☩ I: SWORDS INTO PLOUGHSHARES
from Isaiah 2:4
And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
from Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, 110
...Two advents of Christ have been announced: the one, in which He is set forth as suffering, inglorious, dishonoured, and crucified; but the other, in which He shall come from heaven with glory, when the man of apostasy, who speaks strange things against the Most High, shall venture to do unlawful deeds on the earth against us the Christians, who, having learned the true worship of God from the law, and the word which went forth from Jerusalem by means of the apostles of Jesus, have fled for safety to the God of Jacob and God of Israel; and we who were filled with war, and mutual slaughter, and every wickedness, have each through the whole earth changed our warlike weapons,— our swords into ploughshares, and our spears into implements of tillage, —and we cultivate piety, righteousness, philanthropy, faith, and hope, which we have from the Father Himself through Him who was crucified.
II: THE TRUE IMMACULATE DEATH OF THE DOVE
from Magnus, by George Mackay Brown
‘Hakon and Magnus will meet face to face,’ said Havard, ‘a thing that hasn’t happened in fifteen months. All the best lawmen in Orkney will be there. The differences between the earls will be freely and frankly discussed. The cards will be on the table. A peace treaty will be made, with us – the magnates of Orkney – as guarantors. With frankness on both sides, I don’t see how anything but good can come out of this.’
‘The important thing is this,’ said Sigurd. ‘We, not the earls, will be in charge of the situation. Nor has the King of Norway been invited to attend.’
The old woman had moved round the church a bit further. She crouched at the stone feet of the Virgin. Would the kind holy Lady see to it that Jock got a rabbit for the fire at night. She was hungry. She “crouched at the stone feet of the Virgin. Would the kind holy Lady see to it that Jock got a rabbit for the fire at night. She was hungry. She must see how bad the eyes were now. Hail Mary.
‘Here in Birsay,’ said the bishop, ‘we will pray for the dove to fall.’
‘What dove, father?’ said Sighvat.
‘A small splash of white among the deluges and the thunder,’ said the bishop. ‘A branch across the beak, brought we think from the tree of innocence and atonement. A simple blessing on the things that men propose.’
They moved, all six, towards the main door.
‘All I know is,’ said Finn, ‘that there is to be a peace meeting.’
They went out into a blaze of light.
‘Peace-making,’ said the bishop, ‘is at best the patching of an old coat. To make true peace, the pax Christi, is to weave the seamless garment.’"
“One by one, under the arch, they knelt and kissed Bishop William’s hand.
Havard Gunison put his knee to the cold stone last. His mouth touched the amethyst. He rose. ‘You will not come to Egilsay, Father?’ he said.”
“No,’ said the bishop.”
III: GOOD FOR BREATHING
When the War is Over by WS Merwin (from Lice)
When the war is over
We will be proud of course the air will be
Good for breathing at last
The water will have been improved the salmon
And the silence of heaven will migrate more perfectly
The dead will think the living are worth it we will know
Who we are
And we will all enlist again
IV: VIOLENCE IS OUR PREFERENCE
from an undated aphorism of Jacques Maritain
“Christian life is a creator of unity; we cherish dispersion. It is a creator of liberty; we go in quest of any sort of collective yoke. It is a creator of peace; and violence is our preference. The ills that rend us are what we love most in the world.
We do not want to be set free."
This last week a (very) long feature of mine on the cost of living crisis in the North-east of England was published in The Tablet; I have a review of the new Joseph Roth biography in the same issue, and a column in the previous. More to follow. It’s getting cold.
Wishing you a quiet night and a perfect end.☩