Weekend Links: Drawing, the BCP, the feast of the Ascension, and more!

Some interesting reading for your weekend, from around the Web:

"Why you should stop taking pictures on your phone – and learn to draw":

So if drawing had value even when it was practised by people with no talent, it was for Ruskin because drawing can teach us to see: to notice properly rather than gaze absentmindedly. In the process of recreating with our own hand what lies before our eyes, we naturally move from a position of observing beauty in a loose way to one where we acquire a deep understanding of its parts.

"The Book of Common Prayer Remains a Force: An Interview with Alan Jacobs":

. . . you really can’t have a higher view of the authority and sufficiency of Scripture than Cranmer did. The Book of Common Prayer adds nothing to Scripture and is not the means of salvation. It was meant just to provide a form of words and actions to guide and direct public worship. It should be remembered that very few Christians, at that point in the mid-sixteenth century, practiced extemporaneous worship. Almost everyone used set forms. Cranmer just wanted the Church of England’s to be in understandable English and to be derived as closely as possible from the Bible.

"A Bachelorette Composer Reveals How He Drums Up Drama and Romance on Reality TV": Yes, it's about The Bachelorette, but I found it interesting to read how the composer for the show purposefully manipulates the viewers' emotions through music. It's one of those things you already know goes on, but it's still fun to peek behind the curtain.

"Ascension Gifts" - I just loved this sermon/essay on Christ's Ascension. Perfect for this week's major feast day!

"The Publishing Timeline": How long it actually takes to get a book from written to published and why.


Have a great weekend!
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Daybook for May 13, 2013

outside my window . . . it is HOT. But so bright and lovely, I almost don't mind.

I am listening to . . . Nothing. But I should put something on, because I have Jonathan Coulton's "I feel fantastic" going round and round my brain and I think it's time for a new track.

I am wearing . . . shorts and a t-shirt. Nothing spectacular for, lo, it is Laundry Day.

I am so grateful for . . . my family. It's the end of the school year, and pretty much everyone in my family - on both sides - is somehow connected to academia, so everyone's stressed, but . . . we're all okay. And I'm grateful.

I'm pondering . . . the life of Dallas Willard. I'm so grateful for the work he did and am praying for his family, who must miss him very much.

I am reading . . . TOO MANY THINGS. Again, some more.

I am creating . . . I'm doing heavy edits on a novel, and really enjoying seeing the story that's growing stronger in the middle of the mess.

around the house . . . it's about time to switch the girls' clothes out for the next size up. Such a big chore . . . but so satisfying when it's done!

from the kitchen . . . watermelon and strawberries FTW! I love SoCal.

the church year in our home . . . this weekend we went on an Ascension Day hike with some friends from church. It was lovely! We decided that we probably want to make hiking a regular church activity, and I'm excited at the prospect of getting outside regularly with the people I worship with.

recent milestones . . . I turned Celebrating the Church Year at Home in to the publisher. I think it's good, you guys. The authors did such good work, and when it's done, it's going to be a book you can open at any time of the year and find the exact information you need to celebrate whatever season you're in. It's very readable, and very dense with ideas and inspiration. I'm excited. :)

the week ahead . . . editing the novel! trying not to die of heat stroke!

picture thought . . . my dad and me at the top of the Ascension Day hike:

on not just beginning

From Finding God's Will for You, by St. Francis de Sales:

“The enemy often tries to make us attempt and start many projects so that we will be overwhelmed with too many tasks, and therefore achieve nothing and leave everything unfinished. Sometimes he evens suggests the wish to undertake some excellent work that he foresees we will never accomplish. This is to distract us from the prosecution of some less excellent work that we would have easily completed. He does not care how many plans and beginnings we make, provided nothing is finished. No more than Pharaoh does he wish to prevent ‘the mystical women of Israel’ – that is, Christian souls – from bringing forth male children, provided they are slain before they grow up.

            “On the contrary, as the great St. Jerome says, ‘Among Christians it is not so much the beginning as the end that counts.’ We must not swallow so much food that we cannot digest what we have taken. The spirit of the seducer holds us down to mere starts and keeps us content with a flowery springtime. The Spirit of God makes us consider beginnings only so as to arrive at the end, and makes us rejoice in the flowers of the spring only in expectation of enjoying the fruits of summer and autumn.”

            -St. Francis de Sales, from Finding God’s Will for You

The beginning of that quotation seemed familiar as I read it tonight; I'm guessing that Jen over at Conversion Diary probably quoted it at some time or another. 

But, wow. Does that not strike you as very true? It reminds me about my last post, rambling on about  books. Really, the important thing isn't having a lot of books in the house. It's reading them. What's even lovelier than getting those books from the used book sale? Finishing Knight's Castle with my daughter tonight, and having her giggle in delight over the ending.  And that's not even one of the "spiritual works" that de Sales is referring to.

