I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me. I keep the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved….Thou dost show me the path of life; in thy presence there is fulness of joy, in thy right hand are pleasures for evermore
Psalm 16:7-8;11
Beauty of Spring pic.twitter.com/K9Y0i32gHR
— Dede (@giannis2221963) March 30, 2020
After nearly two months of combating the spread of coronavirus, South Carolina has plateaued and should see the number of cases begin to drop off — but only if South Carolinians continue to keep their distance from one another.
That was the message Dr. Linda Bell, South Carolina’s state epidemiologist, gave to a meeting of the Midlands Coronavirus Task Force on Thursday.
“We are at the plateau, but we are not on a downward trend, and we want to see a downward trend,” Bell said. As the state’s economy now begins to reopen, “I cannot emphasize enough that we have to maintain social distancing.”
That’s particularly important in the Midlands, where Richland County has been hit with the largest number of cases in the state, especially in the African-American community. Bell said Richland ranks fifth statewide in the per capita rate of cases, at 174 per 100,000 residents. As of Tuesday, 15 people have died of COVID-19 in Richland County, also the highest in the state.
Keep your distance as SC begins to reopen, or COVID-19 cases could grow. https://t.co/lZbTs1v7OE
— The State Newspaper (@thestate) April 23, 2020
Stand here awhile and drink the silence in.
Shields of forgotten chivalry, and rolls
Of honour for the young men gunned at Ypres,
And other monuments of our brief lives
Stand for the presence here of saints and souls
Who stood where you stand, to be blessed like you;
Clouds of witness to unclouded light
Shining this moment, in this place for you.
Hatley St. George; a poem for St. George’s Day https://t.co/kFmhm99vaU pic.twitter.com/BBN4sAIboq
— Malcolm Guite (@malcolmguite) April 23, 2020
In consultation with Bishop Lawrence and the Wardens, we agreed to delay the announcement while so much was unknown. Although our current situation still has many question marks, the initial shock of COVID-19 has past, and it remains uncertain when we shall re-gather. Again, in consultation with wise counsel, I have decided to invite you into
the midst of this journey we are on as a family. We would appreciate your love and prayers as we walk into a new season with plenty of unknowns.
If you have limited experience with Parkinson’s Disease (PD) as I did, you should know that Parkinson’s is a neuron-condition which affects the brains dopamine-producing cells. Thislack of dopamine causes a myriad of fairly unpredictable symptoms in the bodies of those afflicted. PD is a “snowflake disease” with no set pattern of symptoms and no known cause or cure. Statistically, I am slightly young to have PD with the average age of onset being 55.Because of the advances in treatment, PD does not generally shorten one’s lifespan.
My prognosis in the near term (10 years+) is good. I have been on a medicine and exercise regimen since January that has produced some very good results….
The Rector of Saint Helena’s, Beaufort, writes the parish he serves about his medical situation https://t.co/GBYCr513hf #parishministry #family #marriage #children #health #southcarolina #anglican pic.twitter.com/sbyZyDT4Ka
— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) April 23, 2020
A PCC treasurer has been told by Ecclesiastical Insurance that its policies do not cover the coronavirus pandemic.
Mary Woolley, a parochial church councillor for the 13th-century Grade II* listed St Mary the Virgin, Lynton, in Devon, tried to make a claim under the business interruption clause, covering loss of earnings and closure owing to disease. But, when she contacted the insurer, she was turned down.
“They said: ‘No chance on either count. Sorry, but there you go.’ That hit a nerve,” she said. “Ecclesiastical is in a slightly funny position in that it is owned by the Allchurches Trust, which gives money to charity — and we are a charity. It has strong links with the Church of England. Their reaction wasn’t: ‘We can feel your pain.’ It was, rather: ‘We couldn’t possibly help our churches in that way: we wouldn’t be able to afford it.’”
