Daily Archives: October 1, 2011

Walker Percy, Bourbon, and the Holy Ghost | First Things

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Ruminations on the spiritual power of bourbon, from Walker Percy, nonetheless: Walker Percy, Bourbon, and the Holy Ghost | First Things.

To return to more earthly spirits, bourbon is for Percy a way to be for a moment in the evening. Why might one take an evening cocktail? Baser reasons are: an addiction to alcohol, or the desire to appear sophisticated. Better reasons, according to Percy, are the aesthetic experience of the drink itself—the appearance, the aroma, the taste, the cheering effect of (moderate) ethanol on the brain. Another reason is that a drink incarnates the evening; it marks the shift from the active workday to a reflective time at home. One simply must choose a way to be at a five o’clock on a Wednesday evening. Instead surrendering to TV, Percy recommended making a proper southern julep. I prefer my bourbon as an old-fashioned, a drink that reflects the colors of an autumn day. “Love God and do what you will,” Saint Augustine advised. This presumes that you have allowed God’s grace to order you to love properly, and you have taken proper note of your own God-given gifts and dispositions. Then, praise God, and be.

Walker’s original essay can be read here.

 

St. Francis of Assisi–An otherwordly falling in love

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Tomorrow, Grace will have a Blessing of the Animals at our 10:00 service. It is one way in which we honor St. Francis of Assisi, whose feast day is October 4. St. Francis is fondly remembered for his love of creation and especially of animals, but he was much more than that. Here is an excerpt from a reflection on America’s “In all Things” blog:

The story of Francis encountering the San Damiano crucifix wonderfully illustrates what the great Jesuit theologian and philosopher Bernard Lonergan called “the Law of the Cross.” What was that?

When Lonergan pondered our salvation, he rejected the idea that the Father causes it through any act of external intrusion into history.   For Lonergan salvation isn’t something God accomplishes without our cooperation. God certainly doesn’t declare our alienation to be at an end because we’ve killed the Son. On the contrary, God saves us through our being drawn by love into the cross of Christ. The knowledge of the Son’s gift upon the cross compels our conversion, because it calls us to love. Lonergan defined conversion as “otherworldly falling in love.”

We’re meant to look upon Jesus, as Francis did in that Umbrian chapel, and fall in love. And having fallen in love, as any lover knows, the entire world is changed.

The entire post, written by Terrance W. Klein, is available here.