That quotation from St. Jerome: "Among Christians it is not so much the beginning as the end that counts." True. And it being just past Ascension, it makes me think of when Christ will be returning out of the sky, as the angels predicted. That will be the end, and the one we have in mind as we undertake all these other "spiritual works" to prepare ourselves for the day.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Ascension Day!

Lift up your heads, O gates,
  And be lifted up, O ancient doors,
  That the King of glory may come in! 
  Who is the King of glory?
  The LORD strong and mighty,
  The LORD mighty in battle. 
  Lift up your heads, O gates,
  And lift them up, O ancient doors,
  That the King of glory may come in! 
  Who is this King of glory?
  The LORD of hosts,

He is the King of glory. Selah.

-Psalm 24: 7-10

When Jesus ascended into Heaven, He brought our human nature with him into the Presence of the Father. I've been reading along in 1 Samuel with the St. James Devotional Guide, reading about when the Philistines captured the ark of the Lord and put it in the temple of their god, Dagon. Dagon, of course, fell down and lost its hands and head before the ark of the Lord. Fr. Reardon comments:

The triumph of the “defeated” Ark within Philistia was a prophecy of the victory of “defeated” Jesus over the forces of the nether world. Like the Philistines, Death had swallowed what it could not digest. St. John Chrysostom said it best: “The Savior's death has set us free. He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it. By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive. He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh . . .. It took a body, and met God face to face. It took earth, and encountered Heaven.”

Thus, then, the death of Christ. Then, in the next day's entry, commenting on Psalm 47, Fr. Reardon says:

We have been redeemed and justified by Jesus, our High Priest, not only by the shedding of His blood, but also by the power of His glorification over death, because He “was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification” (Rom. 4:25). Christ’s redemptive sacrifice on the Cross, by which He ransomed us and paid the purchase of our souls, was completed, fulfilled, brought to perfection by His Resurrection and entrance into the heavenly holy of holies, that place “behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek” (Heb. 6:19, 20).

The Ascension of Christ is not, then, an afterthought, a sort of postlude to salvation. It is not merely an appropriate but optional parade celebrated in consequence of the victory. It is an integral part of the triumph itself; or more properly, it is the crowning moment of the Lord’s priestly offering. 

I'd encourage you to go and read Fr. Reardon's entire meditation here, under the May 13 entry.

Happy Ascension Day, friends!

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

coming soon: Ascension Day and Pentecost!

I hope you all are writing some great posts on how you celebrate Pentecost for the upcoming Blog Carnival (send 'em in!). I just wanted to share a couple of things we've done in the past for Ascension Day and Pentecost, and that we're hoping to do again this year, so that you can plan for them if you're looking for some ways to celebrate these two holy days at home.

First, for Ascension Day, think about doing an Ascension Day hike. The idea is to find a mountain or a hill and walk up it, to remember and celebrate Jesus' ascension into heaven. At the top, you can read the gospel account of the Ascension, and say a prayer, thanking our Lord for going to prepare a place for us. We've found that doing this really resonates with our children. (You can always do this on the weekend, rather than on Ascension Day itself.)

Then, for Pentecost, consider making a spicy dish - the idea being that the spices remind us of the flames of fire that descended on the early church on the first Pentecost. Also, consider decorating your table with red rose petals, for the same reason. I think this year we're going to use red geraniums, because that's what we have. Both of these easy home celebrations provide an excellent opportunity to talk about the Holy Spirit with your children; about how He came the first time, how He lives in their hearts once they invite Him in, how He lights up our hearts like the rose petals brighten the table, how He permeates our lives like the spices permeate the food.

Remember to send in your Blog Carnival links!


peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

ascension day pictures

Sadly, I didn't bring our camera to the park, which was where we found our toddler-and-preschooler-friendly hill. But, happily, my daughter provided a different kind of picture of our Ascension Day climb. Here it is in process:

And here's the finished product:

I was actually really happy to see her making this, because at the time, I didn't think much I was saying about "Jesus going back into heaven to make a place for us" was sinking in. But when she started drawing this morning, with her green crayon, she asked me to name green things for her to draw. "Leaves," I said, "trees, hills." And she said, "Look, I'm drawing an Ascension Day hill." And I asked, curious, if she remembered what happened on Ascension Day. "Jesus went up into heaven!" she cried happily.

Wow, it actually worked!

And this makes me even more excited about our Pentecost plans. We just haven't celebrated the church year that much this year, since I went into the hospital on January 1st, and wasn't here to do any of it. So it's exciting, as we start up again, to see again how well the object-lesson-like traditions of the church year help my children remember the gospel story. To use the old expression, it just tickles me pink!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Ascension Day

It is Ascension Day tomorrow. Traditionally, on Ascension Day, you climb a mountain to remember Christ ascending into heaven. We climbed a very tall hill last year, and while I'm hoping next year to make it up a mountain, I think we're going to settle for a short hill this year, as we have four very small children to haul up it.

