Commonplace Book: quotations from Adam J. Johnson's "Atonement: A Guide for the Perplexed"

"Atonement: A Guide for the Perplexed" is a fascinating book (full review coming tomorrow). Here are some good quotations from it:

In short, because God is triune, God is free to take our sin up into his own life, and deal with it as God by means of the relationships proper to his own being and life. The bearing of and doing away with our sin is thus a thoroughly Trinitarian event. (pg. 82)

The goal is not merely to have faith, not merely to undo the effects of sin and death - the goal is the resurrection, being made alive in Christ that we might be imitators of him, and in this way live out the divine life to the fulfilment of our creaturely existence. In short, the atonement is a fundamentally creative and life-giving reality. This is because God atones for our sin by means of himself, by means of his creative and life-giving character, by means of the same person and character that created us in the first place. (pg. 106, emphasis mine)

...God is omnipresent. He is present to himself and to all that which he creates. His goal in creation is to share the divine life with the creature, that it too might have presence - a sphere of belonging and activity proper to the creature by means of which it can live, relate and extend itself through the activity. But what happens when we sin against the omnipresent God? We reject the reality of divine presence, hiding from God, and abusing our creaturely presence by exiling some and forcing others to be near us, turning presence into a matter of power and efficiency rather than a gift necessary for free relationship. (pg. 108)

...the events in the life of Jesus are all the more significant to humankind because he is the one in whose image we are made, his life is the life to which we conform, and it is our living from, in and for this image that constitutes our human flourishing within the purposes of God. (pg. 119)

...Christ ... is redeeming human history by being obedient where we fell short, creating the new and decisive history into which we are being brought or incorporated. (pg. 120)

...spiritual growth unfettered by sin naturally overflows into worship. (pg. 150)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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Commonplace Book: quotations from Elizabeth Goudge's "The Dean's Watch"

"The Dean's Watch", by Elizabeth Goudge, is a beautiful book (full review coming tomorrow). I quoted it once already on the blog here, but here are some other quotations I particularly loved:

Could mere loving be a life's work? Could it be a career like marriage or nursing the sick or going on the stage? Could it be an adventure? -ch. 7 

It was then that the central figure of the Gospels, a historical figure whom she deeply revered and sought to imitate, began at rare intervals to flash out at her like live lightning from their pages, frightening her, turning the grave blueprint into a dazzle of reflected fire. Gradually she learned to see that her fear was not of the lightning itself but what it showed her of the nature of love, for it dazzled behind the stark horror of Calvary. At this point, where so many lovers faint and fail, Mary Montague went doggedly on over another period of years that seemed if possible longer and harder than the former period. At some point along the way, she did not know where because the change came so slowly and gradually, she realized that He had got her and got everything. His love held and illumined every human being for whom she was concerned, and whom she served with the profound compassion which was their need and right, behind the Cathedral, the city, every flower and leaf and creature, giving it reality and beauty. She could not take her eyes from the incredible glory of His love. As far as it was possible for a human being in this world she had turned from herself. She could say, "I have been turned," and did not know how very few can speak these words with truth. -ch. 7. 

She lived too close to despair to have any strength left for self-knowledge. -ch. 8.

It was years before he was to realize that a sense of identity is the gift of love, and only love can give it... -ch. 9.

She was slow, too, now that she was old. With time a thing so soon to be finished with, it was right to let the last strands pass slowly through the fingers. One had liked time. -ch. 13.

He spoke of love, and a child could have understood him. He said that only in the manger and upon the cross is love seen in its maturity, for upon earth the mighty strength of love has been unveiled once only. On earth, among men, it is seldom more than a seed in the hearts of those who choose it. If it grows at all it is no more than a stunted and sometimes harmful thing, for its true growth and purging are beyond death. There it learns to pour itself out until it has no self left to pour. Then, in the hollow of God's hand into which it has emptied itself, it is His own to all eternity. If there were no life beyond death, argued the Dean, there could be no perfecting of love, and no God, since He is Himself that life and love. It is by love alone that we escape death, and love alone is our surety for eternal life. If there were no springtime there would be no seeds. The small brown shell, the seed of the apple tree in bloom, is evidence for the sunshine and the singing of the birds. -ch. 17.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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a new book - "heaven help me"!

