November « 2010 « deviantmonk

November, 2010

Mystery

This installment of my church fathers’ paraphrases comes from St. Hilary of Poitiers.

Hilary was born to pagan parents sometime around AD 310, but early in his life his study of the scriptures led to his conversion. He was well beloved and respected and in 353 was elected to the bishopric of Poitiers.

Hilary’s life spanned the Arian controversy, and he inserted himself significantly into the disputation. He had disagreements with the bishop of Arles, Saturninus, and attempted to have him excommunicated for his Arianism. However, Saturninus convened the council of Beziers in 356 to both justify his position and deal with Hilary’s meddling. As the majority of the council members were themselves Arians, and as the emperor Constantius was disposed to be in favor of protecting Arianism, Hilary was pronounced against and exiled to Phrygia in 356. He was allowed to return to his bishopric a few years later. Continue reading →

Design / Motion / Theology — 4 Comments
23
Nov 10

Let’s Go to Bethlehem! (bring your crayons…)

This video was created for KidsCOR’s upcoming advent curriculum series Let’s Go to Bethlehem! I just finished it up earlier this afternoon.

When I was initially brainstorming for the graphics and video, I was given the task of utilizing a map of the Holy Land as well as focusing on the manger scene with Jesus, Mary and Joseph. At first I was going to do something fairly straightforward, but then I had the idea of giving it the feel of having been drawn by crayons. The age range is from kindergarten to 5th grade, so I thought that something hand-drawn like this would be nice. Continue reading →

Church Fathers / Theology — 4 Comments
23
Nov 10

The Greatest Torment

We should desire nothing other than the joy of the truth that is Christ, avoid nothing other than his absence. The greatest torment of a rational creature consists in the deprivation or absence of Christ. Indeed, this must be considered the one cause of total and eternal sorrow. Take Christ from me, and I am left with no good thing, nor will anything terrify me so much as his absence. The greatest torments of a rational creature are the deprivations and absence of him.

This quotation comes from John Scotus Erigena, and I happened across it while reading Church Fathers and Teachers by Benedict XVI. (all the quotations of Erigena come from this book)

While I am (hopefully) somewhat knowledgeable concerning patristics of the ante-nicene and nicene periods, I must confess only a passing familiarity with later church fathers, Erigena among them. Thus, while this particular book gives only the briefest snapshots of the writers and thinkers of the late patristic age, it has been quite valuable in sketching out major lines of thought and the ‘highlights’ of this period. Continue reading →

Life / Photography / Theology — 5 Comments
21
Nov 10

Beauty is Everywhere

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous outside, (in the 60′s near the end of November in Kansas!) so Megan and I headed out to the Overland Park Arboretum to enjoy what will probably be one of the last nice weekends (weather-wise) for the rest of the year. We took out the Canon T2i to snap some shots, and came up with some pretty nice pictures, if I do say so myself… Continue reading →

Life — No Comments
20
Nov 10

Blood Will Be Spilt

Pomegranates are tasty, but messy. But still tasty.

Design — No Comments
19
Nov 10

rezlife 2011 Retreats Postcard

Just finished this one up today…it was a last-minute request with a lot of text to cram in, so I decided that instead of just listing it, I would try to let the type speak for itself and form the basis of the design. If I had had more time I would have tried to fit it together more tightly, but alas, such was not to be.

Motion — 2 Comments
17
Nov 10

I Feel Like I’ve Felt Like This Before…

Ok, it’s a terrible pun, but it’s also a felt board with felt characters, so there’s not much room to go any lower on the cheesy scale. Especially when the felt board is from the late 70′s.

So, rezlife is starting up a new series after Thanksgiving called Faith Like a Child. In this series they’re going to be looking at the quintessential childrens’ bible stories- Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, etc.- and discovering new meaning in them, and especially how they point to Christ as Advent begins. Continue reading →

Family / Life — 4 Comments
15
Nov 10

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

This past weekend we celebrated the life of one of the most incredible people who have ever lived- my grandpa, Dean Watson. Of everyone I have ever known, he exemplifies the love and grace of God the most. As I think back on his life and all the memories we shared, I am reminded of the words of 1 John 4:16:

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.

Continue reading →

Church Fathers / Paraphrase / Theology — 1 Comment
11
Nov 10

Unity

This edition of my series of church fathers’ paraphrases come from Pope St. Leo the Great. His date of birth is unknown, but he died A.D. 461. In the Catholic Church he is one of the Doctors of the Church, declared so by Benedict XIV in 1754. Continue reading →

Design / Motion — No Comments
11
Nov 10

Extreme Adventure 2011 Video

I finished up this video earlier today, and was fairly happy with how it turned out. Pretty straight forward- an adventure retreat with all kinds of outdoor excursions- so I decided to keep it as open feeling as possible. By setting it up like that, I hoped to be able to narrow the focus on a couple aspects of the trip while keeping things moving along.

Again, I usually don’t use these colors, but I think they worked pretty well.