It's possible the twins will have a bad night and we won't make it, but I'm hoping to take the kids to the park on Saturday and find a small hill the toddlers can climb themselves, and then we can talk about how Jesus went away to prepare a place for us, and how he'll come back and receive us unto himself. "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again." Thanks be to God!

I love the church year.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Plans for Pentecost

I don't know if we'll climb a hill for Ascension Day again (it's on May 1 this year, folks), though I hope so. It'll have to be a smaller one since we'll be hauling four kids up instead of just two. But I am looking forward to celebrating Pentecost. Given the fact that someone or other from our family was in the hospital from January 1 to March 3, we didn't get much of a chance to celebrate Christmas, Epiphany, Lent or Easter. Man.

So, I'm getting excited about Pentecost. I'm not sure what all we'll end up doing, but the two things I'm planning on now revolve around the dinner table.

1) Table decoration: there's a tradition of sprinkling your table with red rose petals on Pentecost, to represent the flames of fire that descended on the discples. I think this will be both beautiful and a be a good way to spark a conversation about the Holy Spirit with my older two children. Plus? It will be easy enough for my sleep-deprived self to accomplish. (The other traditional table decoration is to hang birds above your table, to remember the descent of the Holy Spirit. I'm not sure I'll manage this one this year, but I kind of like the idea of slowly building a collection of wooden birds for the purpose. Why only have Christmas ornaments? Why not Pentecost ornaments?)

2) Spicy food: there's also a tradition of eating spicy food on Pentecost, again to represent the flames of fire. I do run into a problem here: the last time I served chili, my daughter informed me, in a tearful voice, "Mom, I am not a spicy person." So, maybe I'll make a curry for my husband and I and pbj for the little ones. Or maybe have cinnamon hearts for dessert? I don't think the kiddoes would object too much to a sweet spicy.

Both of these traditions give a good opportunity to remember the presence of the Holy Spirit in our daily lives, and to contemplate God's great gift of salvation and sanctification. Where would we be without the presence of God's very own self in our lives to help us obey, pray and love?

I don't know if it's a good analogy (I'll have to think about it a little longer) but I wonder if you could say that as the kingdom of heaven is like the little bit of leaven that leavens the whole loaf, the Holy Spirit is like the garam marsala that spices the whole curry? All of our lives have a flavor and savor of Christ solely because his spirit is present in us, by his good grace.

Anyway, that's what I'm thinking about in regards to the upcoming holiday. Anyone else have Pentecost plans?

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

pictures from our Ascension Day hike

Which was not on Ascension Day, but close. We skipped the canyon and ridge, and just hiked a nice, long, suburban hill, that we usually zoom over by car on the way to church. You could tell, my husband pointed out, that no one expected anyone to actually use the sidewalk, by how closely the trees were planted, and how they made you squish up next to the hillside when you walked past them. "It's a courtesy sidewalk," he said. And, indeed, we passed no other pedestrians on the way up or down.

But the park at the top was beautiful, and we read the story of the Ascension from Matthew and Luke and Acts, and read the Ascension Collects in the BCP, and I found it easier to picture and feel the wonder of the disciples as they watched Jesus being taken up into heaven there at the top of the hill than I have anywhere else ever.

A very good tradition, I think.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica snell

It's Ascension Day, folks! The day we remember the "day whereon Christ arose, high in the heavens to reign."

Here are my three thoughts about why Ascenscion Day is important:

-it reminds us of the great commission, and how we are to share Christ's love (using words! of course! but actions too) with others.
-it reminds us that Christ did not leave us orphans, but he left with the promise of sending the Holy Spirit.
-it reminds us that he left in order to prepare a place for us, and in order to COME BACK.

In other words, Ascension Day is all about the way in which our God loves us, and wants to be with us. And, in his greatness, he made a way for it to happen. When it seemed impossible, for our smallness, for our sinfulness. He overcame all our drawbacks, and is with us personally through the Holy Spirit, and will be with us personally (again! some more!) with the return of Christ. In the glory of the Father.

And after that, it gets even more Trinitarian. Hooray!

Happy Ascension Day!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica

Thursday is Ascension Day!

Which means that it's time for something I've been looking forward to since reading The Catholic Home: mountain-climbing!

As I learned in the aforementioned book, it's traditional to climb a mountain on Ascension Day, in memory of Christ being raised into heaven in the sight of the disciples. Isn't that a cool tradition?

Well, we're not going to make it up a mountain on a Thursday, but my husband and I are hoping to climb a nearby ridge this Saturday or the next. And if we don't make it, I'm determined to climb at least a nearby hill or two.

Seriously, what a cool tradition!

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica