Saint Augustine Puns

Was just now able to upgrade from 200 level to pit tickets for a fee via ticketmaster. I suspect my old 200 level tickets will pop up as available momentarily as well.

After reading City of God I have started in on all of Augustine’s works and my Christianity is becoming more and more Augustinian by the minute. In De providentia Augustine writes that God actively pushed some parents whose babies were going to die to baptize their child so that baby would go to heaven while actively blocking other parents in the same circumstance from baptizing their child so that the baby would go to hell; and beyond the question of the fate of dead babies says that God essentially micromanages every aspect of creation down to the moment when a leaf falls from a tree, including the hearts and minds and circumstances of every person so that some are pulled into the church and thus salvation and others and pushed away from the church and toward damnation. That is double predestination and limited atonement, and the Catholic Church named those as heresies in their condemnations of the Calvinists and the Jansenists.

It’s my understanding that those who the RCC sees as unrepentant heretics can’t be saints, which is why Origen and Tertullian aren’t called saints despite their enormous significance in the development of Christian theology and the early Church. Why then is Augustine a saint, and not just a saint but one of less than 40 Doctors of the Church?

“God, in his promises to hear our prayers, is desirous to bestow Himself upon us; if you find anything better than Him, ask it; but if you ask anything beneath Him, you put an affront upon Him, and hurt yourself by preferring to Him a creature which He framed: Pray in the spirit and sentiment of love, in which the royal prophet said to Him, ‘Thou, O Lord, are my portion.’ Let others choose to themselves portions among creatures, for my part, You are my portion, You alone I have chosen for my whole inheritance.” -- St. Augustine of Canterbury

5.14.2021: Quick update. Grass is looking better…but still could use a boost. I tested my soil and found I had a severe nitrogen deficiency. I just used a product from Simple Lawn Solutions and in a few weeks I’ll post another update. lawn progress. Saint Augustine

https://imgur.com/gallery/sYS2XRx

Original post: Normally a healthy lush lawn...this year my grass looks horrible. I’m wondering if I possibly have a fungus? It doesn’t seem to have the defined borders/patches....but it does seem like it’s a big square in the middle of my lawn. Dead grass pulls away easily. Could it be from the snow we had this winter? Other SA lawns in the neighborhood seem okay.

The edges are all dead and I’ve never seen so many weeds. Lots of dark tufts of grass, etc.

Here are some pics: https://imgur.com/gallery/h5jhLNK

I’m new to this thread and recently learned not to use the standard bag of weed and feed (oops!). I last applied Scott’s Southern Plus a month ago. I also use grubEx.

I’d prefer to learn how to take this on myself and not sign up for a monthly service so any thoughts are greatly appreciated! Thank you!

“There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity. It is this which drives us on to discover the secrets of nature, those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which men should not wish to learn. . . In this immense forest full of pitfalls and perils, I have drawn myself back, and pulled myself away from these thorns. In the midst of all these things which float unceasingly around me in everyday life, I am never surprised at any of them . . I no longer dream of the stars”

I'm from Arizona and I start in the fall! Really excited I got in somewhere! Just wondering if anyone who has gone or does go there has any advice for me, or would like to share anything about the campus/city/their experience there. Thanks!

The Easter alleluia

Our thoughts in this present life should turn on the praise of God, because it is in praising God that we shall rejoice for ever in the life to come; and no one can be ready for the next life unless he trains himself for it now. So we praise God during our earthly life, and at the same time we make our petitions to him. Our praise is expressed with joy, our petitions with yearning. We have been promised something we do not yet possess, and because the promise was made by one who keeps his word, we trust him and are glad; but insofar as possession is delayed, we can only long and yearn for it. It is good for us to persevere in longing until we receive what was promised, and yearning is over; then praise alone will remain.

Because there are these two periods of time – the one that now is, beset with the trials and troubles of this life, and the other yet to come, a life of everlasting serenity and joy – we are given two liturgical seasons, one before Easter and the other after. The season before Easter signifies the troubles in which we live here and now, while the time after Easter which we are celebrating at present signifies the happiness that will be ours in the future. What we commemorate before Easter is what we experience in this life; what we celebrate after Easter points to something we do not yet possess. This is why we keep the first season with fasting and prayer; but now the fast is over and we devote the present season to praise. Such is the meaning of the Alleluia we sing.

Both these periods are represented and demonstrated for us in Christ our head. The Lord’s passion depicts for us our present life of trial – shows how we must suffer and be afflicted and finally die. The Lord’s resurrection and glorification show us the life that will be given to us in the future.

Now therefore, brethren, we urge you to praise God. That is what we are all telling each other when we say Alleluia. You say to your neighbour, “Praise the Lord!” and he says the same to you. We are all urging one another to praise the Lord, and all thereby doing what each of us urges the other to do. But see that your praise comes from your whole being; in other words, see that you praise God not with your lips and voices alone, but with your minds, your lives and all your actions.

We are praising God now, assembled as we are here in church; but when we go on our various ways again, it seems as if we cease to praise God. But provided we do not

So here I sit on the balcony of the B&B room my fiancé and I will be sharing for one more night of a long weekend getaway, and I’m reflecting on the experience thus far, as a pipe smoker.

On the plus side, it’s a great little historic yet tourist trap downtown to trod through as you enjoy bowl after bowl on a brisk (for northern FL) mid-February afternoon. Plenty to see, experience and buy.

But tinned pipe tobacco is not one of those things, my friends. There’s something like half a dozen tobacco/cigar shops within a half mile of each other, and here’s the official tally:

One (Stogie’s) has a few pipes and maybe half a dozen bulk tobacco varieties, but all aromatics.

One (Smokers Depot) actually has tinned tobacco: four varieties of the Erik Stokkebye 4th Generation brand. I bought one of the straight Virginia (1855?) tins and was on my way. Hey, at least they had SOMETHING, even if it’s not exactly old favorites.

The other three or four shops couldn’t be bothered to cater to the niche pipe smoking crowd.

It’s disappointing, but I’m glad I packed accordingly.

Maybe next getaway, we’ll end up somewhere with a decent tobacconist... I know those get harder to find every year...