spiritual sons, and they begged of him : “Holy father, you are about to leave us; advise us: which is the most influential, the powerful thought to animate one with great zeal in the service of God?” St Anthony replied: “Brethren, live every day as if it were to be the, last.”

With these words St. Anthony referred to the certainty and nearness of death, but at the same time also to the uncertainty as regards the time, the place, and the manner of death. Nothing else in this world is infallibly certain and sure. The wealthiest may become indigent; the most powerful may lose his crown ; the healthiest may be stricken with disease. Yes, even as regards the last judgment, and heaven and hell. No one knows with infallible certainty what shall be his portion forever; but one thing every one knows he must die.

A multitude followed the corpse of the youth. Every person who joined the procession must have thought within himself: I shall also one day be thus borne to my grave. But when? No one knows. This youth who is borne away as a corpse did certainly not imagine that he was to die before his aged mother.

He who constantly reflects upon what I have said, and lives as if every day were his last, needs no further incentive in order to lead a holy life. And why? This will appear evident when we reflect in what Christian perfection consists, and how the remembrance of certain and approaching death will influence us in this respect.

In the first place, Christian perfection requires a heart free from sin. Shun evil. Therefore a person must, above all things, be able candidly to put this question to his conscience: Am I in the state of mortal sin or not? But this must be done as candidly and earnestly as if we were certain to die the following moment and be judged.

And when a man has thus proven himself, his faith requires of him, that he reconcile himself to God by an entire and sincere confession. But nothing will better bring about this change than the remembrance of the certainty and proximity of death. If one confesses in such a manner, as he will wish to have done when the cold sweat of death stands upon his brow, he will confess well. And that our confessions may really be good and valid, let this truth urge us to the conscientious performance of this duty; do it well; you do not know whether you will ever again have another opportunity; it is, perhaps, your last confession.

“Father, this is probably your last confession,” thus St. Vincent de Paul was addressed by one of his spiritual sons. The saint replied: “Friend, for a number of years I have said to myself: This confession will, perhaps, be my last.”

But to reconcile ourselves to God is not our only obligation; the most important duty is, not to sin again, not to suffer a relapse. What causes a relapse? Fresh temptations. These temptations come to us in divers ways: We are tempted by the concupiscence of the flesh; the world tempts us by her allurements and pleasures; Satan tempts and endeavors to deceive us by investing forbidden objects with delusive charms and attractions. It is especially by means of the honors, possessions, and enjoyments of this life that the world, the flesh, and the devil tempt us. And, no doubt, these things, viewed in the light of the present, possess various charms, and can become snares and dangerous temptations.

But the vivid remembrance of the certain approach of death will nip all these temptations in the bud, and will render them powerless. For what are all worldly possessions, when viewed in the twilight of life's fading day? Dust! What are all the honors of this world? Vapor! What are all sensual enjoyments? Dross!

And even the satisfaction which man enjoys for a time in the possession of wealth, honors, and sensual pleasures will soon end in death.

If we listen to the voice of death within us, the power of temptation will be completely destroyed; because this remembrance of death is inseparably connected with the remembrance of that which is to come after death, and which will decide our eternal destiny. Therefore, the Apostle after saying: “It is appointed for all men once to die,” immediately adds: “And after this the judgment.”

How could man remain in the state of sin, if he constantly reflected upon the terrors of judgment, or how ever relapse into sin! The Memento mori–the remembrance that very soon death will usher you into eternity is the surest preventive against the evil of sin.

This constant remembrance of our end likewise effects the sanctification of our lives, and encourages us in our endeavors to attain Christian perfection; it urges us to accomplish the holy will of God perfectly, in all places and at all times; it puts us in mind of the value of time, and the necessity of making good use of the present; it encourages us not to lose a single moment in the great work of our salvation, nor to neglect the increase of our glory in heaven. But nothing can so clearly prove the inestimable value of time as death, the certainty and nearness of death!

“Time, thou art worth as much as God,” St. Chrysostom was wont to say ; ” for on every hour of time depends a crown for eternity; to win time, is to win God; to lose time, is to lose God.”

Death deprives us of this exceedingly precious gift; a gift for which the angels and saints of heaven envy us.

Now, that we live but once, this once will decide our eternity; this was a maxim of the saints. When once time has flown, it will never again return. We feel this most vividly when attending a death-bed, and considering the last breath which the dying person draws. Now he has expired now his eternal fate is sealed. Not another opportunity of performing a good deed, of increasing his heavenly joys.

I ask: Is there any thing which can urge us more to improve our time for the approaching eternity, than this certainty and proximity of death, this voice of death within us? Oh, that every case of death brought to our notice would remind us with renewed force of the certain approach of eternity!

You should do more; every evening whilst offering your prayers to God, reflect upon some particular circumstance of your death. Think of your last confession, of your last Holy Communion, of extreme unction; and of what you will experience when your soul takes leave of your body; think of your grave, of your appearance before the judgment seat of Christ.

Do this, and no doubt the advice of St. Anthony will not only prove beneficial to his religious sons, but also to you, for the sanctification of your whole life! Amen!

“And when he came nigh to the gates of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of a widow.”–Luke 7.

There is nothing more certain than death. Everything else is morally certain, possible, probable, as far as regards our future.

Last year we reflected upon the influence this consideration exercises upon our will; it causes us to form the resolution of living as true children of the Church, according to our vocation, to avoid sin, to practise virtue, and to make the best use of time. Even the longest life, how brief it is! and how near is death! How short is a year! Observe how quickly the moon waxes and wanes, and, after thirteen of these changes, a year has passed. And the life of man numbers but seventy or eighty years, and how few reach this age! the majority of those born into the world die as children, and many in the prime of life! The deceased of whom the Gospel of today makes mention is a youth.

You will die,–that is certain; and you will die soon,–this, too, is certain; but how and where you will die is uncertain, also the manner of your death. But it is not exactly so in reference to the moral condition of your soul; and its state, at the time of death, is of the utmost importance.

A proverb says: “As is life, such is death,” therefore, if you have lived indifferently, the troubled death bed of the tepid Christian awaits you; but if you have lived a zealous and holy life, then on your death-bed you will feel the consolation of the just.

Brethren, let us today reflect upon this contrast, and in our dying moments we shall not regret having done so, provided we profit by the light that the Holy Ghost will send to illumine our minds. Mary, our protectress in death, obtain for us, from your beloved Son, the consoling death of the just! I speak in the holy name of Jesus, to the greater honor of God!

What, in the first place, causes the lukewarm Christian sadness and affliction of mind on his death-bed, is inordinate attachment to the goods of this world. No doubt, all who lead an indifferent life will attach themselves more or less to the things of this world; but it is particularly the case with persons who have labored incessantly and under great difficulties to acquire temporal possessions, and who have anxiously provided for their comfort.

This country furnishes many instances of this kind. Many a one who came over from Europe at first settled in the backwoods; there he occupied a log-cabin, and by dint of labor cleared and cultivated the land. Then he erected a more comfortable dwelling, and gradually gained riches until finally he became affluent. Another commenced business in one of the larger cities, prospered, and became wealthy. But, lo! now death raps at his door, and he feels that he must die; he must take leave of all, and can not take even one penny with him!

No wonder that such a Christian, who, amid temporal cares, has abandoned the practices of devotion and of Christian zeal, sighs, with Agag, at the approach of death: “And dost thou part us thus, O bitter death?”

But how widely different the death of a child of the Church, who has led a fervent life, often thought of heaven, suffered, worked, and fought for it; who has already separated his heart from the transitory things of this world, and, on his death-bed, can joyfully exclaim, with David: “We enter with joy into heaven, to behold, to possess, and to enjoy the things of the Lord in the land of the living! ” Child of the Church, a similar death do I wish you. And what are the conditions? A zealous, truly Catholic life.

What furthermore renders the death-bed of the tepid Christian gloomy and fearful, is the inordinate attachment to blood relations. It is true there is a lawful, holy and sanctifying union among men, ties of relationship, friendship and virtue, and the heart must feel a pang at the moment of separation. But this sorrow will increase the merits of the dying Christian, because he resigns himself to the will of God; and, moreover, his sorrow is assuaged by the hope of a speedy reunion in heaven.

The lukewarm Christian experiences not this consolation; he feels only the grief of parting from those who are near and dear to him in this world. And again, how consoling for the fervent soul will be the thought: I take leave of my dearly loved ones on earth, but what an assembly waits to welcome me in heaven! I hope that very soon I shall be with Jesus and Mary, and all the angels and saints, with all my blessed friends and relations, who are anxiously looking forward to my entrance into the eternal joys. This thought gives comfort to the soul. A similar death do I wish you, my brethren; an active, Catholic, pious life will secure it for you.

The death-bed of a careless Christian is hemmed in with fear and anxiety, because the consolations of our holy religion have lost their power over him, and can not drive away the sadness of death. The tepid Christian may have confessed at times, but how? He felt no apprehension from his numerous relapses, and looked upon them as merely the result of human weakness. But now he becomes alarmed; were not these mortal sins into which he relapsed? Or, during life, he endeavored to persuade himself that he did not sin willfully; he did not consent. But now he fears that his confessions were not valid, because he did not express himself clearly as to this or that sin, or did not confess the number and circumstances, as he was obliged to do.

And what of his communions? Were they not, perhaps, unworthy, or sacrilegious communions? His preparations and thanksgivings were so short, so tepid, and, consequently, without effect. And now that he is to receive Holy Communion for the last time, his bodily sufferings will not permit him to dispose himself devoutly for the reception of the Blessed Sacrament as a preparation for his passage into eternity. He receives his last communion with fear and dread. But how unlike this is the death of him who, on this earth, has lived only for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, who has received Him again and again, and each time more worthily, and who now receives his Lord, Redeemer, and the Spouse of his heart as the viaticum to eternal life! The priest places the Sacred Host upon his tongue, as a pledge of his salvation through Jesus Christ our Lord. Such a reception of the Holy Eucharist on your death-bed, do I wish you; your life,–a zealous, devout, Catholic life will decide.

What renders the hour of death terrible to a luke warm Christian, is the fear of death itself, and that which follows it the corruption of the body in the grave. Yes, to a petted worldling, who knows nothing of penance and mortification in this life, and who has always pampered his body, and gratified his senses, how dreadful the thought: What shall become of me in my last agony, when the cold sweat of death oozes from every pore, when death shall stretch my limbs? What, when all that remains of me on earth lies moldering in the grave, and is food for worms? It is not surprising that such thoughts fill the soul of an indifferent Christian with fear and distress! But how different the situation, if the dying person is one who has practised, during life, interior and exterior mortification, and who tastes not the bitterness of death, and looks forward to a glorious resurrection! The pious Christian remembers that it is only his body that lies within the grave, and that he shall one day find it again transformed and glorious, and be reunited to it for a blissful eternity.

What finally renders the death-bed of a lukewarm Christian fearful, is the thought of the coming judgment. When a soul is about to leave this world in a tepid and sinful state, even if after a good confession it is reinstated in grace, what a terror, what a fright, must weigh upon it, when, disfigured by the leprosy of countless venial sins, it appears before Christ, not knowing whether these sins may not be mortal! And how the soul will tremble when Christ is about to utter the sentence which will decide its fate for eternity!

Oh, could it but again return to the body, to lead a better, holier life! but then it will be too late, too late! May God preserve you from such anguish!

On the other hand, what a consolation and joy when a devout soul departs this life; and, freed from every stain of sin by the Holy Sacrament of Penance, hastens to the arms of its Redeemer, and, without passing through purgatory, enters at once into the joys of the Lord.

Either the one death or the other will be yours, and your life will decide! May God grant that it will not have been a lukewarm and indifferent, but a holy and virtuous life. Then to you may be applied the words of Holy Writ: “Precious in the sight of God is the death of His saints!” Amen!

“And they that carried it stood still.”–Luke 7.

“And they that carried it stood still.” Christ approaches the corpse, but He does not restore the deceased to life as long as the pall-bearers move on. “They that carried it stood still,” probably at a sign given by our Lord.

There is something very striking in this circumstance, if we consider attentively the miracle which Christ wrought at the gates of Naim, in its moral signification. For the raising of the dead to life has reference to the miracle of the conversion from sin to the state of grace, a change from the death of the soul through sin, to the spiritual life through grace.

The four pall-bearers typify four causes of the sinner's impenitence. These are: the proximate occasion of sin; want of prayer; familiar intercourse with sinners; and inordinate longing after enjoyment!

Yes, these are the four spiritual pall-bearers of the soul dead in sin, and as long as these do not stand still, so long will the funeral procession move on; and there can be no thought of a true conversion and spiritual resurrection. And although at times the sinner may appear to be converted, still we can very soon perceive, that, in the sight of God, he is still a corpse!

Let us today take a glance at the four pall-bearers of the soul dead in sin. Mary, refuge of sinners, pray for us, that we may awaken from the death of sin! I speak in the holy name of Jesus, to the greater honor of God!

The first pall-bearer which carries the dead soul of a sinner to its grave, is the proximate occasion of sin! How indispensably necessary the avoidance of the proximate occasion of sin is for a true conversion, can be readily deduced from the earnest and solemn words of Christ: “If thy eye scandalize thee, tear it out and cast it from thee; and if thy hand or foot scandalize thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee; for it is expedient for thee that one of thy members should perish, rather than that thy whole body go into hell.”