I started reading Elizabeth Goudge's novel "The Dean's Watch" and stumbled across the paragraph in the picture above. Here's the relevant bit typed out:

Like all creators, he knew well that strange feeling of movement within the spirit, comparable only to the first movement of the child within the womb, which causes the victim to say perhaps with excitement, perhaps with exasperation or exhaustion, "There is a new poem, a new picture, a new symphony coming, heaven help me."

I love that.

I love how she says, "the victim," as one who knows. 

I know that feeling. Any mother knows that feeling. "Oh my goodness, I am really going to have to go through with this now, aren't I?"

Any artist knows that feeling. "Oh my goodness, this is a real live idea, right?"

I am feeling that right now, as I start my new novel. The die is cast, the plot is set, the roller coaster has tipped over the top of that first long climb, and now I am just hanging on tight for the breath-stealing ride down.

There is a new book coming, heaven help me.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


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Weekly Links: writing, songwriting, science writing, and more!

My weekly round-up of interesting reading from around the web:

- "Hand in Hand, Heart Linked to Heart": These words of Charles Spurgeon's wife, Susannah, are just beautiful.


- Ingrid writes beautifully about living in a gift and not even realizing it.


- Nina Badzin's post, "What's Next for Me as a Writer?", is one I resonate with so much. The constant worrying at your project ideas, the constant reevaluation of how you're spending your writing time . . . this is what it's like inside my head. I think most creatives will identify with this post.


- Andrew Wilson's post "A Songwriting Rant" is refreshing because his criticism comes from a place of love. This isn't a hymns-only guy bashing anything written after 1750.  (But, I don't agree with him on the phrase "ineffably sublime" - keep the good stuff, even if it's got a high difficulty level!)


- Holly Ordway, author of the excellent book "Not God's Type", gives exhortations worth heeding in her article "Practical Advice for Christian Writers".


- "20 Things I Have Learned Since My Son Was Diagnosed with Autism" is much better than the typical article on this kind of subject.


- I haven't seen the movie version of The Martian (yet), but I very much enjoyed the book, and so I also enjoyed this post on the "Science of The Martian: the Good, the Bad, and the Fascinating".


- Finally, a bit of humor for your Sunday, beware of the "Early Warning Signs of Adult Onset Calvinism"!  



Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

St. Francis de Sales, on loss

photo credit: Betsy Barber

This is a hard one, but I think he's right:

Well then, my child, if God takes everything from us, He will never take Himself from us, so long as we do not will it.

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

Because, in the end, having the Lord? That is what matters.

Or, rather, belonging to the Lord. That might be putting it better, I think. Would I have an good thing, if I had to have it without him? No. (God helping me. Because I would need his help, oh yes, I would.)

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell




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Easter Hope

For the early church, Easter was more than the time of year to remember Christ’s victory over death. It was a time to welcome new people into the body, and a time to remember why, embattled as they were, they had hope. For those of us living post-Constantine, it launches us into the rest of the church year, reminding us of the joy that compels us to worship Him.   

-Lindsay Marshall, Let Us Keep the Feast: Holy Week and Easter

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the now and the not yet

photo credit: Betsy Barber

One of the reasons I love St. Francis de Sales so much is, well, his reasonableness.  Today's quotation is much about realism, about acknowledging what we are, and what we aren't, and being content with that:

. . . sometimes we occupy ourselves so much in being good angels that we neglect being good men and women. Our imperfection must accompany us to our coffin; we cannot walk without touching earth. We are not to lie or wallow there, but still we are not to think of flying. For we are but little chicks, and have not our wings yet. We are dying little by little, so we are to make our imperfections die with us day by day: dear imperfections, which make us acknowledge our misery and exercise us in humility, contempt of self, patience, and diligence, and in spite of which God regards the preparation of our hearts, which is perfect.

