Just for tragic fun, for starters . . .
we could talk about the HUGUENOT MARTYRS.
(Though CALVINISM may save your life, it might not facilitate pleasing your wife . . .)
Tag Archives: Reformation Day
Martin Luther WHO ?
HAPPY REFORMATION DAY 2017
ALL SAINTS. ALL !
OCTOBER 31 (1517)
95 THESES on the WITTENBERG WALL !
Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
by Dr. Martin Luther (1517)
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light,
the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg,
under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther,
Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us,
may do so by letter.
Luther walks forth in yon majestic frame,
Bright beam of heaven, and heir of endless fame,
Born, like thyself, thro toils and griefs to wind,
From slavery’s chains to free the captive mind,
Brave adverse crowns, control the pontiff sway,
And bring benighted nations into day.
Remark what crowds his name around him brings,
Schools, synods, prelates, potentates and kings,
All gaining knowledge from his boundless store,
And join’d to shield him from the papal power.
First of his friends, see Frederic’s princely form
Ward from the sage divine the gathering storm,
In learned Wittemburgh secure his seat,
High throne of thought, religion’s safe retreat.
There sits Melancthon, mild as morning light,
And feuds, tho sacred, soften in his sight;
In terms so gentle flows his tuneful tongue,
Even cloister’d bigots join the pupil throng;
By all sectarian chiefs he lives approved,
By monarchs courted and by men beloved…
from: The Columbiad, Book IV by Joel Barlow
Beyond LUTHER HERE
All Hallow Seven
October 31st is a night to celebrate – to celebrate Absolute Truth.
It is a night to grasp the sinister magnitude of the predicament fallen humanity is in.
It is also a night to recall one’s childhood with truly sepulchral melancholy and nostalgia.
I have noted, in my years of this earthly pilgrimage, the degeneration of Halloween from what it was in childhood. I recall less commercial pressure to consume. There was more child-friendly fantasy when I was growing up. The culture had not yet begun to harden into a crassly consumerist rigor mortis yet – or maybe I didn’t notice that part of it so much. Am I just idealizing a vanished past? Possibly, yes… but the push to turn Halloween into a cannibalistic slasher-film is a real phenomenon and also a discernible symptom.
I am disgusted with the spectacle of Halloween in the USA. But I hold a grudging respect for what looks like a passing victory for death and the grave every year on the last gasp of October. Which brings me to Reformation Day:
In honor of St. Martin Luther, St. John Calvin and St. John Knox, I proclaim the ongoing triumph of the Reformation. October 31, Reformation Day, is a national day of celebration in Germany, Slovenia, Chile, and Scandinavia – and it should be here as well.
The wages of sin is death (the bitter) but the gift of God is eternal life (the sweet).
The night is still, and the frost it bites my face
I wear my silence like a mask and murmur like a ghost…
Trick or Treat – Trick or Treat: the bitter and the sweet
The carefree days are distant now / I wear my memories like a shroud
I try to speak but words collapse, echoing, echoing….
Trick or Treat – Trick or Treat: the bitter and the sweet
I wander though your sadness
Gazing at you with scorpion eyes: Halloween, Halloween…
A sweet reminder in the ice-blue nursery
Of a childish murder / of hidden luster – and she cries:
Trick or Treat – Trick or Treat: the bitter and the sweet
I wander through your sadness
Gazing at you with scorpion eyes: Halloween, Halloween…
Martin Luther WHO ?
HAPPY REFORMATION DAY 2012!
ALL SAINTS ! ALL ! OCTOBER 31 (1517)
95 THESES on the WITTENBERG WALL !
LONG LIVE St. Martin LUTHER,
St. John CALVIN
& St. John KNOX too !
Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
by Dr. Martin Luther (1517)
Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light,
the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg,
under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther,
Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
Luther walks forth in yon majestic frame,
Bright beam of heaven, and heir of endless fame,
Born, like thyself, thro toils and griefs to wind,
From slavery’s chains to free the captive mind,
Brave adverse crowns, control the pontiff sway,
And bring benighted nations into day.
Remark what crowds his name around him brings,
Schools, synods, prelates, potentates and kings,
All gaining knowledge from his boundless store,
And join’d to shield him from the papal power.
First of his friends, see Frederic’s princely form
Ward from the sage divine the gathering storm,
In learned Wittemburgh secure his seat,
High throne of thought, religion’s safe retreat.
There sits Melancthon, mild as morning light,
And feuds, tho sacred, soften in his sight;
In terms so gentle flows his tuneful tongue,
Even cloister’d bigots join the pupil throng;
By all sectarian chiefs he lives approved,
By monarchs courted and by men beloved…
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