Weekly Links!

SOME INTERESTING LINKS FOR YOUR SUNDAY AFTERNOON, SET OUT IN MY USUAL CATEGORIES OF FAITH, FAMILY, AND FICTION.

Faith 

-"4 Keys to Kindling Your Love for the Book of Revelation": I always appreciate posts like this that give me some short, clear help to better understanding the Bible.


-"Thin Places": Especially good to read with All Saints' Day coming up on Tuesday.

Family 

-"Free Coloring Books from World-Class Libraries & Museums: The New York Public Library, Bodleian, Smithsonian & More": if you're going to color, why not color the classics?

-"Can your New Year's resolutions take the reality test? Or, my secret to straightening out your life": I was sick this week, and Like Mother, Like Daughter's house-stuff posts are lovely little comfort reads, and so I stumbled back across this one. It's not really so much about New Year's resolutions as it is about doing your normal household duties with contentment rather than shocked astonishment that you actually have to work and...and I liked it. And I needed to be reminded of it. So I thought I'd like to it, even though it is, in internet years, ancient.

Sometimes the old things are the best things.

- Meditatio has been doing a month-long blogging project on being a mom of a special needs kid. I've found it interesting, and thought you might, too.


-"Looking Forward to Advent":  I am already driving my eldest to choir practice for Lessons and Carols, which is my first sign that Advent is drawing nigh. Here's a post from Annie with some good resources, and a request for more if you know of any--go on over to her place and comment!

(And, after that, here's your obligatory book-plug: "Let Us Keep the Feast" is great for helping you get your home--and your heart--ready for the season!)

Fiction 

-"Reading and Writing for the Glory of God" - not fiction, but still writing.  I like reading Challies' thoughts because he seems to have a really good handle on the "why" of his writing.

-"This Man Memorized a 60,000-Word Poem Using Deep Encoding" - a neat story about a fellow who memorized all of Milton's Paradise Lost. If you're looking to memorize more scripture or poetry, this will give you some good advice and some inspiration.

I hope the end of your weekend is restful and good!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

This post contains Amazon affiliate links; if you purchase a book from this link, I receive a small percentage of the purchase price.  (See full disclosure on sidebar of my blog.)

scripture memorization as a type of copywork

Recently, in one of her blog posts, Melissa Wiley talked about the idea of daily doodling being "just another kind of copywork"

And aside from making me pull out my sketchbook again (no, really), it made me think about why people - artists, speakers, etc. - have classically trained by copying the greats. It's not an unusual idea, historically, to learn your craft by aping your betters. Now we might call it plagiarism - and it would be if you didn't give the person you were copying from credit - but it's not such a bad idea to learn what you want to learn by scrupulously copying folks who are really, really good at it. Yes, eventually you strike out on your own, and find your own new ideas and your own new ways, but you learn the method by copying the greats.

Think about it; it makes sense:

If you copy good writing, your brain and your hands get to experience what it feels like to write great words.

If you copy good painting, your brain and your hands get to experience what it's like to paint great work

And . . . if you memorize scripture, your brain and your heart get to experience what it is like to think like the great men of God who were directly inspired by the Holy Spirit.

Think about that. It's amazing! But anyone who has taken the time to sit and memorize scripture can tell you that it's true: if you memorize God's word, you will think in the patterns dictated by the Holy Spirit.

Read the Psalms through monthly, like monks do, and you will find yourself thinking along those lines whenever you hit a time of anxiety or stress or joy. "Blessed be the Lord!" you will hear yourself think, "who has not given us as a prey to their teeth!"

It will astonish you when it begins to happen. "Where did that come from?" you will wonder. But there it will be: the words of God, echoing in your own sinful head.

It's absolutely amazing. It's such a gift.

It's why we memorize scripture.

Because these rhythms of grace don't come naturally. But the lovely, stupid, pattern-loving structures of our very human brains thrive on memorization. They love repetition.

Like Chesterton says, it's that very childlike joy of "Do it again! Oh, do it again!" that lives down deep in our human brains.