One third of her church’s income is raised through service collections and donations from tourists. “There are two sections in the policy covering lost earnings,” she said. “One was closure by public decree, which seemed to be pretty clear, but the answer was: ‘Ah, yes, but not for disease.’ The other was disease. There is a long and absolutely hilarious list of things for which we would be covered if we closed the church, such as leprosy and smallpox, but, unfortunately for us, Covid-19 wasn’t invented when the list was created.
It would not be viable for us to cover virus outbreaks, says Ecclesiastical Insurance https://t.co/ztujfXfdRE
— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) April 23, 2020
As the disciples preached in the earliest Christian sermons, “This Jesus God has raised up, of whom we are all witnesses . . . . Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” [Acts 2:32,36].
The Resurrection was not a dawning awareness of Christ’s continuing presence among the disciples, it was the literal, physical raising of Jesus’ body from the dead. The Church is founded upon the resurrected Lord, who appeared among His disciples and was seen by hundreds of others.
The Church does not have mere permission to celebrate the Resurrection, it has a mandate to proclaim the truth that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. The resurrected Lord gave the Church a sacred commission to take the gospel throughout the world. As Paul made clear, the resurrection of Christ also comes as a comfort to the believer, for His defeat of death is a foretaste and promise of our own resurrection by His power. “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality” [1 Corinthians 15:53].
So, as the Church gathers to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we should look backward in thankfulness to that empty tomb and forward to the fulfillment of Christ’s promises in us. For Resurrection Day is not merely a celebration”“it is truly preparation as well. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the promise of our resurrection from the dead, and of Christ’s total victory over sin and death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the very center of the Christian gospel. The empty tomb is full of power.
Happy Easter! Here we see Christ at Emmaus by Rembrandt, 1654 (The Rembrandt House Museum collection) #EasterSunday pic.twitter.com/nTklVUO9qK
— Museum Rembrandthuis (@Rembrandthuis) March 27, 2016
God of hosts,
who so kindled the flame of love
in the heart of your servant George
that he bore witness to the risen Lord
by his life and by his death:
give us the same faith and power of love
that we who rejoice in his triumphs
may come to share with him the fullness of the resurrection;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Saint George and the Dragon
– Raphael
(c.1506) pic.twitter.com/wiLdL8PtmQ
— Scott Birrell (@s_birrell) April 23, 2020
Charleston’s peninsula could become a walled city again for the first time in centuries if the results of a flooding protection study released Monday come to full fruition.
The preliminary plan — the results of 18 months of work by the Army Corps of Engineers — is the preferred path forward of seven different options the Corps considered. It would encircle much of the peninsula with a wall running almost 8 miles to keep out hurricane surge.
Gates would let water run into the marshes and two rivers that bound Charleston.
Five new pump stations would aim to avoid a “bathtub effect” and move rainfall out of the perimeter. A breakwater slightly offshore of the peninsula’s southern tip would be designed to slow down damaging waves.
That, and efforts to flood-proof a few structures outside the barrier, come to an unprecedented total for a flooding project in Charleston: $1.75 billion.
Charleston’s peninsula could be walled in under new $1.75B flood prevention plan https://t.co/IBFOLxVqaq pic.twitter.com/QMhrQk8XZF
— CoastalNews365 (@CoastalNews365) April 22, 2020
Almighty God, who didst commission thy holy martyr George to bear before the rulers of this world the banner of the cross: Strengthen us in our battles against the great serpent of sin and evil, that we too may attain the crown of eternal life; through Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who livest and reignest with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
St George & the Dragon on title page to ‘Constitutiones legitime seu legatine regionis anglicane’, 1504 #StGeorgesDay pic.twitter.com/eXtbz6vcwP
— LambethPalaceLibrary (@lampallib) April 23, 2015
O Thou, who didst manifest thyself in the breaking of bread to thy disciples at Emmaus: Grant us ever through the same blessed sacrament of thy presence to know thee, and to love thee more and more with all our hearts. Abide with us, O Lord, that we may ever abide in thee; for thy tender mercy’s sake.
Jn20:27
Then he spoke toThomas,’Put your finger here;look,here are my hands.Give me your hand;put it into my side.Doubt no longer but believe.’Thomas replied’My Lord and my God!’Jesus said to him:
‘You believe because you can see me.
