NEWS BRIEFS
The New Christian Year Selected by Charles Williams
Charles Walter Stansby Williams (1886–1945), the editor of the following selections, is today probably the third most famous of the famous Inklings literary group of Oxford, England, which existed in the middle of the 20th century, and which included among its ranks the better-known and longer-lived Oxford Dons J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis—but he was arguably the most precocious and well-read of this eminent and intellectually fertile group. He was also known to have influenced Dorothy Sayers, T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden. Lacking a proper degree unlike his fellow Inklings, this genius Cockney-speaking author, editor, critic, and playwright was eminently well-versed in both philosophical and theological writings of the remote past as of the present day (the mid-20th century) and used this familiarity to good effect in his poetry, supernatural fiction and his lesser-known devotional selections designed for the spiritual benefit of the faithful in the Church of England. This series of profound quotations, encompassing all walks of life, follows the sequence of the themes and Bible readings anciently appointed for contemplation throughout the church's year, beginning with Advent (i.e., December) and ending in November, and reaches far beyond the pale of the philosophical and theological discussions of his day. It was under his hand, for instance, that some of the first translations of Kierkegaard were made available to the wider public. It is hoped that the readings reproduced here will prove beneficial for any who read them, whatever their place in life's journey. — Matthew Carver
NEWS BRIEFS ‘The Contributor’ partners with Big Machine Distillery Big Machine Distillery and The Contributor are partnering to give paper vendors hand sanitizer to distribute alongside the newspaper. “It will be a long while until vendors’ incomes move back up as streets will still be emptier and people have less cash,” says Cathy Jennings, director of The Contributor. “We are grateful that Big Machine is partnering with us and believe the city will benefit from having sanitizer easily available! We hope this effort gives our vendors another tool in which to earn income.” Big Machine Distillery has committed to jumpstarting the effort by giving 1,000 individual-sized bottles of hand sanitizer to The Contributor. “We continue to feel blessed during these challenging times to be able to support Nashvillians in need,” says Big Machine Distillery EVP, Mark Borchetta. “The Contributor has proven to be a light for so many in our community, and we are happy to be partnering with them to further their efforts.” Big Machine Distillery started making hand sanitizer in March in response to the global COVID-19 pandemic. The sanitizer is 80 percent alcohol and made in accordance with FDA and WHO guidelines. The bottles of Big Machine Hand Sanitizer will be co-branded with The Contributor and provided to the newspaper vendors. “Our vendors are concerned with keeping safe and making sure their customers are safe also,” says Jennings. “They are committed to doing everything they can to prevent the spread of the virus.” Families with children may be eligible for EBT resources The Tennessee Department of Human Services and the Tennessee Department of Education announced Tennessee families are now eligible to receive financial support for their children’s nutritional needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This support is provided through the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer program. Under the new P-EBT program, families of children who receive free or reduced meals at school or attend a Community Eligibility Provision
additional relief from P-EBT will be helpful during this time of uncertainty for families and it is important to make sure every eligible family knows about the program.” Throughout the COVID-19 school closures, many districts and schools across Tennessee used innovative ways to continue delivering meals to students and families, such as “grab and go” options, drive-throughs, or bus delivery, and on average provided 1.5 million meals a week.