And if your brain yells "do it again! say it again!" to the rhythms of scripture? Then you're that much further ahead when the Holy Spirit has something for you to hear.

The patterns of His own speech, His words, will already be there in your head.



It's just good training. It's just following the basic principles of good training.


Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

New Year's Resolution #1: Love God

My first resolution is the same one as last year and the year before: Love God.

It’s okay to make the same resolution every year, I think. It’s even good. The new year is a time to take stock, to remember where we are and where we’re going, and if you find every year that your first thing is still your first thing . . . well, that’s good. It means you were probably right about your priorities. It means you just might be fitting into that wonderful description of the Christian life: “A long obedience in the same direction.”

Anyway, where it gets fun and very New-Year’s-y is in the details. What are you going to try to do, specifically, that will help you (specifically!) to love God better? What are your disciplines, your practices?

Specific Goals

Here are mine, for this year:

1) Keep using the St. James devotional to read (listen) through the Bible. Currently I’m listening through the assigned passages 3-4 times a week.

2) Keep listening through Proverbs every month. Ideally, this is one chapter a day, but often I listen to them about 4 or 5 at a time, to catch up.

3) Scripture memorization. I have no good plan for this. I need to think about this. (Revisit in Feb? Tie it to fast times in the church calendar?) (ETA: my husband is interested in working on this together. Yay!)

4) Observe the traditional Christian fasts. Not in a heroic way, but just in a basic eat-less-eat-boring way (sort of like the Orthodox do). This would be Wednesdays, Fridays, Lent, and Advent, basically (I think). I don’t want to do this, but I feel like I should. Just because, well, it’s what Christians have always done, and all the saints say it’s helpful in killing the passions, and it’s conducive to prayer.

5) Pray regularly. I want to be more deliberate about this this year. Unless and until I come up with a better plan, I’m just going to plan on saying an (Anglican) rosary morning and evening.

6) Pray for others. I also want to get better at praying for others, especially those in my family and church. Not sure how to do this either, but maybe I can (ha!) pray about it during January, and revisit it in February. (Update: my husband is interested in doing this with me, using the BCP’s Prayers of the People.)

What about you?

Talk about your devotional goals in the comments, or link to your post about your goals. I’ll add any links to the body of this post, so they’re easier for others to see and visit.

7 Quick Takes

1. I'm always looking for new breakfast ideas - esp. ones I can prepare the day (or week) before, and I found two new recipes that were a hit with the kids:

-"Welcome Home" Chocolate Chip Muffins, and
-Pecan and Chocolate Breakfast Cookies.

Both of these can be made ahead of time and refrigerated or frozen. With a big cup of milk, they make a fairly decent breakfast (though with nuts and oats, the cookies are definitely the heartier choice).

2. Despite these successful recipes, one of my children, Anna, wasn't entirely happy. Why? Because she doesn't like the chocolate chips. Go figure.

3. The next kitchen experiment I want to try is this one. Though I doubt I can get away with calling it breakfast. At least something with "muffin" in the title sounds healthy. There's nothing about "Gooey Cinnamon Cake" that sounds the least bit sensible and nutritious.

4. Speaking of healthy - though this time for the heart and mind, not the body - we've been listening to these cds in the van for a few weeks now, and I'm really pleased with them. I think the ones we have are "Seeds of Faith" and "Seeds of Courage". But, anyway, they're just Bible verses set to music. Music that the kids love and that I can tolerate.

And just by listening to them on the way to and from school, all four children are memorizing a lot of Scripture. Totally worth it.

5. I liked this article about why historians should write historical fiction, especially this part:

That realisation led to another – that this is what good historical novelists do. Often without realising it, they will choose a historical period to bring out some aspect of human nature. In my case, I had chosen to set my fiction in the sixteenth century because I wanted to write about loyalty and betrayal. Loyalty to one’s spouse, to the state and to one’s faith have huge resonance in a sixteenth century context, much more so than in today’s easy going world. I used the historical setting of the 1560s to amplify what I wanted to say about people.