Happy are those who have not seen&yet believe’ pic.twitter.com/oiNxIIAhJs— Kalina Boulter (@KalinaBoulter) April 19, 2020
I love thee, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised,
and I am saved from my enemies.
The cords of death encompassed me,
the torrents of perdition assailed me;
the cords of Sheol entangled me,
the snares of death confronted me.
In my distress I called upon the Lord;
to my God I cried for help.
From his temple he heard my voice,
and my cry to him reached his ears
Then the earth reeled and rocked;
the foundations also of the mountains trembled
and quaked, because he was angry.
Smoke went up from his nostrils,
and devouring fire from his mouth;
glowing coals flamed forth from him.
He bowed the heavens, and came down;
thick darkness was under his feet.
He rode on a cherub, and flew;
he came swiftly upon the wings of the wind.
He made darkness his covering around him,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
Out of the brightness before him
there broke through his clouds
hailstones and coals of fire.
The Lord also thundered in the heavens,
and the Most High uttered his voice,
hailstones and coals of fire.
And he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;
he flashed forth lightnings, and routed them.
Then the channels of the sea were seen,
and the foundations of the world were laid bare,
at thy rebuke, O Lord,
at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.
He reached from on high, he took me,
he drew me out of many waters.
He delivered me from my strong enemy,
and from those who hated me;
for they were too mighty for me.
They came upon me in the day of my calamity;
but the Lord was my stay.
He brought me forth into a broad place;
he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
The Lord rewarded me according to my righteousness;
according to the cleanness of my hands he recompensed me.
–Psalm 18:1-20
I love thee, O LORD, my strength. Ps18:1 #Jesus #prayer #Christian #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/AAdrptnlzQ
— Tom (@1207go) April 7, 2017
State health officials have identified 160 new coronavirus cases in South Carolina, bringing the statewide total to 4,761.
S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control officials also announced Tuesday that five additional people have died after contacting COVID-19. In all, 140 South Carolinians have died from the virus.
Three of the patients who died were elderly, and were from Berkeley, Clarendon and Richland counties. The two others — who were from Greenville and Spartanburg counties — were middle-aged.
Richland County saw the largest increase in coronavirus cases with 34. Lexington County posted five new cases.
Coronavirus spreads to 160 more in South Carolina. Five more dead https://t.co/DE9kypqSpW
— George Harper (@GeorgeH36498765) April 22, 2020
In January, at a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, one diner infected with the novel coronavirus but not yet feeling sick appeared to have spread the disease to nine other people. One of the restaurant’s air-conditioners apparently blew the virus particles around the dining room.
There were 73 other diners who ate that day on the same floor of the five-story restaurant, and the good news is they did not become sick. Neither did the eight employees who were working on the floor at the time.
Chinese researchers described the incident in a paper that is to be published in the July issue of the Emerging Infectious Diseases, a journal published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The field study has limitations. The researchers, for example, did not perform experiments to simulate the airborne transmission.
That outbreak illustrates some of the challenges that restaurants will face when they try to reopen. Ventilation systems can create complex patterns of airflow and keep viruses aloft, so simply spacing tables six feet apart — the minimum distance that the C.D.C. advises you keep from other people — may not be sufficient to safeguard restaurant patrons.
In January, at a restaurant in Guangzhou, China, an infected diner who was not yet feeling sick appeared to have spread the coronavirus to nine other people. An air-conditioner apparently blew the virus particles around the dining room. https://t.co/IYlC4QJUdp
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 21, 2020
Abel León dreaded saying goodbye to his mother, Josefina León. Last month, Mr. León and his sister quietly celebrated their mother’s 70th birthday in Springfield, Ill. Mr. León, 44, who lives in Chicago, wasn’t sure when he would see his mother again amid social distancing. To prolong their goodbye, Mr. León suggested they say a rosary, a prayer that his mother has said every day for years.
“I saw how much that seemed to give her some peace,” Mr. León says. Then inspiration struck. “I said, ‘you know mom, we could stay in touch doing rosaries.’’’
The following evening, March 16, Mr. León and his three siblings joined their mother on a video conference to begin their new daily practice of saying the rosary, following along with a string of beads that represent the cycle of prayers. “This was a way we could just check in and be together as a family,” says Mr. León. “Mom is a widow and everyone worries about her.”
As word spread throughout Mr. León’s large extended family—his mother is one of 12 siblings—the rosary video-call quickly grew to include relatives spanning Ohio, Missouri, Michigan, California, North Carolina and Mexico. Mr. León, who works as a corporate-compliance investigator, offers the group technical support. Since his relatives are familiar with different video-conferencing services, Mr. León props up his iPad in front of his laptop screen, allowing people calling in through different services to see each other. “They can definitely all hear each other so it ends up working out,” he says.
It takes around 15 minutes for a critical mass of people to join the call at 8 p.m.
On a recent Sunday night, some 25 members of Abel León’s family dialed in to pray the rosary together https://t.co/DpCNRPi62j
— Jorge Luis Lopez Esq (@lopezgovlaw) April 22, 2020
All year, death, after death, after death.
Then today look how majestically clouds float in the sky
–Barbara Ras (1949- )
Such a rare spell of calm sunny settled weather for #Shetland. The only clouds are those which have fallen doon oot o the sky. pic.twitter.com/HwpZnj08Df
— Helen Moncrieff (@helenmoncrieff) April 22, 2020
The Christian faith declares that in and through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, God does all it would take to ensure fear, violence, poverty, death and disease will not have the last word. Bearing the load of others and sharing in suffering was integral to this but the keynote, ringing out that first Easter Day, is hope and new beginnings from the darkest of times.
We know the Covid-19 crisis will bring massive challenges to world economies including our own. It is a grave threat but it holds out an opportunity, and that is to build on what we have learned personally and collectively about being at our best for one another, especially in relation to the most vulnerable in our society.
Rather than sinking us, our challenge could lead us to consider and embrace pathways which would have seemed impossible before the crisis; perhaps a wholesale rethinking of what a healthy society needs at its heart in a new reality where less could turn out to be more. I wonder whether appreciation of each other’s contributions might become a new normal rather than criticism.The Easter narratives in the Bible may be pretty harrowing but they peak with breaking the hold of death and giving confidence in the goodness of God no matter what. So for you and those you love and care for this Easter, may tears be wiped away, fears relieved and the eternal song of hope and gratitude revive your soul.
Bishop Lee Rayfield @LeeRayfield is in our studio with @benpratershow now, looking at some of the stories in today’s newspapers pic.twitter.com/dLaxL8NJ8E
— BBC Radio Wiltshire (@BBCWiltshire) December 19, 2018
Tucked on a short rural street in McClellanville, Greater Howard Chapel is used to seeing about 125 members on a Sunday.
But amid the coronavirus pandemic, the AME congregation is reaching hundreds, if not thousands, more through its online services.
An Easter drive-in worship experience welcomed members who parked cars on a grassy lot as they listened to songs from musicians and a message from the Rev. Leondra Stoney.
About 300 people had tuned in to watch the service live via the church’s Facebook page. By mid-week, the video had more than 7,000 views.
“I definitely wasn’t expecting it,” said Stoney, who noted she was more focused during Resurrection Sunday on drive-in logistics, such as maintaining internet access in the rural area.
Some South Carolina religious institutions are reaching more people through online worship experiences than they did when members sat in the pews.https://t.co/QKzZ2oBcT7
— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) April 21, 2020
The world is facing multiple famines of “biblical proportions” in just a matter of months, the UN has said, warning that the coronavirus pandemic will push an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation.
The world is facing multiple famines of “biblical proportions” in just a matter of months, the UN has said, warning that the coronavirus pandemic will push an additional 130 million people to the brink of starvation. https://t.co/TBqEwfbqPw
— CNN (@CNN) April 22, 2020
In this tomb, also, you may see, A pledge to us…Yes, verily, it is a pledge,
Of Christ’s power to raise us to a spiritual life -The resurrection of Christ is set forth in the Scriptures as a pattern of that which is to be accomplished in all his followers; and by the very same power too, that effected that. In the Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul draws the parallel with a minuteness and accuracy that are truly astonishing. He prays for them, that they may know what is the exceeding greatness of God’s power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places.” And then he says, concerning them, “God, who is rich in mercy, of his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us usi together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus^” Here, I say, you see Christ dead, quickened, raised, and seated in glory; and his believing people quickened from their death in sins, and raised with him, and seated too with him in the highest heavens. The same thing is stated also, and the same parallel is drawn in the Epistle to the Romans ; where it is said, “We are buried with Christ by baptism into death; that, like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” But can this be effected in us ? I answer, Behold the tomb ! Who raised the Lord Jesus? He himself said, ” I have power to lay down my life, and power to take it up again….”
–Horae homileticae, Sermon 1414
Anastasis, mosaic, in the monastery of Hosios Loukas, situated near the town of Distomo (Mount Helicon), in #Boeotia, #Greece.https://t.co/2s8lqIDKVBhttps://t.co/g1nuqRQBc8 pic.twitter.com/yl7f4e3EMp
— ChristianArchaeology (@Christianarcheo) April 21, 2019
O Lord God, who hast revealed in holy Scripture what conquests faith has made both in doing, and in suffering: Grant us no smaller faith than that which overcometh the whole world, that Jesus thy Son is God, very God from the beginning, the First and the Last, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Ghost, world without end.
—Daily Prayer, Eric Milner-White and G. W. Briggs, eds. (London: Penguin Books 1959 edition of the 1941 original)
Mountain house and view of alps in spring#photo #nature #beautiful #weekend #pics #traveling pic.twitter.com/WKQp9zesB1
— Enjoy Nature 🌻+☀️=💛 (@EnjoyNature) April 17, 2020
So put away all malice and all guile and insincerity and envy and all slander. Like newborn babes, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up to salvation; for you have tasted the kindness of the Lord.
Come to him, to that living stone, rejected by men but in God’s sight chosen and precious; and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture:
“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious,
and he who believes in him will not be put to shame.”
To you therefore who believe, he is precious, but for those who do not believe,
“The very stone which the builders rejected
has become the head of the corner,”
and
“A stone that will make men stumble,
a rock that will make them fall”;
for they stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, that you may declare the wonderful deeds of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were no people but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.
–1 Peter 2:1-10
kewgardens: These are Lithops, which are commonly known as flowering stones or living stones. Succulents within this genus look so similar to genuine stones that it can be tricky to tell if they’re real stones or plants. 🌱 pic.twitter.com/ze7cRxkeJm
— PrestatynBot (@NantHallRd) April 21, 2020
Though its locations have been closed, Goodwill has still been receiving donated goods. Limited staff have been sanitizing donations. Fink said when doors open, the retail stores should be fully stocked. Customers will notice some changes, like limits on how many people can be inside at once and directional signage.
“We want to make sure we’re protecting our community,” Fink said.
And given Goodwill’s purpose helping people get back to work, its services are more important than ever during coronavirus. Revenue from the retail stores funds the career centers.
Half-Moon Outfitters, which operates stores in Charleston, Greenville, Columbia, Mount Pleasant and North Charleston, said its stores were open Tuesday only for curbside service.
Katherine Smith, the company’s marketing director, said the sporting goods retailer was not ready to open its doors to customers just yet. The staff, she said, was busy restocking the stores and ensuring they had the right safety measures in place for when business does resume.
Half-Moon locations will have hand sanitizer available at the entrances to the stores and the employees will police how many customers are in the stores at one time.
Many SC retailers start to reopen after Gov. McMaster relaxes #coronavirus closures, but they wonder if customers will return https://t.co/D2qsDfikW5
— Andy Shain (@AndyShain) April 21, 2020
Widespread pulse oximetry screening for Covid pneumonia — whether people check themselves on home devices or go to clinics or doctors’ offices — could provide an early warning system for the kinds of breathing problems associated with Covid pneumonia.
People using the devices at home would want to consult with their doctors to reduce the number of people who come to the E.R. unnecessarily because they misinterpret their device. There also may be some patients who have unrecognized chronic lung problems and have borderline or slightly low oxygen saturations unrelated to Covid-19.
All patients who have tested positive for the coronavirus should have pulse oximetry monitoring for two weeks, the period during which Covid pneumonia typically develops. All persons with cough, fatigue and fevers should also have pulse oximeter monitoring even if they have not had virus testing, or even if their swab test was negative, because those tests are only about 70 percent accurate. A vast majority of Americans who have been exposed to the virus don’t know it.
This opinion piece recommends two weeks of home fingertip oxygen monitoring for people with Covid, to detect pneumonia signs early: The Infection That’s Silently Killing Coronavirus Patients https://t.co/bh7yzJ8jwu
— Sheri Fink (@sherifink) April 21, 2020
It is all such an unexpected surprise. So does Easter Sunday catch you by surprise? As winter is followed by spring, so for us Good Friday is followed by Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. I don’t suppose anyone woke up this morning and cried out ‘Easter Sunday—I wasn’t expecting that!’ As the seasons roll on, the church calendar helps us in many ways, but I wonder if in this regard it doesn’t serve us well. You probably expected Easter Sunday, expected an Easter egg, expected to come to church and perhaps even expected to hear this reading.
Yet the message of Easter is not (apologies Mr Cameron!) about taking responsibility, and hard-working families, and doing your duty. It has nothing to do with that! Easter is about the unexpected thing that God does—that he surprises us with his grace. No-one was expecting this. No-one was expecting one person to be raised from the dead, now. Of course, faithful Jews were looking for the resurrection of the dead—but this was going to come at the end of the age, when (as Isaiah prophesied) the heavens and the earth were going to be wrapped up like a worn-out garment, and there would be a new heaven and a new earth—and the dead would be raised, and all would be judged. That is what they were expected—but this, Jesus’ resurrection, caught them completely by surprise.
A blessed Easter! Zalig Pasen!
Michelangelo
Sketch for a scene of the Resurrection pic.twitter.com/gePGrHD8xI— Rembrandt’s Room 🖌 (@RembrandtsRoom) April 12, 2020
Risen Christ,
for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:
open the doors of our hearts,
that we may seek the good of others
and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,
to the praise of God the Father
Amen.
Red hydrangea or hortensia field on a sunny day#flowers #landscape #nature pic.twitter.com/bGaWyd8uww
— Enjoy Nature 🌻+☀️=💛 (@EnjoyNature) April 17, 2020
Over the past few weeks, we have seen something quite extraordinary. Without too much legal threat, we have voluntarily submitted to severe abstinence, denying ourselves the rights to mix freely, to go to pubs and restaurants, to watch live sport, to shake hands, to travel to work. As we go through this period of collective self-abnegation, the suppression of our personal ambitions and desires, we are learning how to redirect our personal longings for a greater good, to sacrifice what we would normally like to do for the good of the whole.
We are learning that for a society to work, and to stave off the threats that confront it, the prioritisation of individual choice on its own is not enough. A society cannot survive if each one of us pursues our own self-chosen goals independent of everyone else. We have to exercise restraint, the Queen’s “self-discipline and resolve,” to learn the capacity to sacrifice our own desires for the sake of the wider community.
To address the potentially even more serious challenges of climate change, or the elimination of global poverty, for example, will require an even greater and longer exercise in self-restraint. The question is, when this is all over, whether we will go back to what we have been used to in the recent past, or whether we will restore something of an equilibrium between the demands of individual ambition and the common good.