school may receive financial assistance to replace school meals during the months of March, April and May due to COVID-19 school closures. The program will provide parents with $5.70 per child for each day that child qualifies for P-EBT. “Families across our state depend on the meals their children receive at school and many were not prepared to immediately replace those meals when schools shut down for COVID-19,” said TDHS Commissioner Danielle W. Barnes. “The P-EBT program brings economic support to ensure children receive the nutrition they need. Helping families through this emergency is how we continue building a thriving Tennessee.” Parents who already receive Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits currently do not need to apply. The funds began
arriving on the EBT card they already use beginning June 12. Parents who do not receive SNAP benefits, but whose children do qualify for free or reduced school meals, will need to apply for P-EBT online here beginning June 15. The application period will end June 29, 2020. Individuals who need assistance completing their P-EBT application or have general questions about the program are encouraged to call the TDHS hotline at 1-833-496-0661 and select option 3. Qualifying families will receive P-EBT support in two installments, one for meals in March and April initially, and then one additional disbursement later next month for May meals. “During the COVID-19 school closures, we saw an incredible, herculean effort to keep providing meal services to students and families,” said TDOE Commissioner Penny Schwinn. “This
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Tennessee legislators pass restrictive abortion bill The Tennessee General Assembly passed one of the most restrictive abortion bills in the country after voting on it in the middle of the night while constituents were sleeping. The legislation, which is likely an attempt to move toward a Roe v. Wade challenge, criminalizes medical professionals who perform an abortion after six weeks. The bill also restricts the reasons a woman can have an abortion and includes language prohibiting abortion at multiple points in a woman’s pregnancy. The American Civil Liberties Union in Tennesse says it’s an attempt to ensure that abortion access is taken away even if the courts strike down the six-week ban portion of the bill. The bill would also require woman seeking an abortion to undergo an ultrasound where a doctor must describe the images. This bill effectively outlaws abortion in the state of Tennessee. “The Tennessee General Assembly’s passage of this dangerous, f latly unconstitutional bill is unacceptable,” said Hedy Weinberg, ACLU-TN executive director. “Lawmakers used this measure in a game of political maneuvering to pass the state budget – pushing it through without regard for the actual Tennesseans who will be denied access to the care they need, including abortion. Lack of access to abortion care particularly harms those struggling financially and those who already face significant barriers to health care, including people of color, people with limited incomes, rural people, and young people. Politicians should not be deciding what is best for women and certainly not making reproductive health care decisions for them. As promised, we will see them in court.”
3rd Wednesday after Trinity
The Feast of St. Peter
4th Friday after Trinity
WHILE Pilate now fainteth in the righteousness that he knoweth and is sure of, and holdeth not on stoutly, as he should, to deliver Christ, God suffereth him still to fall till he come to this point, that he condemneth the innocent to death against his own conscience. Thus goeth it with all those that for the grace of God lent unto them are unthankful and unfaithful in the little. Coverdale: Fruitful Lessons on the Passion.
[OF the Cross] Its breadth lies in the transverse beam on which the hands of the Crucified are extended; and signifies good works in all the breadth of love: its length extends from the transverse beam to the ground, and is that whereto the back and feet are affixed; and signifies perseverance through the whole length of time to the end: its height is in the summit, which rises upwards above the transverse beam; and signifies the supernal goal, to which all works have reference, since all things that are done well and perseveringly, in respect of their breadth and length, are to be done also with due regard to the exalted character of the divine rewards: its depth is found in the part that is fixed into the ground; for there it is both concealed and invisible, and yet from thence spring up all those parts that are outstanding and evident to the senses; just as all that is good in us proceeds from the depths of the grace of God, which is beyond the reach of human comprehension and judgement. St Augustine: On I John.
ABBA John used to say, "We relinquish a light burden when we condemn ourselves, but we take upon ourselves a heavy burden when we justify ourselves." The Paradise of the Fathers.
3rd Thursday after Trinity IT is not always grave suffering that is most likely to help one die to the world. No, that can also give joie de vivre, spiritual joie de vivre. No, the most deadening things of all are worldly hardships, mere trifles. Kierkegaard: Journals. CHILDHOOD in Christ is perfection with reference to the law. St Clement: The Paedagogue.
3rd Friday after Trinity GOD knew every good work that thou shouldest do, every good thought that thou shouldest think to thy end, before thy beginning, for he of his own goodness imprinted this degree of goodness in thee; but yet assure thyself, that he loves thee in another manner, and another measure, then, when thou comest really to do those good works, than before, or when thou didst only conceive a purpose of doing them: he calls them good when he sees them. Donne: Sermons.
3rd Saturday after Trinity WHAT is God's forgiving sinful man? It is nothing else in its whole nature but God's making him righteous again. There is no other forgiveness of sin but being made free from it. Therefore, the compassionate love of God that forgives sin, is no other than God's love of His own righteousness, for the sake of which and through the love of which He makes man righteous again. William Law: Letters. GOD and the worshipper are adapted to one another, happily, blissfully, as never were lovers adapter to one another. It is now the only wish of the worshipper to become weaker and weaker, for with that the more worship; the only need worship feels is that God may become stronger and stronger. Kierkegaard: Christian Discourses.
