R2E (aka 'The Road to Emmaus')

Seven habits of highly happy people

2010-08-02T16:36:00.001-04:00

(if it makes you happy to be happy then be happy)

2010-02-19T12:07:00.000-05:00

True humility doesn't consist of thinking ill of yourself but of not thinking of yourself much differently from the way you'd be apt to think of anybody else.

-Frederick Buechner

2010-02-19T11:49:00.001-05:00

We are called to play the good Samaritan on life's roadside...True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar.

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

We are all receiving Charity.

2010-02-12T16:40:00.000-05:00

There is something in each of us that cannot be naturally loved. It is no one's fault if they do not so love it ... You might as well ask people to like the taste of rotten bread or the sound of a mechanical drill. We can be forgiven, and pitied, and loved in spite of it, with Charity; no other way. All who have good parents, wives, husbands, or children, may be sure that at some times -- and perhaps at all times in respect of some one particular trait or habit -- they are receiving Charity, are loved not because they are lovable but because Love Himself [Christ] is in those who love them.

- C.S. Lewis, from his book, The Four Loves

2010-02-04T22:08:00.001-05:00

These are from a book called 'Disorder in the American Courts' and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters that had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.

_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
____________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: He's twenty, much like your IQ

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Are you shitting me?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Getting laid
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
WITNESS : Your Honor, I think I need a different attorney. Can I get a new attorney?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
WITNESS: Take a guess
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
WITNESS: Unless the Circus was in town I'm going with male
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All of them. The live ones put up too much of a fight.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 pm.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: If not, he was by the time I finished
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Are you qualified to ask that question?
_____________________________________

And the best for last:

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: I see, but could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law

because its god's will

2010-02-04T09:32:00.000-05:00

2010-02-04T09:21:00.004-05:00

creative people often put sex and faith together

the love of a man for a woman echoes of transcendence

and when that love is consummated it sends a product of that love into the world

if that man and woman love their own they will want to create a world where love and righteous dwell

let us go and build the kingdom

where all of us are included

in the community of the beloved

are you the one I've been waiting for

2010-02-04T09:20:00.000-05:00

into my arms oh lord

2010-02-04T09:12:00.001-05:00

God Gloried...

2010-02-01T16:37:00.000-05:00

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes: yet, with all that, God ... gloried in becoming a member of the human race.

- Thomas Merton, from A Book of Hours

2010-01-15T17:23:00.001-05:00

The irony would be delicious if it were not so bitter: earnest theologians have been earnestly persuading Christians for sixteen centuries that their gospel supports violence, while massive outpourings of citizens in one officially atheist country after another [during the peaceful overturning of the Soviet regime and its allies at the end of theCold War] recently have demonstrated the effectiveness of Jesus’ teaching of nonviolence as a means of liberation.

- Walter Wink, from his bookThe Powers That Be

dumping on others

2010-01-11T14:06:00.003-05:00

To anyone reading this...I have taken a sabbatical from the blog world but from time to time I will add some of the things that are meaningful to me. They may have no context or explanation for anyone else. They will appear random...perhaps in time I will visit this site with a coherent and sustained effort to communicate something but for now this space is my dumping grounds for things i want to save but have no place to store them.

welcome to my garbage dump/treasure pile.

Happy Rooting.

Not Bah Humbug exactly

2009-12-27T21:33:00.000-05:00

I sometimes think we expect too much of Christmas Day. We try to crowd into it the long arrears of kindliness and humanity of the whole year. As for me, I like to take my Christmas a little at a time, all through the year.

- David Grayson
American author and journalist (1870-1946)

The Origins of Life

2009-10-18T19:18:00.001-04:00

The Origins of Life

Shared via AddThis

the stuff of which physical reality is composed is mind-stuff

2009-10-18T19:14:00.001-04:00

Noble laureate, Professor of Biology, Harvard University, the late George Wald, from

"Life and Mind in the Universe" for the 1984 Quantum Biology Symposium:

"It has occurred to me lately -- I must confess with some shock at first to my scientific sensibilities – that both questions [the origin of consciousness in humans and of life from non-living matter] might be brought into some degree of congruence. This is with the assumption that mind, rather than emerging as a late outgrowth in the evolution of life, has existed always as the matrix, the source and condition of physical reality – the stuff of which physical reality is composed is mind-stuff. It is mind that has composed a physical universe that breeds life and so eventually evolves creatures that know and create: science-, art-, and technology-making animals. In them the universe begins to know itself."

