tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-49294370753531189392024-03-14T13:43:13.948+13:00The Restless Heart<i>Nōs fēcisti ad tē et inquietum est cor nostrum donec requiēscat in tē.</i>
"You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you."
Augustine, "Confessions"John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.comBlogger376125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-17049296903277152362022-07-01T12:20:00.000+12:002022-07-01T12:20:47.387+12:00Peter Michael Jensen 20/1/1944-29/6/2022 Requiēscat in pāce I think this was taken somewhere between 1954, when we moved from Bakersfield to Oroville, and 1956, since I, on the right, cannot be much older than 14. Peter stands next to me; then our mother's mother, Grandma 'Dell (Adele); Robin, our sister, and Terry Thayer, our cousin. This is the front porch of our house.Peter's expression is one common to him, of wistful diffidence (mine is of John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-89814091464503796582018-04-07T15:44:00.003+12:002018-04-07T15:44:56.514+12:00DisappointmentI am writing to correct a grave misunderstanding. On the 13th of April, 2014, I wrote:
I was quite disappointed when 2000 rolled around.
I have been informed by a very important person who was born in that year - on the 27th of December, to be precise - that she was quite hurt at my being disappointed. How could the most glorious year of our time be a disappointment, given such an John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-70707839469449553012018-01-28T14:13:00.004+13:002018-01-28T14:13:59.663+13:00NeedsWe have just bought a new car ... well, newer - 14 years old instead of 18 years old (or the 'other' car, which is 26 years old :-)).
We've been looking for most of a year for a car that would have certain features that we hope will help Susan in her paper run. Rather remarkably, Tuesday five days ago - the 23rd of January - we happened across one sitting by the road with a 'for sale' signJohn Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-85765320317223959092018-01-21T10:46:00.003+13:002018-01-21T10:46:53.902+13:00MassI am astonished. Not only did Jesus give His life that I might be saved from my sins; rise from the dead that I might live eternally; ascend into Heaven that He might send me His Holy Spirit; He wants to be with me, bodily, whenever I am able to come to Him.
To be sure, the Church commands me to go to Mass at least on Sundays and 'Holy Days of Obligation' - of which there remain, in New John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-51759539727587102932018-01-13T12:07:00.000+13:002018-01-13T12:07:05.360+13:00Confession
7 “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7)
I cannot - I argued yesterday - be forgiven if I will not forgive. By the same token, I cannot forgive unless I am forgiven. Why is this?
For that it is so, I know quite well, even if I find it difficult to explain. The cause, it seems, is that forgiveness is holistic. John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-40504856576133387762018-01-12T12:38:00.002+13:002018-01-12T12:38:50.916+13:00That they may all be one
20 “I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. John 17:20-21
We pray what we call "The Lord's Prayer" - if we are Catholic, we pray it 6 times whenever we say the Rosary; once when weJohn Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-35213048515269250072018-01-10T07:09:00.002+13:002018-01-10T07:09:39.622+13:00He taught as one having authority
28 And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching, 29 for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. (Matthew 7:28-29)
Jesus's teaching was astonishing - and, to many, offensive. For did not say to His hearers, "Moses taught you ... but <i>I</i> say..."? On occasion, indeed, He sought to call John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-73958768172947976422018-01-09T07:32:00.000+13:002018-01-09T07:32:00.986+13:00His fame spread throughout Galilee
21 And they went into Caper′na-um; and immediately on the sabbath he entered the synagogue and taught. 22 And they were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes. 23 And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; 24 and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have youJohn Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-12461333049572698522018-01-08T07:51:00.000+13:002018-01-08T07:51:03.643+13:00To fulfil all righteousness
13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. 14 John would have prevented him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” 15 But Jesus answered him, “Let it be so now; for thus it is fitting for us to fulfil all righteousness.”
Jesus's baptism 'fulfils all righteousness.' Our salvation is ours in Christ. It is in John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-2128302760251987792014-05-25T16:34:00.001+12:002014-05-25T16:34:34.554+12:00Reconnecting It is, surely, a sign of approaching senility when a man who announces his distaste for travel to his fiancée, declares his wish never to change his routine, emphasises his determination to stay at home, speaks of his desire, not simply to visit his relations in America – that, after all, might well be credited to a praiseworthy familial piety – but as well to do so via Tonga and John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-49579261411102104762014-05-17T15:38:00.001+12:002014-05-17T15:38:36.878+12:00Blogging by e-mail I have, I hope, set up my blog so that I can send posts to it by e-mail (using a secret address J - those of you who are authors may apply to me to find out the top-secret address!!). I am hoping that this will make it more convenient for me to post – possibly more frequently. I am trying out this one sitting at home, whilst Susan is at an Opus Dei thing in Auckland. In order to John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04511440643740805165noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-11670727540432412032014-05-03T16:24:00.000+12:002014-05-03T16:24:05.348+12:00Holy-dayNaturally, it was not reasonable for Susan to go to the canonisation ceremony for Saint Josemaría. It was to be held in Rome - much too expensive to consider such a trip.
