As we enter the Jubilee of Mercy through the holy “door” of Mary let us take to heart the tender words that she spoke to her “Juanito” [her nickname for St. Juan Diego] during her visitations in 1531:
“Know and understand well . . . that I am the ever virgin Holy Mary, Mother of the True God for whom we live . . . I am your merciful mother, to you, and to all the inhabitants on this land and all the rest who love me, invoke and confide in me; [I listen] to their lamentations, and remedy all their miseries, afflictions and sorrows . . . Hear me and understand well . . . that nothing should frighten or grieve you. Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? Am I not your health? Are you not happily within my fold? What else do you wish?”
The season of Advent is unobserved and forgotten outside the Church. Christmas has become for many merely a pleasant diversion, a fantasia on wintry themes.
I don’t know about you, but for years now I have grown increasingly skeptical about a lot of the books and other products that continue to roll out from the publishing industry that surrounds the life and work of the great Oxford don and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.Don’t get me wrong. I have an entire room of my house that, basically, is dedicated to Eastern Orthodox icons, my family and C.S. Lewis. My son’s middle name is “Lewis” and we almost used “Jack” as his first name. I read “The Great Divorce” every year during Lent.But, honestly, it’s almost like we’ve reached the point where people would publish an annotated edition of this man’s grocery lists, should they become available. There are still fine books being published about the Narnian, but I’ve grown more skeptical about some of work produced by the C.S. Lewis industrial complex.And then someone comes up with an interesting twist in the life of Lewis. In this case, Christianity Today has just published an online essay — by scholar Harry Lee Poe of Union University here in Tennessee — that is a bit of a news scoop. It argues that, while no one is claiming Lewis ever ran around with a gun and a decoder ring, the young Oxford don appears to have done some work for MI6, as in Her Majesty’s Secret Service.Yes, you read that right. This kind of adds a new layer of meaning to discussions of an “Inner Ring” and talk about devilish high-ranking agents working with case officers to snare souls. Here is how it starts:
Source: Holy Screwtape! Young C.S. Lewis secretly worked with MI6? — GetReligion
Be Holy! 