2009-10-09T09:10:00.000-04:00

I do not go to Mass to make myself "better." I go because, in the dimmest reaches of my scattered, angst-ridden mind, there is something that wants me to get down on my knees and, in spite of my own suffering and all the suffering around me, give thanks. I go because I am beginning to believe that heaven is not in some other world, but shot through the broken world in which we live.

- Heather King, from her essay "Heaven and Earth"

2009-09-21T15:58:00.001-04:00

Reconciliation is the ultimate aim of nonviolence because nonviolence holds not only for the absolute inviolability of the human person, both friend and enemy, but maintains that human beings are ultimately one family, brothers and sisters to each other.

- Niall O'Brien,
Columban priest in the Philippines

2009-09-18T09:22:00.001-04:00

The hunger for God can only be satisfied by a love that is face to face, person to person. It is only in the eyes of another that we can find the Icon of Christ. We must make the other person aware we love him. If we do, he will know that God loves him. He will never hunger again.

- Catherine de Hueck Doherty,
Catholic social activist and founder of Madonna House (1896-1985)

2009-08-28T23:40:00.001-04:00

Whatever else may be said of man, this one thing is clear: He is not what he is capable of being.

- G.K. Chesterton

success means different things to different people

2009-08-20T10:01:00.001-04:00

“I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.

- C.S. Lewis

2009-08-13T00:22:00.000-04:00

let us work together

2009-07-22T22:03:00.000-04:00

If you have come to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.

- Lilla Watson,
Aboriginal elder, educator, and activist

if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way

2009-07-08T16:03:00.002-04:00

In one of motion pictures' most moving pertayals Jimmy Stewart wasn't really acting; those tears were real.

In this 1977 article that Stewart wrote forGuideposts, the actor recalls that George "is unaware that most of the people in town are arduously praying for him. In this scene, at the lowest point in George Bailey's life, Frank Capra was shooting a long shot of me slumped in despair. In agony I raise my eyes and following the script, plead, 'God...God...dear Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man, but if You're up there and You can hear me, show me the way, I'm at the end of my rope. Show me the way, God...'

"As I said those words, I felt the loneliness and hopelessness of people who had nowhere to turn, and my eyes filled with tears. I broke down sobbing. This was not planned at all, but the power of that prayer, the realization that our Father in heaven is there to help the hopeless had reduced me to tears."

Damn the Torpedoes

2009-07-08T11:07:00.006-04:00

The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just.

- Abraham Lincoln

If we confront injustice only when we can be sure that we will succeed, we will likely never advance the Kingdom.

Of course we can and should count the cost and weigh options to determine what action will most effectively improve the situation but once the course is known we need to 'damn the torpedoes and go full steam ahead'.

The life and death of Jesus and so many of his followers is a lesson in how to change a world of power and abuse to one of love and justice. The desired results have not fully come but like leaven in the loaf the sacrifice will have its effect and the Kingdom will arise.

Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we must be saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love.

Reinhold Niebuhr

Codex Sinaiticus world's oldest bible now online

2009-07-07T08:37:00.006-04:00

which being translated means

40 And the King shall answer and say to them: Verily I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

2009-06-20T22:41:00.000-04:00

The care of another--even material, bodily care--is spiritual in essence. Bread for myself is a material question; bread for my neighbor is a spiritual one.

- Jacques Maritain

the cross brings us to an equality that politics and force never could...........let us exalt every valley and bring low every mountain

2009-06-18T08:40:00.001-04:00

If I cannot in honest happiness take the second place (or the twentieth); if I cannot take the first without making a fuss about my unworthiness, then I know nothing of Calvary love.