-St Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

The Lord is pleased to have us be ourselves, and for those selves to be His.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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Not worrying about tomorrow

photo credit: Betsy Barber

I recommend to you holy simplicity: look before you, and regard not those dangers you see far off. As you say, they seem to you armies, yet they are only willow branches; and while you are looking at them you may make some false step. Let us have a firm and general intention of serving God all our life, and with all our heart. Beyond that, let us have no solicitude for the morrow. Let us only think of doing well today; when tomorrow arrives it will be called in its turn "today," and then we will think of it. We must here again have great confidence and acquiescence in the Providence of God. We must make provision of manna for each day and no more, and we must not doubt that God will send us more tomorrow, and after tomorrow, and all the days of our pilgrimage . . .

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

I think I need to read this every day.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


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St. Francis de Sales, on our pilgrimage

photo credit: Betsy Barber

This one is for those hard days:

Oh, might it please God that we should little regard the course of the way we tread, and have our eyes fixed on Him who conducts us, and on the blessed country to which it leads! What should it matter to us whether it is by the deserts or by the meadows we go, if God is with us and we go into Paradise? Trust me, I pray you, cheat your trouble all you can: if you feel it, at least do not look at it, for the sight will give you more fear of it than the feeling will give you pain.

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done, Letters to Persons in the World

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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St. Francis De Sales on What to do when you think you've failed

Or when you think you've sinned:

. . . when we cannot discern whether we have done our duty well in some matter and are in doubt about whether we have offended God, we must then humble ourselves, ask God to forgive us, request more light for another time, and then forget all about what has happened and get back to our ordinary business. A curious and anxious search to determine whether we have acted well comes undoubtedly from the self-love that makes us want to know whether we are brave - just at that point when the pure love of God tells us: "Whether you were truant or coward, humble yourself, lean upon the mercy of God, always ask for pardon, and with a renewed confession of fidelity, go back to the pursuit of your perfection."

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done, Letters to Persons in the World

What good instruction! I'm so grateful for the wisdom of those who've gone before us.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell


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St. Francis de Sales on our sanctification

photo credit: Betsy Barber

But the divine goodness has not called you to the state in which you find yourself without strengthening you for all this. It is for Him to perfect His work. True, it takes quite a while, because the matter requires it; but patience.

In short, for the honor of God, acquiesce entirely in His will, and by no means believe that you can better serve Him otherwise; for He is never well served save when He is served as He wills.

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

The part of this quotation that stood out to me was that little "because the matter requires it".

And what is the "matter"? Our sanctification. Making us like him. Teaching and caring for us, his sons and daughters in the world.

Because the matter requires it. I can well believe my sanctification requires time! But what really struck me about this was the implication of God's care for us. He loves us. He will take the time that's needed to perfect his work in us.

Because the matter requires it. And he finds the matter important enough to take the time for.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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St. Francis de Sales, on Fear

Fear is a greater evil than the evil itself. O daughter of little faith, what do you fear? No, fear not; you walk on the sea, amid the winds and the waves, but it is with Jesus. What is there to fear? But if fear seizes you, cry loudly, "O Lord, save me." He will give you His hand: clasp it tight, and go joyously on. To sum up, do not philosophize about your trouble, do not turn in upon yourself; go straight on. No, God cannot lose you, so long as you live in your resolution not to lose Him. Let the world turn upside down, let everything be in darkness, in smoke, in uproar - God is with us. And if God dwelleth in darkness and on Mount Sinai, all smoking and covered with the thunders, with lightnings and noises, shall we not be well near Him?

Live, live my dear child, live all in God, and fear not death, the good Jesus is all ours; let us be entirely His.