4th Monday after Trinity IT is well worth observing that our Saviour's greatest trials were near the end of His process or life—that He then experienced the sharpest part of our redemption. This might sufficiently show us that our first awakenings have carried us but a little way; that we should not then begin to be self-assured of our own salvation, but remember that we stand at a great distance from and in great ignorance of our severest trials. William Law: Christian Regeneration.
4th Tuesday after Trinity MANY things seem to be good and yet are not, because they be not done with a good mind and intention; and therefore our Saviour saith in the Gospel, If thy eye has naught, all thy body shall be dark. For when the intention is wicked, all the work with followeth is naught, although it seemed to be never so good. St Gregory the Great: Dialogues.
4th Wednesday after Trinity NOR do all these, youth out of infancy, or age out of youth, arise so, as a phoenix out of the ashes of another phoenix formerly dead, but as a wasp, or a serpent out of carrion, or as a snake out of dung; our youth is worse than our infancy, and our age worse than our youths; our youth is hungry and thirsty after those sins which our infancy knew not, and our age is sorry and angry that it cannot pursue those sins which our youth did. Donne: Sermons.
4th Thursday after Trinity
Third Sunday after Trinity SO new, so unheard of, so unexpected in this world is the power of God unto salvation, that it can appear among us, be received and understood by us, only as a contradiction. The Gospel does not expound or recommend itself. It does not negotiate or plead, threaten, or make promises. It withdraws itself always when it is not listened to for its own sake. Barth: The Epistle to the Romans.
LORD, before I commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow that I may wade through it dry-shod from any guiltiness; but when I have committed it, it often seems so deep that I cannot escape without drowning. Thomas Fuller: Good Thoughts in Bad Times. IF thou knewest thy sins, thou wouldst lose heart. Pascal: Pensées.
I LOVE thee more ardently than thou hast loved thine abominations. Pascal: Pensées.
4th Saturday after Trinity THE ten Commandments, when written by God on the tables of stone and given to man, did not then first begin to belong to man; they had their existence in man, were born with him, they lay as a seed and power of goodness, hidden in the form and make of his soul and altogether inseparable from it, before they were shown to man on tables of stone. And when they were shown to man on tables of stone, they were only outward imitations of that which was inwardly in man, though not legible because of that impurity of flesh and blood in which they were drowned and swallowed up. William Law: The Spirit of Love.
Fourth Sunday after Trinity WHAT is Christ's joy in us, but that He deigns to rejoice on our account? And what is our joy, which He says shall be full, but to have fellowship with Him? He had perfect joy on our account, when He rejoiced in the foreknowing, and predestinating us; but that joy was not in us, because then we did not exist: it began to be in us, when He called us. And this joy we rightly call our own, this joy wherewith we shall be blessed; which is begun in the faith of them who are born again, and shall be fulfilled in the reward of them who rise again. St Augustine, quoted in Aquinas, Catena Aurea.
5th Monday after Trinity THOUGH he were innocence itself, and knew no sin, yet there was no sin that he knew not, for, all our sins were his. He was not only made man, and by taking (by admitting, though not by committing) our sins, as well as our nature, sinful man; but he was made sin for our sakes. Donne: Sermons. THY conversion is My affair; fear not, and pray with confidence as for Me. Pascal: Pensées.
5th Tuesday after Trinity CONSIDER that Jesus suffered in His heart with all the knowledge of a God, and that in His heart there was every human heart and every form of suffering from Adam until the consummation of the world. Ah yes, to suffer for others can be a great joy if one has a generous soul, but to suffer in others is to really suffer! Léon Bloy: Letters to his Fiancée. THE Jews, in testing if he were God, have shown that he was man. Pascal: Pensées.
June 24 - July 8, 2020 | The Contributor | NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE | PAGE 5