But, alas! how many deceive themselves in this respect, and imagine, if they but form the good resolution of not sinning again, it matters little whether they remain in the proximate occasion of sin; this, in their opinion, is no sin. But that is a delusion proceeding from their defective instruction. The remaining willfully in the occasion of sin, is already a sin; and if there is danger of mortal sins, the sin of remaining in the occasion becomes mortal; because to remain willfully therein, is to expose one's self willfully to sin, which is in itself an offense.

Experience verifies the warning of the Holy Ghost: “He who loveth danger, shall perish therein.” To remain in the occasion of sin, is like putting fire, if it be but a burning match, to straw, and then saying: I do not want the straw to burn. But it will burn nevertheless, and you will be the cause. This warning has reference especially to the lewd, to drunkards, and to those who are intimate with persons of loose morals.

The second cause of the sinner's remaining in the sleep of death,–the second pall-bearer of his soul, is the neglect of prayer and the Holy Sacraments. As a rule, persons commit grievous sins only after having first become careless in their prayers and in the reception of the Holy Sacraments. For these are the means of grace ordained by God, and these alone enable us to subdue temptations, and to practise virtue. There are many who sin continually, but at times they appear to be converted; and yet, how very soon they are again spiritual corpses! And why? They omit their morning and night prayers; do not attend divine service; neglect spiritual reading, and the reception of the Holy Sacraments.

We do not go too far in affirming: That all those who begin the day without prayer, who do not think of God during the day, and do not pray at night; who are careless in attending divine service, or do not go to church at all on Sundays and holidays; who are negligent in the reception of the Sacraments, all of these belong to the class of the spiritual dead. They may confess at times, and appear to do better; but until they begin earnestly to say their prayers, to attend divine service as is their duty, and do not receive the Holy Sacraments only at Easter time, but frequently during the course of the year, their conversion will not be a true one. They will very soon lead the old life of sin; nor will they improve in this respect, unless they perform the duties of their holy religion earnestly and fervently, and frequently approach the Holy Sacraments.

The third cause why sinners continue their life of sin–the third pall-bearer of the soul is, familiar intercourse with sinners, their society and company. With the wicked you will be wicked and remain so.

As long as a person does not avoid familiar intercourse with sinners, he will open his heart to numerous temptations, and the bad example of others will have a pernicious influence; upon him. The bad example of sinners may be compared to the diseases of the body. When one is near a sick person, or is obliged to wait on him, one is in great danger of becoming infected with the disease. Physicians who attend the sick, make their visits as brief as possible when the disease is contagious, and hurry away, lest they may become infected!

The same may be said of sinners, whose example proves contagious. Such sinners may justly be compared to lepers. From these you must flee, as Holy Scripture advises. This admonition is addressed particularly to young persons. If your conversion shall prove sincere and lasting, you must avoid familiar intercourse with sinners; otherwise you will soon recommence a life of sin.

The fourth bearer of the spiritual corpse is inordinate longing for enjoyments –the love of sensual, boisterous pleasure, such as balls, plays, and noctural amusements; the reading of bad books, and especially the excessive use of spirituous liquors. Woe to him who already, from his youth, becomes addicted to drink, to frequent gin-shops,–is and gradually becomes a confirmed sot!

Oh! how seldom it occurs that an habitual drunkard is truly converted, that he avoids every occasion of intemperance, and remains faithful to his good resolutions! How often such persons, who, perchance, are not addicted to any other vice, seem to amend and still they do not really change; they lead the same intemperate life! And how sad are the consequences, both for body and soul! They ruin their health, destroy their domestic peace, and are living in the greatest danger of dying unprepared.

Is there, perhaps, a sinner among us whom these four bearers are carrying? Oh! I wish I could today cause them to stand still. For only then will your conversion be sincere, and, by the mouth of the priest, Christ will bid you: “Rise!” and you will be restored to the life of grace.

This standing still reminds us, moreover, of another very important fact. If we wish to be justified in hoping that ours was a true conversion, we must be able to refer to some period of our life, and say: Since that confession–it was a general confession–I did not relapse!

Rejoice, if your conscience gives you this testimony; you are in the right state, and you will be prepared to appear before God, and you will live in Him eternally! Amen!

#15 sunday after pentecost

9 notes · View notes

septembersung · 6 years ago

Link

As I settled down to supper and dowsed some bread (Italian) in olive oil (Greek, Kalamata) and enjoyed the reassuring gurgle of some wine (Gascon, ad honorem deiparae Virginis de Lapurdo nuncupatae) I thought of the exquisite biblical phrase 'the corn, the wine, and the oil'. And I recalled that the old Ember Days (commonly ignored now in the 'diocesan Church' ... today [Sept 19, 2018] is an Ember Day!!) grew out of the old Mediterranean harvests (Pentecost: cereals; September: vintage; December: olives. See G G Willis 1964). Some of the more intelligent American bishops are ordering the restoration in their jurisdictions of the Ember days. These are the Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays of certain weeks which were celebrated as agricultural festivals in the Roman world. They were continued in the Roman Rite, but with a penitential sobriety intended to reform the excesses of the pagan celebrations. Because of the fasting, they became thought of as he ideal times for Ordinations. And so these admirable American bishops are suggesting the penitential use of the Ember Weeks in the context of the present very great crisis in the Church. Needless to say, the Ordinariate Missal retains the Ember Days. But perhaps we had better start off with a fundamental point about the survival in the Roman Rite of Ember Days. And the theological point is this: our Faith is a Mediterranean faith, rooted in the agricultural communities of the Mediterranean basin, from the Hebrew Patriarchs onwards ... let us never forget that our Hebrew Faith is not 2,000 years old, but three (at least) thousand. And our sacraments are inextricably bound up with the Corn, the Wine, and the Oil. And the denial of the Corn, the Wine, and the Oil is the basic heresy, the elemental root of all error. I don't only have in mind the iniquity of anti-alcoholism, although that is part of it. The Gnostics, creation-denying dualists, celebrated 'eucharists' in water, and we can share the righteous disgust of that acute theologian Dr Augustus Fagan ("Lloyd George, the temperance movement, Nonconformity, and lust stalking hand in hand through the country, wasting and ravaging"). The fact that Methodists and others commonly use substances other than wine in their communion services is not, as professional ecumenists try to get away with implying, some minor detail, easily fudged. And the disappearance of the Chrism in Protestantism is a real apostasy. But more insidious still is the idea that the principle of inculturation could be applied to the elements used in the Christian sacraments. I have known suggestions that to use bread made from something other than wheat, alcohol produced not from grapes, and the oil of vegetables other than olives, would 'affirm' cultures which do not find their origins in the Mediterranean basin. This seems to be based on the notion that Christianity is an idea; and ideas can, in different cultures, be garbed in different clothes. That is what is the basic heresy. Because Christianity is not an idea. It is a Person, a God who took flesh - a particular flesh - from a particular Girl in a particular country in a particular culture. This is why the Liturgy insistently proclaims that Blessed Mary, single-handed, puts down all the heresies in universo mundo. And that God, born of her ovaries, in that flesh died on a Cross made from a particular Tree: "One of the Trinity died upon the Cross". And He did so after He had, on a particular evening, given Himself to His friends under the outer appearances of a loaf and a cupful of wine. This particularity and this materiality, this rootedness, is Christianity. That is why the Gnostics were not Christians, and why Matthew Fox is not a Christian. And the Matter of the Sacraments is rooted in the particularity of that Incarnation and its culture. Without the Corn, the Wine, and the Oil, nulla salus.

#i've posted this before but guess what it deserves posting again #and again and again #see also psalm 4 - sunday compline in the breviarium romanum #the corn the wine and the oil #this is the new evangelization

7 notes · View notes

anastpaul · 6 years ago

Photo

Thought for the Day – 15 February – the Memorial of St Claude de la Colombiere (1641-1682) Apostle of the Sacred Heart and Blessed Michal Sopoćko (1888-1975) Apostle of Divine Mercy

Saint Claude de la Colombiere and Blessed Michael Sopoćko share a few things in common

We celebrate the feast day of Blessed Michael Sopoko today, 15 February, which makes for a perfect opportunity to discuss one of the more curious details in the life of St Faustina Kowalska (1905–1938), known today as the Lord’s “secretary” of Divine Mercy.

So what’s so curious?

Amazing parallels can be drawn between St Faustina’s confessor, Blessed Sopoćko and the confessor of another saint — and “secretary” — St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647-1690), who received the revelations of the Sacred Heart in the 1670s.

In other words, the similarities between the holy priests Blessed Michael Sopoćko (1888-1975) and St Claude de la Colombiere, SJ (1641-1682), both of whom died today and, therefore, we celebrate their entry into life today.

Blessed Sopoćko , ordained to the priesthood over 100 years ago, served as confessor and spiritual director to St Faustina Kowalska, who received revelations of the Divine Mercy in the 1930s. Saint Claude served as confessor and spiritual director of St Margaret Mary Alacoque, who received the revelations of the Sacred Heart in the 1670s.

So here is where the parallels begin. Saint Margaret Mary Alacoque, like St Faustina, had doubts at first about her revelations. For both young women, it was their confessors who played a large role in alleviating their doubts and encouraging them to embrace the special role the Lord seemed to be placing upon them.

But the parallels get even better. Since St Margaret Mary Alacoque led a cloistered life — quiet and humble — it was her confessor who carried the burden of spreading the Sacred Heart message and devotion to the outside world. This was the same situation with Fr Sopocko, who led the efforts to introduce the public to Faustina’s powerful private revelations and who arranged for the Lord’s requests of Faustina to be accomplished. That includes hiring a painter to paint the image of the Merciful Saviour, now among Christianity’s most recognised images.

Here’s another interesting fact:

Saint Claude Colombiere died today, 15 February, the same day Blessed Sopoćko died. And 15 February, also happens to be St Faustina’s name day — the day of her patron saint, St Faustus.

Of course, when considering how the devotions to Divine Mercy and the Sacred Heart so strongly compliment each other, these details are far more than “curious.” Certainly, they are Divine Providence at work, right?

Dr Robert Stackpole, STD, director of the St John Paul II Institute of Divine Mercy, a lay apostolate of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, notes, “Much like the traditional devotion to the Sacred Heart, our Lord gave to St. Faustina new forms in which His Merciful Heart was to be honoured and new vessels for a fresh outpouring of His grace. Namely, the Image of Divine Mercy; the Chaplet of Divine Mercy and, of course, a new feast for the universal Church — the Feast of Divine Mercy, intended for the Sunday after Easter.”

None of these parallels have escaped the attention of Fr Seraphim Michalenko, MIC, a world-renown expert on the life of St Faustina and the message of Divine Mercy.

He notes that it took 300 years for Fr Claude Colombiere to be canonised. “And here, Fr Sopoćko died in 1975 and he’s already beatified [in 2008],” Fr Seraphim says.

So what does his rapid rise to the honours of the altar, mean for us?

“That God is in a hurry to get His message out,” says Fr Seraphim

Adapted from the Library Archive of The Divine Mercy – (Felix Carroll Feb 13, 2014)

St Claude de la Colombiere, Pray for Us!

Blessed Michal Sopoćko, Pray for Us!

(via Thought for the Day - 15 February - Saint Claude de la Colombiere and Blessed Michael Sopoćko share a few things in common)

#thoughtforthedayfebruary15 #february15blmichalsopocka #mypics #february15stclaudedelacolombiere #mypic #catholic #catholicism

7 notes · View notes

pamphletstoinspire · 5 years ago

Photo

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST (September 22nd) by Fr. Francis Xavier Weninger, 1882

“And when He came nigh to the gates of the city, behold! a dead man was carried out, the only son of his mother; and she was a widow.”–Luke 7.

How sincerely I wish that, with St. Paul, we may all feel the continual warning of approaching and certain death–the answer of death within us – and that we may not be seized with that forgetfulness of death, which is, alas! so common. Mary, patroness of a happy death, pray for us that we live in such manner, as to die, in your arms, the death of the blessed! I speak in the holy name of Jesus, to the greater honor of God!

And even the satisfaction which man enjoys for a time in the possession of wealth, honors, and sensual pleasures will soon end in death.

“Time, thou art worth as much as God,” St. Chrysostom was wont to say ; ” for on every hour of time depends a crown for eternity; to win time, is to win God; to lose time, is to lose God.”

Death deprives us of this exceedingly precious gift; a gift for which the angels and saints of heaven envy us.

Do this, and no doubt the advice of St. Anthony will not only prove beneficial to his religious sons, but also to you, for the sanctification of your whole life! Amen!

“And when he came nigh to the gates of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only son of a widow.” – Luke 7.

There is nothing more certain than death. Everything else is morally certain, possible, probable, as far as regards our future.

You will die, – that is certain; and you will die soon,–this, too, is certain; but how and where you will die is uncertain, also the manner of your death. But it is not exactly so in reference to the moral condition of your soul; and its state, at the time of death, is of the utmost importance.

Oh, could it but again return to the body, to lead a better, holier life! but then it will be too late, too late! May God preserve you from such anguish!

“And they that carried it stood still.”–Luke 7.

The second cause of the sinner's remaining in the sleep of death, – the second pall-bearer of his soul, is the neglect of prayer and the Holy Sacraments. As a rule, persons commit grievous sins only after having first become careless in their prayers and in the reception of the Holy Sacraments. For these are the means of grace ordained by God, and these alone enable us to subdue temptations, and to practise virtue. There are many who sin continually, but at times they appear to be converted; and yet, how very soon they are again spiritual corpses! And why? They omit their morning and night prayers; do not attend divine service; neglect spiritual reading, and the reception of the Holy Sacraments.

Rejoice, if your conscience gives you this testimony; you are in the right state, and you will be prepared to appear before God, and you will live in Him eternally! Amen!

From: https://www.pamphletstoinspire.com/

#15th sunday after pentecost

1 note · View note

daisyries · 3 years ago

Text

im feeling a downgrade here eince i stopped write about my day, oh shit i have that

well i did nothing today beyond spend the entire day watching bungo stray dogw (im lovinggg fhe characters are AMAZING, i finished s1 today and started AND ended s2. i don't wanna start the s3 cause im watching too fast.. i have de manga after finishing the anime of course but😭 anyway im already searching for other animes

i don't really have plans for tomorrow but.. reading? i guess, or watch other anime haa

ok well im starved bc im spending so long time using my phone and when i realize the amount i get so angry, like fuck i should do other things i just don't know what, but ok.. im working on it

getting back lmao i started to read christiangianna but i was kinda joking like i just opened my kindle and thought "huh.. idk.. cool.. *open the book*" and i was literally joking I WAS LISTENING TO ANPANMAN BY BTS THE MOST HAPPY AND ENERGIC MUSIC EVER THAT REALLY DOESN'T FIT THE MOOD OF THIS BOOK so awlwlwllfkfl

that part when the psychologist asks christian what's his obsession. he denials to 'alcohol' and 'drugs' and then she asks 'women?' and he just.. smiles.. [QlqpwporkfkfkwkKQKSLDLDLZKSKSKKS] i died fr not even joking ffccckkkk omg yes im the one who's obsessed here

happy november i guess, hope for that month to be better than the last

01.11

#ohdear

0 notes

stereksecretsanta · 7 years ago

Text

Merry Christmas, @hannars97!

One of the requests was for "really like stiles discovered kpop and drag derek with him" and, though my Kpop and Krock knowledge is a couple of years out of date (and I always tended towards Jpop and Jrock because of my job at Jrock Revolution... XD;;), it seemed like Hanna was excited for that particular prompt, so I tried my best and gave it a go! I'm crossing my fingers that you enjoy reading this story, Hanna, and I hope that you have a wonderful holiday season. <3

Read on AO3

*****

Words Fail & Music Speaks

Falling 이대로 falling for you 날 잡아줄 수 없어도 Falling 또 다시 falling for you 날 감싸줄 수 없나요 Falling like this, falling for you Even if you can’t catch me Falling once again, falling for you Can’t you embrace me? “Falling” – John Park

”Where words fail, music speaks.” - Hans Christian Andersen

The Stilinski household had once been a home filled with music: rock, pop, classical, Broadway, country—anything and everything was a possibility to be heard. Certain days tended to lean towards a particular style of music—Fridays were the most likely day of the week for Noah to drop by the house and find Claudia singing along to an old school country song, rolling pin clutched in one hand as a makeshift microphone while Sundays typically had Stiles bouncing around the living room and jumping from sofa to armchair to sofa again, headbanging and doing air guitar along to Metallica’s Enter Sandman album. It was a home rich in sounds, in lyrics, and varying vocal qualities and styles.

In various languages, as well:

Claudia introduced Stiles to her favorite Polish singers early on in his life, wanting to share her history, culture, and language with her son as much as possible: because of that, the amber-eyed boy grew up singing along to Marcin Rozynek, Magda Piskorczyk, Stanisław Sojka, Natalia Kukulska, and Irena Jarocka, using his favorite songs from each to slowly teach himself the language that his mother had grown up speaking with the rest of her family when she was his age.

Stiles had only managed a passing ability in Polish before his mother got sick and worsened under the onslaught of the frontotemporal dementia’s symptoms; after the diagnosis came in, the young boy had buckled down and studied for all he was worth, singing old lullabies that he had found on the internet to Claudia on the days her disease struck hardest—hoping, perhaps, that the familiarity of her first language would offer some comfort to his mother as she got worse and worse in the hospital, health slowly but surely spiraling into a decline.

The other side of the coin—the downside—in learning songs to sing and the language to speak to his mother in came as thus:

Noah and Claudia had known from an early age that something was off about their son. His energy tended to be in excess to the children around him and school was a chore for two particular reasons: either Stiles found it impossible to concentrate on the tasks assigned to him, becoming disruptive to the other students around him, or he focused so thoroughly on his assignments that it was difficult to coax him into moving to something new. Doctors were able to diagnose the signs early on and it was a constant and regular occurrence after that to try and find a medication and dosage amount that would work best with Stiles. A solution was eventually settled on—though no medication was one hundred percent perfect—and so Claudia had searched for supplements to include to help her son with his concentration and attention issues.

It wasn’t long after that the Stilinski matriarch discovered that music helped Stiles in unexpected ways; when Claudia ran foreign music in the background, Stiles was able to better concentrate—part of his mind focusing on the music and language, running along with it. But, because the words weren’t in English, they instead became a reassuring background noise to the boy, allowing most of his attention to actually shift to his schoolwork and other assignments given to him.

Claudia’s Polish records, cassettes, and CDs became a default to turn to, if only because her collection for that particular language was the largest, started when she was a little girl. Spanish came soon after: taught at school and the secondary language of California with Stiles the first one to the counter at the local panadería, rattling off their grocery list with a wide smile: pork and chicken tamales for their Wednesday dinner, pan de leche, conchas, and ensaïmada to eat at breakfast and as treats throughout the week (the conchas were always the first to go once Stiles got tall enough to reach the bread box that they were all stored in).

The downside to immersing himself in Polish to offer up a sort of comfort to Claudia as she lay sick and dying came when it became harder and harder to focus on homework with Natalia Kukulska running in the background—after all, now, Stiles was actually able to understand the lyrics that she sang. The same issue arose the further along in Spanish the boy got at school, vocabulary and conjugations gone over week after week, and though Stiles didn’t think that he’d ever be one hundred percent fluent in the language… he now knew enough to understand bits and pieces of the songs played on the radio.

After Claudia passed away, Stiles eventually gave up listening to either option, defaulting to classical music or instrument-focused electronica and club mixes to help him concentrate during extra long homework sessions or research binges. Unfortunately, the music genres were never as helpful as the Polish and Spanish songs were—the lack of vocals giving the boy’s mind an opportunity to drift without that extra safeguard to ensure he stayed on task; it wasn’t completely horrible—not as bad as what it could be—but… well, for quite a while, Stiles’ grades definitely took the brunt of that particular hit.

It wasn’t until years later that Stiles finally stumbled across a solution.

Literally.

The teen had been running various YouTube users’ playlist mixes in the background of his laptop while on his current supernaturally-prompted research extravaganza. The latest Big Bad wasn’t a creature that Stiles was able to find in the Argents’ beastiary despite several days of finetoothed combing, so turning to the internet was the next step when the usual tools finally ran dry.

He’d pulled up a playlist from a user that the whiskey-eyed teen typically relied on for ambient, background music, and things had been going well for the majority of the night: until the playlist switched to a new song, one that must have been recently added, and Stiles paused for a moment in his reading to shoot the YouTube tab a suspicious, furrowed look.

Korean began playing over the laptop’s speakers, and the teen huffed a quiet breath while switching over to the video platform website so that he could skip the song and move ahead to the next one.

The moment that Stiles clicked on the tab to see a young man perched on a large throne and wearing a black and white pinstriped suit, bright red hair flowing over the chair’s arms and to the floor, the teen’s eyebrows slowly began to creep up his forehead. The visuals didn’t do much to appeal to him—the scenes with the astronauts left him rather unimpressed—but the dirt scene, one that seemed to ooze post-apocalyptic setting? It intrigued Stiles enough to get him to stay and to continue watching despite the music genre not being what he typically enjoyed listening to as the autoplay selection shifted over to the next song… which ended up being another Korean pop song.

This song—called “Lucifer” and performed by a band called SHINee—had elements of electronica and pop that drew him in more thoroughly than the previous music video. It went without saying that the teen’s interest was piqued by a variety of new music styles, a language that he wasn’t too familiar with—Korean had never been one of the languages that Claudia had played for him when Stiles was young—and researching the newest supernatural threat took a pause while the teen got caught up in a new type of binge watching and listening.

Perhaps after forty-five minutes or so into the various videos that Stiles clicked, one after another, he finally came across a music video that made him pause: the song was older, probably recorded back in 2009, but the genre reminded the teen a lot of the old ballads and R&B songs that Claudia used to sing along to before she got sick. The song was called ”One” and was sung by a group called Dong Bang Shin Ki; looking back, Stiles was able to pinpoint that this was the exact moment when his interest shifted and perhaps turned a bit more serious: curiosity took precedent as the amber-eyed teen scooted closer to his desk, fully prepared and ready to dive more completely into this new thing that caught his attention.

From ”Rising Sun” (also from Dong Bang Shin Ki) to ”Passion” from a singer called SE7EN to a video called ”LA Song” from a guy who sometimes went by either Bi or Rain to ”Sorry Sorry” from a boyband with a ton of members that were called Super Junior to ��Eat You Up” from a pretty kickass female singer named BoA… the more Stiles explored, the more intrigued he became—and the more obvious it was that he preferred certain singers and groups over others, as well as certain time periods in what had been produced and released. (And when he eventually stumbled across Seo Taiji, EVE, and The TRAX, too…? The bottomless hole that was his typical research binge became that much deeper.)

The teen ended up staying up until dawn, ignoring the first blush of light that highlighted the horizon and slipped through his window in a fall of gold, and instead continued clicking from music video and performance—one after another—until Stiles’ dad yelled at him to start getting ready for school because otherwise he’d be late.

It was a pattern that quickly established itself as a regular one, and it didn’t take long before the teen was switching his music from the previously established instrument-based electronica and classical music to Kpop (and Krock, on occasion) playlists from YouTube users. He liked the older groups, the ones from 2008 and on—they typically had more of an R&B feel to their music, especially the ballads, and it made Stiles nostalgic for his mom (when that happened, the whiskey-eyed teen tended to lean more heavily towards listening to a singer called Eru).

Such was how Derek eventually stumbled upon Stiles: with the teen absently bopping his head along to Super Junior’s “MAMACITA” playing on low in the background while Stiles paged through another hunter family’s beastiary—given to him by Peter at the pack’s last meet-up, and the teen had been too intrigued at the chance to dive into another family’s records that he didn’t bother asking too many questions about how Derek’s uncle had managed to get his sneaky, sneaky hands on it.

The dichotomy—the unexpected sight of Stiles happily moving along to a song in another language—and what the Hale Alpha had been expecting was enough to make Derek pause at Stiles’ bedroom’s windowsill, and the older man’s expressive eyebrows slowly lowered in confusion as a pale gaze flickered from the oblivious teen to his laptop and back again.

“Do you even know what they’re saying?” the werewolf asked, pitching his voice loud enough for Stiles to hear over the beat of the music. In all honesty, Derek felt that he should have been surprised by finding the teen listening to what he was—but, then again, the Alpha had also stumbled across the cassette collection that Stiles kept in the Jeep. True enough, many of the tapes were legacies left to him from Claudia Stilinski… but a fair amount of the newer looking tapes had Stiles’ writing on them. And those tapes could be described as ‘eclectic’ at best.

“Nope. Do you?” the teen shot back without missing a beat, already alerted to Derek’s incoming visit by the proximity wards, and instead flipped the next page in the new beastiary. A creature that Stiles had never come across before—neither in the Argents’ records nor on the Redbull-fueled internet research binges—was this section’s Big Bad, and it took only moments before Stiles’ attention shifted from the bemused werewolf still perched on his windowsill to the book spread across his lap.

Stiles’ easy disregard sparked something within Derek’s chest—if the Alpha was truthful with no one but himself, at least he could admit within the shadowed protection of his mind that it was an emotion very close to jealousy that surged to ugly life—and the corner of his mouth twisted downwards.

“I do,” he answered in turn, and the burn softened back down to ambers as Stiles slowly blinked, obviously returning to the immediate here and now as he shifted his attention back to the waiting Alpha. Curiosity lit that amber gaze and, to further prove that he could do as he claimed, Derek tilted his head to the side to listen to the lyrics for a moment or two before translating aloud for Stiles’ benefit: “Why are you shutting your mouth right now? Did you decide to just go with the flow? Just say Shh!, then everything will calm down. Everyone keeps nagging. Were you expecting us to be Superman? This world is good enough to play in, right? If you do as you always did, go as you always went. There’s no way you’ll stick out and be hit by a hammer.”

“…oh,” came Stiles’ reply as the teen blinked once more and glanced towards his computer, a new appreciation at understanding a portion of the song softening the look in his eyes. “That’s… not what I was expecting. I like it, though.”

Drawn into the teen’s orbit as the moon drew the ocean’s to tide, Derek ducked the top of the pane and shifted more completely into the familiar warmth of Stiles’ bedroom. One step after another, and curiosity at this unexpected Stiles Trivia tidbit drew the older man to the other’s laptop. A single touch woke it to life—and it was then that Derek saw just how many Kpop playlists the teen had loaded and waiting to be switched over to. The eyebrows yet again traveled upwards over Derek’s forehead, and he poked around each one to see what it was that Stiles had managed to find and collect since the last time the ‘wolf had stopped by his room.

“Why’re you listening to all of this when you don’t understand it?” Derek eventually asked as he scrolled down a list of BoA’s songs that was… rather long.

Stiles remained silent for a long moment, tap-tap-tapping his pen against the curve of a pale, bared knee—and eventually offered up a one-shouldered shrug, Gallic and enigmatic in its lack of meaning. “It helps me concentrate,” the teen replied after a moment or two of Derek waiting, silent and expectant for any real sort of reply. “It was a trick that my mom used to do with different languages. I figured that I would give it a try with… this. It works, so… does it really matter why?”

The connection to a memory from a dead and gone family member—the tenseness along the line of Stiles’ spine, the slight hitch of his voice when he mentioned his mother: they were things that Derek still did himself when talking about the family that he’d lost; it didn’t matter if the loss was years past: some hurts just… didn’t heal.

Derek fell silent at that even as he continued to click through the teen’s playlists, taking note of various artists—seeing if there was a pattern to Stiles’ preferences (there was) and weighing, considering, an idea that slowly began to form along the edges of his mind. Vague and more of an outline of an idea than anything concrete, but… a possibility, a hint, a chance towards something.

“What’s your favorite song? I can translate it for you—if you’d like.”

Vulnerability softened the normally iron strength that filled Stiles’ caramel gaze, and the smile that the teen offered the ‘wolf was crooked and sulky-sweet with understanding and unspoken affection. “…okay,” he agreed, setting aside the bestiary to return to it once Derek was gone. “I’d like that, yeah.”

Stiles paused as he flipped open the screen for his laptop, confusion furrowing his brow at stumbling across two tickets—obviously concert tickets, though Stiles hadn’t bothered checking to see if any of his favorite bands and singers were on tour for perhaps two years now (no point, he’d always figured; you never knew when the latest monster flavor of the week would decide to rear its ugly head). So, that being the case, where had these come from…?

The teen flipped them over to see the front of the printed tickets, eyes going wide as he finally caught sight of what the concert was: The Korea Times Music Festival—pool tickets at the Hollywood Bowl with the date showing a little bit more than a month from now.

How…?

What?

…why.

(All pertinent questions that Stiles didn’t have the answer to—but desperately wanted.)

Glancing down to his computer’s keyboard, Stiles picked up the Post-It Note that had been stuck to the back of the topmost ticket, bright yellow slip of paper slipping away as he picked them up. Derek’s sloppy scrawl was immediately recognizable after too many years of notes left behind for Stiles to find in a variety of places (places typically geared towards pissing the teen off during the Cold War portions of their Alpha-Emissary relationship).

Feeling up to heading down to SoCal next month to see some of your bands perform live?

“You grade-A asshole,” Stiles muttered around a bright, happy laugh—corner of his mouth curling upwards into a stupidly sappy grin, dimples on display for anyone to see—and the boy didn’t bother trying to fight against the supernova strength flare of relief and glee and want that exploded to life within the confines of Stiles’ chest as he read the note from Derek.

The answer, when Stiles sent it via text, was simple enough:

I totally am! But only if you’re coming with me, O Alpha Mine. ;)

::fin::

#hannars97 #stereksanta17 #*fic17 #*gifts17

10 notes · View notes

hcllridge-blog · 7 years ago

Text

when u thought you were gonna be hella later than this but you got off work three hours early here comes your highness ---- the trash queen. aloha, for those of you who don’t know me, i’m rach/rachel, a resident of the gmt+1 timezone who’s twenty n goes by she/her pronouns !! straight up, this intro is gonna be a copy-paste of the og one i used because.. nothing changed. i mean, lowkey teegs is now engaged to neil ( lmfao ) bc #arranged marriage lyf ---- but everything else is the same. below the cut you can read all about this piece of literal trash and also my second character aka a literal anGel !!

VICTORIA JUSTICE ˙ ｡♦ ⋅ ⋆ — here comes TEEGAN HELLRIDGE. did you hear that they are TWENTY-ONE, & a CISFEMALE SHADOWHUNTER. people tend to call HER OBSTINATE & IMPULSIVE. however, i say they are AUDACIOUS & DAUNTLESS. rumor has it, they are FOR the war

TW: MENTION OF ABUSE.

little teegan hellridge was practically raised on hearing stories about her magnificent father, alexander hellridge— the shadowhunter was a great and powerful man, a man who had a name to honor from centuries before him and who planned on keeping it that way.

alexander dedicated his life to being the best he could, constantly training, constantly working and wanting to do all that he could for the shadowhunting world. he threw himself into mission after mission and while he may never had made it as a head of the institute— he was certainty still an important figure.

teegan could never get enough of his stories, her father was her hero, she would beg for him to tell her stories of his missions— no matter how many times she’d heard some of the stories beforehand.

growing up, teegan knew that she too would have to continue to honor the hellridge name, something that coming after as great of a man as her father; made her feel insecure or concerned that she may not be the best that he was, that she wouldn’t live to be as legendary and heroic as alexander.

from the minute she could walk, alexander was eager to train his daughter— believing that starting early would be the key to her success, and it only helped that teegan showed great interest and determination.

despite the fact that teegan often was top of her class, it seemed that this was never enough for alexander— while his daughter would try to celebrate her success he would put her down, telling her not to get too ahead of herself and that she still needed to perfect her skills, that what she had done wasn’t good enough yet.

alexander pushed his daughter to every limit possible, and the older she got, the more teegan began to convince herself that it was a case of ‘tough love’. sometimes he would smile at her like he did when she was a child, when he would tell her those stories that she oh so loved to hear— but as for the rest of the time, he was stoic. he wasn’t her father, he was her commander and she was his personal solider.

alexander’s wife had stuck by him throughout it all, despite the fact she may not have agreed with his ways of training, she couldn’t voice her opinion without teegan jumping down her throat that he was trying to train her to perfection, that it’s what she wanted.

albeit, victoria hellridge cracked— one day the once loving wife and mother threw in the towel, offering alexander an ultimatum and threatening to take her daughter away from him.

what made her suddenly crack was alexander’s obsession been taken to a level no one would’ve expected— he was consumed by the idea of creating a perfect little solider, of having HIS daughter’s name go down in history.

between his daughter being blinded by her admiration for him, and how easily he could manipulate her by whispers of how powerful he was going to make her; it was only natural that upon her father suggesting experimenting on his own daughter, she agreed.

victoria, however was not going to stand for this— calling her husband all names under the sun and making out that he was psychotic, twisted, a disgusting man; something he then only proved to be right when she threatened to take teegan from him. he wasn’t about to let his pride and joy be taken by anyone, not even his wife.

with being such a well-known, loved man, alexander easily wound himself into getting his wife de-runed; and furthermore, getting her out of the picture. though, as far as teegan knows, her mother left them both; her father twisting the image into her mind that victoria was a selfish woman, that she didn’t want teegan to suceed; which only further fueled her desire to be that perfection her father pictured her as.

this is getting excessively long so to cut to the chase; alexander lowkey very much experimented on teegan— literally he’s kinda very much the worst dad in the world but she’s entirely blinded by this because she loves and admires him so much and fr someone needs to smack her bitch ass and tell her to wake the fuck up because everything about her relationship with her father is wrong wrong WRonG.

oh !! i should say that the only reason teegan is FOR the war is because daddy-o was whispering in her ear about it and has convinced her that it’s for the best because he ain’t a fan of them downworlders soOoo.

and of course teegan gonna do and follow what he says sooOo.

okay so little added bonus !! ya gurl has angel blood. thOUGh. she’s totally unaware of this factor as it’s from her mamma and her mamma never told her or her pops about it. her fathers experimentation have all been seen as failures by him considering they never had any impact or outcome on teegan, though he’s unaware the entire time that she already has what he desires her to have.

basically, as i’ve probably repetitively said throughout the many bullet points above; she’s daddy’s little solider-— teegan will do literally ANYTHING he asks of her, he could ask her to cut off her own arm and tell her it would benefit her and make her a better shadowhunter and she’d fucking do it like? it’s pretty extreme. she’s very much a down-to-business kind of person, likes to get shit done. can 100% be found training all the fucking time like.. even if she’s injured she’s gonna train. can be fairly snarky and just.. comes off generally not nice because she’s not here to make friends rly she’s here to be the best lmfao. iDk mAn. she’s a mess i’m a mess who isn’t a mess.

as for plots.. ya’ll i’m a big plot slut please give me eVerYTHINg. like, especially someone who might’ve accidentally found out about her dad’s exterminations on her? because he would’ve obviously kept that hella lowkey so pls? give me this plot? we can discuss if teegan knows this muse knows about it or their reactions etc. IDK MAN I WANT IT ALL.

{ TROIAN BELLISARIO } ˙ ｡♦ ⋅ ⋆ — here comes (OCTAVIA NIX). did you hear that they are (APPEARING TWENTY-FOUR/TWENTY-NINE), & a (CISFEMALE) (WARLOCK). people tend to call (HER) (MANIPULABLE) & (FEARFUL) however, i say they are (INTELLIGENT) & (COMPASSIONATE). rumor has it, they are (AGAINST) the war.

TW: MENTION OF ATTEMPTED MURDER.

so first off, octavia is a fairly 'new' warlock i guess one could say? considering most are hundreds, centuries of years old she is only five years older than the year she stopped visually ageing at.

she's still very much coming to terms with her magic, learning new things on daily basis. it's only something of recent she's been trying her hand at, as for years she refused to acknowledge her power.

octavia was the offspring of an american-italian by the name of juliana, while her 'father' was that of a demon shape-shifted to the appearance of juliana's husband, alberto.

she was deemed a 'normal' child for many years, despite the fact on rare occasions alberto swore he saw her eyes light a vibrant shade of lilac.

skipping forward, basically alberto started to study closer into the eye-changing? and therefore wound up spending hours upon hours researching ---- the deeper he got into the idea of it being a supernatural cause the more repulsed and horrified he felt. coming from such a christian background he felt disgusted to think he had been taking his demonic, devil-child to church each sunday.

it was then he began to form the perfect plan, he could make it look like an accident ---- juliana would never know, it could be written off as a suicide.

however, his plan went to ruins when his wife landed home in the midst of alberto with both hands against octavia's shoulders, attempting to drown her in their family bathtub.

i just realized both my girls have #daddy issues daMn.

anywho, basically juliana saved octavia and tried to search out help ?? considering she was entirely unaware of octavia's 'gift'.

which octavia wound up living with a friend of her mothers for a time whom was also a warlock; the older female promising to teach octavia how to use her powers wisely.

however, being scarred from the doings of her father, she refused her help.

wanting to try her hand at leading a normal life, octavia moved to manhattan ---- finding herself a comfortable one bedroom apartment and for a period of time, she even had a job. which, she somewhat still has. after taking a job in a florists it was something she found a deep adoration for; finding the trade itself rather relaxing. making use of the extensive balcony her apartment was supplied with, octavia began to grow her own flowers and creating her own bouquets at home ---- opening her own small business were she worked from home.

this is trash but i swear i'm going to write up proper, detailed bios for my children in the future i sWear. but basically, octavia has only began to just drabble into magic and her abilities? it's something she's still very reluctant about and until this point has been trying to live life as a mundane. lowkey wakes up sweating and screaming sometimes because she has night terrors of her attempted murder lmAo. is a hella pushover? the reason she probably got into magic was because someone asked her to do a thing so she had to learn how to do it for them. honestly, you could manipulate her to do anYthing for you. emotionally just.. s m o l? her outfit aesthetic is basically spencer hastings like ?? not sorry. lowkey grew up wearing a little gold cross around her neck that she still wears but it's often hidden under the collar of her shirts lmaO. probs is always drinking herbal teas, feeds stray cats 10/10, apartment is covered in flowers and millions upon millions of books. i hope that ?? kinda covers the basis of my smol child but please !! plot with her ?? pls. lowkey feel like when the day met the night --- p!atd describes her in terms of she's the moon tbh ??

IDK GUYS PLS JUST GIMMIE ALL THE DAMN PLOTS.

#( *･˙˖ shut up rachel — ooc ! )#clave.ooc

6 notes · View notes

cubscribbles · 6 years ago

Text

Cub Swim Team Heads to States

Max Pippel ‘19

“The cheers of parents and students grew louder for each and every race.” Joey Macky ‘19 reports as he was on the poolside for one of the hypest swimming meets of the year. Over the weekend, the U of D Varsity swim team faced off against their catholic league rivals at the Livonia recreation center. Seven teams were scheduled to swim on Friday and Saturday: U of D Jesuit, Brother Rice, Catholic Central, De la Salle, Cranbrook, Cabrini, and Fr. Gabriel Rashard. The preliminary matches were on Friday where each of the swimmers placed in their times. Finals were held on Saturday where the Cubs had an opportunity to score some points. The top 16 swimmers are eligible for points, and the most amount of points goes to first place then it decreases in second place and so on. When all the points were added up, the Cub swimmers landed in third place overall. Not only was this a big achievement for the team, but also seven Cubs made state cuts for next weekend's matchup.