Saint Paul once wrote that the Christian idea of grace, the notion that we are recipients of goodness that we didn’t create, “teaches us to say ‘No’ to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.” It may sound quaint and Victorian. But unless we can learn to live self-controlled, disciplined lives, a little more like the ones we’re having to lead right now, there will be little future for our planet or the people who live on it. Maybe coronavirus is giving us a crash course in a different moral universe—one that might just be the saving of us.
Some thoughts on the moral implications of Coronavirus and lockdown.
How coronavirus is giving us a crash course in a different moral universe https://t.co/wK1M8GFzdz via @prospect_uk
— Graham Tomlin (@gtomlin) April 17, 2020
In recent days I have found myself thinking a great deal about Richard Peirson.
In 1665, the year of the Great Plague, Peirson was the priest here at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street, the post that I now hold. Faced with the unimaginable horror of the plague, many clergy fled London. Peirson was one of the few who chose to remain. He stayed at his post, faithfully serving his people as best he could, for the whole of that terrible year.
Our burial register for the year 1665 makes for startling reading. Our parish was a densely populated area and the impact of the plague was devastating. In the month of September alone, when the plague was at its height, Peirson buried 636 people — 43 of them on a single day. There are so many burials that he signs his name at the bottom of each page of the register, rather than against individual entries. He buries whole families; he buries his church officials; he buries unknown and unidentified strangers: some entries read simply: “A child from Kingshead Ally” or “A man from new street”. The symptoms of bubonic plague were horrific and the recovery rate was effectively nil.
I can’t help wondering how Peirson kept going during that year. I wonder what he prayed about and how it affected his faith; I wonder what kept him here, quietly and steadfastly ministering to his flock, day after dreadful day, when every human instinct within him must have craved escape. And Peirson was not alone….
Read it all (subscription).
BOOK 1. 11. What it is to sin, and to make satisfaction for sin.
Anselm.We must ask how God gets rid of men’s sins, but first what is sin itself means.
Boso. You explain and I will listen.
Anselm. If a man or angel always gave to God what is due to him, he would never sin.
Boso. I cannot deny that.
Anselm. So sin is simply not giving God what we owe.
Boso. What debt do we owe to God?
Anselm. To subject every wish to his will.
Boso. That’s perfectly true.
Anselm. No one who pays this debt commits sin. Everyone who does not pay it does sin. This is the righteousness of the heart, of the will, and it is the sole and complete debt which we owe to God, and which God requires of us. If someone sins, he has to restore what he has taken away, before he can be clear of fault . So then, every one who sins ought to pay back the honor of which he has robbed God. This is the satisfaction which every sinner owes to God.
Boso. This is somewhat alarming, but I cannot make any rational objection to it.
Today is the feast of Saint Anselm of Canterbury, who died #OnThisDay in 1109. This image of the Trinity decorates the opening folio of MS A.IV.25, a 15th-century manuscript of Anselm’s prayers and meditations. #OTD pic.twitter.com/1Iq0MO63K3
— Durham Cathedral Library (@BedesBooks) April 21, 2020
Almighty God, who didst raise up thy servant Anselm to teach the Church of his day to understand its faith in thine eternal Being, perfect justice, and saving mercy: Provide thy Church in every age with devout and learned scholars and teachers, that we may be able to give a reason for the hope that is in us; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Happy feast of St Anselm. He was one of the great English saints who was Archbishop of Canterbury just after the Normal Conquest. A brilliant scholar and courageous pastor. The Wikipedia article is comprehensive.https://t.co/vkkSpdY4Uf pic.twitter.com/Dnn1YeWju9
— Fr Timothy Finigan (@FatherTF) April 21, 2020
Almighty God, who broughtest again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the glorious Prince of Salvation, with everlasting victory over sin and the grave: Grant us power, we beseech thee, to rise with him to newness of life, that we may overcome the world with the victory of faith, and have part at last in the resurrection of the just; through the merits of the same risen Saviour, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.
Yellow and Blue Flowers Meadow Lake Mountain Sky with Clouds pic.twitter.com/2KIdSefjU7
— Dede (@giannis2221963) April 20, 2020