So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
-- Ephesians 2:19-22 (ESV)
John Chrysostom, Homily on Ephesians:
He says "built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets." Do not be disturbed by the order. The cornerstone unites the two walls. Christ holds together both Jews and Gentiles in one structure, and the whole building rises not by human effort but by the power of the Spirit who dwells within.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together:
The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community. Christ is the foundation, not our plans for what the building should look like.
Augustine, City of God, Book XIX:
Peace between mortals is an ordered concord in giving and obeying commands. The peace of all things is the tranquility of order. Order is the disposition of equal and unequal things in their proper places. A man who builds his house on anything other than this order does not build at all -- he merely raises a ruin.
Benedict of Nursia, The Rule, Chapter 48:
Idleness is the enemy of the soul. Therefore the brethren must be occupied at certain times in manual labor, and again at other times in sacred reading. Let all things be done with moderation, because of the fainthearted.
What structure are you building today that will stand when the inspection you cannot schedule arrives?
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, VIII.32:
How many who were praised in their lifetimes are now forgotten. And how many who praised them are dead. You have embarked, you have made the voyage, you have come to shore -- now get out. If to another life, there is no want of gods, not even there. But if to a state without sensation, you will no longer be subject to pain and pleasure, but a slave to the body which served as your vessel -- a vessel of clay, and what is inside it is a daemon and a handful of days.
St. Clair, MI -- Wednesday, July 30
- Currently 60°F (feels like 49°F), Clear
- High 86°F / Low 60°F
- Wind 12 mph NNW, Humidity 86%
- Sunrise 6:19 AM / Sunset 8:53 PM