“[The book of Psalms] heals the ancient wounds of souls and to the newly wounded brings prompt relief; it ministers to what is sick and preserves that is in health; and it wholly removes the ills, howsoever great and of whatsoever kind, that attack souls in our human life; and this by means of a certain well-timed persuasions which inspires wholesome reflection.”

For when the Holy Spirit saw that mankind was ill-inclined toward virtue and that we were heedless of the righteous life because of our inclination to pleasure, what did He do? He blended the delight of melody with doctrine in order that through the pleasantness and softness of the sound we might unawares receive what was useful in the words, according to the practice of wise physicians, who, when they give the more bitter draughts to the sick, often smear the rim of the cup with honey. For this purpose these harmonious melodies of the Psalms have been designed for us, that those who are of boyish age or wholly youthful in their character, while in appearance they sing, may in reality be educating their souls. For hardly a single one of the many, and even of the indolent, has gone away retaining in his memory any precept of the apostles or of the prophets, but the oracles of the Psalms they both sin at home and disseminate in the market place. And if somewhere one who rages like a wild beast from excessive anger falls under the spell of the psalm, he straightway departs, with the fierceness of his soul calmed by the melody.

A psalm is the tranquility of souls, the arbitrator of peace, restraining the disorder and turbulence of thoughts, for it softens the passion of the soul, and moderates its unruliness. A psalm forms friendships, unites the divided, mediates between enemies. For who can still consider him an enemy with whom he has sent forth one voice to God? So that the singing of psalms bring love, the greatest of good things, contriving harmony like some bond of union and uniting the people in the symphony of a single coir.

A Psalm drives away demons, summons the help of angels, furnishes arms against nightly terrors, and gives respite from daily toil; to little children it is safety, to men in their prime an adornment, to the old a solace, to woman their most fitting ornament. It peoples solitudes, it chastens market places. To beginners it is a beginning; to those who are advancing, an increase; to those who are concluding, a support. A psalm is the voice of the church. It gladdens feast days; it creates the grief which is in accord with God’s will, for a psalm brings a tear even from a heart of stone.

A psalm is the work of angels, the ordinance of Heaven, the incense of the Spirit. Oh, the wise invention of the teacher who devised who we might at the same time sing and learn profitable things, whereby doctrines are somehow more deeply impressed up the mind!”

– St. Basil

c. 370 AD

Lyon marchant assis en son hault throne
Ayant le chef de haulx monts couronné
Comme Corinthe est de deux mers : du Rhodne
Et de la Saone il est environné
De grand beaultez, & de richesse orné
Gardant du cueur de l’Europe l’entrée
Et marchissant sur diverse contrée
Qui n’est Lyon ne passant, ne couchant
Rampant, grippant sa proye rencontree
Mais devant tous est le Lyon marchant.

Merchant Lyons, seated on its high throne,
Crowned by the lofty mountains,
Like Corinth, encompassed by two seas—
The Rhône and the Saône.
Decorated with great beauty and richness,
Guarding the entrance to the heart of Europe
And bounding on diverse coutries.
‘Tis a Lion not passant or couchant, but
Rampant, gripping any pray it encounters:
Above all others strides merchant Lyons.

~B Aneau,
(taken from Music in Renaissance Lyons, Dobbins, 65)

Lyon Marchant: Satyre Francoise. Sur la comparaison de Paris, Rohan, Lyon, Orleans et sur les choses memorables depuys Lan 1524. Soubz Allegories & Enighmes par personnages mystiques jouée au Collège de la Trinité à Lyon, 1541

Greetings!
I’m not sure if I sent the right file yesterday for the Ancient Greece google earth map. But here is the one Scott put together, and it is complete as far as I know:

• www.nsa.foucachon.com/Ancient_Greece.kmz

And here are some online outlines of Herodotus:

• Herodotus Outline
• Summary of Kings

Blessings on your studies!

-Daniel

A rabbi, a priest, and a pastor enter a bar. The bar tender sees them come in and asks them, “What’s this, a joke?”

–Dr. Leithart, Theology, Jerusalem Term, New Saint Andrews

Yes, they are finally here. This is what happens when you get a whole school of classically educated people (well, under construction that is) together and try to take a picture of them:

www.danielfoucachon.com/nsa/student_pictures_06

Evening fellow speed-readers,

Click on the title for a link to a cool map I found. It is centered on Greece, and you can see up to Thrace and down as far as Rhodes. It is especially nice because of all the small cities (which really are important, as Mr. Schlect as made us aware) are written, such as Miletus, Halicarnassus, Naxos on the isle of Naxos, and some of my personal favorites such as Magnesia, Sigeum, Megara.

(Note: There are several maps to click on once you’ve reached the actually site, but the one I printed off was Ancient Greece 2)

After recitation this afternoon, our group had a huddle in the hall and made it a priority to pull out all the stops when we study, i.e., maps, outlines, memorizing names and details and geography.

Hope this helps the rest of y’all! Enjoy, and God bless your wearied eyes!

“It is a saying of Luther: ‘The sea of God’s mercies should swallow up all our particular afflictions.’ Name any affliction that is upon you: there is a sea of mercy to swallow it up. If you pour a pailful of water on the floor of your house, it makes a great show, but if you throw it into the sea, there is not sign of it. So, afflictions considered in themselves, we think are very great, but let them be considered with the sea of God’s mercies we enjoy, and then they are not so much, they are nothing in comparison.”

~The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment, Jeremiah Burroughs

“God delivers in the course of the story. He is our help and shield, but this is not a static reality. . . He will be the same in the future as He has been in the past– which is to say, faithful. . . We wait patiently– but note that we cannot wait patiently without robust praise for God’s character as evidenced in the gifts of creation and providence.”

