The Lord Giveth and the Lord Taketh Away

Job 1:21

First: All the members of Preacher’s family would like to thank you for praying and supporting us with divine love. Please keep praying and supporting. God provides. He is good. Blessed be the name of the Lord! Everyone is still alive, thanks be to God.

We all have to take the good with the bad, however.

You would think that the Big Daddy of Big Daddies would give some relief to His unworthy servant and blogger. After all, your scribe has been launched into A.D. 2009 in a rough and tumble manner. (A sick relative and the victim of petty larceny, among other troubles.)

Everything looked so promising on Monday, December 29…

…The Hoyas schooled the then-#2 UConn. Huskies, 74-63. But then…

Dajuan Blair outdid his Hoyas namesake on Saturday

Insult to injury: Harangody bruised the blue and grey last night.

Not one but two ignominious Hoyas’ defeats! Eli, eli, lema sabachthani?

Pitt is good. Notre Dame is good. We cannot deny this.

I don’t know if I can deal with a bunch of Notre Dame fans giving me grief. In the basketball battle of un-Catholic Catholic schools, my hometeam is supposed to come out on top!

Anyway…perhaps an exciting, roller-coaster Hoyas’ season is just what the doctor ordered. Better to lose in January and win in March…

So your Preacher was still looking for a little relief from the blues…

…Ah-hah: On Sunday, the Wizards beat the Cleveland Cavaliers!!! “Aw, man. There is a God” (Caron Butler, Washington Wizards).

Take that, archnemesis! (The Wizards beat Labron & Co. on Sunday!)

All of this reminds us that: It is “not that we have loved God, but that He loved us.” (1 John 4:10)

True religion avoids…

…one the one hand, PELAGIANISM. Pelagius taught that mankind can do good without the grace of Christ. This is false.

…and on the other hand, LUTHERANISM. Martin Luther taught that God imputes goodness to man because of the goodness of Christ. But God does not make man good. This is false.

We are not good on our own. But we are good. God makes us good.

Speaking of good, I saw one of the best movies I have seen in a long time…

What makes this movie so good is: Frank Langella’s absolutely perfect diction (a divine gift with which this incredible actor thoroughly cooperates).

This movie is obviously not for kids. But there is nothing unwatchable in it.

Also guaranteed to cheer a guy up: Pope wearing a Roman chasuble to celebrate the Solemnity of the Epiphany!