6. My dog thinks wikkisticks are yummy. My dog is weird. What's the weirdest thing you've seen your pets eat?

7. I'm planning to interview the authors of "Let Us Keep the Feast" here on the blog, and first up are Rachel Telander, author of the Advent section, and Michelle Bychek, author of the Christmas section. What do you think I should ask them? What do you want to know about the seasons, about their writing process, and just about them? Leave it in the comments!

More Quick Takes here!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

beginning to think about Lent

It's going to be Lent soon, and I'm beginning to think about how I'm going to observe it this year.

Books:
I'm thinking about reading through St. Augustine's The City of God. I've been wanting to for awhile, and Lent seems like a good time.


Bread:
I'm thinking about fasting. It always feels weird to blog about fasting (blowing trumpets, and all that), so I'll probably let it suffice to say: I'm thinking about how to fast this year.


The Book & the Bread:
I'd like to keep working on memorizing John 14-17. I started last Lent and didn't finish. It's tempting, when you don't hit a goal, to give up. But I think it's better to just try again, if the goal is worth the getting. I think I might try this method of reading the passage out loud every day during Lent, and seeing what sticks.


Anyone else getting ready for the great fast that proceeds the Queen of Feasts?

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Links: Bible Memorization, Roman Catholic Ethics, Intellectual Property Rights, and more!

"The Easiest Way to Memorize the Bible: What I Learned from Dr. John Mitchell" - this one's what it says, and well worth the read.

"Writer, Professional, Good" - John Scalzi's take on when you make it into each of these categories.

RC Bishops Distribute Letter to All Congregations: “We Will Not Comply” - A response to the attempt to force Catholic employers to pay for their employees' birth control methods and abortions. You know, though I agree with the Catholic church's stance on abortion, I don't entirely agree with their stance on birth control. All the same, despite my disagreement, I still think they should not be forced to pay for procedures that they believe are wrong. And I would hope that people that disagree with them on both counts can still see how wrong it is to try to force them to violate their consciences. There needs to be room for conscientious objection. There really, really does. (And yes, that might mean they need to stop accepting gov't money for their charities. But as long as they're willing to forgo gov't aid, they ought to be allowed to not pay for things that they believe are wrong.)

Yarrr. - I offer the following link with a couple of disclaimers. One, it's got a lot of language. Two, I don't actually agree with her solution, i.e., I don't think piracy's a good thing, even if content providers are slow off the mark. But this link does do a good job of highlighting the problem of facing consumers who want to pay the artist for their product but can't because of out-dated business models.

Easy 15-Minute Workout - I tried this last week, and loved it! I wouldn't call it "easy", but it's a very thorough workout, and all body-weight exercises (i.e., no equipment needed, save a chair for the triceps dips). If you're looking for something simple on days when you don't have a lot of time, this is it.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

the perfect isn't the enemy of the good

Since Lent, I’ve been avoiding looking at that section of John that I started memorizing because I knew that I couldn’t do the chapter a week I wished that I could. Avoiding tasks I know I won't be able to accomplish as beautifully as I wish I could has long been a failing of mine.

But God's been teaching me that doing what I ought to do - even if I'm afraid I can't do it well - is right. I'm learning to find my peace in obedience, and not in success.

Memorizing scripture isn't the most important area I'm learning this in, but it's not unimportant either. Even though I can't do as much as I like, it's better to do just a verse a week – or even just read it once a week! – rather than to do nothing at all. The fact that I have not the speed I wish for is no excuse for not moving at all. It is better to do something rather than nothing.

And it’s not that “the perfect is the enemy of the good”. The perfect is the perfect and thank God for that. It’s that the good is better than the nonexistent. And that perfection won’t be reached without effort and that we have to walk before we can run. (Now there’s a truism that actually holds.)

And haven’t I seen that in my writing this year? In fact, I wonder if that’s where I actually, practically (perhaps without actually realizing it) learned this lesson first. I cannot write a novel nearly as fast as I think I should be able to write a novel. But I can write a novel. And I don’t even have to concede that I’m wrong about how fast I should be able to do it. I should be able to write a novel in six months, research and plotting time included. That might well be the perfect (we’ll have to see - I'm getting faster).

