Trinity as practical doctrine

A relational ontology* focuses on personhood, relationship, and communion as the modality of all existence. This secures for Christian theology a basis for a theology of God that is inherently related to every facet of Christian life. To say that the doctrine of the Trinity is ultimately a practical doctrine with radical implications for Christian life makes sense when the theology of God is removed from the realm of speculation on God in se** to the real of reflection on God-for-us as revealed in creation, in the face of Jesus Christ, and in the power of the Holy Spirit who brings about communion between God and creature.

* ontology: the study or concept or understanding of being.
** in se: Latin for "in itself" [herself/himself/godself].

If you ponder this passage, you'll see that it is not as dense as it seems at first.

With thanks to FranIAm for drawing my attention to this quote from Catherine Mowry LaCugna's God For Us: The Trinity and Christian Life. (New York: HarperCollins, 1991, [pbk] 1993), 250.

That conversation took place today. Two days ago, on Saturday afternoon, I wrote this Facebook update:

Three friends from East, South, and West strolled on a yacht club boardwalk talking about the mysteries of the Holy Trinity. Srsly. Now we are writing. (Two theological works, one novel.) Tonight: silliness, boogie-ing, pre-nuptial and natal day (the groom's) festivities.

Who knew? Unlike Paul the BB, I am not among the 0.5 percent of preachers who like to preach on Trinity Sunday. Maybe this will change! I did once write a little something on the Trinity, to my own surprise.

I'll be on the road on Trinity Sunday, two weekends from now, so this is a little advance resource -- though there is never an inappropriate time to ponder the mysteries of the Trinity. (Another thing I thought I'd never say.)

Speaking of FranIAm, if you are a liturgical Christian (or perhaps even if you are not), you will like her "Ascension to Pentecost" series.

Or you can just ponder the Rublev icon.

You've got to stop and smell the magnolias

Enough already with all the work. You've got to stop and smell the magnolias.


More from one of the reporters on the scene here.

The "theology" label below is because we really did, as the reporter notes, walk by the water discussing the Holy Trinity. Three of us.

Perichoresis at noon and boogying at night. Come to think of it...

And here is a photo of the happy couple (with their permission). Wedding tomorrow. May Godde continue to bless these two good people, their love for each other, and their work in the world.

Photo 1 by Paul the BB. Photo 2 by FranIAm.

Are we having fun yet?

Friends of this blog will recognize (or see for the first time) the faces of some notorious bloggers.

L to R:

The not-so-blushing-but-quite-radiant bride, Doxy, whom I know both on blog and IRL (we are both in North Carolina and trouble-mak... er, active in the same Episcopal diocese);

the Canon to the Extraordinary, humble servant to +Maya Pavlova, FBE;

and FranIAm.

Yes, that is an empty glass of Shiraz. Photo by the Byzigenous Buddhapalian. (Click to enlarge.) For more photos, see his blog and Fran's Facebook page. Peace out.

Friday cat blogging on Saturday: FBE and CTE

As some of you have already seen in the comments on the post below, our friend Pseudopiskie, she of the lively spirit, outdoor cats, and love of music, breezed through town yesterday. She is on a road trip in her spiffy little hybrid automobile.

We had lunch together (at the very same restaurant where Doxy and I last dined) and of course Pseudopiskie paid her respects to +Maya Pavlova, Feline Bishop Extraordinaire. Below is the picture she also posted on her blog (per the aforementioned comment): as you see, I get hugging privileges because of my ministry as Canon to the Extraordinary.

Thank you for your lovely notes below. I am most grateful. +Maya sends love and says "Have a nap!"

P.S. That shirt is actually purple. (Since +Maya prefers not to wear the episcopal purple because she has perfectly gorgeous grey fur, I sometimes have to take up the slack.) The camera distorted the color and made it blue.

More meetups for Maya

+Maya Pavlova, F.B.E. had a meetup today with one of her favorite humans, blogger, Independent Catholic priest, and biz wiz Chris, who has mostly been too busy to blog these days. Chris speaks fluent cat and Miss Maya was very pleased with his visit. Thanks for stopping by, friend!

