CAPITAL INVESTMENT CONSULTING

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLE ANDREW

What we have all, both presbyters and deacons of the churches of Achaia, beheld with our eyes, we have written to all the churches established in the name of Christ Jesus, both in the east and west, north and south. Peace to you, and to all who believe in one God, perfect Trinity, true Father unbegotten, true Son only-begotten, true Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father, and abiding in the Son, in order that there may be shown one Holy Spirit subsisting in the Father and Son in precious Godhead. This faith we have learned from the blessed Andrew, the apostle of oar Lord Jesus Christ, whose passion also we, having seen it set forth before our eyes, have not hesitated to give an account of, according to the degree of ability we have. Accordingly the proconsul Aegeates, having come into the city of Patras, began to compel those believing in Christ to worship the idols; to whom the blessed Andrew, running up, said: It behoved you, being a judge of men, to acknowledge your Judge who is in the heaven, and having acknowledged him, to worship him; and worshipping him who is the true God, to turn away your thoughts from those which are not true gods. To whom Aegeates said: Are you Andrew, who destroys the temples of the gods, and persuades men about the religion which, having lately made its appearance, the emperors of the Romans have given orders to suppress?

The blessed Andrew said: The emperors of the Romans have never recognised the truth. And this the Son of God, who came on account of the salvation of men, manifestly teaches - that these idols are not only not gods, but also most shameful demons, and hostile to the human race, teaching men to offend God, so that, by being offended, he turns away and will not listen; that therefore, by his turning away and not listening, they may be held captive by the devil; and that they might work them to such a degree, that when they go out of the body they may be found deserted and naked, carrying nothing with them but sins. Aegeates said: These are superfluous and vain words: as for your Jesus, for proclaiming these things to the Jews they nailed him to the tree of the cross.

The blessed Andrew answering, said: Oh, if you would recognise the mystery of the cross, with what reasonable love the Author of the life of the human race for our restoration endured this tree of the cross, not unwillingly, but willingly!

Aegeates said: Seeing that, betrayed by his own disciple, and seized by the Jews, he was brought before the procurator, and according to their request was nailed up by the procurator's soldiers, in what way do you say that he willingly endured the tree of the cross?

The holy Andrew said: For this reason I say willingly, since I was with him when he was betrayed by his disciple. For before he was betrayed, he spoke to us to the effect that he should be betrayed and crucified for the salvation of men, and foretold that he should rise again on the third day. To whom my brother Peter said, Far be it from you, Lord; let this by no means be. And so, being angry, he said to Peter, Get you behind me, satan; for you are not disposed to the things of God. And in order that he might most fully explain that he willingly underwent the passion, he said to us, I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it again. And, last of all, while he was supping with us, he said, One of you will betray me. At these words, therefore, all becoming exceedingly grieved, in order that the surmise might be free from doubt, he made it clear, saying, To whomsoever I shall give the piece of bread out of my hand, he it is who betrays me. When, therefore, he gave it to one of our fellow-disciples, and gave an account of things to come as if they were already present, he showed that he was to be willingly betrayed. For neither did he run away, and leave his betrayer at fault; but remaining in the place in which he knew that he was, he awaited him

Aegeates said: I wonder that you, being a sensible man, should wish to uphold him on any terms whatever; for, whether willingly or unwillingly, all the same, you admittest that he was fastened to the cross. The blessed Andrew said: This is what I said, if now you apprehendest, that great is the mystery of the cross, which, if you wish, as is likely, to hear, attend to me.

Aegeates said: a mystery it cannot be called, but a punishment. The blessed Andrew said: This punishment is the mystery of man's restoration. If you will listen with any attention, you will prove it. Aegeates said: I indeed will hear patiently; but you, unless you submissively obey me, shall receive the mystery of the cross in yourself. The blessed Andrew answered: If I had been afraid of the tree of the cross, I should not have proclaimed the glory of the cross. Aegeates said: your speech is foolish, because you proclaims that the cross is not a punishment, and through your foolhardiness you are not afraid of the punishment of deat

This shot was one of those "I wonder what would happen if..." sort of things. I wanted to take a photo of an entire block of M street in Georgetown. Although it didn't stitch together as nicely as I had hoped (as you can see), I still think it's pretty cool. Definitely view the full size (10,000 pixels long) of this shot...it's the only reason I posted it here.

I started on the far left and set up my tripod so that the front foot was just off the sidewalk on the curb. I then took 3 exposures (+2, 0, -2) before moving down the block and setting up the tripod at roughly the same distance from the curb. I did this for 8 shots, making a total of 24 exposures. My original plan was to layer/mask the exposures to make a much better looking photo, but the stitching turned out so poorly I don't feel like it's worth the effort. In fact, other than a little sharpening I didn't do anything to these photos.

I was dodging pedestrians and waiting for gaps in traffic, so I'm sure doing this at sunrise would be worth it. Other than that, the only thing I'll do differently next time is to invest the time in shooting portrait orientation at a longer focal length. It'll take forever, but it *should* stitch much more cleanly.