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

Amen.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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St. Francis de Sales, on bearing fruit in God's good time

This quotation reminds me of a children's picture book I reviewed recently:

The trees only fructify through the presence of the sun - some sooner, others later, some every year, others every three years, and not all equally. Let us be very happy to be able to stay in the presence of God, and let us be satisfied that He will make us bear our fruit, sooner or later, always or sometimes, according to His good pleasure, to which we must entirely resign ourselves.

-St. Francis de Sales, Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World

Let us stay in the presence of God.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

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St. Francis de Sales on temptation and hope

. . . if we feel we have neither strength nor even any courage to resist temptation if it is presented at once to us (provided that we still desire to resist it and we hope that if it came, God would help us), and if we ask for His help, we must by no means distress ourselves, since it is not necessary for us always to feel strength and courage. It suffices that we hope and desire to have it at the time and place. It is not necessary to feel in ourselves any sign or any mark that we shall have this courage; it is enough that we hope that God will help us.

-St. Francis de Sales, from Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World, emphasis mine

Bertie Wooster on Napping

The kids are home from school, the last candle on the Advent wreath is lit, and I just read the perfect description of what I want out of my Christmas vacation:

It was with something of the emotions of one preparing a treat for a deserving child that I finished my tea and rolled over for the extra spot of sleep which just makes all the difference when there is a man's work to be done and the brain must be kept clear for it.   

-from "Right Ho, Jeeves", by P. G. Wodehouse

Ah . . . sleep. Rest. And then good work and play, at home, in the company of those I love. If the Lord is willing and Christ tarry.

Dear ones, may your days - your next few, especially - be merry and bright!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Saint Francis de Sales' Advice to Expectant Moms

As I was reading St. Francis de Sales' Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World, I came across a couple of letters written to pregnant women who wrote to him for advice, troubled by their weakness and tiredness, and how their physical state was hindering their prayers.

His advice was very sweet, and applicable, I think, not just to expectant moms back then - or even just to expectant moms full stop - but to any of us suffering discouragement. He says:

My dearest daughter, we must not be unjust and require from ourselves what is not in ourselves. When troubled in body and health, we must not exact from our souls anything more than acts of submission and the acceptance of our suffering . . . as for exterior actions, we must manage and do them as well as we can, and be satisfied with doing them, even without heart, languidly, and heavily . . . Have patience then with yourself . . . often offer to the eternal glory of our Creator the little creature in whose formation He has willed to make you His fellow worker.

I love that last part. :)  The thought that God has willed to make us fellow workers in the formation of our fellow creatures - that is the true joy of motherhood: sweet, foundational, and undeserved!

He goes on along those lines later in the letter, saying:

My dear daughter, the child who is taking shape in your womb will be a living image of the divine majesty; but while your soul, your strength, and your natural vigor is occupied with this work of pregnancy, it must grow weary and tired, and you cannot at the same time perform your ordinary exercises so actively and so gaily. But suffer lovingly this lassitude and heaviness, in consideration of the honor that God will receive from your work. It is your image that will be placed in the eternal temple of the heavenly Jerusalem, and that will be eternally regarded with pleasure by God, by angels, and by men. The saints will praise God for it, and you also will praise Him when you see it there.

Wow! what thoughts! But it reminds me of Lewis' observation in The Weight of Glory, that you never talk with a mere mortal, that every human being you behold is an eternal creature, destined someday to be a hideous nightmare, or a glorious being you would be tempted to worship could you see it properly . . . there is nothing "mere" about the work of pregnancy, though it is at the same time so work-a-day, so ordinary, and the extraordinary part of it is none of our own doing . . .

In another letter to an expectant mom, St. Francis has this to say:

I beg you to put yourself in the presence of God, and to suffer your pains before Him. Do not keep yourself from complaining; but this should be to Him, in a filial spirit, as a little child to its mother. For if it is done lovingly, there is no danger in complaining, nor in begging cure, nor in changing place, nor in getting ourselves relieved. But do this with love, and with resignation into the arms of the good will of God.