Doxy and Jasper stop by, Part II

We said we'd complete the meetup report within days, but we didn't say how many days!

+Maya Pavlova has not been feeling up to writing and I have been writing bureaucratic things and guidelines for student assignments. In honor of Rosh Hashanah, we are returning to reflection and study and prayer, and in honor of Eid al-Fitr and Rosh Hashanah we are pondering the goodness of feasting with friends. So, a brief update.

Doxy stopped by lo those many days ago on her way from here to there, and with her was the handsome Jasper, on whom I have a big doggie crush. Yes, moi, the cat person. This curly-haired black canine is irresistible. He has a big doggie smile and happy doggie energy and when I got in from work around 1 p.m., Doxy was already there with him, introducing him to my somewhat suburban lawn. (I knew I had moved to semi-suburbia for a reason!)

We have not yet introduced Jasper to +Maya Pavlova. It's not that we don't want to, but +Maya, who, according to the shelter, gets along with just about all sentient beings (well, she kills bugs and a year ago she went after mice in the old house, though the first time she and the mouse just faced off in an empty bathtub) was still shaken from the move, my house was full of boxes and would not have been welcoming to a bouncing dog, and Jasper is still full of puppy energy, though he is now over a year old. So Doxy and I have continued the practice of Doxy meets Maya, Jane meets Jasper, and Doxy and Jane hang out together with one or the other of the animals, or sometimes neither one.

In this case we had a little Jasper time, a little +Maya time, and then repaired sans four-legged friends to the local Chinese/Thai/fusion/much better than P.F. Chang's, thank you very much restaurant and chattered away about the usual topics. The visit was short but lively.

Acts of Hope wants to know: When do we get a fresh Jasper photo on the Wormwood's Doxy blog? Master Jasper's fans are way overdue. Throw us a bone!

Padre Mickey meet-up

I had a great dinner last night in Asheville, NC with the one and only Padre Mickey de Panamá. Yes, we have pictures, or rather he has, in his magic digital camera. Red Mr. Peanut Bank and Gallito Mescalito, the devoted and inseparable pair, sat with us (we on chairs, they on the table) and with their new conversation partner, whom I introduced to them and whom you will see when the photos go up. The waitstaffpersonwoman was very tolerant of our silliness and we gave her a big fat tip. We had excellent food, too. It involved several different kinds of chutney.

Send prayers to Padre Mickey, who is at one of those Episcopal clergy thangs (CREDO) for the week, and stay tuned for his return, when (we hope) photos will appear on El Padre's blog.

Special thanks to the blog friends who recently sent a lovely gift to the Jane Tree Disaster Recovery Fund. While I have used part of the gift for myself last week (a massage is a fine thing when you are achy and tired from moving and stressed out), it seemed appropriate to spend a chunk of it toward the Big Laughing Dinner With Mickey. Thank you! Bless your hearts. You contributed to laughter, merriment, and Sabbath time.

Theology for deacons and running for the hills

Holà all -- I am finally taking a day off. After teaching the first class of the theology course for our diocese's vocational deacon candidates today, I will drive away from the not-so-big city for some peace and quiet and fresh air. At the end of my time off I will drive a little farther and meet up with my buddy Padre Mickey de Panamá, who is coming through this Southern region on his way from here to there. We will have Sunday evening dinner and tell funny stories and who knows? Perhaps there will be a surprise appearance by Gallito Mescalito. Stay tuned.

Doxy and Jasper stop by, Part I

Her Grace and I had a brief visit from our friends Doxy and Jasper, whom we hadn't seen in quite a while. What fun! More on this meetup (does it still count as a meetup when you've become chummy IRL after meeting online?) in the coming days. I have a big conference tomorrow for which I have to finish writing a litany and am about to leave Panera Bread and its WiFi and head back home, where +Maya Pavlova awaits.

mishpocheh and meetups

I have just returned from my travels.

Blogging is still in slowdown mode for another two weeks, though I may post a bit during that time.

Mishpocheh: Yiddish for "extended family and then some."* Most of my visit to parts North involved time with the mishpocheh.

Meetups: Had two, but I neglected to ask whether I could talk about them even in the form of a brief mention on blog, so I'll go with confidentiality, even about the identity of the meet-up-ees, until I have checked in with them about this matter.

* Wrote William Safire in a 2005 column: Every few months a query comes in about in-laws: "What do I call my father-in-law's brother?" The English lexicon does have that unfilled semantic space. Yiddish comes to the rescue by naming all one's relatives by marriage as machetunim, mokh-eh-TOO-nim, plural of the Hebrew mechutan, mokh-HOO-ten, which could signify your spouse's mother's second cousin. The most inclusive word is mishpocheh (mish-PAW-kheh), literally "family," which lumps together just about everybody invited to the wedding. It is similar to the Russian rodnye (rohd-NEE-eh).

Meetup time: Jasper visits Maya Pavlova

Glory hallelujah thank you Jesus. The grades are in, Commencement is tomorrow (graduating seniors' grades were due Wednesday, in case you wondered), and today was a day to function without much of a brain. You have all been very kind to leave nice comments on my addled posts below and I am grateful for your visits, I truly am.

In face-to-face life, I just spent three hours with the lovely and lively Doxy, who was on her way from Here to There and whose itinerary just happened to take her right through my fair city.

We did not quite get Jasper and Maya Pavlova together, because Jasper stayed outdoors (he is as large as he will get but still technically a puppy) and Maya Pavlova is supposed to stay indoors, but someday they will actually meet face to face. Doxy and I live in the same state so it's bound to happen. However, I have now met Jasper and Doxy has now met Maya P. and everyone is duly impressed with everyone else.

Doxy and I talked a mile a minute the whole time (why is no one surprised?) and I had a chance to enjoy Master Jasper's company when we took him for a walk on the campus. He is one handsome sweet dog, that one. Miss Maya Pavlova greeted Doxy at the door, sniffed her delicately, and then climbed all over her while she was having her tea. (Yes, tea, we are proper Anglicans, though neither of us was wearing pearls. No heavy drinking, someone had to drive -- we'll do that part of Episcopal life next time we meet.)

I seem to be having more and more meetups, about half a dozen so far -- Ed (and same), who seems to have vanished and whom many of us miss and have tried to contact, and Mother Laura (an unintentional meetup at a conference) and lj and Luiz and Chris. So I am now creating a "meetup" label and will tag my other meetup posts with it. Note: I haven't posted on all my meetups, some of the links above are to the other folks' blogs. All meetups have been one on one so far; group meetups will doubtless happen in the future. (Alert: I am way overdue for a trip to Manhattan.)

This, of course, does not include people I already knew pre-blogging days or whom I met almost simultaneously on blog and IRL. I just realized there are at least a dozen of them. I've seen a few of them in the past year, too.

Anyway, this is mostly a salute to the fabulous Doxy. And to the dogalicious Jasper, who is, by the way, no longer the tiny puppy in the pictures. He is now a huge 50-pound puppy with a lot of muscle power.

Evensong in Atlanta

The conference in Atlanta was very, very fine.

I then spent some time with two friends, one after the other. The first was a friend who was also at the conference. I visited her home, and then she showed me parts of the city: some of the poorest neighborhoods of Atlanta, literally on the other side of the tracks from the prosperous business side of town. The chasm between rich and poor is deep, and it is heavily racialized, though Atlanta also has a significant African American upper-middle and upper class, as many of you know.

The second friend was Luiz, singing in the choir for Evensong with (are you ready) Rite One Eucharist at a downtown church. After Evensong we got to spend some lovely time together catching up on life.

A true delight.

And it was good to have Eucharist with Evensong since I'd been in conference sessions all morning and thus hadn't gotten to church.

I Amtrak'd back, believe it or not. Slice of American life on the Crescent, the train that goes from New Orleans to New York.

And now I am home and am going to sleep, take the car to the shop, sleep, catch up on various things of the bureaucratic and paperwork sort (oh joy), sleep some more, and be quiet.

But there will be catch-up and one or two more reports from the Atlanta trip. Eventually.