~”Psalm 33″, Doug Wilson

HT: Lydia Smith

Oh! the wise invention of the teacher who contrived that while we were singing we should at the same time learn something useful; by this means, too, the teachings are in a certain way impressed more deeply on our minds. Even a forceful lesson does not always endure, but what enters the mind with joy and pleasure somehow becomes more firmly impressed upon it. What, in fact, can you not learn from the pslams? Can you not learn the grandeur of courage? the exactness of justice? The nobility of self-control? the perfection of prudence? A manner of penance? The measure of patience? And whatever other good things you might mention? Therin is perfect theology, a prediction of the coming of Christ in the flesh, a threat of judgment, a hope of resurrection, a fear of punishment, promises of glory, and unveiling of mysteries; all thins, as if in some great public treasury, are stored up in the Book of Pslams.

-St. Basil, Exegetic Homilies

If one were to order all mankind to choose the best set of rules in the world, each group would, after due consideration, choose its own customs; each group regards its own as being by far the best.

– Herodotus, bk. III

The God who always is does not have any other beginning; he is his own origin and the cause of his own substantiation, nor can any other thing be imagined to exist that stands on its own.

Jerome, Commentary on Ephesians

In Scripture all creation, the theater of God’s glory, is mined for the description of the knowledge of God.

-Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, III, 95

The world cannot be atheistically conceived since in that case it could not be the work of God but would have to be the creation of an anti-god.

Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, II, 57.

Time obliterates the inventions of the imagination, but confirms the judgements of nature.

-Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods, I, 42

The perfection of learning is to know God in such a way that, though you realize he is not unknowable, yet you know him as indescribable.

-Hilary of Poitiers, De trinitate

We are speaking of God. Is it any wonder if you do not comprehend? For if you comprehend, it is not God you comprehend. Let it be a pious confession of ignorance rather than a rash profession of knowledge. To attain some slight knowledge of God is a great blessing; to comprehend him, however, is totally impossible.

– St. Augustine, Lectures on the Gospel of John

Fellow Students of great things at New Saint Andrews College,

Greetings!

• If you click HERE, you will see pictures.

If by some error you are not therein pictured, please tell me, for you may not have had your picture taken, or if you did, perhaps it got lost in cyberspace.

Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?

Fellow (robe bearing) Sophomores,

Greetings!

In case you didn’t have pen and paper at Convocation, here are our assigments:

• Theology: 1st 5 chapters of “From Post-Industrial to Post-modern Society. Due Thursday, the whole book is due Friday.
• History: Herodotus: Introduction and Book I. Pay close attention to the interactions between Croesus, Solon, and Cyrus. And follow notes in the back of the book. Due Thursday.
• Music: Complete Ch. 3 of the Chautman workbook. Read ch’s. 1-9 of Copelands’ book. Listen to part I of the Messiah. Due Monday. (And show up to Choir Wend.)
• Latin: Read The Victory According to Mark, pg. 9-47. Traslate Mark 1. Due Thurs.

Voila!

See you all in class!

The new school year is about to start. It has been wonderful to see the faces of those friends who left us Idahoians here for three months!

We all know how terrifying everyone likes to make the second year of New St. Andrews sound. Maybe it is. But by God’s grace we survived the first year, and with His grace we will do the second!

Psalm 127

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
It is vain for you to rise up early, to sit up late, to eat the bread of sorrows: for so he giveth his beloved sleep.
Lo, children are an heritage of the Lord: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are the children of the youth.
Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with enemies in the gate.

The Silent Refutation of Every Lie

Those who stir up strife in towns, churches, cities, or nations are trying to create a situation when everyone will get to a point of desperation, and then try to resolve the problem with some kind of dramatic action. That dramatic action is sudden, forceful, fascinating, and its effects are very potent . . . and temporary.

This is why mobs function the way they do. This is how lynching occurs. This is how Marxism envisaged the growth of the revolution. This is why many churches split. This is why Internet blog wars start. Those who foment discord have a deep faith in the power of chaos to rejuvenate itself, and so they try to plunge the societies of which they are a part (whether small societies or large does not matter) into chaos, so that the chaos can perform its transforming magic. This is why discontent souls always stir up trouble. They do not see trouble as trouble, they see trouble as the penultimate stage just before salvation.

But it is a pseudo-salvation. It is a lie. When this kind of person succeeds in stirring up a sacrificial crisis, he gets the mob, or the crowd, or the presbytery, or the congregation, as the case may be, whipped up into a sacrificial crisis and ready for a dramatic solution to all the trouble. And this is where paganism always produces the scapegoat, a delight to all men.

What is the Christian response to this? There is only one possible response. There is only one way out of this kind of thing, only one way to resist it. This is to preach Christ and Him crucified. The only answer to petty sacrifices is the ultimate sacrifice. The only answer to blaming others is to lift up the one who took at the blame on Himself. The only answer to those who would deliver violence from men is to preach the one who received violence from wicked men. He did not open His mouth, and because of this, He, the Lord Jesus, has refuted the world and all its lies.

-Doug Wilson, July 2006

For those of you who missed Katie Saunders Irish Step recital, or want to see it again, you can now purchase a copy of the DVD online: www.foucachon.com/saunka

Free shipping to NSA students!

DVD includes interactive menus, dances divided by chapters, photo slideshow, and a snazzy DVD label designed by ZKpro.

Three dances are previewed on the order form, so take a peak. (Unless you have FireFox configured right, you will need Internet Explorer to see the videos).