That - now that seems advice for all of life. And this last, which I'm tempted to take as a life motto:

You can only give God what you have . . .

Yes, and should give Him what you have. But He doesn't expect anything else. What you have? that is enough. Because He was already enough anyway.

Enough, and more than enough.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

St. Francis de Sales on Death

Maybe it's this dark time of year, but it seems like I am hearing so many of my friends talk about the recent death of friends - and even here, in our parish, we lost a dear sister in Christ just a few weeks ago.

So when I read this in St. Francis de Sales' Thy Will Be Done: Letters to Persons in the World, it really struck home:

The word dead is terrifying, as it is spoken to us; for some one comes to you and says, "Your dear father is dead," and "Your son is dead."

But this is not a fit way of speaking among us Christians, for we should say, "Your son or your father has gone into his and your country"; and because it was necessary, he has passed through death, not stopping in it.

Amen. Come soon, Lord Jesus.

Mathewes-Green on Christian Art

I found this today in Facing East, by Frederica Mathewes-Green, after she's talked about the sentimental art of Christian bookstores, and the harrowing, darker art of the more O'Connor-esque artists:

These seem to be the poles currently available in Christian art: comfort or disturb. In a culture where Christianity is tamed or toothless, and popular art seems intent on keeping believers that way, artists like Sheila, Ed, and O'Connor shout an alarm. One might wish for alternative conversations: art that inspires courage, for example, or awe or sorrow for sin. Perhaps such is not yet possible; perhaps the first message, "Wake up!," is still struggling to get through.

I don't know . . . it just leaves me with a real longing to make that kind of art she talks about in the middle there: of courage and awe and sorrow for sin.

I think I want to make that art.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Noah Lukeman on plot and reading

I just came across these scribbled-down quotations in an old notebook and thought them worth sharing:

Plot, more than anything, is the enemy of stasis. Plot demands people dying and being born; getting married and divorced; saving lives and murdering. Something - no matter how small - must change. It is your job to create instability, and then, perhaps, to set it right. - The Plot Thickens, by Noah Lukeman, pg. 211.

The more stories we hear, experiences we have, the more we fill in our own books; this is partly why we crave hearing others' stories, reading books, or watching films at all. We are, in one sense, learning how to live. -ibid, pg. 189.

I love that last observation: that we read stories to learn how to live.

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

"To a woman beset by many tasks"

Just came across this gem last night; it's St. Frances de Sales' advice to a woman feeling harrassed by the multiplicity of her tasks. After agreeing that having many little things to do is as irritating as swarms of flies, Francis says:

My God, Madame, we will soon be in eternity, and then we will see how all the affairs of this world are such little things and how little it matters whether they turn out or not. At this time, nevertheless, we apply ourselves to them as if they were great things. When we were little children, with what eagerness did we put together little bits of tile, wood, and mud, to make houses and small buildings! And if someone destroyed them we were very grieved and tearful at it; but now we know well that it all mattered very little. One day it will be the same with us in Heaven, when we will see that our concerns in this world were truly only child's play.

I do not want to take away the care that we must have regarding these little trifles, because God has entrusted them to us in this world for exercise; but I would indeed like to take away the passion and anxiety of this care. Let us do our child's play, because we are children; but also, let us not trouble ourselves to death in playing it. And if someone destroys our little houses and little designs, let us not torment ourselves greatly at this; because also, when this night comes in which it will be necessary for us to take shelter - I mean to say, death - all these little houses will be of no use to us; we will have to take our shelter in the house of our Father.

"Let us do our child's play, because we are children"! How true! The more I read him, the more I am convinced that St. Francis is a kin to C. S. Lewis; there is the same sort of clarity and charity in his writing.

The quotation above is from "Thy Will Be Done; Letters to Persons in the World."

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell