Mental Health & PROOF that Jesus Christ was a Contemplative

Jesus is the expert and our very source of contemplation.

Good mental health depends on so many factors. One of them is managing our stress. How we handle stress depends on what thoughts we allow into our mind and how much of those thoughts we entertain and act upon.  Contemplative prayer not only connects us with God but also has a positive effect on our mental health. In this article, I briefly outline the theology of mental health and that Jesus…

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The Judgment Of Solomon / Mike, Walt, & Jesse

5x01 - Live Free or Die / Valentin de Boulogne / “Split the Baby” Negotiations - Philip Krause / William Blake / 1 Kings 3:24-27 - KJV / 5x03 - Hazard Pay / José de Ribera / 5x04 - Fifty-One / Peter Paul Rubens / 5x06 - Buyout / William Dyce / Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino / 5x07 - Say My Name

What remains today of Newton's fundamental breakthrough? Modern life, our system of education founded on the requirements of punctuality, scholastic exercises on the charts of train schedules, geographic maps—all this inculcates in us, from childhood, a very Newtonian idea of space and time. This is why we have such difficulty perceiving the absurdity of questions such as"What lies beyond the limits of the universe?" or "What existed before the creation of the world—or before the Big Bang?" We marvel at the apparent modernness of Saint Augustine, who was already addressing similar questions fifteen centuries ago: "Time did not exist before heavens and earth.” But few among us know or have really assimilated the Kantian critique of the concepts of space and time. Kant constructed this critique specifically to chart the boundaries between knowledge and faith, to free science from metaphysical presuppositions, to deliver geometry from the shadow of theology to which Newton had in fact ascribed it. For Kant, space and time are not things in themselves but "forms of intuition”—in other words, they constitute a canvas that allows us to decipher the existence of the world. According to Kant, things "in themselves" are neither in space nor in time. It is the human mind that, in the very act of perception, superimposes these categories, which are its own and without which perception would be impossible. This does not exactly mean that space and time are illusions or pure inventions of the human mind. These frameworks are imposed on us through empirical contact with nature and are not, therefore, "arbitrary.” They no more belong to things in themselves than they belong to the mind alone; rather, they exist because of the dialogue between the mind and things. They are, in the final analysis, an unavoidable product of motion itself by means of which the mind searches to apprehend—to understand—the outside world.

Rémy Lestienne, The Children of Time: Causality, Entropy, Becoming

Aaron Hotchner is a Martyr [a ramble]

"We were promised sufferings. It was part of the program. We were even told, "Blessed are they that mourn,' and I accept it. I've got nothing that I haven't bargained for. Of course, it is different when the thing happens to oneself, not to others, and in reality, not imagination." (C. S. Lewis) ~ A Grief Observed

We all know that all the characters in Criminal Minds are tragic characters. They have to be. But I think Hotch takes a great bunch of the burden, and we don't even see him suffer really, and if he does it's often in silence. He takes and gives it all for the team. What hasn't he given?

His marriage

His career

His very own body and blood

Or lost?

Hailey

Emily

Strauss

The Unsub who told him, "You're the only good man I've ever known."

And these things get thrown in his face again and again and again, and he still takes it for the team. If that's not sacrifice for the sake of something bigger than himself then I don't know what is.

To add to all this, we know that he is keenly aware that he is not winning as it were. Because when he was a lawyer he saw how corrupt and terrible the legal system was. He felt like he was too late. And as Unit Chief, even when the team solves a case, that's not winning either. Because people are still dead and he's aware that his job relies on people to continue dying. If they didn't, there wouldn't need to be a BAU.

And he metaphorically dies again and again, and we grieve with him, and our faith is strengthened in his suffering.

Seriously one of the most confounding things in the world is pop-Christian moralizing.

"Is ASMR ok for Christians?? 🤨🤔😧" I'm not sure in what world it would be sinful to listen to soothing brushing, ocean sounds, and tapping, yet someone felt the need to ask the question, and someone else felt the need to make a YouTube video answering it. (I didn't watch it, so I don't know the verdict, but somehow you're trusting the verdict to a rando on YouTube and not Discernment from God?)

"Christian facials" because having a hot towel on your face and putting on serum is in any way aligned with a religion or lack thereof, and therefore needs to/even Can be made Christian?

"Christian-friendly sex positions" and the only difference is it's stick figures instead of realistic drawings, and instead of male/female or penetrator/receiver, it's husband/wife. Because you know those goofy health-book illustrations were distracting you from the righteous goal at hand: eating your girl out. But you can't call her your girl, you have to make it clear to everyone seeing you have sex (which... is just the 2 of you, right?) that you're having Good and Not Sinful sex, because you, a Husband, are Married to your Wife. Side note: the stick figures actively make it harder to figure out the intricacies of any of the positions and therefore are objectively shittier at doing what they're made to do.

Christian soap, christian mints, christian calendars, christian music, christian curtains, christian fiction, christian restaurants, christian news, christian shops. There are things in the world that are OK being secular. The fact that your soap does not have an icthus sign etched in that washes away in 3 days anyway does not make you a bad person, or even a bad christian. Your home does not need something Christian™️ in every room for people (or yourself!) not to forget you're christian... I assume?

The king who must say he is king, etcetera. This kind of mindset is so boggling to me, and reeks of nominative faith and deeeeep insecurity. Retail therapy but instead of buying temporary happiness you're buying temporary grace. Being so beholden to the dogma of organized religion that you go to any person feigning authority on the subject rather than using your own brain to make a decision. The idea that things can only be okay to interact with if they're explicitly christian, as though interacting with it as a christian doesn't inherently put it through a christian lens; as though you can only get things trickled down to you from church authority figures with robust enough constitutions to judge what's ok for you because you don't have the ability to think critically; as though you should stay away from what's "sinful" rather than, LIKE JESUS, be able to go into it and be a good example; as though instead of learning to be capable of handling it, you should be as weak to sin as possible; as though you have to go through the world with kid gloves because touching something dirty would soil your soul (which, of course this implies, is sparkling - impossible, arrogant, and kind of denying God, lol [actually, not lol, I'm expanding on that. Denying God by refusing to admit your own sin. Denying God by refusing his grace because you won't admit your own sin. Denying God by acting like his power couldn't absolve something as simple as being exposed to sin, let alone if you did end up making a miatake. Denying God by keeping yourself in Good Christian spaces and not being there for people who need outside help. There's more but I digress]).

Also, the childish áffect of refusing to say things as they are because that would be bad, but referring to it in euphamism is fine - or, transversely, that using colloquialisms is bad, but medical speak is fine, depending on what breed of crackpot christian you're dealing with. "Hanky-panky" just say sex. "Adult drinks" just say wine, beer, liquor. "Flower" for the love of all that is holy just say vulva/vagina/virginity. "Breasts" is fine to describe your chest but "boobs" is not. You can say "buttocks" but not "butt". Discussing bathroom activities is decisively not cool but if utterly necessary you must say "urine" and "feces" because pee and poop are too pedestrian.

Like, entire side tangent, but the weirdly widespread christian-ism of not discussing things frankly or discussing them super detachedly, but both preferring to never discuss them at all, regarding anything "potentially sinful" or "not spiritually uplifting" (usually boiling down to "anything physical") is so whack to me. Do not discuss your period, even in female spaces, because it's tmi. Don't talk about your health issues if they're not Clean enough subjects, even as something to pray about (like breast/prostate cancer, shitting diseases). Don't ever talk about your sex life except to wiggle your eyebrows at your kids when they're old enough. Don't hug your male friends, daughter. Don't play with your little cousins, son. Sex is so so bad but everything is about it, actually. Sex is so so great which is why you should feel guilty about ever wanting it. All nudity is sexual. Dress so they know you're a woman but also that you're a lady. Fart jokes are not allowed. You must remember that all men are looking at you with lust at all times but you can't hold that against them. All things that get you sweaty or muddy are bad. Hair on women is unnatural but just dandy for men, except we can't talk about pubic hair so you're just going to have to figure out on your own if it's less sinful to not think about your vag enough to do anything to it or to ensure you're free of all sinful hair. Here's how to do makeup in a god-honoring way, because you couldn't know on your own, and you must both jump through this hoop to be acceptable to your men but not have enough fun and personal expression with it for it to become anything other than a chore. It is wrong to kill, which is why we support the troops. We are supposed to help the poor, which is why I drive past the beggars that are dirty and ragged and smelly. We are supposed to celebrate God with our bodies, which is why my most spiritually moved state equates to slightly raising my arms.

I can't close this post without including my oft-quoted favorite example of this weird-ass pop-Christian phenomenon translating to real-life people in real-time thoughts: my mom saying she had to take into account "which ice cream flavor is most glorifying to God" at a froyo shop. Either it's raspberry, or she chose sin that day.

Christians who hate fantasy are so funny to me. As if the capability and act of creation isn't exactly what it means to be made in the image of God.

a catholic found my 'human bodies are flawed we are not perfect in gods image' and said some shit like 'its because HUMANS are flawed and committed ORIGINAL SIN and now we're STILL PAYING FOR IT' which leads me to the next question. why was it so bad that we obtained knowledge and morality. why was it so fuckin vital to god that we remain ignorant and unquestioning. why is the act of elevating ourselves above the rank of 'glorified pet' so horrific that we still pay for it to this day in the form of bodies that fail and die. and why do you agree that it was bad. and why do you think that judaism, the religion where knowledge and questioning and debate and interpretation are foundational to worship and study, does not use the idea that humans are inherently perfect to guilt and scare people into obedience for a sin that you did not commit? would you punish a child for the sins of their parent? if so, why? what's wrong with you??

What really strikes me now while taking a deeper look at the relationship structures in Dracula is, that it is basically a fight between greed/ and giving

All of Dracula's relationships, between the dead and the living alike, are based on greed and hunger. They are isolated, calculating, and self serving.

On contrast we have the soon to be vampire hunters, who are just so incredibly giving. ALL their relationships are marked by a willingness to care for one another. Whether with kindness, companionship, help, care in times of need down to giving literally ones last drop of blood, they are interconnected by an unselfish giving love that unites and strengthens then, forming the polar opposite to the vampire's logic and actions.

Death and The Human Thread

What happens when I die?

Firstly, the body will be attended to by various humans, both ones who loved you and complete strangers. You should come to appreciate these strangers while you are alive and still capable of thinking. They will gather, mourn, and do their best to remember you throughout their own short lives. Perhaps they will pass on your memory for generations, perhaps not. Eventually, ‘you’ as you were during your lifetime will be forgotten. 

Meanwhile, the body will rot. The earth will take back the nutrients she gifted you and you will become food for fungus and insects. They will become food for plants and animals and they, too, will rot. While forgotten, your body will live on like this in the circle of life, as an endless and holy part of the Earth. Take comfort in this. 

The mind, the self as you have come to know it, will cease to exist without the body's energy to power it. However, you will find in death you have little use for the self. You will not feel, think, want, need, or experience. This concept may scare or disturb you, but remember that this is the state you existed in during the eternity before you were born into your body. It's not a change, but a return to your original state. Before you were born, were you afraid? No. You weren't anything at all. 

Your spirit, a single thread, no longer tethered to this plane through your body and mind, will return to the Tapestry of Human Spirit. Though you will no longer be conscious, the time you spent, the things you felt, saw, learned, and experienced will all enrich the Tapestry, in the same way your body nourishes the Earth. This will all serve to guide humans during their lifetimes, both long before and after your short time on Earth, as the Spirit exists outside of time. No matter how lonely you may feel now, every joy and every sorrow you have felt will be shared with every other human soul in the Great Tapestry. 

“People are reluctant to pass over from the notion of an abstract and negative deity to the living God. I do not wonder. Here lies the deepest tap-root of Pantheism and of the objection to traditional imagery. It was hated not, at bottom, because it pictured Him as a man but because it pictured Him as king, or even as warrior.

The Pantheist’s God does nothing, demands nothing. He is there if you wish for Him, like a book on a shelf. He will not pursue you. There is no danger that at any time heaven and earth should flee away at His glance. If He were the truth, then we could really say that all the Christian images-of kingship were a historical accident of which our religion ought to be cleansed.

It is with a shock that we discover them to be indispensable. You have had a shock like that before, in connection with smaller matters –when the line pulls at your hand, when something breathes beside you in the darkness. So here; the shock comes at the precise moment when the thrill of life is communicated to us along the clue we have been following. It is always shocking to meet life where we thought we were alone. “Look out! ” we cry, “it’s alive.”

And therefore this is the very point at which so many draw back–I would have done so myself if I could–and proceed no further with Christianity.

An “impersonal God” -well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and goodness, inside our own heads –better still. A formless life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap –best of all. But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps approaching at an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband-that is quite another matter.

There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at burglars hush suddenly: was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God”!) suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?”

- C.S. Lewis, Miracles

📠

one thing i like about the new job is that public service really drives home how diverse and interesting any random sample of people actually is. you kind of can't keep thinking that there's one single way in which ordinary life typically goes when you're dropped into the middle of other people's lives on a daily basis. like within two weeks at a public service job in the most boring town imaginable someone will come in and be like hi i'm blind, can i have some adjustments for my advanced degree. hi my grandmother died, can i have an extension. hi i moved here from taiwan literally two months ago and misunderstood some instructions, can i repeat this process. hi i'm competing at the olympics, can i put my studies on hold.

there's just this certain kind of rhetoric that wants to make you belive that A Normal Person is this or that and their life goes this or that way, when really there's no limit to the chaos of human experience or to the endlessly new-shuffled variations of Circumstances and i'd defy anyone who believes otherwise to keep believing it after one day in public service

Bodies

Sign early on that I was trans but did not clock until later in my life: I never really wanted to be a man.

I genuinely did not know that most boys actually did want to be a man. Or that they found that they could relate to their role models in some way.

I honestly didn't have any role models. There wasn't really a lot of people I wanted to be like. I always thought it was weird that my guy friends could idealize themselves into being a pro basketball or baseball player. And when I got to high school, and they started getting sports scholarships and being scouted for athletics, it never clicked for me that "oh, they're going into actual adult sports because they are adults now and wanting to be a sports player was them preparing to become one as an adult."

I wanted to be a writer. That was my big dream as a young person. It was the only thing that held interest for me, the only thing that made sense for me to do. I liked teaching, I liked creating, I liked coming up with interesting ideas, but a writer is uniquely disembodied. There is a level of distance between one's body and the words that one can produce upon a page. It is an intellectual exercise, even removed from things like mathematics or science, because a story is an ethereal thing. Even more than music, a story existed in the mind, and I found that purity of disembodied-ness compelling.

I didn't want to have a body. I didn't know why I didn't want to have a body, though. I figured I was stuck with a lemon of a body anyways. Even when I was at my athletic peak, even when I ran every day and lifted weights, I was always pretty awful at doing things with my body. My body and I have always been at odds.

There was a time when I was more sports minded, when I was a part of a swim team--but I hated taking my shirt off. I hated being perceived, because of how I looked. It was more than me being fat. It was that I was the wrong shape. I was the wrong body. There was an inherent wrongness to my existence that I could not name, did not have the words to explain, outside of "I'm not very athletic" and "I'm fat." No amount of exercise or diet or shame would ever remove that wrongness. I would never look or feel like other people. I would always bear a complete and utter wrongness of body, and I think that is why I lost myself in my academic and professional pursuits.

As long as I was smart, nobody cared that I was fat, or that I was... shaped wrong. As long as I could keep them thinking, as long as I could keep them distracted, I could not be perceived, but rather my mind, the real me, would be what they saw. My words became my body, and I found words far more malleable than my body.

But my words are not what people interact with. My words are not the vehicle I experienced the world with. There was a complete and utter disjointedness to my being, because I was never going to be comfortable with being seen as this thing that I was. Clothes would never fit right, nor feel right. My face would be hidden behind a beard because it was easier to exist if I never had to see myself. I wore baggy clothes. I liked office wear and casual, baggy tees. Because these were Acceptable. And it just... was. I couldn't do anything about it. I'd never lose the weight, not to the satisfaction of the world. But more than that, I'd never feel myself, because my body and the things that I thought of as my self were so separated.

As I began research for my PhD, however, this disjointedness of body and mind could not continue. My research into theories of mind, theories of self, theories of the soul, led me to the inescapable conclusion that I actually was my body. That one could not actually separate mind from body, not in any real way, because mind and body and soul are all the same damn thing. It's all a monad, a single entity. To separate it out is to kill the whole thing.

I had sat with this truth for years. Sat with this belief in the monadic quality of the body and self. It was fact. Truth. Inescapable. And I had to admit that yes, this was my body. But it never felt mine. It never felt like I owned it. And I had to interrogate why.

In the background, of course, my politics propelled me forward. I was progressive, then radical. I'm an anarchist, in that I do not believe in unjust hierarchies, or rather, that unjust hierarchies should not be allowed to exist. That we ought to dismantle the injustice of the world because it dehumanizes us all. In my beliefs, I encountered more and more trans people. And because of that, the idea of gender finally began to snugly fit in that place where the wrongness of my self existed. Gender slowly came into focus.

For a while, I was content to simply exist as a very feminine man. That everyone knew that I tended to go against masculinity in a lot of ways, that I did not behave as a typical man would. Yet even I didn't quite know how deep it went... until I allowed myself to question it all. Allowed myself to look back into my life, my relationship with my body, and see that I've always known that it was wrong.

I know that it's cliche to say that "I'm a woman born with the wrong body," but honestly it is a helpful model for people beginning to understand how gender and sex can be at odds. However, the thing that is true for me is that... I didn't always know it. I didn't know that I was a female in the body of a male, because I didn't know that I could be female at all. That gender presentation was something that could be addressed. That body could be changed to match what feels better for a person.

As of this writing, I'm a little less than four months into HRT. Things are changing slowly. My hormone levels are good, though, and I feel better than I have in actual years. Probably all my life. I'm able to access my emotions better (sometimes a little TOO well). I'm beginning to notice some changes in my body shape. I swear I look younger. It's going to be a long time--most likely around 3 years or more--for the full effects to take place. They are happening.

I'm still not 100% comfortable with my body, and I'm sure there will always be a level of discomfort there. But any comfort is better than the none that I lived with for far too long in my life. I will take all the joy and happiness and comfort that I've began to feel in the past four months. I will take it and run with it. I'm finally beginning to feel like a self, united in body and mind.

There's a scene where Alex shared some info about his friend Josh. He said Josh's dad wanted him to become a politician. Now I'm curious about what Alex's dad wanted and what Nigel's parents wanted. Were Nigel's talents and inclinations considered in choosing his career? Similarly, I'm curious about Alex.

When evolutionary theory is framed as a paradigm for understanding the human person in the light of Jesus Christ, we are free to follow the scientific evidence where it leads. The importance of this freedom is the recognition that evolutionary theory opens up the possibility of a certain type of world and a particular way in which human beings inhabit this world. It pushes us to think about our embodiment, our particular human identity, as it is deeply interconnected with the created world and about a type of embodied spirituality that is opened up to suffering and death in new ways. This way of thinking about evolutionary theory in relation to Jesus Christ provides new ways of thinking about the creation, about the nature of sin, about human finitude, and about the power of death and resurrection.

Denis O. Lamoureux, emphasis mine

#catholic #oiko

People be like: "Why do you know so many lyrics?"

It's so that I can use musical lyrics to describe a K-Pop song in a theological context!

Quote: Eclipse is the badass in the arena when you wanna write a youth sermon