Lent Madness: Out of Africa

 Judging by what the host site, Blogger tells me, these Lent Madness updates are read by a depressingly small handful of people, but I shall forge on.

In yesterday's matchup, Lazarus was buried under the pile of votes heaped on Joseph of Arimathea,  so Jesus' secret disciple goes on to face the redoubtable Kassia, while Lazarus goes back to sleep.

I'm calling this the Out of Africa matchup, because that's all I've got that's clever, and Egypt is technically in Africa.  In one corner is Saint Pachomius, looking rather dismayed at the reading assignment given to him by the angel.

When I was an undergrad, a history professor liked to go on about how the monastic movement was a cop out.  Believers, he said, should be out in the world preaching and evangelizing (he was a Mormon), not holed up from the world praying.  Fortunately, faith is not a binary choice, and needs all sorts of ways of belief.  Bishop Andrew, in today's letter to the Diocese, talks about how he and his fellow diocesan leaders always make a Lenten pilgrimage to a monastery.   Monasteries and convents are sanctuaries for the weary, places of retreat and restoration, and send prayers aloft daily for the world.   We should be glad to have them, and grateful to St. Pachomius for being a founder of monasticism.

In the other Cyprian of Carthage was one of those North African theologians and church leaders most famously represented by Augustine of Hippo, whose early life and conversion Cyprian closely resembles.  He had a fine legal mind,  and was a fearless leader of the church, who like many of our Lent Madness Halo Heroes embraced a martyr's death.

Cyprian famously said that "He who does not have the church as a mother cannot have God as a father", which those who profess to find God on Sundays on the golf course may disagree with, but it's a good sentiment to think about on the eve of our parish vestry meeting.

I think I'm about 3 and 3 for my predictions, and this time I'm going with Pachomius on the grounds that he's an old soldier, like me, and I'm fond of monasteries.

Vote here.