In the Byzantine “Book of Needs” which contains Sacramental rites, various Services of Intercessions to Saints, consecrations of people and things as well as blessings there is a prayer to the Seven Holy Sleepers to intercede for those with insomnia. In the West, especially in Spain, Sicily and Calabria the Seven Sleepers are invoked for the same malady.
Hilary, I remember a few years ago you described freezing large pop bottles of water and cuddling up with them at night to keep cool. Are you able to do that where you are now? Here in Niagara it is hot too but in a few weeks we’ll be cooler heading into autumn. God bless you and keep you safe. By the way there is an American reference to “dog faced pony soldier” (pace Biden). I wonder how far back that goes?
Well, we're not so dire anymore here for sleeping, since Massimo brought us the portable AC unit. It's only good for one room, which is the workroom. Since we moved the spare guest bed, a bit wider than a sofa, into the workroom I've been camping in here in the hottest parts. It mitigates things. It doesn't exactly make the room cool, but brings it down to where I can sleep with just the fan on me. But yes. The frozen pop bottles really worked. In the hottest parts of the year, I'd usually do two. Then I got the brill idea of just using hot water bottles only freezing them. Just remember to lay them flat in the freezer, or they're lumpy in the bed.
I love that you've brought in the Burning Bush icon. That icon type speaks volumes, and is powerful at so very many levels.
"It shows the objections of the Protestants to be unscriptural nonsense, derived first from a failure to understand the role of the Old Testament in relation to the new, but more importantly, to understand who Christ is. Protestant aversion to honouring Mary does not derive from a misunderstanding about her, but about who Christ really is. The problem is their “low” Protestant Christology. "
I think it is also do to the after-effects of late-Medieval Nominalism, which began undermining the ability of Christians to see things analogically - the ability to see types and patterns and repetitions of themes - which is key to understanding the mind of the early Church.
I remember an argument I and some friends had with someone over (of all things) Lord of the Rings. We were pointing out that this is a deeply Christian work, though not overtly (Tolkien always though Lewis's Narnia was too overt allegorical). Tolkien himself, in his letters, makes clear the Christian symbolism involved - the destruction of the Ring, for instance, being March 25, the same date as the Annunciation. Aragorn and Gandalf both are types of Christ - Gandalf in his sacrifice and rebirth and return to the sacred West, Aragorn as the king returning to set the world to rights. There are other symbols large and small throughout the work.
Yet we could not persuade the other guy that any of this was in any way Christian. Gandalf could not be a type of Christ because he was not completely so, neither could Aragorn. March 25th? Just coincidence. And on and on. No thing, in this person's thought, could be a type of any other thing, it was what it was and nothing more. There were no patterns, no foreshadowings unless they be explicit prophecy. Everything was reduced to only what it was materially.
And I think this way of thinking (or really quashing the imagination) tends to infect much of Protestantism to this day. I have a Burning Bush icon in front of me right now, and for converts I find it a powerful way to share. Once you get it...
Dog saints for the dog days of summer. Very interesting, too. Hang in there!
In the Byzantine “Book of Needs” which contains Sacramental rites, various Services of Intercessions to Saints, consecrations of people and things as well as blessings there is a prayer to the Seven Holy Sleepers to intercede for those with insomnia. In the West, especially in Spain, Sicily and Calabria the Seven Sleepers are invoked for the same malady.
Hilary, I remember a few years ago you described freezing large pop bottles of water and cuddling up with them at night to keep cool. Are you able to do that where you are now? Here in Niagara it is hot too but in a few weeks we’ll be cooler heading into autumn. God bless you and keep you safe. By the way there is an American reference to “dog faced pony soldier” (pace Biden). I wonder how far back that goes?
Well, we're not so dire anymore here for sleeping, since Massimo brought us the portable AC unit. It's only good for one room, which is the workroom. Since we moved the spare guest bed, a bit wider than a sofa, into the workroom I've been camping in here in the hottest parts. It mitigates things. It doesn't exactly make the room cool, but brings it down to where I can sleep with just the fan on me. But yes. The frozen pop bottles really worked. In the hottest parts of the year, I'd usually do two. Then I got the brill idea of just using hot water bottles only freezing them. Just remember to lay them flat in the freezer, or they're lumpy in the bed.
I love that you've brought in the Burning Bush icon. That icon type speaks volumes, and is powerful at so very many levels.
"It shows the objections of the Protestants to be unscriptural nonsense, derived first from a failure to understand the role of the Old Testament in relation to the new, but more importantly, to understand who Christ is. Protestant aversion to honouring Mary does not derive from a misunderstanding about her, but about who Christ really is. The problem is their “low” Protestant Christology. "
I think it is also do to the after-effects of late-Medieval Nominalism, which began undermining the ability of Christians to see things analogically - the ability to see types and patterns and repetitions of themes - which is key to understanding the mind of the early Church.
I remember an argument I and some friends had with someone over (of all things) Lord of the Rings. We were pointing out that this is a deeply Christian work, though not overtly (Tolkien always though Lewis's Narnia was too overt allegorical). Tolkien himself, in his letters, makes clear the Christian symbolism involved - the destruction of the Ring, for instance, being March 25, the same date as the Annunciation. Aragorn and Gandalf both are types of Christ - Gandalf in his sacrifice and rebirth and return to the sacred West, Aragorn as the king returning to set the world to rights. There are other symbols large and small throughout the work.
Yet we could not persuade the other guy that any of this was in any way Christian. Gandalf could not be a type of Christ because he was not completely so, neither could Aragorn. March 25th? Just coincidence. And on and on. No thing, in this person's thought, could be a type of any other thing, it was what it was and nothing more. There were no patterns, no foreshadowings unless they be explicit prophecy. Everything was reduced to only what it was materially.
And I think this way of thinking (or really quashing the imagination) tends to infect much of Protestantism to this day. I have a Burning Bush icon in front of me right now, and for converts I find it a powerful way to share. Once you get it...