- Amy Carmichael

Stop the cycle of self and other abuse

2009-06-18T02:40:00.003-04:00

Say 'No' to Suffering

What we most frequently see when the mind is focused and clear are the habits of mind that create unnecessary suffering, habits fueled by greed and hatred and delusion. Over and over we struggle with our lives, resenting our experiences, blaming ourselves for not being other than who we are. We are unable to see past the immediate, overwhelming drama of our personal story to find relief—indeed, liberation—in the consoling realization of an astonishingly lawful cosmos. Paying attention to current experience stops the stories that create and recreate suffering.

Text from Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice

A worthy goal for any pilgrim

2009-06-18T02:38:00.003-04:00

Move Toward Kindness

The practice of seeing clearly is what finally moves us toward kindness. Seeing, again and again, the infinite variety of traps we create for seducing the mind into struggle, seeing the endless rounds of meaningless suffering over lusts and aversions (which, although seemingly urgent, are essentially empty), we feel compassion for ourselves. And then, quite naturally, we feel compassion for everyone else. We know as we have never known before that we are stuck, all of us, with bodies and minds and instincts and impulses, all in a tug-of-war with our basic heart nature that yearns to relax into love. Then we surrender. We love. We laugh. We appreciate.

Text from Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice

The Art of Connecting Robin Hood to Rosebud

2009-06-18T02:37:00.003-04:00

Become Clear

Like the archer straightening his arrow and perfecting his aim, the practitioner of meditation straightens out the mind while aiming his or her attentional energy at its object. Learning to drop what we're doing, however momentarily, and to genuinely pay attention in the present moment, without attachment or bias, helps us become clear, just as a snow globe becomes clear when we stop shaking it and its flakes settle.

Text from Commit to Sit: Tools for Cultivating a Meditation Practice

2009-06-16T14:44:00.001-04:00

Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are anger and courage. Anger at the way things are, and courage to see that they do not remain as they are.

- St. Augustine

Hey 'Kid' be a mensch and just shake and make up like a good boy?

2009-06-16T14:39:00.003-04:00

It is the acid test of nonviolence that ... there is no rancor left behind, and in the end, the enemies are converted into friends.

- Mohandas Gandhi

speared in the groin

2009-06-14T19:28:00.004-04:00

The agony of defeat took on new meaning when I learned that the captain and the heart soul and (testicles) of my team, Nicholas Lidstom, required surgery in the previous round to repair damage caused by a stick to the groin. I thought he wasn't quite up to his best game in the finals. Now we know why.

May God Bless all the wounded warriors but especially our incredible Captain Nik and his nicked knackers.

it certainly is a good deal for the half-hearted and the corrupt

2009-06-14T19:20:00.001-04:00

It was for this world that Christ had died; the more evil you saw and heard about you, the greater glory lay around the death. It was too easy to die for what was good or beautiful, for home or children or a civilization—it needed a God to die for the half-hearted and the corrupt.

- Graham Greene,
The Power and the Glory

we are your bad conscience

2009-06-10T17:46:00.000-04:00

Everywhere and at all times of greatest trial [people] have appeared, prophets and saints who cherished their freedom, who preached the One God and who with [God's] help brought the people to a reversal of their downward course. Man is free, to be sure, but without the true God he is defenseless against the principle of evil.... We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience.

- Sophie Scholl,
and her co-resisters in The White Rose, a nonviolent student movement against the Nazis.

we must never forget that our choices have consequences

2009-06-03T10:01:00.007-04:00

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, knew of Dr Bruner's remarkable
Surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt Uni v Med Ctr in Nashville , he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed Hand through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture.

She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person. 'Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture........

We used to call it 'Being Saved to Serve".

2009-06-01T14:49:00.005-04:00

God has obviously saved some people to open medical clinics, run homeless shelters, and write books. All these constitute "good works." But for most, God has saved us to wipe the nose, prepare the dinner, run an errand for a sick neighbor, hold the Bible for, or even play chess with a lonely friend. It's all about meeting the basic needs of others, and you can be a passionate person who does that.

from Joni and Friends Newsletter

May 2009 edition.

It may be old fashioned but its still seems to me to be the best way to live a happy and meaningfull life.

"The Law of the Garbage Truck."

2009-05-29T12:36:00.004-04:00

One day a fellow hopped in a taxi and took off for the airport. They were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out of a parking space right in front of them.

The taxi driver slammed on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches! The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started yelling at them. The taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy. And I mean, he was really friendly.

When asked, why did he react so positively,

The taxi driver merely recited "The Law of the Garbage Truck."

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run around full of garbage -- frustration, anger, disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you.

Don't take it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.

Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks take over their day. Love the people who treat you right. Pray for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you take it!

humanity hanging on a cross

2009-05-27T23:20:00.001-04:00

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. This is not a way of life at all in any true sense. Under the clouds of war, it is humanity hanging on a cross of iron.

- Dwight D. Eisenhower

How hard is it to be in our Right Minds when living in a bent World? .....very hard!

2009-05-26T14:13:00.002-04:00

"He is mentally not stable, because he had the courage to say in his blog that he is a Christian. Anyone in his right mind in Saudi Arabia wouldn't do that."
Gamal Eid, director of the Arab Network for Human Rights Information, explaining why Saudi officials released blogger Hamoud Saleh Al-Amri.

I try to be a Christian

2009-05-20T13:34:00.002-04:00

Can anyone ask or do anything more?

"I tried to be a Christian."

might be an excellent epitaph for honest men's gravestones.

an enigma wrapped in a paradox....a prince in pauper's clothing. An honest man in search of Diogenes. A man of letters seeking a fitting climax.

2009-05-20T13:26:00.004-04:00

In 1982, Merv Griffin asked the director about it during an interview. Welles replied, "I try to be a Christian. [But] I don't pray really, because I don't want to bore God." In fact, prayer was almost as uncomfortable subject for Welles as the birds and the bees. He told the French New Wave magazineCahiers du Cinema, "In my opinion, there are two things that can absolutely not be carried to the screen: the realistic presentation of the sexual act and praying to God."

2009-05-15T18:17:00.001-04:00

If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.

- William Wilberforce,
British abolitionist and social reformer (1759-1833)

make it so

2009-05-08T18:19:00.003-04:00

When a person tries to act in accordance with his [or her] conscience, when he tries to speak the truth, when he tries to behave like a citizen, even in conditions where citizenship is degraded, it won't necessarily lead anywhere, but it might....Even a purely moral act that has no hope of any immediate and visible effect can gradually and indirectly, over time, gain in political significance.

- Vaclav Havel

2009-05-08T18:15:00.002-04:00

"The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because they are generally the same people."

G.K. Chesterton

Ask Not For Whom the Bell Tolls 'Mr. Dunne'

2009-04-30T23:08:00.004-04:00

John Donne
Meditation 17
Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death (or indignity) diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee..."

Work to be 'Dunne'

2009-04-23T00:01:00.002-04:00

Christianity stands or falls with its revolutionary protest against violence, arbitrariness, and pride of power, and with its plea for the weak. Christians are doing too little to make these points clear ... Christendom adjusts itself far too easiliy to the worship of power. Christians should give more offense, shock the world far more, than they are doing now.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Work to be 'Dunne'

2009-04-21T10:42:00.001-04:00

As long as people use tactics to oppress or restrict other people from being free, there is work to be done.

- Rosa Parks

A Christian Mistake (for people who claim to have an inside track with God we sure do make our share of 'em)

2009-04-16T17:42:00.002-04:00

The Religious Right was a Christian mistake. It was a movement that sought to implement a “Christian agenda” by tying the faithful to one political option -- the right wing of the Republican Party. The politicizing of faith in such a partisan way is always a theological mistake. But the rapid decline of the Religious Right now offers us a new opportunity to re-think the role of faith in American public life.

Jim Wallis

injustice

2009-04-14T18:35:00.001-04:00

We fought injustice wherever we found it, no matter how large, or how small, and we fought injustice to preserve our own humanity.

- Nelson Mandela

On the Road to Emmaus

2009-04-13T18:19:00.007-04:00

Luke 17

13 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

14 They were talking with each other about everything that had happened.

15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;

16 but they were kept from recognizing him.

17He asked them, "What are you discussing together as you walk along?"
They stood still, their faces downcast.

18 One of them, named Cleopas, asked him, "Are you only a visitor to Jerusalem and do not know the things that have happened there in these days?"
19 "What things?" he asked.
"About Jesus of Nazareth," they replied. "He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people.

20 The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him;

21 but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.

22 In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning

23 but didn't find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive.

24 Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see."

25 He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?"

27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

28 As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther.

29 But they urged him strongly, "Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over." So he went in to stay with them.

30 When he was at the table with them,

he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.

31 Then their eyes were opened

and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

Happy, Shiny Easter

2009-04-12T09:27:00.003-04:00

Luke 24

1: But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices which they had prepared. 2: And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3: but when they went in they did not find the body. 4: While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; 5: and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? 6: Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, 7: that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." 8: And they remembered his words, 9: and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest.

The great mystery of the incarnation, which meant God became man that man might become God

2009-04-11T21:42:00.003-04:00

We felt a respect for the poor and destitute as those nearest to God, as chosen by Christ for His compassion. Christ lived among men. The great mystery of the incarnation, which meant God became man that man might become God, was a joy that made us want to kiss the earth in worship, because His feet once trod that same earth.

Dorothy Day

The Long Loneliness.

It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!

2009-04-10T22:00:00.003-04:00

Luke 17:1

Between the Darkness and the Light there is the rescuer and the sacrifice

2009-04-07T10:24:00.003-04:00

“If I ever become a Saint—I will surely be one of “darkness.” I will continually be absent from Heaven—to lit the light of those in darkness on earth .”
—Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The orphanage is the legacy of a scoundrel turned saviour. Ed Hughes survived a kidnapping and a shooting that took his arm but he dies in a fall.

2009-04-05T07:37:00.009-04:00

Ed Hughes stayed with the orphans he cared for in Haiti even after bandits shot him and he lost his right arm. He remained even after armed men took him hostage for a week, until his son paid a US$2,000 ransom.

In the end, the Canadian missionary, who was in his mid-seventies, died caring for the orphans. On March 21, he climbed a ladder one-handed to fix a water pipe on his roof. He fell and cracked his head on the concrete below.

Family members and Christian volunteers in Ontario who supported Mr. Hughes’s orphanage, Tytoo Gardens, flew to Haiti this week to lay him to rest. They also hope to come up with a plan to keep the orphanage running.

“We’ve got 100 kids down there without anything on their plates,” said Ted Hughes, Mr. Hughes’s son, before flying to Port-au-Prince.

“He’d changed his life, he’d taken care of those kids, and now they’re without.”

The orphanage is the legacy of a scoundrel turned saviour. In the 1980s, Mr. Hughes ran a sex club under a huge tent near Hamilton, Ont., that was raided by a busload of police. Police charged nearly 100 swingers.......... (see more)

(indeed God moves in mysterious ways

and all His ways are past finding out
I've stopped even trying.....

Rest in Peace Ed!)

Change You Can Believe In?

2009-04-05T07:15:00.006-04:00

Perhaps it really can happen after all.

Wilson doesn't have answers for much of how he has lived his life — not for all the black people he beat up, not for all the venom he spewed, not for all the time wasted in hate......

........for years Wilson didn't know the identity of the man he had beaten, though he says that over time, guilt began weighing heavy on his heart.
It was only recently, he says, that things became clear....... (see rest of story here)

Pentecostalism’s Forgotten Nonviolent Roots

2009-04-01T18:56:00.002-04:00

by Aaron Taylor 03-27-2009

"The fact is that Pentecostalism started out as a radical, non-violent faith that challenged — not championed — power structures that perpetuate poverty and ethnocentrism. Pentecostals (and their charismatic godchildren) today have done an absolute 180 and are, tragically, now some of the most militant Christians on the planet. Thanks to TV evangelists, the unholy fusion of Christianity, Zionism, and American nationalism is the status quo in most American Pentecostal/charismatic churches — with very few exceptions.
I imagine that most of my Pentecostal/charismatic friends would be shocked to discover that the vast majority of Christians that experienced the revival at Azusa street (the revival that birthed Pentecostalism world-wide) also believed that the proper Christian response to war is conscientious objection. Most of the historic Pentecostal denominations that exist today started out as officially pacifist. As a matter of fact, the Assemblies of God didn’t officially change its position until 1967. Perhaps even more shocking is that some of the Pentecostal pioneers were imprisoned and — yes, it can happen in America — tortured for their refusal to participate in World War I.
Most Pentecostal/charismatic Christians today, especially the younger ones, have no idea that their heritage is rooted in non-violence,......... "

