Masland Library Blog

During the month of March is an obscure holiday celebrated by the Irish and the Irish “at heart” with much enthusiasm. But what is the real reason for celebrating St. Patrick’s Day? Is it merely celebrating the Irish heritage of loud boisterous parties flowing with alcohol, parades in New York City and Dublin, Ireland, and wearing green? Or could it mean something more, especially to Christians both in the United States and Ireland? To find out the true meaning for the “wearing o’ the green”, I used the Masland Library databases to increase my understanding of St. Patrick.

St. Patrick was born to an aristocratic family in Britain in the fourth century. While he was a young man, Patrick was captured by Irish raiders and taken to Ireland where he was enslaved for six years. Due to this enslavement, Patrick never learned to read and is known as having a poor rhetoric because he was never taught the rhetoric of Britain. Patrick, however, learned a different type of rhetoric that allowed him to return to Ireland as an evangelist.

Patrick’s story is inspiring to me as a Christian. First, instead of resenting God and walking away from him because he was enslaved, Patrick used his knowledge of how the Irish thought and learned as a means of bringing them Gospel. When Patrick was able to return to Britain after six years in slavery, he became a bishop for the Roman Catholic Church and was called by God back to Ireland. A second way that Patrick inspires me is that God was able to use him to evangelize an entire barbarian country without a formal education! Because of being enslaved at the age of 15, Patrick did not receive the formal education he would have due to his family’s status in society. We can know based on Patrick’s life that God is able to use anyone at any academic level to spread his Gospel to those who haven’t heard. Finally, Patrick inspires me because he answered God’s calling in his life to be an evangelist to Ireland. When his critics were asked why Patrick returned to Ireland, they replied “He was compelled by God and called by the need of Irish.” If Patrick had not listened to God’s call for his return to Ireland, many Anglo-Americans would have a different life than the one they have today.


Although St. Patrick lived 1600 years ago as a contemporary of St. Augustine, his life and works still have an impact on not only Irish culture but also on the entirety of Christianity. So when you pull out your green this year and watch the parades (or pinch people for not wearing green), remember this incredible story about a man who followed God to a barbarian land and evangelized an entire country. To find out more about St. Patrick, his life and writings, check out the articles “St. Patrick in Fact and Fiction” by A. Haire Forster and “’Ego Patricius, peccator rusticissimus’: The Rhetoric of St. Patrick of Ireland” by Paul Lynch. You can search for these articles on Ebscohost and also the various books in the Library about St. Patrick.

~Jenny Dunning

           
While listening to Dr. Joshua Bogunjoko speak in Chapel yesterday, I was marveling at the expanse of the Global church and rejoicing at the thought of worshipping with believers from around the world before the throne of God.  Global Missions Week is one of my favorite weeks.  I love hearing what God is doing around the world both through the speaker and the missions representatives.  God has been teaching me recently the importance of missions, but not missions in the traditional sense (going overseas to serve Him).  Rather, He has been showing me how much of a mission field is right around us, here in Langhorne and in any community.  He has also been showing me the power of prayer, and one of my favorite books relating prayer to the global community is Operation World (located both in the reference section: BV2050 .M35 2010 and on the main floor BV2050 .J63 2001 and BV4811 .J596 1993 – these three call numbers are three different editions).  Operation World presents a brief synopsis of a country and then provides prayer concerns for that country.  Looking through the different editions from 1993 to 2010, it is amazing to see how God has answered prayers over the years.  I challenge you to come and look at Operation World or the other books about missions that we have on display in the library lobby.  What mission field is God calling you to?

~Allison Beyer

~Ryan Eshelman

Time is a funny thing.  There are days and weeks that never seem to end, there are times when minutes go past so slowly that you literally feel older just watching the clock tick.  Then there are times when  you cannot seem to keep track of time, the hands on the clock seem to move at lightening speed ticking away the precious seconds and minutes of our lives.  I recently took a trip overseas to Poland and the time change is 6 hours. I lost 6 hours and then regained them on the trip back, and I found that while the plane ride there didn't seem so long at 8ish hours, the trip back at 10:20 minutes seemed to drag out interminably. 

I have been at PBU for 10 years this semester.  I started my undergraduate work in Fall 2001, I lived in Davis Dorm with a wonderful group of women who loved adventure and had huge goals for the future.  It is has been a privilege seeing how their lives have changed and the paths they have taken in the last 10 years.  I have remained at PBU to work in the library as my life has always revolved around books, my parents and grandparents fostered this love in me and my work as a librarian here at PBU is rewarding as I get to help students at PBU learn and exceed in their academic studies.