Many Cubs shined in the finals matchups on Saturday, with fast times that allowed them into the State tourney next weekend. Of the many Cubs that made the state cut, the underclassman showed out as well. Charlie Bruce ‘22 winning his 50 and 100 freestyle, James Rivard ‘22 with a quick time in the 100 and 200 freestyle, and Christian Bouchillon ‘22 routing the 200 freestyle. The upperclassmen also showed their skills with Tyler Padilla ‘19 going into beast mode in the 500 freestyle, and Rudolph Stonisch IV ‘20 coming out on top in the 200 freestyle. Varsity Coach, Mr. Edson, says the team is “confident” about States next weekend with a “good group of guys in the lineup.” This year more Cubs have made the State cut than the majority of past years. The other schools better be prepared to face a different U of D squad next weekend.

0 notes

ioanneshyacinthus-blog · 8 years ago

Text

Valedictory Address (March 19, 2016) Rogationist Seminary College Commencement Exercises

Rev. Br. Christian De Sagun, representative of the Provincial Superior of the Rogationist St. Matthew Province; Rev. Fr. John Lucas, RCJ, Rector-president of the Rogationist Seminary College of Philosophy – Manila;Rev. Fr. Alex Clemente, RCJ, Treasurer; Rev. Fr. Viktor Emmanuel Aurellana, RCJ, Dean of the College of Philosophy; Dr. Mark Joseph Calano, President of the Philosophical Association of the Philippines, our distinguished guest, dearest formators from the different Congregations, administrative staff and faculty members; families and friends of my fellow graduates, Good evening.

This is a day of joy for two reasons.

Today we mark the Roman Catholic Church’s celebration of the Solemnity of St. Joseph, the husband of Mary.

Today, also, we are grateful:

because here we are before you,

we young persons who have expressed a desire to live a life

in fulfillment of the prophecy of the Kingdom, as Pope Francis describes it:

a life that is non-negotiable;

a life of generosity, detachment, and sacrifice,

a life of self-forgetfulness—

the consecrated life.

We are grateful because the Harvest-Master continues

to call young men and women in service of the poor and the needy,

--and year after year there are those among the youth

who continue to respond to that call.

On the 19th of May in the year 2012,

I entered the seminary.

I remember the excitement I felt at finding myself in a setting

that was completely different from that in which my friends outside existed.

Although I was a little bit nervous because Philosophy was not my field of interest,

my desire to discern for God’s call for me pushed me to enroll.

Seminary life is a life full of challenges.

As a seminarian, you have to balance your spiritual life,

your community life,

your apostolate,

and your academic life.

This is evident every Sunday,

where the spiritual aspect is challenged by the apostolate:

you have to focus on the liturgy

while watching over the children—

a task easier said than done.

And of course there is the effort required of the seminarians and the brothers-assistant

to relate in harmony with one another—

truly a challenge in community life,

since we are all only humans with flaws and deficiencies.

After the tiring apostolate,

the seminarians give the rest of their time to school work:

assignments, papers, readings, test reviews.

This Sunday scenario is just one of the many events in the seminary

where one is challenged

to cultivate his spirituality,

his sense of community,

his apostolic work,

and his studies—

all at the same time.

Was it worth it?

You bet it was.

Look at us now.

Yes, balancing four different aspects of ourselves was difficult.

But look at us now.

We survived four challenging years.

And the reason we have come this far does not lie in us alone.

We have come this far because God,

who called us,

has been sustaining us all through our vocation journey.

He provided us with everything that we needed,

teaching us along the way to trust in His Divine Providence.

Of course there were times when we felt inadequate,

times when we felt discontented.

But we look back now,

and we realize that what we had,

what He gave us,

was more than enough to see us through.

We had more than enough

such that we were able to share ourselves and what we had with others.

Thus, it is now the perfect time to offer all our sacrifices and hardships to God,

for the best gift after all is to glorify Him

by returning to Him everything He has given to us,

developed and fulfilled.

And for our being able to do this,

we give thanks, too, to our Holy Founders

for their inspiration and prayers.

This is also a perfect moment to express our gratitude

to the people who built us up and helped us become who we are today:

Mr. & Mrs. Enolpe,

Mr. & Mrs. Omongos,

look at your daughters.

Mr. & Mrs. Balagtas,

Mr. & Mrs. Bolos,

Mr. & Mrs. Bumidang,

Mr. & Mrs. Dela Cruz,

Mr. & Mrs. Cabarles,

Mr. & Mrs. Fermanes,

Mr. & Mrs. Fosana,

Mr. & Mrs. Gano,

Mr. & Mrs. Gonzales,

Mr & Mrs. Jacinto,

Ms. Loren,

Mr. & Mrs. Marcellano,

Mr. & Mrs. Motol,

Mr. & Mrs. Nazarrea,

Mr. & Mrs. Penaribe,

Mr. & Mrs. Ragot,

Mr. & Mrs. Rasonabe,

Mr. & Mrs. Reyes,

Mr. & Mrs. Romero,

Mr. & Mrs. Rosillosa,

Mr. & Mrs. Santos,

look at your sons.

Look at us.

Can you still remember the very first day you embraced us, and carried us?

Hindi ba’t napakarami ninyong pangarap para sa amin noon?

Nangarap kayo na sana may marating kami sa buhay.

Ngayon isa na ito sa mga narating namin sa buhay.

At naniniwala ako na marami pa kaming tatahakin

at malayo pa ang mararating.

Sa ngalan ng mga kaklase ko,

lubos ko kayong pinasasalamatan

sa pagmamahal, pag-aaruga, at pangangaral sa amin.

Yaman din lamang at narito na ako,

I wish to grab this opportunity to thank

the persons who stood in front, beside and behind me.

Daddy, salamat nang marami.

Naalala ko pa dati nung pasan-pasan mo ako

at naglalakad tayo papunta sa ilog.

Naalala ko pa nung grade school ako,

kapag kailangan ko ng halamang-gamot para sa project sa science

ikaw ang laging kumukuha.

Mommy, salamat nang marami.

16 years na tayong magkahiwalay

at alam ko gusto mong umuwi para sa araw na ito,

but circumstances won’t allow it.

Gayunpaman, eto na siguro yung expression

ng pagmamahal ko sa iyo.

Para sa iyo ito.

Lola Thelma, salamat sa inyo ni Lolo dahil sa pag-aalaga ninyo sa amin ni kuya

mula nung iwanan kami ni mommy.

Kaya lang wala na si Lolo.

But I know he sees us.

Lola salamat sa pagbabantay sa amin sa school.

Salamat sa pagtuturo sa aking magbasa, magsulat at magbilang.

Can you please give my grandmother a round of applause?

My grandmother did not finish the secondary level

but she was able to produce an engineer, architect, accountant,

and the one speaking in front of you.

Fr. John,

Fr. Alex,

Fr. Vik, thanks for the trust you gave me in my four-year stay in this formation house.

Because you trusted me,

I discovered many abilities I did even not think I possessed.

Wherever I go,

I shall carry with me the values and principles that the Rogationists have planted in me.

Dearest Faculty members, thanks for being our light as we go on with our academic journey.

Ma’am Thess, Ate Mariel, Ate Berneth,

salamat sa lahat ng tulong at sa pagtiis sa kakulitan namin.

You helped us organize our academic life,

so maraming salamat po talaga.

My fellow graduates, our academic journey has ended,

but the challenge of the world has begun.

We are now facing the challenge of evangelizing a world full of hope and joy,

but also a world full of despair and sadness.

There is much that needs to be done,

and I know there is much that we will do to make this world a better place.

Our academic journey is not just a simple academic struggle.

Our academic journey in this Seminary College is a preparation

for the sensitive task of caring for the souls

of the people that God has entrusted—and will be entrusting—to us,

in whatever vocation we may eventually end up.

For while some of us may choose other paths in life,

what is important is that we shall always carry with us

the spirit of the Rogationist Seminary College

which asks the good Lord to continue to send holy apostles into His Church—

and, as well, into all the parts of society and the world that need them.

What is important is that we be the answer to this prayer.

Let us be good laborers, consecrated people,

always ready in the service of the people and the Church.

We were able to conquer the challenges of our academic life.

These challenges did not plant fear in our hearts.

Instead, they strengthened and fortified us

to face even bigger challenges in the future.

We are stronger now because of what we dared to face and overcome.

My fellow graduates,

as Fr. John always ask us,

let us continue to strive for excellence.

Let this be the challenge to last all through our lives.

And let that excellence be dedicated not to our own glorification

but to the greater glory of God.

Class of 2016,

congratulations!

#throwback #valedictorian2016 #classof2016 #rogate #buhayseminaryo #philosophy

0 notes

divanquotes · 5 years ago

Text

Alfio Grassi, Charte Turque v1, 1825

Page 69: There is an incredible esprit de corps among the janissaries: if one of them is attacked in the streets, he has only to say: to me, my comrades! and all marry his quarrel; if he is an officer, all the soldiers make him a bulwark of their body. It sometimes happens that in intoxication they allow themselves excesses; also the janissary Aga or general-in-chief, on horseback, accompanied by about forty persons of his retinue, and some munigis, men who carry torches, day and night in the streets of Constantinople, are there to make sure that the drunken janissaries do not insult Jews or Christians; and when he encounters them who commit disorders, or who attempt liberty or personal safety, he has them arrested and brought before the council of war or Divan. The council, after examining the facts, condemns the culprit according to the laws: if the fault is mediocre, to be beaten on the soles of the feet; if it entails capital punishment, to be smothered, sewn into a sack, and thrown into the sea; but, to avoid seditions, Janissaries are never punished in public.

Page 70: Since we have just spoken of the council of war (Divan), which assembles in the palace of the janissary Aga, let us add that it is before this council that the complaints are brought, either of the bourgeois against the janissaries, or of these against their comrades; this council also makes proposals to the great lord or sultan, concerning the administration of the corps, and those for rewards and advancement.

Page 72: When the general aga dies without children, whether his death is natural, or whether by sentence of the Divan and the great lord or sultan, his property is not confiscated for the benefit of the sultan, as that of viziers or pashas; but the treasury of the janissaries inherits it, so that the simple janissaries enjoy it by the increase of their pay, in their old age, or in the case of serious wounds or unforeseen accidents.

When this aga goes to the Divan of the emperor; he is mounted on a horse covered with a caparison embroidered with gold, and strewn with fine fine pearls, the bit is very broad, and the horse has a gold plate on its head; a club of silver hang from his saddle, and the stirrups are of the same metal.

Page 73: Whenever there is a Divan there must be in the court of the seraglio a guard of four or five hundred janissaries. These councils are held three times a week: the Janissaries on guard around the divan, are fed that day from the kitchen of the grand seigneur; but when they have some discontent, they testify by reversing the dishes without eating; immediately the great lord or sultan and the principal ministers, who know that these revolts may become fatal, hasten to know the cause, and appease them, by granting them all or part of what they ask, and by making beautiful promises; but they do not allow themselves to be seduced by words, if their discontent is serious, and if it concerns subjects which interest the welfare of the state, or numerous and glaring injustices; then the head of the grand vizier, or of him whom they have to complain, must answer for it: that of the great seignior would be even in danger if they were not given satisfaction. The Janissaries never cease to express their dissatisfaction until they have reached their goal, or when they have avenged the nation for the injustices of the agents of the government, who deviated from the laws of the Koran.

Page 90: The aga of the janissaries consulted the Divan and the grand seignior or sultan. It was thought that there was no inconvenience in involving the burghers in the consideration which that corps enjoyed, and that the government, in time of war, could derive a great advantage from it. It was given by the grand seignior or sultan a tacit authorization in this respect, since then an infinity of bourgeois presented themselves to be registered on the control of the corps of janissaries; but the aga and the officers seeing their eagerness, and the presents they were making when they were received, judged it in their interest to make better use of it; so that now this title is granted only by means of sums of money and considerable gifts, unless, as a friend of some Janissaries marquans, it is obtained for free.

Page 137: The Divan ordinarily condemns the commander in chief when he loses a battle: this last punishment might seem strange to us, if we did not have similar examples among the ancients, who were likewise inflexible on this subject. who watched the discipline or the delay in ralllying to the national flag.

Page 159: Finally, a proof certain that the Turks consider themselves to be in a state of civil war with the Greeks is that they did not deploy the standard of Mahomet, which inevitably takes place in the wars with the Europeans; this announced that they are not far from any reconciliation, and that they do not want the extermination of the Greeks. It is for these same reasons, no doubt, that the Divan does not send strong masses of troops against them at the landings, knowing well that the fanatical armies of the Turks are too devastating: the fearful fate of the unfortunate Scio Island, the disaster of Ipsara testify to their fury, and prove that it does not take a large number of these fanatics to destroy everything and sacrifice everything.

