1. Essays & Reflections:
John Panteleimon Monoussakis reminds us that the word quarantine “derives from the Italian expression
quaranta giorni
– that is, a period of 40 days during which any ship sailing to Venice had to remain moored away from the city’s port as a precaution against the plague. A quarantine, therefore, is first and foremost a temporal category, a mark of time, and only secondarily of space.” He goes on to note that the
quaranta giorni
spent in Venice borrows its name and meaning from the 40 days of Lent (
Quadragesima). Therefore, he concludes, every Lent is a sort of quarantine that calls us to suspend (fast from) any habit that attaches us to the world. Lenten fasting, then, is intended to create a distance between ourselves and the world and, as Monoussakis notes, the “quarantine of the coronavirus pandemic has forced upon all of us that distance. For the first time, Lent is ‘observed’ by the entire world.” The rest of the article attempts to read our current pandemic within the context of Lent.
Read the full article here.
2. Essays & Reflections: Is your church live streaming worship? Have you participated? Mine is and I have tried. I’m not a fan (it seems gnostic to me). Neither is Ephraim Radner, the Anglican priest and scholar who joined us at our 2019 Symposium. According to Radner, we should at least “think about why, to what end, and with what consequences.” By not live streaming, he suggests, we “would ‘suffer’ the fact that we cannot gather for worship; … We might learn to use the prayer book with our families, aloud, regularly – using an actual book, turning pages, touching paper. We might learn to sing hymns together, rather than listening to them broadcast through the computer. We might learn to become lonely (or finally to admit that we already are) and to cry out. We might learn to hunger and thirst even for the Bread of Life, for the Body of Christ, as many have done over the centuries in this or that place of desolation or confinement.” Alan Jacobs, Professor of Humanities at Baylor University, begs to differ. Pre-COVID-19 he had attended Morning Prayer at his parish twice in his life; post-COVID-19, last week he only missed one day of Morning Prayer. Read Radner’s thought-provoking piece here
and Jacob’s response to Radner here.
4. Books:
Today's recommended book from the revived Eighth Day Books catalog: 1000 Books to Read Before You Die: A Life-Changing List
by James Mustich. Read the review here.
6. Bible:
Is. 29:12-23, Gen. 12:1-7, and Prov. 14:15-26. Online here.
7. Liturgy:
Twice a year, at Easter and at Christmas, the Bishop of Rome offers an address and blessing called the Urbi et Orbi, translated into English as “to the city (of Rome) and to the world” (it’s also offered at the proclamation of a newly elected pope). In light of the coronavirus, this year Pope Francis decided to offer a special Urbi et Orbi today. His address is a beautiful reflection on Jesus calming the storm in Mk. 4:35-41. It’s a message of faith and hope for these dark times, times when “thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void, that stops everything as it passes by; we feel it in the air, we notice in people’s gestures, their glances give them away. We find ourselves afraid and lost.” So it is in this time of darkness, Pope Francis continues, that “we need the Lord, like ancient navigators needed the stars. Let us invite Jesus into the boats of our lives. Let us hand over our fears to him so that he can conquer them. Like the disciples, we will experience that with him on board there will be no shipwreck. Because this is God’s strength: turning to the good everything that happens to us, even the bad things. He brings serenity into our storms, because with God life never dies.” Read the whole address here
(scroll down past the synopsis).
8. Today’s Word from the Fathers, an admonition to repent and a reminder of our Lord’s patience, comes from the fourth homily of St. Macarius’ Fifty Spiritual Homilies: Therefore, O beloved brethren, since such good things have been offered to us and such wonderful promises have been made to us by the Lord, let us get rid of all obstacles. Let us renounce all love for the world and devote ourselves to that one good by a thorough seeking and yearning so that we may become sharers in that ineffable love of the Spirit about which St. Paul urged us to hasten after: “Seek after charity,” he says (1 Cor. 14:1), so that we may be considered worthy to be converted from our hardness by the right hand of the Most High and reach that spiritual sweetness and rest, having been wounded by the love of the Divine Spirit. // The Lord, indeed, is the Lover of mankind, so full of tender compassion whenever we turn completely toward Him and are freed from all things contrary. Even though we, in our supreme ignorance, childishness, and tendency toward evil, turn away from true life and place many impediments along our path because we really do not like to repent, nevertheless, He has great mercy on us. He patiently waits for us until we will be converted and return to Him and be enlightened in our inner selves that our faces may not be ashamed in the day of judgement.
**All books (and icons) in print available from Eighth Day Books.Please support an independent bookstore that believes in the eighth day resurrection of our God and Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Give them a call at 1.800.841.2541 or visit there website here. And don't forget Eighth Day Members
(Patrons+) receive 10% discount, plus lots of other perks! 