But it is better to write a novel slowly than not to write one at all. And it’s only by practice that I’ll get faster. So I’ll keep going. One slogging hour at a time. And be grateful.

Turning towards our tasks instead of away, in the knowledge that God takes our inadequate offerings and makes up the lack: this way lies peace. It's pride to think that we can be perfect on our own. Our job is obedience.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Looking back on this Lent

My favorite part of this Lent has been the Bible memorization. I’ve not gotten nearly through as much scripture as I’d hoped – I’d hope to memorize all of John 14-17. But I have got chapter 14 almost all the way down. And it’s been really, really good. That passage of scripture is so dense, it’s almost like I can’t pay enough attention to it to get what it’s saying unless I memorize it. It takes that level of attention. It’s that dense, that packed with meaning.

Anyway, one of my most precious memories from this Lent is when my son – who’s being baptized on Easter – asked me why we couldn’t see Jesus. And as I started answering him, I found that I knew exactly what to say. I hardly ever know exactly what to say! But, you know what? Why we can’t see Jesus is exactly what John 14 is about. I’m going, He says, to the Father. But I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. I’m going to send you the Spirit, and He will remind you of everything I’ve told you . . . I would never have had all of that right in my hands, ready to answer my son, if I hadn’t memorized it. The grace of God to me, and to Gamgee.

Pastor Kang was right. Scripture memorization makes it easier for the Holy Spirit to guide us and instruct us. I experienced that this Lent. It is something I don’t want to give up when Lent is over.

Where Lent Meets Ordinary Time

Have you noticed that, by the way? That your Lenten disciplines tend to spill over into your Ordinary Time life? It seems like every Lent I take on at least one discipline which I totally bomb (this Lent, that would be reading Dante), a few that are good, but that I just don’t get at as deep a level as I eventually ought (food fasting, this Lent), and at least one that I was ready for, that I don’t ever give up again. I always remember my first Lent, when we went vegetarian for the first time. We’ve been eating vegetarian regularly (not exclusively, but as a regular part of our lives) ever since. It was a good that lasted. I think scripture memorization is going to be the one that sticks for me, this year, please God.

I love Lent. I rarely enjoy Lent. But I do love it. It is such a good tool in God’s hands. I always learn, I always grow. I often think I learn more from the places where I fail than the places where I succeed. (I’m thinking hard about why it’s been so hard for me to read the Purgatorio, why I dislike food fasting so heartily . . . no hard conclusions yet, but lots of grass to ruminate.)

Some Conclusions Anyways

I sometimes think the purpose of fasting is to make it clear to us what sinners we really are. Not in a defeating, accusing way (the way the Enemy likes to make it clear to us), but more the way tiredness reveals the two-year-old-ness of two-year-olds. The voice you hear isn’t the diabolical, “well what did you think you were, you scum?” but the fatherly, “you really are tired, aren’t you small one? Come and rest.”

As Lewis pointed out, our good moods often aren’t, as we’d like to suppose, evidence of our virtue, but evidence of our full bellies and our health. Take away food or health or rest and you can see how weak you really are. But fasting, in its orderliness, reveals that to us in a way that we can stand. It doesn’t destroy us because it is intrinsically linked to prayer, and so as soon as our weakness is revealed, there we are in the presence of our Father. And there our weakness isn’t despair, it’s joy, because He is ever ready to supply our lack. Praise God!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

Book Review: Scripture by Heart: Devotional Practices for Memorizing God's Word by Joshua Choonmin Kang

I found this book while searching on Amazon for stuff by Dallas Willard. I was puzzled when that search brought up something by Joshua Choonmin Kang, who I'd never heard of, but then saw that Dr. Willard had written the forward. I have to say: what a helpful search feature for Amazon to have! It's not a jump to suppose that a buyer would be interested in books that their favorite authors approve of. And in this case, I was very interested indeed, because I've been trying for some time to make scripture memorization a bigger part of my life.
Upon receiving this book, I found that it's half instructional manual and half devotional: some of the chapters teach you how to memorize scripture and some of them inspire you with reasons to memorize. Most of them are a mix of the two, both encouraging and equipping you at the same time. Though I read most of this book on retreat, I think it's perfectly suited for a nightstand: it's the sort of book that will give you the push you need to keep going when you're halfway through the long slog of memorizing a chapter or a book of the Bible. Most of the chapters are only a few pages long, but densely packed with jewels like this:
"Memorized Scripture verses make it just that much easier for the Holy Spirit to communicate with us, to guide and instruct us."
"Please note, when the bible uses the word success, it refers to accomplishing something God has entrusted to us."
"Receiving the Word of God is tantamount to welcoming Jesus into our heart."
Pastor Kang's words have been immensely helpful to me in my quest to memorize scripture because he doesn't just urge you to do it, he tells you why you should, and his reasons are compelling. He says, "Love and learning have always been relative to each other." In other words, when we love someone, we want to know him. So, loving God implies that we will learn about him.
In the end though, it's that first quotation that seems to me to be the heart of the book: "Memorized Scripture verses make it just that much easier for the Holy Spirit to communicate with us". I want my mind to be shaped by God's words, so that when he has something to say to me, it will be easy for me to receive it. In the words of the old Arch Bible story book The Seeds that Grew to Be a Hundred:
Now, some people listen, but others don't.
So the meaning of the story is clear.
Don't be like ground where seeds can't grow.
Open your ears and hear.
This is the message of Pastor Kang's book: hide God's word in your heart and that word will shape your heart. It will shape it so that it is like Jesus'.

I highly recommend this book.
Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you

I'm working on memorizing this passage in Deuteronomy, and thinking a lot about it as a description of normal Christian spiritual growth. (I am becoming very convicted about the end - the part about not bringing abominations into your house. What media am I allowing to have hold over my imagination? TV? books? internet? Hmm.)
The part that's really sticking out to me right now though is verse 22:
And the LORD your God will drive out those nations before you little by little; you will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you.
It reminds me so much of that scary story Jesus tells in Matthew 12, about the demon who returns to the man he came out of, and finding his home unoccupied, reoccupies it, along with seven more spirits more wicked than itself.

The idea being - and I could be getting this wrong, I haven't studied this, and these are just my beginning thoughts on these verses - that as the Holy Spirit helps you clear out sinful habits in your life, He does it slowly, so that you have time to fill the space left by those sinful habits with virtuous habits.  If He just made you instantly sinless, if He - in the words of Deuteronomy - destroyed all the nations at once - you would be overwhelmed by the emptiness. The beasts of the field would be too numerous for you. Your house would be unoccupied, and who knows what would come to fill it?
Instead, He drives them out little by little, so you have time to grow into the empty space that is left.
BUT.
But don't forget the end of that passage:
But the LORD your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed.
And I like it even better in the King James, where it says he will destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
I am fascinated by the juxtaposition of "I will do this slowly, so you are not overwhelmed" and "I will do this absolutely, because My holiness demands it." All at once He is aware of our limitations while being uncompromising about His nature. 

It gives me hope, as I look at my habitual sins, and even more, at my persistent immaturity (which is persistent because of my habitual sins), and am discouraged about how long it takes to get better at this, and dear Lord, will I ever get it right, ever be fit to see your face? to know that on the one hand, He is not unaware of my weakness and on the other, He will settle for nothing less than the absolute removal of all wicked ways from me.
When I am afraid my slow progress means I'm not making any progress, I'm encouraged to think that this is actually the way He wants it to be, because He knows that more would overwhelm me.
When I'm tempted to stop trying, because surely where I am is good enough, I am reminded that He is holy, and that I am not to allow any evil to have any hold over me.
I hope you're encouraged too, as you start another week, to turn your eyes upon Jesus, and to keep following. He won't let you fall, nor will He let you fall behind. Keep going.
peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell
p.s. Read Jeanne's post from last year on this passage here. She's the one who first got me thinking about this wonderful bit of scripture.

