Michael Vernon McEntire's Blog – February 2014 Archive (6)

Scripture and history reveal that early Christians, like the Old Testament worshippers of YHVH, fasted a lot.  My experience is that twenty-first century Christians don't understand it.  They don't understand what letting yourself get hungry has to do with Salvation or spirituality.  The thing is, God has had a lot to say about fasting.  He has rewarded fasting with answered prayers and revelations.  He has acknowledged fasting as an acceptable form of penance.  He has also spoken out…

So, what does a monastic, an anchorite, do?  Most people would say, "They chant"; "They pray"; "They wear a habit"; "They make brandy."  While all of those things may be true (at least of some groups of cenobitic monks or nuns), probably the more important or revealing question is, "Why do they do those things?"  And the answer may be even more vague for Third Order monastics like myself.  We are usually called "Oblates."  The definition of that word answers the question.  Most literate…

I have read Job's Book several times.  The first few times were, perhaps not perfunctory, but at least with academic detachment.  I wanted to master the literary form and content of Job's Book so that I could answer test questions about it.  The first time I read it with real understanding, the God of Job scared me.  This is a God who strips away family members as if they were chatel.  I knew grief.  The incurable grief of losing a spouse, a child, to death, can be crushing.  I didn't want…

We are married to Christ!  Have you had your honeymoon with your your Beautiful Savior-Bridegroom, a period of time when you thought of nothing but Him?  If so, have you now returned to "business as usual"?  Unfortunately, my first honeymoon (many years ago) was in Disneyland which was a huge distraction, so my wife and I came home not knowing each other any better than we did before we were married.  I had a second honeymoon at a very nice resort hotel, but there was too much tennis,…

It's about devotion.  I'm talking about the kind of devotion that we naturally, without any kind of compulsion, give to our Lover.  Even though I am 66 years old, I easily remember the last time I was in love with a woman.  I thought about her constantly.  It was hard to do anything else.  I wanted only to be with her.  The intensity of my feelings could easily be compared to fire.  Once we were married, I often felt that I wanted to join with her so completely that we would become one.  But…

Protestants tend to think of any kind of monasticism as being a Roman Catholic thing, but there were monks long before the Roman Catholic Church existed.  The first monks were probably those who came out of first, second, and third century Jerusalem, Syria, and Egypt.  At first, they were not bound by any particular monastic order (like the Order of Saint Benedict), and the only vows they were bound by were the ones they made directly to God.  However, they tended to have certain things in…