The Strangest Way: June 2011

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Welcome and thanks for visiting the blog

The title of the blog is inspired by one of my favorite books called “The Strangest Way” written by Father Robert Barron. “The Strangest Way” is a story about “Walking the Christian Path”.

We’re all on a journey, for over half my life I have been in love with discovering Gods activity in my life and Gods activity in the rest of the world. He has undoubtedly planted within me a desire to know Him. Knowledge has lead to faith, faith to love, and ultimately love to Gods work.

At this point in my Christian journey I feel it necessary to exhaust a few thoughts and stories of faith that have affected my life. I hope to leave you an encouraging word. You are special, God loves you and I hope for you to experience Gods love in what ever way He wills for you.

SERVIAM
Billy Blake

Oh and by the way most of you know I’m a Jazz lover so don’t be surprised to see a few post on my favorite Jazz artist….

My wife Cara said that when she was younger her only life’s mission was to make sure the whole world knew who “Stevie Nicks” was…… The first time she asked me if I knew who Stevie Nicks was I said “no who’s that guy?”

I suppose I feel the same way about the Jazz artist I love! And most likely your response might be the same as mine to Cara!

I did come to appreciate Stevie Nicks especially her style of harmonization…. It’s unique and beautiful…I actually learned a few Stevie Nicks songs just to impress Cara…It must have worked she stuck with me…. Believe it or not I actually got her to sing harmony with me (Cara can sing don’t let her fool you…)

A Pixel in the Painting...by Billy Blake

Preface to “A Pixel in the Painting”

“A Pixel in the Painting” is primarily about how our own life fits into the much bigger human story. I started with “Creation and the Fall of Man” to set the stage of reasoning for the current “human condition”.

I point out that even though we are weak, fallen and dysfunctional, God created us good. We are fundamentally a beautiful creation. After all God created us in His image.

I continue to point out the fact that God has at all times tried to draw us back to himself. Humanity will never be complete again until it rest in the arms of its creator.

In many ways the daily events of our lives make perfect sense when we look at our situation in the context of the much larger story. All our battles both internal and external are a result of the fall and God calling us back to Himself.

Fallen? Yes, but also fundamentally good! Be open and attentive to the promptings of God in your own life.

Could it be that the human story is but a pixel in the painting of a much larger story, waiting to be revealed by God?

Thanks for watching…….

The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The Most Holy Trinity

What better feast to celebrate on Fathers Day than the Blessed Trinity? Happy Fathers day to you Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons!

One of my favorite stories about the Trinity is shown in the image above.

St. Augustine was walking on the beach contemplating the mystery of the Trinity. Then he saw a boy in front of him who had dug a hole in the sand and was going out to the sea again and again and bringing some water to pour into the hole. St. Augustine asked him, “What are you doing?” “I’m going to pour the entire ocean into this hole.” “That is impossible, the whole ocean will not fit in the hole you have made” said St. Augustine. The boy replied, "I could fill this hole with the entire ocean before you can understand the mystery of the Blessed Trinity". The story concludes that the boy vanished as St. Augustine had been talking to an angel.

Isaiah 55:9 "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts."

Today I look forward to spending some time with the Cara and the kiddos, yesterday we took the boys to "Kart Country" rode go-carts and hit balls at the batting cage. I was inpressed, John did great on the "big" go-carts and Jonah did suprizingly well hitting baseballs!

Watching the boys standing in the batting cage hitting balls, it was strange to think that not too long ago I was a boy and my dad was watching me. Now I have my own three boys and I'm watching them. Its a beautiful (and scary) thing to see little bits of me in them.

Thanks Dad for showin me the ropes on hitting baseballs... I'll pay it forwad with my own boys!

Happy Fathers Day!

SERVIAM

Monday, June 13, 2011

Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I remove the exchange of excommunication, a landmark in the work of Christain Unity.

JOINT CATHOLIC-ORTHODOX DECLARATION
OF HIS HOLINESS POPE PAUL VI
AND THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH ATHENAGORAS I

DECEMBER 7, 1965

Following is the text of the joint Catholic-Orthodox declaration, approved by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople, read simultaneously (Dec. 7) at a public meeting of the ecumenical council in Rome and at a special ceremony in Istanbul. The declaration concerns the Catholic-Orthodox exchange of excommunications in 1054.

1. Grateful to God, who mercifully favored them with a fraternal meeting at those holy places where the mystery of salvation was accomplished through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and where the Church was born through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I have not lost sight of the determination each then felt to omit nothing thereafter which charity might inspire and which could facilitate the development of the fraternal relations thus taken up between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Constantinople. They are persuaded that in acting this way, they are responding to the call of that divine grace which today is leading the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church, as well as all Christians, to overcome their differences in order to be again "one" as the Lord Jesus asked of His Father for them.

2. Among the obstacles along the road of the development of these fraternal relations of confidence and esteem, there is the memory of the decisions, actions and painful incidents which in 1054 resulted in the sentence of excommunication leveled against the Patriarch Michael Cerularius and two other persons by the legate of the Roman See under the leadership of Cardinal Humbertus, legates who then became the object of a similar sentence pronounced by the patriarch and the Synod of Constantinople.

3. One cannot pretend that these events were not what they were during this very troubled period of history. Today, however, they have been judged more fairly and serenely. Thus it is important to recognize the excesses which accompanied them and later led to consequences which, insofar as we can judge, went much further than their authors had intended and foreseen. They had directed their censures against the persons concerned and not the Churches. These censures were not intended to break ecclesiastical communion between the Sees of Rome and Constantinople.

4. Since they are certain that they express the common desire for justice and the unanimous sentiment of charity which moves the faithful, and since they recall the command of the Lord: "If you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brethren has something against you, leave your gift before the altar and go first be reconciled to your brother" (Matt.

5:23-24), Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I with his synod, in common agreement, declare that:

A. They regret the offensive words, the reproaches without foundation, and the reprehensible gestures which, on both sides, have marked or accompanied the sad events of this period.

B. They likewise regret and remove both from memory and from the midst of the Church the sentences of excommunication which followed these events, the memory of which has influenced actions up to our day and has hindered closer relations in charity; and they commit these excommunications to oblivion.

C. Finally, they deplore the preceding and later vexing events which, under the influence of various factors—among which, lack of understanding and mutual trust—eventually led to the effective rupture of ecclesiastical communion.

5. Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I with his synod realize that this gesture of justice and mutual pardon is not sufficient to end both old and more recent differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church.

Through the action of the Holy Spirit those differences will be overcome through cleansing of hearts, through regret for historical wrongs, and through an efficacious determination to arrive at a common understanding and expression of the faith of the Apostles and its demands.

They hope, nevertheless, that this act will be pleasing to God, who is prompt to pardon us when we pardon each other. They hope that the whole Christian world, especially the entire Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church will appreciate this gesture as an expression of a sincere desire shared in common for reconciliation, and as an invitation to follow out in a spirit of trust, esteem and mutual charity the dialogue which, with Gods help, will lead to living together again, for the greater good of souls and the coming of the kingdom of God, in that full communion of faith, fraternal accord and sacramental life which existed among them during the first thousand years of the life of the Church.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Pentecost Sunday

Happy Pentecost Sunday, Today we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles and the Blessed Virgin Mary at Pentecost. We also celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit in our own lives. Be open the promptings of the Holy Spirit, He is the Paraclete the one whom God has sent to help you. Gods will be done!
Serviam!