Bible memorization this year

I haven't attempted any large memorization projects for a long time, so I have little idea how quickly I'll be able to memorize Bible passages this year.  

But I have come up with a list of passages that I want to memorize, and a tentative order. The idea is going to be to start at the beginning, and just see how far I get this year. I don't think I'll get to all of them, but who knows?

Here it is:

-Deuteronomy 7:17-26 - This one particularly moved me when I was reading through the Old Testament last year. It's about the Israelites, of course, but you could easily take it as a description of spiritual growth in an individual Christian as well.

-Romans 12 - My grandfather read this chapter of the Bible every morning, as a sort of rule of life. I think I would do well to follow his example in taking its words to heart.

-Psalm 119: 25-32 (Daleth) - This could well be my life passage. And if it is that important, I ought to know it by heart.

-Psalms of Ascent, especially 120-128 - These just because I love them. I have several of them half-memorized already.

-Proverbs 31  (not just the excellent wife part, but the oracle of King Lemuel's mother as well)  

-Ephesians - My favorite of the epistles, unless it's the one below.

-James - My favorite of the epistles, unless it's the one above.

-Isaiah 53-55 - This starts with the description of the Suffering Servant, and progresses to the "Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters . . ."

-John 1-4; 14-17; 21 - the first four chapters is to solidify some memorization work I did long ago. 14-17 is Jesus' long discourse before his death, on the Holy Spirit and the Church and so many other amazing things. 21 is the scene on the beach with John and Peter, and I put it on the list just because I love it.

Is anyone else planning on doing some memorization this year? And if so, what are you doing?

peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

next year's devotional plan

I’m almost to the end of my year of reading through the Bible. And part of me just wants to dive right in and start again. I can feel it changing how I view the world. But I think I’m going to make reading all the way through an every-other-year thing. That sounds unsatisfactory right now, but if I take the long view, and think about having it be every other year for the rest of my life, that sounds okay. (I know I can't know what's going to happen or if there even is going to be a rest of my life, this is just the plan I'm going with, if the Lord wills it to be so.)

I think next year I want to memorize big chunks of it.

But how big? And which chunks? That’s what I’m thinking about.

Top contenders in my mind right now:
1) memorize a gospel. Probably John or Mark.
2) memorize Ephesians.
3) memorize James.
4) memorize James and Ephesians.
5) memorize the top Psalms (i.e., Psalms of Ascent, Psalm 1, Psalm 90, etc.)
6) Choose 12 long passages and memorize one per month. Go for some prophets, some wisdom lit, some gospel, some epistles.
7) memorize one epistle, and a few other long passages.

So . . . yeah. Too much good stuff! :D

Part of it is that I want to really let some of what I’m reading this year sink deep, deep, deep. Also, memorizing scripture will also, I think, change how I look at the world, and in the right way. I want Christian eyes and a Christian mouth, and for that I need a Christian heart. I want to read the words over and over again, until they get so familiar that they're boring, and then until they get so familiar that they are amazing.

I also need to decide what version I’m memorizing in. I have a strong leaning towards King James, just because it’s the most beautiful, but I don’t want to lose any meaning in out-of-date or inaccurate translation. I don’t want to do NASB because it’s clunky, and I don’t want to do NIV because it over-translates in parts (nope, I'm still not over "flesh" being translated as "sin nature").

I suppose if I have the whole year to memorize it, I’ll have plenty of time to read it in a couple of other translations, so doing it in King James shouldn’t jeopardize my understanding of the passages or book. I can make sure I know what the words me, and educate myself about any inaccuracies.

Anyone have any good translation suggestions? Anyone else interested in making 2010 a year of Bible memorization? (It'd be cool to have a few partners in the venture, even if we weren't memorizing the same parts.)

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

p.s. I suppose it should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: the biggest thing I'm doing in order to make this decision is laying it before the Lord in prayer. It might be that I get to choose, but I want to know if there is something specific He wants me to do (maybe I'm not even supposed to be memorizing!).