And His Kingdom Will Have no End

I learned in Mass today that the Easter season is a 50 day period of celebration, which stands in striking contrast to my past celebrations of it. Before I experienced it as the day of the Risen Lord; now, I realize that this is only the beginning--a quite surprising and awesome beginning--and that the days that follow are worthy of contemplation as well [days leading up to Pentecost]. These are the days where Christ began the great work of building his kingdom and church on the earth through the apostles, a period leading up to the great outpouring of God's power as he gives the Holy Spirit to the disciples and those who recieve the message of the Gospel.

Today at work I heard a funny story about Sergei Rachmaninoff, the famous Russian composer, from my boss. He said he had heard it from an old women when he had been younger. I will do my best to relate the second second hand story of the old women's story:

Apparently when she was a young girl/women, she went to Russia to hear Rachmaninoff perform. During the performance of one his more well known pieces, in the middle of playing it, he lost his way. Instead of stopping, he continued to play, improvising for a number of minutes until he found his way back into the piece, and, from there, played it to completion. Upon finishing, he slammed his hands down on the keyboard, threw back his head, and let out a laugh. Being a man known for his struggles with melancohia and depression, such an action was quite striking. A number of music students who knew his music well were sitting in the front row. Immediatly after he finished, fully aware of what had just happened, they all stood up and applauded furiously.
the end

I'm not sure why I found this story so interesting; regardless, I decided to write it down rather then forget it. I hope the magic contained within the verbal telling is contained in my transcription of it.

Fragments

I've written 4 or 5 posts that, upon completion of each, for some reason or another, I am not able to publish. Ah. sigh.



anyway,

I am learning that laziness or idleness, at least inasmuch as I experience it, is the breeding ground for many terrible practices and ideas.



here's a quote that I had made the mistake of commenting on in one of the aforementeioned invisible posts:

We can not find the Cross of Jesus if we shrink from going to the place where it is to be found, namely, the public death of the sinner. And we refuse to bear the Cross when we are ashamed to take upon ourselves the shameful death of the sinner in confession.

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer

I found it very profound. If I had included my commentary, it would become less so, perhaps even trite.

Also, A good friend shared a quote taken from a foreign seminary students paper that he had been proofreading, which I found to be quite amusing:

God brought salivation to the world through Jesus Christ

I am once again struck by the ease by which the sacred is turned into the sacrilegious [the profound into the profane]. Perhaps the line is thinner then we think, one might even question its existence all together.

The Desert

It is at the time we grasp our cross and bend down to lift and carry it that the devil comes and proclaims, "Behold, the kingdoms of the world and their wealth; bow down to me and you may taste their riches".