Showing items filed under “The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin”

Sister and Brother Saints

 The Sunday service began with a procession, in honor of the day. Between the choir and clergy, Sunday school children entered, costumed as their chosen saint and carrying various symbols. I have seen this in other churches, as I suspect many of my readers have: a desire to counter the Halloween costumes with, as it were, Hallow costumes, for Hallowe’en is the eve of All Hallows Day. Saints are the real thing, the originals; devils and sinners are derivative!

    After church I was talking with Joan of Arc. She had a grey plastic sword, a cardboard shield, and (as I recall) some sort of headgear. She also had a little brother in a brown tunic, who was St. Francis. I asked her if St. Francis had ever told her to lay down her sword. She sensed the impertinence of my question and ignored it just like you would expect a regal person to do.

She told me that she liked being Joan of Arc because she could command men and they had to listen to her. “Except,” she said, poking her sword into the chest of the man next to her, who looked like he could have been her father — "except this one; he never listens to me.”

    St. Francis seemed to pay no attention to her. I think he understood the demands of peace in the given situation. But looking at her, I thought: this one has the makings of a leader in important conflicts; she could develop a compelling Christian voice.

    And then I thought: It’s good to have both Francis and Joan in the same family of faith.

— 

    Out & About: Coming talks on Augustine’s Confessions: In Dallas, at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, on Sunday, November 9, I will teach on Book IV, and on November 23, on Book V; this class is in the Great Hall at 10:20 a.m. 

    Also at St. Matthew’s on November 9: at 5 p.m. the Good Books & Good Talk will have its final 2025 seminar.We will discuss T. S. Eliot’s hit play, “Murder in the Cathedral.” Anyone interested is welcome to come; if you read the play, you’ll be welcome to talk. We run to 6:30 and meet on the 2nd floor of Garrett Hall; from about 4:45 there will be someone at the door to let you in. (Garrett Hall is the building across the green from the cathedral.)

    On Sunday, November 16, I am to preach at St. Nicholas Church in Flower Mound, Tex.; the service is at 10 a.m.

    On the Web: A short essay of mine, “All Souls,” is up at the Human Life Review. It begins: 

    “When Saint Paul visited Athens and saw the abundance of statues of the gods they worshiped, he observed: “I see you Athenians are very religious.” If Paul were to visit the United States in the month of October, he would no doubt say, “I see you Americans are very superstitious,” referring to the skeletons, ghosts, vampires, giant arachnids, and dishes of blood. . . . When the day itself arrives, the cry of “trick or treat” echoes the need to appease the undead in order to keep them away from us. As a pinch of incense before the marble Zeus, so is the Mars bar tossed in the vampire’s bag.”

    To read more, go to https://humanlifereview.com/all-souls/.  

Posted by The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin with

Three Conversations

The morning runners were standing in the coffee shop, talking; I was theoretically writing in my journal but my attention was distracted. They were talking about “the city,” as in, “Are you going to the city a day early?” I thought: we’re in Dallas; what is this “city” they’re talking about? It being October, it turned out they were talking about the New York City marathon. My eyes couldn’t resist: I lifted my head to look at them. I had to see these god-like blessed humans for myself. You don’t just decide you’ll go run the NYC marathon: you have to apply and you have to have excellent running times to make the cut. Physical gods as they might have been, their conversation was young-professional practical: where to stay, what to see beforehand, whether they nabbed a good flight.

— 

    It was the airline that has recently announced that, out of financial envy, it wants to be just like all the other miserable airlines. But the change hasn’t happened yet, which means conversation still has to occur as you line up. “I’m B-2,” I said to the young woman in the line I was joining; “are you B-1?” Having sorted our proper order, we talked about New York and Dallas, discovering we each had lived in both cities but in reverse order. A Dallasite, she was about to experience her first winter in New York, for which she had invested in first heavy coat ever. I told her of giving away a heavy wool cape to a young colleague of mine who moved (Dallas to New York) last year; I had not worn it since leaving “the city.” We compared winters and bemoaned the insane driving in Texas when it snows. 

— 

    Once on the plane, I nabbed a window seat. The other passenger in the row (the middle seat unclaimed) wore a rumpled suit. He had been in New York for work, visiting various book publishers. “I hope you’re not a print-on-demand company,” I said. No, his company makes books, good books. When asked, I told him I was a priest and theologian. He named a small Catholic press and asked if I knew of it. I was enthusiastic: I admire their books very much; their paperbacks are quality with sewn signatures (the pages never fall out) and cover flaps. He said, We make their books—at least, some of them.

— 

    None of these conversations has a sequel. The runners will be in this weekend’s marathon; the Dallasite will be back in “the city” having visited her family; the book maker is doing his part to keep his company going. Their lives go on, as does mine. We are not friends. But these simple conversations are an important part of our lives as we eat and walk and fly and work. Oliver O’Donovan says they are “friendly” connections. They are ways of saying to other people, Although you and I are not actually friends in this life, if in God’s providence it should turn out that we became friends, that would not be a bad thing.

    We strive to be friendly, because God’s eternal intention may be for us to be friends.

— 

    Out & About: Talks on Augustine’s Confessions continue, at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, on Sunday, November 9. This will be on Book IV in the Great Hall at 10:20 a.m. You are welcome to attend regardless of whether you've read the book.Also on November 9 at St. Matthew’s, at 5 p.m., the Good Books & Good Talk will have its final 2025 seminar. We will be discussing T. S. Eliot’s hit play, “Murder in the Cathedral.” Anyone interested is welcome to come; if you read the play, you’ll be welcome to talk. We run to 6:30 and meet on the 2nd floor of Garrett Hall; from about 4:45 there will be someone at the door to let you in.

    On Sunday, November 16, I am to preach at St. Nicholas Church in Flower Mound, Tex.

    On the Web: The publisher Wipf & Stock has their whole stock on sale for roughly the next month; 50% off and free media mail shipping in the U.S. They publish lots of books, including one by yours truly (A Post-Covid Catechesis, a short book on five important Christian claims today) and several volumes in the Pro Ecclesia series. The website is wipfandstock.com; the code is CONFSHIP.

Posted by The Rev. Canon Dr. Victor Lee Austin with

12345678910 ... 194195

The Rev. Canon Victor Lee Austin. Ph.D., is the Theologian-in-Residence for the diocese and is the author of several books including, "Friendship: The Heart of Being Human" and "A Post-Covid Catechesis.: 

Categories
Authors
Archive