Page 160: It is fair to point out, however, that the atrocities committed at Scio, under the eyes, it is true, of a captain Pasha, were only executed by the Asiatic troops, who are much more barbarous and more exalted than the European Turkish troops, and which, moreover, had no usual relation with the Greeks of Europe; but, far from being sanctioned by the Divan, the news has taught us that the capitan Pasha would have expiated them from his head, if the Greeks had not had the glory of avenging the names of their own unfortunate brothers.

Page 173: Several firmans of this prince, have proven that they agree with their Divan to remedy the abuses which had crept into the state, and which enervated its first vigor. They have forgotten the profession of arms; but the present war, and their own setbacks can teach them again. A prince and wise ministers could bring them back to their primary strength, which exists essentially in many of their institutions.

Page 178: Seraglio means palace: it should not be confused with the harem, which is only the place where the women are housed. All Turks may possess a harem; but the prince alone can have a seraglio. This enclosure is of immense size, probably about two and a half league in circumference. Here are the main parts: The palace of the great lord or sultan; the mosque; the deposit room containing the treasures of the deceased sultans; the hall of the Divan (or grand council) with its offices and archives…

Page 179: In the interior of the seraglio we see no armed men, nor any corps of troops; there are not even any firearms, nor any weapons; there are only the bostangyi or gardeners who guard this palace; the janissaries, it is true, are on guard at the seraglio during the sessions of the Divan; but they do not go beyond the outer courts, and do their service with a baton or stick in their hands, so that it can be assured that the emperor of the Turks is the only prince in the whole world, who is not guarded by troops and bayonets, but exclusively by peaceful florists.

Page 181: The sultan never presides over this council. The presidency is vested in the grand vizier and in his absence to the mufti; but, from a grilled lodge which gives the prince's apartments in the Divan room, the sultan listens to the deliberations; the ministers and councilors must speak aloud, so that he may hear the discussions, know the zeal and talents of each of them, and that in diplomatic affairs he may judge with reflection the various opinions, and distinguish those he believes are most advantageous to the salvation of the state and his own.

Immediately after the sitting, the grand vizier is obliged to give him a detailed account of the affairs which occupied the Divan; then various opinions and decisions rendered which he submits for his approval; besides, he must make a report of all that concerns the state, either inside or outside the empire.

It is wrongly thought that the Sultan, of his own free will, of his private authority, may order to have his head cut off from such and such viziers, pashas, or other individuals; nothing is less exact than this generally established prevention; it is the Divan which always pronounces on the accusations brought against the high dignitaries and on all the appeals made to the throne. The judgments he renders must be written entirely in the hand of the mufti.

Page 187: Amurat IV watched carefully if he did not see these fires; When he saw some of them, he would stop his horse, order him to take the petition, and when he had complaints against some of the dignitaries he would take care of them when he returned from the mosque, the Divan having assembled; and when the injustices were ascertained, the next day executions were seen that were as terrible as they were quick.

Page 189: It should be noted that the Ottoman emperors have no right to dispose of the kingdoms of the country constituting the empire. The Turkish charter wisely refuses them this power, and when the Turks make the cession of a country, it is only by the force of arms and the consent of the assembled Divan.

Page 231: But then, when the Turks had established themselves in Europe, the policy no longer prescribed to their emperors these sorts of alliances. The Divan, fearing, to the contrary, that there was a threat of bringing a European influence to the institutions of the empire, resolved to remove the possibility of doing so; they adopted, therefore, as the formal law of the state, that the sultans would no longer contract solemn and legitimate marriages, and that to obtain heirs they would choose favorites exclusively from among young slave girls raised in the seraglio in the religion and Moroccan morals. This maxim of state became an insurmountable obstacle to any new alliance, for no European prince would have wished to give his daughter or his sister to the sultans, as a favorite, and still less as a slave.

Page 232: It is reasonable to believe that this renunciation of all marriage and all foreign alliance preserved the Turkish empire in its primitive form, and the laws in their integrity; for the power of love is infinite, and the charms of the daughters and sisters of the allied princes, the title of mother, the authority of rank, would have had an influence on the minds of the sultans, and consequently on the state laws. The Divan, by adopting this apparently strange political system, avoided the privileges of the hereditary nobility and the aristocratic institutions of Europe penetrating the empire; and this decision, for this conservative purpose, was the work of a very profound genius.

Page 244: Those whose generosity is not well established and whose talents are limited often risk, even if they are the eldest, to be excluded from the throne, for the Turks hold religiously to the Ottoman blood; but do not always attach themselves to primogeniture; sometimes they prefer, and it is always the Divan that directs this choice, the youngest of the brothers, and sometimes the oldest of the imperial blood in the lateral line, that is to say, the brother of the deceased sultan, at the place of the son of this same sultan; this policy is all the more advantageous to the state, because it maintains among the princes of this blood a motive for consistently good behavior in the hope of obtaining one day a similar reward; besides, it is scarcely probable that the prince, whose character has made himself known for a long time in an advantageous manner, may afterwards seek the misfortune of his people; thus, in the very choice of the sultan, it is always towards the talents and the virtue that the balance weighs in Turkey.

Page 245: However, despite these precautions, the other states of Europe, anxious before this colossus of power, and wishing to occupy and weaken it by division, succeeded several times in provoking the ambition of the young princes with perfidious counsels; they made the son arm his father. the brothers against the brethren, and civil wars ensued, so that in order to elevate to the throne this or that individual, he sometimes caused thirty or forty thousand men to perish. This grave situation determined the Divan and the Sultan, to sacrifice rather the Ottoman blood than that of the people who were the victims of the ambition of the young princes, and they took a resolution, atrocious in morality, but authorized by the political laws.

Page 246: To ensure the repose and safety of the state, it was resolved to retain only the eldest son, and they had to kill the others to avoid the civil wars and intrigues caused by the powers of Europe who often made secret treaties with these princes, and promised them their help to revolt against the legitimate emperor; the Divan took this severe decision; the mufti signed it, and the sultan was obliged to execute this festwa on his own children; he was cruel for his own blood, in order to spare that of his subjects, which flowed freely for the interest of himself.

Page 248: The tables of the princes, his sons, and the princesses his daughters, are also very sumptuous; those of the pupils of the seraglio of the one and the other sex, and all the employees of this immense enclosure are abundant and sought after. The great lord or sultan also feeds four to five hundred janissaries on guard, whenever there is a Divan, and this council is held three times a week. In addition, all the subordinate individuals employed in the seraglio are also well fed, well dressed, well housed at the expense of the Sultan. I said that in-kind contributions were largely for this huge profusion.

Page 255: Divan or Grand Council of State. The couch is the council of state; it is composed as follows: The Grand Vizier prime minister, lieutenant of the grand seigneur;

Page 256: Finally all the pashas with two and three tails that are in Constantinople. They have the right during their stay in this city, to sit on the Divan, or, to put it better, they are part of this great council of state. The Divan assembles as council of state, and sometimes as supreme court. In the first case, it discusses the high interests of the empire, peace, war, diplomatic relations; it pronounces on the affairs of the high administration, on the projects of improvement and on the petitions presented there.

Page 257: The Divan also pronounces on the complaints brought against the ministers, the pashas and the high dignitaries of the empire, or of the seraglio, and against those who are any part of the council; accused members should not sit during the deliberations about themselves. Everything on the Divan is decided by a majority of votes. ......... The great lord cannot preside over the Divan; there is not even any voice, although he attends almost all the sittings; rather he places himself in a grilled place, which is connected to his apartments; from there he sees everything, hears all the deliberations; but always without being seen. The ministers and councilors must speak aloud and distinctly, so that the emperor may lose nothing of all that is discussed there, that he may judge the zeal of each, and appreciate what he believes to be the most advantageous for the state.

Page 258: We have seen from the list of members composing the Divan, that all the particular interests are represented by each head of ministry, and the general interests by the three-tailed pashas and the six viziers of the bench. The pashas who have the right to sit on the Divan are a type of of marshals. Their dignity is irremovable; they may lose their pachalik, but not their title of pasha and the right to sit, unless they are condemned. This irremovability guarantees their independence of opinion; the same can be said of the six viziers called viziers or pashas of the bench. They are state councilors chosen from men of mature age, of recognized merit and, above all, of great integrity. They are consulted first during the sessions of the Divan; their opinion is of great weight in all the deliberations of this council; likewise irremovable, they exercise a strict surveillance of what is going on in this assembly, and thus become a kind of opposition.

Page 259: The safeguarding of the Mahometan charter and its integrity are placed in some way into the hands of these six viziers, due to the influence they exert on the Divan. But they themselves are in turn watched over by the nation and particularly by those who establish themselves as defenders of its code. We have already seen that these are the janissaries, excited and always led by the effendis (or men of the law). Thus the Turkish nation has guardians of its charter in the Divan and off the Divan.

It seems certain that the present sultan, in agreement with the Divan, has rendered a hatti scherif (imperial decree) by virtue of which deputies of the people, that is to say, simple officers of janissaries, and effendis or men of the law are called to sit and deliberate in this council.

Page 260: One is mistaken, I repeat, in believing that the Sultan may, by his own authority, have a particular dignitary, or any other of his subjects, strangled.

Nothing is less precise. When some great characters perform, it is always by reason of judgments and condemnations rendered by the Divan, and afterwards submitted to the approval of the emperor. When these judgments carry the capital punishment, they must be signed by him; in other cases the marriage of the muphti and a certain number of advisers is sufficient. The body of the judgment must be written in full from the hand of the mufti on the registers of the Divan.

In addition to this great council, where general interests and major appeals are carried, each Pasha in his pachalik is given a council, also called a Divan, forming a tribunal, to examine and pronounce jointly with him on certain appeals, on complaints, addresses, and on other points of jurisdiction;

Page 262: The judgments of capital punishment pronounced by these pashas in their jurisdiction, against the sangiaks or the cadis, are sent and subjected to the examination of the supreme Divan, before their execution. But those rendered by the captain pasha, when he is invested with his power, are without appeal and executed on the spot. However, so that he also has his responsibility, he must file each judgment he renders, and the supporting documents, in an iron box which is given to him for that purpose, and the key of which remains in the archives the Divan. The chest has an opening suitable for inserting the papers which must be placed therein, without their being able to be removed, until it is brought back to the Divan for examination of the management of the capitan pasha, or when the judgments rendered give rise to claims.

Let us also note that, either in the supreme Divan, or in the other councils which bear the same name, the members composing them cannot present themselves armed, either in time of peace, or in time of war. ......... It was therefore by decision of the Divan that the ministers, the unjust pashas, embezzlers, traitors, and favorites were executed, and that their heads were displayed and nailed by the ears to the door of the seraglio: a terrible menacing or threatening example. for those who must succeed them.

Page 263: It was by decision of this same Divan that several sultans were strangled, or condemned to life imprisonment, for having departed from the laws of the state and the Koran; in these kinds of cases the assemblies of this council are not held at the seraglio, but usually in the mosque of St. Sophia.

We can assure that in no other council of state, or superior court of the world, the individuals who compose the assembly are as free, as independent of opinion as in the Divan of Constantinople, and that in no other place does the ministry exercise less influence than in this country with its despotic forms.

Page 264: This assertion will seem very hazardous; but, to find it credible, it must first be considered that the emperor cannot be part of this council, that the opinion of the grand vizier has no more authority than that of the other councilors, that It is neither the prince nor his lieutenant the grand vizier who decide in great affairs, such as peace and war; while in many other countries it is the prince and his ministry who decide on all these points; the councils of state are only ghosts, everything is stopped there according to thel of the sovereign and the ministry; but in Turkey, it is the Divan which pronounces freely and of its own inspiration: now, there is a great difference between this supreme council and the ministry: it is part, it is true, of the Divan, but the Divan also consists of three-tailed pashas, six viziers of the bench, all, as I have already said, not removable, unless the council is condemned; but it cannot be revoked by the Sultan's will, as misinformed writers have written. To these voices must be added those of the military leaders and the new representatives admitted to sit on the Divan of Constantinople.

Page 265: However, in judging the Turkish Government according to our data on the European states, one might suppose in fact that the members of this assembly who receive in principle their appointment from the Emperor, and are also for the most part pupils of the seraglio, that is to say, chosen from among the pupils of the state, must as creatures of the prince be blind agents of his will, and that they have no independent opinions in the deliberations of the advice. This supposition would be admissible, if, in the Turkish nation, there was not one consideration which dominates, which governs every Moslem, and to which everything scrupulously relates; it is the intact preservation of the Koran, by religious precept; but these same counselors firmly believe their conscientious conscience to have only this goal first and foremost; they think they ought to defend this code and the fundamental laws of the empire from any alteration, whatever may be the power that would attempt to touch it. That is why they are not ordinarily docile agents of authority: it is to guarantee this independence that certain dignities who having been given the right to sit on the Divan, once conferred by the emperor, become immovable. The law foresaw the danger of seduction for personal interest.