During my undergraduate years a large percentage of my friends consisted of music majors and through them and my cousin in the honors program I was introduced to Dr. Hsu.  My first thoughts on Dr. Hsu was that he was brilliant on the keys, he played superbly and yet was one of the most approachable men I have ever met.  I worked in the library and it was months before I realized Dr. Hsu and the Dr. Hui's were all related, I think it finally sunk in when I was invited to Ms. Stewart's house for one of the holidays I couldn't get home for that year.

In the last 10 years I have been blessed to know and to learn from Dr. Hsu, not piano (I am a hopeless cause there), but rather in his wisdom and love of the Lord.  My roommate for many years was a music major and when several of my classmates and Dr. Hsu's personal assistants had left the area my roommate and I would on occasions take Dr. Hsu home.  Those trips were always interesting and filled with grand conversations.  I especially remember one trip out to a friend's wedding in Shoamokin, PA when my roommate and I took Dr. Hsu out there so they could play a duet together for the wedding.  Dr. Hsu was internationally known and yet he was always so involved in his students and former students lives that he would frequently play at their weddings and  events.  He is a man who left a deep impact on the people in his church and here at PBU.  Even when he wasn't feeling well he would always have a smile and a kind word.

We will miss Dr. Hsu, but we also know that he is with the Savior he loved so well.  He spent almost 40 years with the students at PBU, investing and sending them out to the field.  I am sure if you asked him how the time went he would say quickly, and yet what a wonderful investment.

~Laura Saloiye

From the PBU Facebook site:

Dr. Samuel Hsu Memorial Visitation Wednesday, December 7, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the Dunn-Givnish Funeral Home in Langhorne, PA, the family will receive visitors. Memorial Service Thursday, December 8, 10:00 am at Tenth Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, PA. There will be a prelude beginning at 9:30 am with former students of Dr. Hsu playing. The service will also be simulcast at Philadelphia Biblical University in the Chatlos Chapel.  

We often talk of the fact that we are the church, and that is most certainly true, but I think we often forget to think of ourselves in terms of the invisible Church. The invisible Church, as most theologians describe it, is the body of God’s people throughout all of human history (or Pentecost, if you don’t include Israel). Regardless, I think it’s important to remember that when we are adopted into the family of God we are not by any means the only ones; there are a lot of those old boring dead guys who were bought by the blood of Christ and filled with the Holy Spirit too. And, many of them had really helpful things to say.

~Zak Fixler

Imagine having to write a paper on a book of the Bible and the only source you had was a Bible in a language that you couldn’t read. How would you complete your assignment?

Imagine going to church and all you can understand of the Scripture being read is the pastor’s interpretation, if you’re lucky. You may not even have that because your pastor doesn’t speak a language you understand very well.

Imagine the joy and excitement you would experience when you heard God speaking in your own language. Imagine the enthusiasm that would well up in you as you were able to hold the Word of God for the first time in your language and read it for yourself!

We are so blessed to have the Scriptures in our own language. The library carries multiple versions of the Bible, and then hundreds of commentaries to supplement your individual study of a particular passage. Many of us have multiple Bibles at home as well and yet there are hundreds of people who have never heard God speak in their own language.

Next time you have to write a paper for your Bible class and you come to the library to research using one of the commentaries that we have, think about this and praise God for how He’s blessed us. I will try to remember to do that too. I know that this kind of thinking totally changes my perspective on my work.

- Allison Beyer

Today is Ash Wednesday. It is not a day that is observed by the evangelical community, but perhaps it should be. The following entry can be found in Oxford Reference.


Ash Wednesday. The first day of Lent, six and a half weeks before Easter. This was symbolized by the imposition of ashes, in token of mourning and penitence, upon the heads of clergy and people, a rite still ordered for AshWednesday in the Roman Missal. In the American Books of 1929 and 1979 AshWednesday is mentioned as a special fast-day (with Good Friday), and in the Scottish Book of 1929 it is named (together with the six days before Easter) a ‘Greater Fast’.

"Ash Wednesday" The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Ed F. L. Cross and E. A. Livingstone. Oxford University Press Inc. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Philadelphia Biblical University. 17 February 2010

T.S. Eliot also wrote a poem to commemorate Ash Wednesday it can be found here. Or for a modern interpretation you can read an article by Ryan Hamm.

LAS