May 15 : Personal by Mrs DH
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I don’t normally switch my laptop on at the bus stop. Especially at this time of night when it is starting to get dark. However I have misplaced my mobile phone and need to contact Domestic Hermit so that he knows what time to pick me up from the bus. He doesn’t normally have the computer on this time of night. I have used multiple communication techniques. I have emailed our son who is at work but who might check his email. I have emailed our daughter, I have emailed DH and I have messaged him on Facebook!

I’ll be very annoyed with myself if I have actually lost my phone. I didn’t have pockets today. Do you find it difficult when you don’t have pockets? I carried it around with me all day and absentmindedly left it out when packing up. I was a bit frazzled and tired at the time. Still am annoyed with myself. One thing that I was pleased to be able to do, was locate it (at work) and lock it remotely. Gotta love that kind of technology.

The bus is here and I’m now on it. Hope I have some friendly faces waiting for me when I get off the bus!

May 14 : Personal by Mrs DH
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Have you a collection of thermal coffee mugs shoved in a cupboard somewhere? We used to have a 20 oz coffee mug that was excellent. Except we moved house so many times that we lost the mug part and found that the lid was not much use by itself.

I am always filled with anticipation after purchasing a new mug. I have learnt the hard way what not to look for in a mug. I will list a few:
1. the mug is too narrow and develops an unpleasant odour because it gets slimey at the bottom
2. the coffee doesn’t come out because there is only one hole in the lid to sip through (the air can’t escape)
3. the mug leaks everywhere
4. the mug doesn’t hold much
5. the mug falls over all the time
6. the lid is not made of a material that lasts and starts to split and get smelly
7. the mug is made of some material that effects the taste of the coffee

I could go on and on. I have learnt a lot about what not to buy in a drink bottle too. Pretty much the same reasons really. Our kids tend to chew on the lid which is a bit unfortunate.

May 14 : Personal by Domestic Hermit
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At the beginning of On Christian Doctrine, St Augustine gives an apology for writing:

The loaves in the miracle were only five and seven in number before the disciples began to divide them among the hungry people. But when once they began to distribute them, though the wants of so many thousands were satisfied, they filled baskets with the fragments that were left. Now, just as that bread increased in the very act of breaking it, so those thoughts which the Lord has already vouchsafed to me with a view to undertaking this work will, as soon as I begin to impart them to others, be multiplied by His grace, so that, in this very work of distribution in which I have engaged, so far from incurring loss and poverty, I shall be made to rejoice in a marvellous increase of wealth. (On Christian Doctrine 1.1.1)

The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes is present in all four Gospels. Even St John has a version! The point St Augustine is making above is that the miracle occurred in the breaking/sharing of the loaves and fishes. The disciples cooperate in the miracle with their actions.

I like that as a picture for blogging: in the sharing of thoughts, ideas, quotes, pictures with God’s grace faith is encouraged and multiplied without our knowledge. Yet if the thoughts, ideas, quotes, pictures are never shared, the miracle can never happen!

May 14 : Personal by Domestic Hermit
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… you did not notice: Mrs DH has joined and doubled the author team. She’s is going to write about day to day things going on in her and our lives. And lift the intellectual tone of the blog. Feel free to comment!

May 13 : Personal by Mrs DH
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I am having a go at blogging. The content of my posts will be slightly different to Domestic Hermit’s.

A few people have asked me if I have been pampered today. My day began with the children being told that they had to let me sleep in. Much as they thought it would be a fabulous idea to come in and visit me at 7am, I much preferred a sleep in. I was then very happy to receive breakfast in bed and a latte.

We went to mass as a family. It was lovely. I did, however get a little worn out with #6 and #4 bouncing around pretending to make pizza using shopping bags as ingredients and my handbag as a pizza oven. Part of the sermon was about loving people. It has given me much to think about.

This afternoon I needed to do some of my paid work to ensure that I have worked enough hours this fortnight. It was nice to not have to cook tea, yet again. I am not sure when I last cooked.

May 8 : Personal by Domestic Hermit
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I was not feeling well yesterday so I spent the day listening to Augustine’s On Christian Doctrine. If all the dating adds up, this work is written about the same time as the Confessions, which makes it an interesting work of St Augustine’s to look at. It is an exploration of how one is to read and interpret Scripture, the role memory and understanding plays, and the central role of the Scriptures in the life of the Church and the individual Christian. It reads as a very modern work in some ways – apologetic in character, theological and philosophical in tone.

I was struck by how the following is very similar to Plato’s Cave:

Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and truth for the things which He has made, the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived. And let us look upon this purification as a kind of journey or voyage to our native land. For it is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits. (On Christian Doctrine 1.10.10)

While it is not the same as Plato it certainly has the platonic idea of the soul’s journey as an ascend to the light/truth. (I think Augustine says as much in Book X of the Confessions?) One can understand Augustine’s hesitation – to put it lightly – on visiting the theatre as an example of the illusionary character of life, or maybe the darkness of life, without the Light. I wonder how the Doctor of the Church would feel about TV today?!

But notice that Augustine’s concern is more than a means to an end. Or maybe the “end” is not a mystical carrot hung before the Christian? The “native land”, by context, is not what the Christian tradition has called heaven. The native land is the soul’s “rest” in the unchangeable light that is Truth.

Anyway, just wanted to share that!