{"id":17798,"date":"2012-10-19T12:12:16","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T16:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?p=17798"},"modified":"2016-09-30T17:02:29","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T21:02:29","slug":"forever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/","title":{"rendered":"“Forever”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

At the absolute baseline of the life of faith<\/strong>\u00a0we are asked a question:\u00a0do you trust me?\u00a0<\/em>We are creatures who, since Eden, have willfully embraced the illusion that we are in control of everything, when in fact, the only thing within our control is our decision to trust or to doubt; to be open or to be closed; to believe or not.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0The Year of Faith<\/a>, the\u00a0U.S. Postal service just happens to select<\/a>\u00a0a Christmas image that brings us a powerful reminder of that truth.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Flight into Egypt\u201d stamp bears the word \u201cForever\u201d. We are forever meant to surrender our illusion of control; forever meant to be opened; forever meant to trust in divine providence.<\/p>\n

Call it a coincidence, if you want. I see the Holy Spirit\u2019s influence all over this.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest<\/strong>.<\/a> This is a message that will\u2014and should\u2014stick!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the life of faith\u00a0we are asked a question:\u00a0do you trust me?\u00a0We are creatures who, since Eden, have willfully embraced the illusion that we are in control of everything, when in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-great-links"],"yoast_head":"\n"Forever"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Forever"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-19T16:12:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-09-30T21:02:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"Forever\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-19T16:12:16+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-09-30T21:02:29+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\"},\"description\":\"Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Forever”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/\",\"name\":\"The Deacon's Bench\",\"description\":\"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970\",\"name\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Deacon Greg Kandra\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Forever\"","description":"Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Forever\"","og_description":"Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2012-10-19T16:12:16+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-09-30T21:02:29+00:00","author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Deacon Greg Kandra","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/","name":"\"Forever\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-10-19T16:12:16+00:00","dateModified":"2016-09-30T21:02:29+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970"},"description":"Elizabeth Scalia, astonishing as ever, finds a spark of the divine in the most surprising places\u2014even on a postage stamp:\u00a0 At the absolute baseline of the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/2012\/10\/forever\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Forever”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic deacon ponders the world","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/7466606aa54639bf56a17705dcfc0970","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7332f32e3041fc2061e292186274b171?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/author\/deacon-greg-kandra\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}