Will God allow our disobedience and idolatry to go unpunished? No, every sin is against the sovereignty, holiness, and goodness of God, and against his righteous law, and God is righteously angry with our sins and will punish them in his just judgment both in this life, and in the life to come. (New CityContinue reading “Catechism 18”
Author Archives: Matthew Pullar
From Ashes Part 5: “…all that I have written is but straw”
…if the evil which is the cause of sorrow be not so strong as to deprive one of the hope of avoiding it, although the soul be depressed in so far as, for the present, it fails to grasp that which it craves for; yet it retains the movement whereby to repulse that evil. If,Continue reading “From Ashes Part 5: “…all that I have written is but straw””
From Ashes Part 4: Sorrow’s Weight, Sorrow Wait
…a hurtful thing hurts yet more if we keep it shut up, because the soul is more intent on it: whereas if it be allowed to escape, the soul’s intention is dispersed as it were on outward things, so that the inward sorrow is lessened. (Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Part I-II, Question 38) Deep, deep theContinue reading “From Ashes Part 4: Sorrow’s Weight, Sorrow Wait”
From Ashes Part 3: Mental “Health” in the Valley of Weeping
I shame at mine unworthyness, yet fain would be at one with thee. Thou art a joy in heaviness, a succour in necessity. (John Dowland, Tears of Lamentacions of a Sorrowfull Soul) So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because ofContinue reading “From Ashes Part 3: Mental “Health” in the Valley of Weeping”
Catechism 17
What is idolatry? Idolatry is trusting in created things rather than the Creator for our hope and happiness, significance and security. (New City Catechism) Unclear the moment when the tree ceases to be an ornament, a source of food, a sign of flourishing, Continue reading “Catechism 17”
From Ashes Part 2: Black Bile and Tears
Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased, Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow, Raze out the written troubles of the brain And with some sweet oblivious antidote Cleanse the stuffed bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart? (William Shakespeare, Macbeth) Melancholy, though it so weakens and disorders the mind, asContinue reading “From Ashes Part 2: Black Bile and Tears”
Remember our dust…
Well, as Easter week draws to a close so does my series of Lenten and Easter reflections. But Easter season continues for some weeks now, and my prayer is that we can all use this season to remind ourselves of what is a daily truth: that God’s people are a resurrection people. Here, to bringContinue reading “Remember our dust…”
Easter Friday
The seed sown in good soil dies, yet gives life thirty, sixty, one hundred times over. Some seed will scatter, be lost, when cares and trials come to choke, to scorch like sun’s temptation. Yet seed which dies gladly is more than seed, more than earth, more than the narrowness of our dust’s conceptions…
From Ashes Part 1: Melancholy and Silence
When I announced, both on my blog and on Twitter, that I would be writing a series of pieces on significant Christians’ struggles with mental illness and asked for suggestions, I had thought I was onto a good thing. I had in mind as a starting point the stories which had brought me greatContinue reading “From Ashes Part 1: Melancholy and Silence”
Easter Thursday
And He reigns! He reigns in light and in quiet, in death and in life, in depth and in height. He reigns in plenty, He reigns in drought. He reigns in our faith, reigns in our doubt and nothing is too big for Him who rose from death a shining King… Put toContinue reading “Easter Thursday”
The Consolations of Writing 