But, on the contrary, it may be remarked that in Ottoman history, when a member of the Divan has wished to strongly dominate the opinion of his colleagues, or a great vision of the Sultan has sought to direct the deliberations and to influence the opinion and independence of its members, which sometimes happens, it has been lost in the spirit of the Divan and the nation, and that his imminent fall or death has been certain. Thus the grand viziers could not, for their personal interest, drag the sultan and the state into a war of any kind. In this country a bad construction of a window would not be the cause of bringing about a disastrous war. Finally, the assembly of the Divan does not wish to be dominated, nor will its members allow themselves to be seduced by power; it wants the opinions to be free and directed by the conscience in the interest of the state.

Page 266: Finally, the assembly of the Divan does not wish to be dominated, nor will its members allow themselves to be seduced by power; it wants the opinions to be free and directed by the conscience in the interest of the state. ……. Also, rarely do the decisions of this assembly experience obstacles in their execution. One of the proofs of what I advance is that in the course of the Ottoman Empire ,the Divan rendered terribly for the sons of the sultans; & Extraordinarilyy as to their marriages; and yet these decisions became laws of the state.]

Page 267: Each of the members can speak at will, and develop his thought voluntarily, without interruption; he must express himself with simplicity. One does not attach oneself mindlessly to the beautiful phrases, except to bring to bear the convictions of the reasonings that one is alleging. One does not make a reciprocal crime of the divergence of opinions, for there are no ultra-sultanists, nor ministers.In the Divan of Constantinople there are only Muslims; so there is nothing to resest their zeal for the good of the Empire. We have seen several great viziers prefer to leave the ministry, rather than subscribe to an opinion which the majority had adopted, but which they thought dangerous. One of these cases may have been mentioned today, but in all of Ottoman history there have probably been a thousand.

In 1798, the Grand Vizier, Ised-Pasha, and the mufti, opposed the authorization of the entry of the Bosphorus, and the passage through the canal, demanded by the Russian fleet, commanded by Admiral Istscha-Row. The muphti refused to give the necessary fetswa on such an occasion, and both refused to sign it; but the majority of the Divan, and the grand seignior or sultan, were in favor of yielding to the circumstances and the politics of the time. The grand vizier then predicted that the emperor and the Divan would one day regret having granted the permission that they were granting, or rather that they were extorteing. Indeed, the passage opened for the first time to the Russian naval fleet, in 1798, could not be refused later for transport and Russian vessels that were going to Corfu.

Page 272: There are another six viziers called viziers of the bench, I have already mentioned them in the article about the Divan; there are respectable and mature people who occupy these places.

Page 275: The word pasha, in the Turkish language, signifies commander or governor of some of the so-called pachaliks provinces: there are several of them, they are called pachas with one tail, two tails, three ponytails; these two last orders of pashas are entitled, when they are at Constantinople, to sit on the Divan; before them, in the exercise of their functions and in the public ceremonies, are the tails of horses called tongys, each attached to the end of a spear, their number indicating the importance and extent of the pachalik. Also, at the time of the Romans, the ponytail was a symbol of honor, and even one of the main standards of Rome. The kings of Congo carry on their shoulders a beautiful ponytail, it is the main mark of their royalty.

Page 280: The mufti is the dispenser of the considerable sums of money given to the poor by the sultan and the sultaness; but it would not deter them from their object, for fear of losing public consideration, and that of the prince and the sultanesses, which would soon lead to his dismissal; but on the contrary, when he makes himself known to the Divan by his justice and equity, when he supports the cause of the unfortunate against the arbitrariness of the people in place, he becomes the object of public veneration, and the sultan himself is subject to his will.

Page 281: All the great judgments of the Divan are signed by the mufti; several muftis have gone against the sultan himself; they pronounced death sentences against Osman Ibrahim and other emperors, and these judgments were executed. It was Amurat IV who first dared to oppose the dignity of the Turkish priesthood; after having deposed the mufti, he had him strangled secretly.

Page 284: We have seen that the mufti was the supreme chief. All the members of the ulema, both those who profess the law and those who serve the worship, are regarded as sacred, and cannot be put to death in any case, unless they have been previously tried, dismissed from their place, and stricken from the control of the body by sentence of the Divan. Since the establishment of the Turkish empire, several muftis, imans, and effendis, have been strangled, but even so after these formalities were completed, no Sultan dared to derogate their privileges.

Page 296: The cadileskers give hearingd every day, morning and evening, but on Friday, on the day of the Divan, where they are obliged to go, it is their ‘kciia’ who gives the hearing for them. The two cadileskers have their place in the Divan on the same bench as the Grand Vizier, one on his right, the other on his left.

Page 299: In serious cases, the judgments they render are submitted to the pasha of the place, who also has a Divan composed of two effendis, performing the same functions as the preceding ones. The documents under which the accused has been sentenced shall be examined by that second council, and when the judgment of the mollak or the cadi is approved, he shall be executed promptly. If the pasha's council does not approve it, the documents are sent to the cadilesker: the latter reports to the large Divan, which pronounces without appeal the fate of the accused, or that of the cadi or the Pasha who delivered the judgment.

If the condemned person in civil matters, or the relatives in direct line of the person convictd in criminal matters, find the judgment of the cadi or pasha to be an obvious injustice, they have the right to address their complaints to the cadilesker or mufti, who may help them appeal to the supreme Divan, which confirms or rejects the condemnation. In the latter case the disgrace of the pasha or the cadi is inevitable. Because in Turkey there is no waiting to indulge in other injustices, when only one is absolutely obvious, especially in criminal matters, the justices does not stop at dismissal, but is often the head of the pashas and Cadis also may answer for their fault; their property is confiscated and given as damages to the plaintiffs or to the heir of the deceased, a victim of the injustice of these two authorities. Thus in no other government is the responsibility of the judges so severely established as among the Turks.

Page 305: The judge turned to the side of the accused and questioned him again; he again declared that what the witnesses supported was false, and reiterated his oath. "Do you have witnesses?” the cadi asked. The accused replied that he had none: "Well," said the judge, "here are five hundred who lay in your favor," and he pointed to the bag which contained the five hundred piastres that were brought to corrupt him; he then arrested the plaintiff and the false witnesses, instructed minister Kiuperli Achmet, who agreed with the Divan, who ordered the death of the briber and those who had testified for him, and the confiscation of their property in favor of of the accused, and to make profitable this terrible and memorable example, the culprits' heads were displayed on the door of the house, which they had wished to ravish by an injustice.

Page 311: However, in this immense city, public tranquility reigns without armed soldiers and without spies; it usually reigns (except in the case of political sedition) more than in any other large city; what should we conclude? that, no doubt, the people are well governed, well administered, and that the authorities do not deviate from their duties; and that, conforming to it, they do not need, in order to be supported or for their personal safety, armed force or espionage; the prince himself can run no risk of danger to his person, for it is sacred to all Muslims; and if some sultans have descended from the throne, if many have been condemned, it is only by sentence of the Divan and for having strayed from their duties by not conforming to the laws of the Koran. But until the decision of this council, their person was sacred and venerated.

Page 347: When the Turkish ministry expects from these new methods the triumph of its armies and not of its physical strength, of itsmoral strength, excited by their religious fanaticism and the fatalism which is its consequence, the Turkish nation will soon disappear from the earth. Such is the opinion of the Turkish Ministry, a reasoned opinion which will not change for a long time. Some sultans have been tempted to introduce the use of our tactics, but the Divan has always repulsed that.

Page 376: It would appear that the Divan gave instructions to the pashas to spare the blood of the Greeks, for the foreign newspapers have told us that 'Abbolubut, Pasha of Salonica, who had several Christian families assassinated last year in the provinces of Niutla, was executed by order of the sultan (that is to say the Divan). Other foreign news has also learned that the Divan has given very strict orders to the magistrates to supervise the general and individual security of the Greeks who are established in Turkey.

Page 387: It should be noted that it is not only wine that is defended by law, but also all fermented liquors that can give drunkenness. Under Muhammad IV, they wanted to introduce the use of a drink called bosel, made with grain of millet, on the pretext that it was not defended by the Koran. The kaïa who was then in charge of the police of the streets of Constantinople and the cabarets, drawing a fee for this drink, favored it; but it also brought drunkenness, and soon the streets of the capital were strewn with drunkards. The mufti and the ulema remonstrated with the Sultan on this abuse, which was increasing every day. The Divan took care of it; the kaïa was condemned to be strangled, for having favored this abuse and not having supervised the police of the streets.

Page 390: The present Sultan Mahmoud has, it is said, a pronounced character and genius. Let us judge neither his faculties nor the degree of his merit, which we cannot know; but note that no Turkish emperor has ever been in a more difficult position, than he who has been successively attacked by the Persians, the Greeks, and threatened by the Holy Alliance. Nevertheless, in spite of his reverses and the weakness of his navy, which prevents him from opposing the success of the Greeks, the policies of this Sultan and his Divan are unbending; they haughtily rejected the ultimatum of Russia, and threatened it in their turn, not fearing to wound the Russian ambassador, by expressing suspicions so insulting that these became the reasons for a rupture.

Page 391: This prince has given several remarkable hatti-scherifs and firmans, among others, a firman to prohibit the luxury and dress of gold and silver during the present war; another which prescribes to the Jewish or Christian women of Constantinople more decency in their appearance; a firman to grant an entire amnesty to the Greeks who will lay down their arms. But what is more remarkable is the hatti-scherif, or imperial decree, by virtue of which deputies of the people, that is to say, simple effendis and officers of the Janissaries and Spahis, are called to sit on the Divan. This head of a state with despotic forms calls for fractions of all ranks, of all interests, to the honor of being among his advisers. It thus takes a step towards the lights of the century, and goes as far as the extension of its power allows it. This favorable innovation will signal all the more this reign, as other civilized countries recede before its own lights.

Page 394: All the drogmans (or dragomans) who are placed at Constantinople, either near the grand seignior (sultan) or at the grand-vizier or Divan, must know the following languages: Turkish, Arabic, Persian, and Greeek, to which they must add knowledge of the French, Italian, and English languages: these three languages are alone admitted by the sublime Porte, in diplomatic conferences. The other ambassadors, those of Germany and Russia, are obliged to explain themselves in one of these languages: it is ordinarily the French they employ, and sometimes Italian.

Page 405: The sort of dagger worn by the sultanas, which is a singular ornament for women, is also part of the Sultan's equipage; it is still worn by the nobles of the empire, but also by the Turks of ordinary rank, and even by the Greeks. I said a kind of dagger, because, for one thing and another, it is only a sham. The blade is usually silver, the end is round and as big as a button, the large handle or the poignard is adorned with diamonds more or less beautiful; the dagger is an ornament and not a real weapon. The proof that it is not considered as such is that the viziers, the pashas, present themselves to the Divan and to the emperor with this kind of dagger at the waist, while no armed person can appear before him, not even the ambassadors with their swords.

Page 417: It is not entirely the fault of the Turkish government, if the printing press has not established itself in the empire, too many interests have opposed it; It may also be supposed that it was convenient for his policy not to facilitate a means which, by bringing a multitude of books at little cost, would help to drive the mass of individuals out of their apathetic ignorance; and soon there would have followed an alteration of ideas, tastes that would have been shaken and destroyed their religion and their institutions. No one is ignorant of the influence which the discovery of printing has had on the European peoples; and the Divan may well be an advocate of obscurantism, when Frenchmen nowadays declare themselves to be the approvers and even the zealous defenders of that.

Page 424: These certain facts, opposed, it is true, to the nature of the man who is repugnant to his own destruction and to the loss of his enjoyments, are explained without effort, by the absolute and fanatical belief of the Turks in the Moslem faith, which promises them greater heavenly goods than those they lose, by obeying the laws of the Koran. Now, the cord, sent by virtue of a chapter of this book of the law, which they know to have transgressed, becomes an expiation, and hence an object of veneration for them; it is sent by an order of the sultan, mufti, and divan, sacred authorities in their eyes. This fatal link, which they themselves place around the neck, is a kind of honor they receive in their punishment, it is the dead fire commanded by the soldier who passes by the arms. The great Turkish dignitary obeys without murmur, and believes, by this passive obedience, to redeem his fault, and infallibly win heaven.

Page 426: The caliphs were the spiritual and temporal leaders or chiefs of their states, that is to say, they were at the same time kings and pontiffs, as are our Roman pontiffs, under a different denomination; but today the Turkish muftis or pontiffs direct only the spiritual, and when they occupy the temporal as members of the Divan, it is only as the first interpreters of the law, as supreme heads of justice to supervise the inviolability of the Turkish Charter, and the execution and rigorous application of its laws.

Page 427: At his death the grand seigneur (sultan) caused for him the performance of such pompous funerals as for the most favored pasha. He was buried in a convent of Turkish monks, a place which he had designated for his last dwelling. The Divan took care of the epitaph which was to decorate it; it was written in Turkish, here is the translation:

Page 433: Under Achmet III, the Divan suspected, by the multiplicity of testimonies rendered by the same individuals, that they could make a profession of it, that is to say, draw a product from it. To ascertain the fact, the grand vizier presented to the Divan an imaginary cause, but of a grave nature, and for which witnesses were needed. The pretended litigants addressed those who were suspected of selling their testimony, and proposed to them to assert important facts, which, though false, would be useful at trial. They consented for money. When the testimony was given, it was not difficult to convince them of the crime they had committed, and of the previous ones. They were judged, and all executed in the same day.