I said she should go. There was to be a group going from New Zealand. They would be housed inexpensively in Rome in a place called Domus Croata (ok, that site is in Croatian; it's the only one I John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-43589244931198957262014-04-19T07:34:00.001+12:002014-04-19T07:34:16.652+12:00Holy Saturday
From Liturgy of the Hours Office of Readings for Holy Saturday morning - from an unknown Fourth Century writer:
Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep. The earth trembled and is still because God has fallen asleep in the flesh and he has raised up all who have slept John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-20640575871736221802014-04-13T16:18:00.000+12:002014-04-13T16:18:16.474+12:002000I was quite disappointed when 2000 rolled around. They called it the new millennium. It wasn't, of course; the new millennium began on 1 January 2001. I didn't waste time arguing, however. Only the first day I went back to work - Wednesday 5 January, 2000 - I took the same old diesel 'bus; wore the same baggy clothing; worked in the same buildings of concrete and steel. &John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-81342200047811844002014-04-05T16:23:00.000+13:002014-04-05T16:23:40.574+13:00Super!Well, Supernumerary :-)
Susan came home from her Opus Dei retreat in August, 1999. I seem to recall her being a little hesitant in telling me what was on her mind. But she did. She wanted to become a member of Opus Dei.
I should clarify here that there are (for lay persons) three types of Opus Dei membership:
Numerary
Supernumerary
Cooperator
Cooperators are not, strictly John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-29893197705981448222014-03-29T14:47:00.001+13:002014-03-29T14:47:30.728+13:00Moving onJohnny lived with us (sleeping in the out-building where I now sleep) from the beginning of 1998 - end of 1997, actually, I think. Helen, still at home, was in her third and final BMus year at Auckland University. Eddie, likewise, was still at home, and (I think) in his 7th Form year at college. And Adele was commuting on the 6:05AM 'bus with me to St Mary's in Ponsonby.
By theJohn Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-89738315477407532032014-03-22T13:47:00.000+13:002014-03-22T13:47:37.334+13:00Kiwis!It wasn't easy!
Well, part of it was the money. In 1990 - or whenever it was that we were told that we needn't give up our US citizenship to become Kiwis - the cost was $130/adult, children free - $260 for our family.
In 1998 - I think we started the process in early 1998 - it was $260 per person, everyone pays the same - $1300 for the family :-( Now it would be $1645.70!
And John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-63273948355189415142014-03-15T15:55:00.000+13:002014-03-15T15:55:07.669+13:0019981998 was, in a way, the Year when Everything Changed for us.
For one thing, Johnny moved back to New Zealand - to Pukekohe, in fact.
Johnny had moved to Seattle in June, 1995.
He had, I am sure, a number of reasons for this. I myself may have been one - for I was surely at times a rather over-bearing father. Then there may have been the attraction of wanting to see what his 'roots'John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-79095852448269567802014-03-08T08:14:00.002+13:002014-03-08T08:14:48.722+13:00HabitsI can't afford it.
I don't remember how much that first retreat cost, the one in September (I think it was), 1997 - might have been $150. It started Friday evening and ended Sunday late afternoon.
But in addition to the cost of the retreat, I would not be able to work for Rob in my Saturday job - something like $250 lost income. I said to Sue that we could not afford it.
It is odd John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-49800200683389708862014-03-02T17:01:00.000+13:002014-03-02T17:01:39.386+13:00Opus DeiBeing a Catholic was entering a whole new world, and one that we knew nothing about. No doubt I had seen books about Catholic things before; I had as little interest in them as I would have in books about Zoroastrianism. Susan began bringing home books from the Pukekohe library about Catholic things, books that she thought might interest me. One that she brought home was about John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-17739524705793127612014-02-23T14:54:00.000+13:002014-02-23T14:54:56.173+13:00GraceIn March, 1997, I talked to Father Aquinas McComb at the Newman Centre about the possibility of counselling.
My family know what behaviour issues I had. I had genuinely believed that becoming a Catholic would somehow take care of these. It did not do so.
Perhaps psychological counselling would help. I had thought that Father Aquinas would recommend me to a counsellor. InJohn Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-87340070557624289532014-02-16T13:50:00.000+13:002014-02-16T13:50:57.754+13:00ChangeNewman wrote, near the end of his Apologia pro Vita Sua:
FROM the time that I became a Catholic, of course I have no further history of my religious opinions to narrate. In saying this, I do not mean to say that my mind has been idle, or that I have given up thinking on theological subjects; but that I have had no changes to record, and have had no anxiety of heart whatever. I have been inJohn Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-66955668620758152014-01-26T11:20:00.000+13:002014-01-26T11:20:40.067+13:00New beginningYesterday, 25 January, ended the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity for 2014 - which begins on the 18th January, the feast of the Chair of Saint Peter and ends on the 25th, the feast of the Conversion of St Paul.
God, in redeeming man, chose to do so not as a collection of atoms, but by uniting men in one Man, His Son Jesus - as, indeed, He had created man in one man Adam. In God's John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-35478356685369951792014-01-25T15:12:00.000+13:002014-01-25T15:12:09.735+13:00ConfessionI went to Confession today. Today is Saturday and for at least the last fifteen years I have gone to Confession almost every Saturday.
When I was a Protestant, I was told that 'auricular Confession' - detailing your sins and expressing your sorrow with another human being listening - was unBiblical, even, perhaps, anti-Biblical. Does not John tell us "If we confess our sins, he is John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4929437075353118939.post-6997302007794731392014-01-18T17:36:00.003+13:002014-01-18T17:36:26.218+13:00RCIAA Catholic friend on the Internet had advised me to avoid going through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). Sue and I and the three of our children who intended to become Catholics were, after all, already Christians. We were not catechumens. In traditional Catholic practice, we were Christians who had never been in full communion with the Church - but John Thayer Jensenhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13500741932687812142noreply@blogger.com0