Jesus with Jonathan

Greetings, Duffy. It's 5:42 AM on Friday morning here in Albany as I begin to write. This is the first time I have written you from the 5-6 AM watch of my horarium. It's the third watch in my day: Watch of the Primordial Word | 12-3 AM Watch of the Empty Tomb | 3-5 AM Watch of the Risen King | 5-6 AM Generally, I sleep through the first two watches. My normal wake-up time is 5 AM. I prepare my morning herbal tea, rinse my sprouts, take my Vitamin B-12, and sit on my meditation cushion in front of my Jesus sacred heart wall icon until 6 AM or a spiritual quickening drives me to my computer for some writing. Today I realized that I should start to park those messages on this blog. After a marathon session two weeks ago, you and I have decided to conference call biweekly through Eastertide, see how that goes, and possibly take up synchronized reading of Saint Aelred's Spiritual Friendship  classic over the summer. Our next call is this Monday morning. Here are three quick thou...

Greetings, Duffy in Vermont :) With our reading of the Great Commission, we have reached the end of the Gospel of Matthew in N.T. Wright's Lenten Year A Commentary. Although Wright backtracks into some earlier sections of Matthew's Gospel through Saturday of this week, I believe today is the best time for me to end my daily blogging on Wright's commentary. His treatment of the Great Commission is truly exceptional and feels like the perfect way to close for now.   I could get started on a lengthy discussion of the Greek word "eon" and how this relates to the transition between the Piscean and Aquarian Ages, but that will have to wait for another time.  My Eastertide transition to a more disciplined calendar and communications platform continues, and that means I have a hard 9:55 AM stop ahead of me for work on this blog post this morning! My budget for formal written and oral communication specifically with the local, regional and world Christian Church is only 10...

Greetings, Duffy in Vermont! It's 9:46 AM EDT and we have arranged a phone call for later in the day. The truth is, if you are up to it, it's even better for me to aim for an hour or so between 8-10 AM on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Sunday or Monday. This is the dedicated "Watch of the Church" in my hermit's calendar through the end of Eastertide on Saturday, May 30. (On Friday mornings from 8-10 AM, Church is usually errands and a weekly coffee with my mom. On Saturday mornings, I am keeping a separate "Watch of the Sabbath.") I want to see what happens if I channel all of my Church communications, including our calls, into this dedicated Sun-Thu 8-10 AM horarium bandwidth. No worries if this doesn't work for you one morning this week. I completely understand if you'd prefer to talk this afternoon or evening instead. I know it's short notice! This seems like such a mundane subject for a public blog post - I should be saying something impor...

Greetings, Duffy. It is 6:51 PM on Easter Sunday as I begin to write. I would have written much sooner, but it has been one of those days when my symptoms get the better of me. I've been resting in bed, unable or unwilling to do much at the computer. But now the worst of the resistance has passed. I've done today's reading in Wright's commentary, and I am looking more carefully at Matthew 28:1-10 on Bible Hub.  It will be good to talk tomorrow.

Greetings, Duffy. It's 5:56 PM EDT here in Albany as I wrap up the finishing touches on today's letter to you. I've been researching the mechanics of our Lenten journey for about nine hours now. It's getting a bit confusing here at the end! According to the 1969/1970 Missal (Novus Ordo), the season of Lent ended on the evening of Holy Thursday. At that point, we entered the distinct 3-day season of the Triduum. This Triduum season ends on Easter Sunday night, and it overlaps by one day with Easter season itself, which extends from the Easter vigil on Holy Saturday night until Pentecost Sunday. Then Ordinary Time begins abruptly on a "headless" Monday. On the other hand, the 1962 Roman Missal (Traditional Latin Mass) continues the season of Lent right up until Easter vigil on Holy Saturday night. As I write you this evening, we are still in Lent. There is no distinct liturgical season  in the TLM called the Triduum, but there is a devotional Triduum of three d...

To Duffy in Vermont: Peace and Grace from Brother Jonathan in Albany during this heavy, yet strangely luminous, 1:51 PM Watch. I am writing to you as the shadows begin to lengthen toward the 3 PM hour, feeling a profound and awkward juxtaposition in my spirit. After days of grey, the sun is finally breaking through here in Albany, casting a literal light on this Good Friday that feels almost irreverent given the somber weight of the Crucifixion we are meant to be indwelling. I find myself caught between the agony of the Cross and the excitement of a new vegan investment: I just ordered a Vitamix E310 blender. It feels strange to be "toy-shopping" while the King is on the tree, yet I’m struck by the symbolism of the machine itself. The E310 has a four-fold blade assembly—two blades pointing up, two down—forming a literal cruciform at the heart of the canister. It serves as a reminder that even our chaste vegan meals rely on a cruciform food web; the plant must undergo a death ...