0 notes

romancatholicreflections · 6 years ago

Text

3rd March >> Daily Reflection/Commentary on Today’s Mass Readings for Roman Catholics on Sunday, Eight Week in Ordinary Time (Sirach 27:5-8; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; Luke 6:39-45).

TODAY WE HAVE THE CONTINUATION of Luke’s sermon on the plain (not the mount). Last Sunday’s Gospel told us not to judge or we would be judged ourselves. Does not mean that we are never to criticise other people? ‘Criticise’ comes from Greek (krino, krisis, , , to make a rational judgment). So we speak of a film or drama ‘critic’ who may indeed tear a production to pieces or, on the other hand, may praise it to the skies, give it five stars and ‘two thumbs up’.

What is being forbidden by Jesus is not judgment as such but negative, destructive judgment. There are times when we are expected to give constructive, helpful criticism.

We are often free with the first, slow with the second (by giving excuses that we are not qualified, etc). We cannot pass judgment unless we have some vision and understanding. How can the blind, those without understanding, presume to give leadership to others who are blind? Jesus asks us. The result is inevitable: “Both will fall into the pit.”

It is not at all unusual to hear people talk with great authority on things of which they know very little e.g. government taxation policies and other complex problems. People who never open a Bible, seldom go to church, are not involved in its activities or not even Christians, frequently have no hesitation in saying what is wrong with the Church. This does not meant Church has no faults. Nor does it mean that the Church’s weaknesses should not be highlighted. It does mean that one should speak from genuine knowledge, accurate data and to the people who can do something about it. The same applies to everything else we like to pass judgment on.

Following Jesus’ example

The disciple is not above the teacher. This is to say that our judgements should be like those of Jesus. The one who is fully qualified will be like the teacher: judging to save and help, not to knock down and destroy. If we are to avoid blindness we need to walk in the footsteps of people who can see. We need to acknowledge our own blindness, our blind spots, our myopia, our astigmatism of prejudice and lack of objectivity.

It is not much use prefacing some solemn judgement on the Church, for instance, with “When I was in grade school, I was always taught by Sister Imelda that…” What we learnt in grade school or high school is not enough so many years later when the Church itself has changed in so many ways and we ourselves have changed. But most of us tend to be both perspicacious and blind: we can see the slightest fault in others while being totally oblivious to much greater faults in ourselves.

Some of us spend large parts of our lunch breaks and recreation times “gossiping”. This consists mainly of saying what is wrong with other people (present company excepted, until present company goes away). Do we ever feel slightly nervous leaving a party or a group that has been involved in extensive gossiping about peers or colleagues? As soon as we walk out the door they may start saying the same things about me that I was saying about other absent people. On the other hand, if a subject of criticism walks into the room, he or she is likely to be greeted like a long-lost friend, as if they were the most wonderful people in the world.

Why do we do so much of this kind of thing? Do we really enjoy it? Do we feel good about it afterwards? Do we believe that if only OTHER people – the boss, some colleagues, parents, children – changed, life would be wonderful?

Pre-emptive strikes

In fact, I think much of our criticism is a form of self-defence, a kind of pre-emptive strike. We feel inadequate and insecure and try to even things out by pulling down people we feel are better than us. No wonder Jesus calls us ‘hypocrites’. This word – from the Greek hypocrites (‘used to refer to a stage actor. When I go on like this I am playing a role in which I am the tragic, misunderstood hero or heroine and the rest are “baddies” out to get me. It is usually quite a false and misleading picture of the reality.

The Greek actor wore a mask to indicate role he was playing. We spend a lot of time wearing masks to hide from others the real self we are secretly ashamed of. By supposedly “exposing” the weaknesses and wickedness of others we give our fragile egos a boost.

But, Jesus says that everything depends on the inner person and not on the outward appearance. Hypocrisy will not long go undetected. No really good tree can produce bad fruit; and no really bad tree can consistently produce genuinely good fruit. “Shake up the sieve and the rubbish soon appears,” says today’s First Reading. Once we open our mouth we reveal ourselves. “Do not praise people before they speak, for this is the way people are tested.” When we gossip we often tell people a lot more about ourselves than those we are condemning.

Place for criticism

It is important to emphasise that the Gospel is in no way saying we should not have opinions or that we should not express them. What it is saying is:

a. To avoid having such a high awareness of the shortcomings of others that we have lost the ability to see and accept our own.

b. We can spend hours talking about what is wrong with other people – superiors, peers, family members – in their absence but are not prepared to bring our grievances for open dialogue with the people concerned.

Change will never take place under such circumstances. And one wonders sometimes if we really want things to change! Some of us are like King Gama in Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera ‘Princess Ida’:

Oh, wouldn’t your life be extremely flat,

With nothing whatever to grumble at?

c. People who gossip incessantly suddenly become reluctant and tongue-tied when asked to evaluate honestly (i.e. both positively and negatively) a colleague who is being considered for another post. Such an evaluation, including its negative parts, may be extremely helpful both to the candidate and the whole organisation. It can avoid the appointment of a person to a position who is quite unsuitable – and it may happen that I am the only person aware of the weakness.

d. We live under the illusion that if my boss changes, my spouse changes, my work or home environment changes, then I will be happy. Why should other people change just for me?

Let me change

The real solution is for me to change. To respond proactively rather than just have a kneejerk reaction every time something touches a sensitive nerve in me. Let me be in charge of my own life and stop trying to change others. As Fr Tony de Mello used to say, “When I change, my whole world changes”. And, not only that, when I change, other people are likely to change but, even if they do not, my attitude towards them will not be the same. We have to make our own bed; we don’t wait for others to do so. To quote Fr de Mello again, “Attitude is everything.” My attitude, that is.

I can learn to be totally accepting of reality, of the way people are. I can refuse to be intimidated or irritated or resentful. I can take off my actor’s mask and be fully myself. In the process I can let other people too be themselves. I am no longer worried about planks in my own eyes or in others’. What you see is what there is.

I judge myself by the standards of Jesus: a good tree bears good fruit. “A person’s words flow out of what fills their heart.” And the words – fruits of a good tree – are full of warmth and affirmation and encouragement and compassion with now and again some positive, constructive confrontation and challenging.

It sounds a much better recipe than a life spent in never-ending griping and sniping.

0 notes

captwine · 7 years ago

Photo

Karthauserhof Schieferkristall Kabinett Riesling 2013

https://www.saq.com/page/fr/saqcom/vin-blanc/karthauserhof-schieferkristall-kabinett-riesling-2013/11860225?selectedIndex=1&searchContextId=2244824362471527251

Why did I buy it?

I am a huge fan of german and austrian riesling and will buy them for no reason at all, on a whim, all the time

I made a mistake... there was no label on the SAQ website and I didn’t notice I already had that wine

The year

Parker: Mosel in 2013: 79I (Average, Irregular, even among the best wines)

Wine Spectator: Germany in 2013: 89: Erratic weather, including some rain at harvest, resulted in a small crop; top producers relied on careful selection in the vineyard to make rich and minerally wines

Winemag: 89 in Mosel

Jancisrobinson: Germany in 2013: A chill spring and fine, mild summer gave way to wet weather in September and October which proved many producers’ undoing. Astute vineyard management was essential to coax grapes to ripeness and avoid rot. Low yields and fair quality across the board.

Cepage

100% Riesling

Sugar

N/A

Alcohol:

10%

Terroir:

Devonian slate plays a crucial role in the strong mineral content of our soil and is revealed by its pink copper tint. As the slate weathers, the extremely soft and warmth-retaining material releases iron minerals. Through this process, the vines absorb important elements such as calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, as well as numerous other trace elements, which are then passed on in high concentrations to our grapes. In addition to the slate, the soils of the Karthäuserhofberg contain clayey veins that retain water efficiently.

Vinification and aging:

The Karthäuserhofberg is divided into several parcels with respect to exposition, soil type and age of the vines. "We don’t pick selective,“ says Vogt. "We harvest according to the age of the vines.“ From younger, higher-yielding vines up to 10 years he harvests the basic Gutsriesling at the beginning of the harvest. 10- to 20-year-old vines source the former dry Kabinett, which is now designated as Schieferkristall whereas the low-yielding, intensely flavored old vines (35+ years) source the Alte Reben. In total there are 70 or 80 bins fermenting in stainless steel and only after extensive tastings the team decides which bin is sourced for which wine. The result is a well-wrought range of wines which were partly kept longer on the skins than usual in 2013.

Organic?

What does Riesling taste like?

Apricot

Nectarine

Peach

Apple

Pear

Pineapple

Lime

Mayer Lemon

Honey

Honeycomb

Beeswax

Petrol

Ginger

Citrus blossom

Rubber

Diesel fuel

Tasting Riesling starts with intense aromas that rise from the glass (even when the wine is ice cold). This aromatic wine offers primary fruit aromas of orchard fruits like nectarine, apricot, honey-crisp apple, and pear. Besides fruit, you’ll often smell things like honeycomb, jasmine, or lime peel, along with a striking aroma that smells similar to petrol or petroleum wax (a natural compound called TDN). On the palate, Riesling has high acidity, similar to the levels in lemonade.

This is a very exciting time for Riesling in Germany. In the past, there was a predominance of sweet Riesling wines in the market, but now with changing tastes, we’ve seen a great deal of Germany’s finest wineries producing more dry Riesling. Not that German’s sweet Riesling isn’t great, in fact one of the most prized collector’s white wines in the world is a tiny half-bottle of Trockenbeerenauslese (TBA–the sweetest style of them all) that comes from noble rot grapes grown in the Mosel Valley. Since Riesling has some of the highest acidity (of the popular wine varieties) the sweetness never comes across too cloying.

http://winefolly.com/review/the-tasters-guide-to-riesling-wine/

http://winefolly.com/review/guide-to-german-white-wine/

Producer’s note:

The vineyards of Eitelsbach, named after a nearby tributary of the Ruwer, were first mentioned in writings circa 1223. Over a hundred years later, in 1335, Prince-Elector Balduin of Luxembourg gifted an estate on the land to the monks of the Carthusian order. The monks founded it as an official winegrowing estate and cultivated wine for almost 500 years. By 1803 the estate was secularized and passed into the hands of the French government. Eight years later it was sold to the highest bidder: Director General Valentin Leonardy of the French army.

Since 1811, the Karthäuserhof has been passed down from generation to generation within a single family. The current owner, Albert Behler, represents the seventh generation of the Leonardy / Rautenstrauch / Tyrell / Behler family to uphold the stellar international reputation of the Karthäuserhof, which it has held for the past 200 years.

Few commercial entities can claim such a long and distinguished history. There are only 80 such companies in the world older than Karthäuserhof, and of those only seven winegrowing estates.

Parker review for 2013

Rating: 89

Drink: 2018- 2025

The Kabinett trocken is designated as Schieferkristall since 2009 due to the will of the VDP whereas the Kabinett predicate is – still – hidden in small letters. The 2013 Riesling Kabinett trocken Schieferkristall combines the freshness and purity of the estate wine with more ripeness and intensity on nose and palate, is juicier, but keeps the fascinating clearness and minerality in the finish. An impressive wine.

Albert Behler, a New York based cousin of the legendary Christoph Tyrell, is the new owner of the isolated Karthäuserhof in Trier-Eitelsbach (Ruwer), an ancient estate that has produced so many great Auslese trocken and namely Eisweine in the past 20 years. With the managing oenologist, Christian Vogt, and his cellar master ,Tobias Busch, the estate is clearly on its way back to former heights and nothing could better prove this than the excellent quality of the 2013s whose quantities were the lowest in 10 years averaging less than 30 hectoliters per hectare. Very clear and bright in their greenish shimmering colors they reflect the unique terroir of Karthäuserhofberg in an impressively pure and delicate way. The 2013s reflect the stony, iron-rich slate soils of the up to 37-degree steep slope in a fascinating classic way. Displaying discreet fruit and subtle terroir flavors, the wines are lean, racy and light in alcohol. But Vogt has learned from the similar 2008s that nothing but patience is needed to enjoy the 2013s whose dry representatives had been de-acidified slightly (from 13 grams down to 11 for the Gutswein and from 11 down to 10 or 10.5 for the top wines). No matter if dry or sweet, the Karthäuserhofbergers are wines for finesse-drinkers and fans of really pure and subtle Ruwer Rieslings.

Of the 17 hectares under vine, 15.5 hectares are currently in production of which 1.5 hectare is planted with Weissburgunder (Pinot blanc), the rest is Riesling. Vogt harvests up to 14 days earlier than Carl von Schubert at Maximin Grünhaus because – since he produces 80 percent dry wines – he aims for totally healthy "yet not underripe“ grapes without any influence of botrytis. "I want to keep the animation in our wines and the Ruwer character which shall be clear and fresh like a mountain creek,“ says Vogt, whose wines are also represented by Stephen Bitterolfs "vom Boden“ in New York.

Wine spectator review

N/A

Last time I tasted the wine, my comments were: 4/5 “ Very long, crystalline, glassy, dill in the attack, lime, green apple. Eat with smoked salmon, gravlax, fresh cream. “

#wine riesling german

0 notes