Aaron D. Taylor is the author of Alone with a Jihadist, scheduled to be released in mid-2009.

a world shattering but ultimately healing force

2009-04-01T18:42:00.009-04:00

Einstein's E=MC2 is an extraordinary concept.
So radical: matter and energy are two phases of the same sort of general stuff.
There's only one other idea that radical:
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Kurt Vonnegut, in Will the Circle Be Unbroken? by Studs Terkel

when we can produce energy in the fusion of atoms (the joining together)
rather than their fission (tearing apart)
we will have the energy we need to prosper safely in this world

and when we learn to forgive each other as members of the same beloved family
then we will be able to live on this planet without fear of want or discord.

we await a new heavens and a new earth.

Lord, energize and inspire us create this new kingdom with you.

Have You Found Dog?

2009-04-01T18:32:00.002-04:00

Grimm, you slay me!

Pray with your windows open

2009-03-26T20:32:00.001-04:00

The Talmud reads, "Never pray in a room without windows." Never pray without the world in mind, in other words. The purpose of the spiritual life is not to save us from reality. It is to enable us to go on co-creating it.
- Joan Chittister

“Without justice, what are kingdoms (and corporations) but bands of robbers?”

2009-03-13T09:04:00.009-04:00

"In 1965, U.S. CEOs at major companies made 24 times a worker's pay -- by 2004, CEOs earned 431 times the pay of an average worker. From 1995 to 2005, average CEO pay increased five times faster than that of average workers. While CEO pay continues to increase at rates far exceeding inflation, wages for the vast majority of American workers have failed to keep up with rising prices. In fact, real wages for the 90% of Americans who earn under $92,000 a year have actually fallen since 2001."

from
sojourners and God's Politics Blog by Jim Wallis and friends

“Without justice, what are kingdoms but bands of robbers?” St. Augustine

LETTER TO THE BANK

2009-03-12T16:34:00.000-04:00

Dear Sirs,

One of my checks was returned marked "insufficient funds." In view of current developments in the banking industry, does that refer to me or to you?

Sincerely,
Your customer

how will you speak up?

2009-03-11T20:34:00.001-04:00

What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander.

- Elie Wiesel,
Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate

Judas Asparagus and the New Evangelism

2009-03-10T10:06:00.004-04:00

A child was asked to write a book report on the entire Bible.

This is the New Testament through new eyes.

After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of The New. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn too, because my mom is always saying to me, 'Close the door! Were you born in a barn?' It would be nice to say, 'As a matter of fact, I was.')
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Democrats.
Jesus also had twelve opossums.
The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him.
Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Democrats and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead.
Anyways, Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again.
He went up to Heaven but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

Staying Alive

2009-03-09T11:58:00.000-04:00

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

- Martin Luther King Jr.

This has more theological implications than a 10,000 word treatise

2009-03-07T18:42:00.003-05:00

Mother Goose And Grimm
by MIKE PETERS

03/06/09

someday I'll have to sit down and think those implications through and then perhaps I will share them with you

in the mean time simply enjoy the experience of genius at work in cartoon form

an experience of incomparable value

2009-03-04T19:02:00.001-05:00

There remains an experience of incomparable value ... to see the great events of world history from below; from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled -- in short, from the perspective of those who suffer ... to look with new eyes on matters great and small.

- Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Letters and Papers from Prison

neither safe, nor politic...but right

2009-02-18T21:49:00.003-05:00

Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular -- but he must take it simply because conscience tells him it is right.

- Martin Luther King Jr.,
from his address, "To Chart Our Course for the Future" (1968).

Well Forest, things do get out of focus sometimes

2009-02-17T10:56:00.005-05:00

Wasn't it you who told me;

"Love and life is like a box of chocolates...it's cheaper, but means less, if you give them away after the day has past."

Hang in There

2009-02-17T10:53:00.003-05:00

Like I said 27 years ago on our wedding day....Hang with me for a while. I'm sure the fun is about to start anytime now!

Looking Good After All Those Years

2009-02-17T10:47:00.000-05:00

You are the greatest joy of my life. Happy Valentines Sweetheart

2009-02-17T10:41:00.001-05:00

wisdom all the way from 1866

2009-02-12T17:08:00.001-05:00

We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse in its own soul.

- Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Proceedings of the Eleventh Women's Rights Convention (1866).

and now the best love song of all time (this should atone for that last one)

2009-02-11T22:20:00.001-05:00

a little something for my sweet valentine

2009-02-11T21:52:00.000-05:00

this is how to play the game

2009-02-09T23:57:00.001-05:00

2009-02-07T22:17:00.002-05:00

Women have always been smarter than chauvinists

2009-02-04T16:01:00.001-05:00

A point of view .

Barbara Walters of Television's 20/20 did a story on gender roles in
Kabul, Afghanistan several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted
that women customarily walked five paces behind their husbands.

She recently returned to Kabul and observed that women still walk behind
their husbands. From Miss Walters' vantage point, despite the overthrow
of the oppressive Taliban regime, the women now seem to walk even
further back behind their husbands, and are happy to maintain the old
custom.

Miss Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, 'Why do you
now seem happy with an old custom that you once tried so desperately to
change?'

The woman looked Miss Walters straight in the eyes, and without
hesitation said, 'Land Mines.'

One of the things that I hope is true.

2009-02-04T15:59:00.001-05:00

Happy are those who consider the poor;
the Lord delivers them in the day of trouble.
The Lord protects them and keeps them alive;
they are called happy in the land.
- Psalm 41:1-2

Nick Cave came in the name of his father to keep God Alive

2009-01-26T01:08:00.004-05:00

that is a mighty big project, but he succeeds on a certain level for me.

Many will find this a bit overblown,

but for me it was very meaningful.

the flesh made word

2009-01-26T01:06:00.001-05:00

Happy 67th Casey......You Are A Good Dg

2009-01-25T15:26:00.007-05:00

Dog Years

A dog's lifespan is only a fraction of the average human's lifespan, which means that a dog ages more quickly in the same amount of time. This chart shows how a dog's age might be adjusted to compare to a human's age.

Canine Age Human Age

2 Months 14 Months

6 Months 5 Years

8 Months 9 Years

1 Year    15 Years

2 Years       24 Years

3 Years    28 Years

4 Years    32 Years

5 Years    37 Years

6 Years    42 Years

7 Years    47 Years

8 Years    52 Years

9 Years    57 Years

10 Years    62 Years

11 Years    67 Years

12 Years    72 Years

13 Years    77 Years

14 Years       82 Years

Proof That Hallelujah is best sung in a congregation

2009-01-21T23:02:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2NEU6Xf7lM

Only 3 things to write about; Love, Death and God

2009-01-21T11:19:00.005-05:00

sounds right to me

help us to make choices on the side of love, not hate; on the side of inclusion, not exclusion; tolerance, not intolerance.

2009-01-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

This is Worth Celebrating

2009-01-20T10:07:00.003-05:00

One of the most hopeful things about today'inauguration is that there will be a healing of confidence and a bright example given to millions of people in America and around the world. If people can be freed of prejudice and race hatred the world will be a step closer to realizing the 'kingdom' /'community of the beloved' dream of people like J.C. and MLK

LH

2009-01-20T10:02:00.002-05:00

Celebration

We must learn to celebrate. I say learn to celebrate, because celebration is not just a spontaneous event. We have to discover what celebration is. Our world doesn't know much about celebration. We know quite a bit about parties, where we are artificially stimulated with alcohol to have fun. We know what movies and distractions are. But do we know what celebration is? Do we know how to celebrate our togetherness, our being one body? Do we really know how to use all that is human and divine to celebrate together?

- Jean Vanier, From Brokenness to Community, p.45

If It Makes You Happy To Be Unhappy, Then Be Happy

2009-01-18T21:57:00.008-05:00

Happy Unhappiest Day of the Year

Jan 19th is officially the saddest day of the year. It has been scientifically determined that more people will feel blue on this day in Canada than any other day of 2009. It has something to do with
1. It's Monday...the start of the work week.
2. Its the middle of winter and oh what a winter it has been.
3. Christmas and New Years are over and we are still hung over.
4. The credit card statements have starting coming in.
5. We've got no more official holidays until Easter.......4 freaking months from now.
6. And because all the good movies were released in the Christmas season and now we are getting such gems as Paul Blart Mall Cop.

Oh well I guess its time to get out the Old Roger Miller Miller CD and sing along to these wonderful words of wisdom.....

"You can't roller skate in a buffalo herd but you can be happy if you have a mind to it."

So get a mind to it and he happy, one and all.

Happy Unhappiest Day of the Year.

Evo's answer to the 'egg sucking dog' syndrome.

2009-01-16T14:04:00.000-05:00

They do everything bigger in Australia (just ask mr. platypus)

2009-01-16T14:03:00.000-05:00

As a reluctant convert to evolution I present the next steps on the road to improved fitness

2009-01-16T14:00:00.001-05:00

Inspiration for times like these

2009-01-06T23:23:00.000-05:00

40 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes @ Yahoo! Video

What the eye does not see

2008-12-29T22:37:00.004-05:00

[W]E WILL ALWAYS be something of an exile in the present world. As lovely as it may be, it's not our final home, and worshiping God in spirit and truth always leaves us aware that there is more than what meets the eye.
Justin DuVall, from Praying with the Benedictines

Happy New Year

2008-12-28T18:57:00.002-05:00

And on Earth, Peace and Goodwill to All Men.

2008-12-20T09:34:00.005-05:00

Solstice at Newgrange
Credit: Photograph by Cyril Byrne - courtesy of The Irish Times

What kind of peace do we seek? ... Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children -- not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women, not merely peace in our time but peace for all time.

- John F. Kennedy,
American University speech, June 10, 1963.

DUCKS in HEAVEN

2008-12-14T22:12:00.010-05:00

Three women die together in an accident
And go to heaven.

When they get there, St. Peter says,
'We only have one rule here in heaven:
Don't step on the ducks!'
So they enter heaven, and sure enough,
There are ducks all over the place.
It is almost impossible not to step on a duck,
And although they try their best to avoid them,
The first woman accidentally steps on one.

Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw.
St. Peter chains them together and says,
'Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to
Spend eternity

chained to this ugly man!'

The next day,
The second woman steps accidentally on a duck
And along comes St. Peter,Who doesn't miss a thing.
With him is another extremely ugly man.
He chains them together
With the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and,
Not wanting to be chained
For all eternity to an ugly man, is very,
VERY careful where she steps.

She manages to go months
Without stepping on any ducks,But
One day St.Peter comes up to her
With the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on
.... Very tall, long eyelashes, muscular.

St. Peter chains them together without saying a word. The happy woman says,'I wonder what I did to deserve being
Chained to you for all of eternity?'

The guy says,
'I don't know about you,
But I stepped on a
Duck.

Christmas in The East (ART AT OMSC)

2008-12-08T10:07:00.006-05:00

http://www.omsc.org/art.html

chosen one

come saviour

light of life

christmas story

escape into egypt

Ode To Joy /The End of the Me Generation

2008-12-03T22:54:00.005-05:00

perhaps we will see life differently after this crisis. Let's hope we have realized in time that a society based on excessive consumption, ever increasing debt, unbridled greed and unrestrained hedonism can not be sustained.

the future will be green and compassionate or it will be more difficult than it is needs to be.

LH

How To Survive This Economic Crisis?

2008-12-03T22:06:00.003-05:00

Stay home and eat linoleum!