This is the Queen for whom the Title 'Gracious' most assuredly Fits

One More Tuesday With Mitch (probably time well spent)

From an interview with Mitch Albom author of 'Tuesdays With Morrie' and the new book,'One More Day'. 

Do you have any sort of notions about what waits for us after death?

Mitch:

Hey, when you’re the guy who wrote "Tuesdays with Morrie" and "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," you’re gonna hear stories. People have been told me that they’ve been visited by someone they’ve lost, or that when they almost died they saw their mother come and hold their hand and say, “It’s not your time yet.” I’ve been told about visions of Jesus, conversations with Jesus. It’s just too much for it to all be hallucinogenic or coincidental. So, yes, I do.

I truly feel that there’s something beyond here. I see it in the sparks of divinity I see inside everybody, even bad people. And I mean, we’re not here on Earth to be worm food. I have an internal belief that there is something beyond here. My hope is that it’s better and that it rewards the good that people have done and takes care of the poor, and the sick, and the suffering, who have not had a fair shake here on Earth.

http://www.beliefnet.com/story/227/story_22738.html

Come let us worship Him.

The Annunciation

IT IS A PRETTY GOOD STORY ISN'T IT?

Crazy for God (and that ain't neccessarily a good thing)*

(I used to like this guy when I was younger. I thought he might be able to bring some intellectual integrity to the religious claims of evangelicals.  Now that I am older I prefer his son's perspective which acknowledges the goofiness and tries to live and speak authentically even when it doesn't support the "God said, I believe it, That settles it" mentality that so distorted my own early 'born again' training.)

Even Schaeffer's father said the powerful preachers they hobnobbed with were "not our sort of people." Schaeffer goes further in "Crazy for God": "In public they maintained an image that was usually quite smooth. In private they ranged from unreconstructed bigot reactionaries like Jerry Falwell, to Dr. [James] Dobson, the most power-hungry and ambitious person I have ever met, to Billy Graham, a very weird man indeed who lived an oddly sheltered life in a celebrity/ministry cocoon, to Pat Robertson, who would have a hard time finding work in any job where hearing voices is not a requirement."

http://www.boston.com/ae/books/articles/2007/12/18/frank_schaeffers_roundabout_journey_to_find_faith/

That sort of talk has made the book a hit with the left, including a long review from novelist and onetime L'Abri tourist Jane Smiley in The Nation. But Schaeffer emphasizes that he was trying to tell his own story, not simply become a culture-war turncoat. And he has not turned away from religion, having joined the Greek Orthodox faith.

"At one point in your life, you think faith is an actual thing in itself that you've made some conclusion about. You say things like 'I believe.' I think what Mother Teresa woke up to maybe at some point and that certainly would describe my own journey too, in terms of faith, is that you can't really say 'I believe.' What you say is, 'I hope' something. 'I hope this is true.' And to me that's what faith is."





Crazy for God (and that ain't necessarily a good thing)*

* contrary to what many preachers and evangelists might tell you.

good counsel for melancholics such as 'moi meme'

For the world and time are the dance of the Lord in emptiness.
The silence of the spheres is the music of a wedding feast.
The more we persist in misunderstanding the phenomena of life,
the more we analyze them out into strange finalities
and complex purposes of our own,
the more we involve ourselves in sadness, absurdity, and despair.
But it does not matter much,

because

 
no despair of ours
can alter the reality of things,
or stain the joy of the cosmic dance which is always there.

Indeed, we are in the midst of it,
and it is in the midst of us,
for it beats in our very blood,
whether we want it to or not.
Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose,
cast our awful solemnity to the winds
and join in the general dance.

- Thomas Merton
New Seeds of Contemplation

see being peace in video section

www.beliefnet.com/features/peace/test2/container01.html

Our Hope.......His Glory

Many find Jesus’ teaching on enemy love and forgiveness a stumbling block to faith. Because we find it too difficult to practice, we dismiss it as unrealistic and utopian. We should think again, and we should pray that it is not unrealistic, because this congruence of Jesus—the consistency between his teaching on forgiveness and his action on the cross—is really our only hope. It is all that stands between us and the consequences of our monumental frailty. Thank God today that Jesus died as he lived, because with those words, "Father, forgive..." he forgives us all, and he forgives us still.

- Peter Storey
Listening at Golgotha: Jesus’ Words from the Cross

"God Bless The Child"

"God Bless The Child"
(Single), Shania Twain
Written by Shania Twain and Mutt Lange.

Hallelujah, hallelujah,
God bless the child who suffers
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
God bless the young without mothers

This child is homeless,
That child's on crack
One plays with a gun,
while the other takes a bullet in his back
This boy's a beggar,
That girl sells her soul
They both work the same street,
The same hell hole

Hallelujah, hallelujah,
God bless the child who suffers
Hallelujah, hallelujah,
Let every man help his brother

Some are born addicted and some are just thrown away
Some have daddies who make them play games they don't want to play

But with hope and faith
We must understand
All God's children need is love
And us to hold their little hands

This boy is hungry, he ain't got enought to eat
That girl's cold and she ain't got no shoes on her feet

When a child's spirit's broken
And feels all hope is gone
God help them find the strength to carry on

But with hope and faith
Yea, we can understand
All God's children need is love
And us to hold their little hands

Hallelujah, hallelujah
Let us all love one another
Hallelujah, hallelujah
Make all our hearts bilnd to color
Hallelujah, hallelujah
God bless the child who suffers

Saved By Hope (Pope Benedict xvi)

   Holy See: Benedict XVI
"We must acknowledge that modern Christianity, faced with the successes of science in progressively structuring the world, has to a large extent restricted its attention to the individual and his salvation," he wrote. "In doing so, it has limited the horizon of its hope and has failed to recognize sufficiently the greatness of its task."

The Christian concept of hope and salvation, he says, was not always so individual-centric.

Quoting scripture and theologians, Benedict says salvation had in the earlier church been considered "communal" — illustrating his point by using the case of monks in the Middle Ages who cloistered themselves in prayer not just for their own salvation but for that of others.

"How could the idea have developed that Jesus' message is narrowly individualistic and aimed only at each person singly? How did we arrive at this interpretation of the 'salvation of the soul' as a flight from responsibility for the whole, and how did we come to conceive the Christian project as a selfish search for salvation which rejects the idea of serving others?" he asked.

While seeking to provide answers, he also says there are ways for the faithful to learn and practice true Christian hope: in prayer, in suffering, in taking action and in looking at the Last Judgment as a symbol of hope.


"Saved by Hope," which Benedict largely penned this past summer while on vacation, follows his first encyclical, "God is Love," released last year.
www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi

To Die in Hope is Better Than to Live in Vain

No sorrowful tears, no beating of the breast

For a safe repose has taken me.

I dance Ring Dances with the blessed saints

In the beautiful fields of the righteous.

Ancient Christian Tomb Inscription.

God is more of a painter than a preacher. His sermons come in silent but living colour.

I'd Take A Simple Doer Over An Eloquent Preacher Any Day

We take pride in our almost unique and wide-ranging learning, as if there were not many people much more learned than we whom we do not want to despise us. We enjoy ridiculing those who are less educated than we and make no effort to remember that entry into the kingdom lies open not for those who only learn the mysteries of faith and the commands of the Creator by meditating on them, but for those who put into practice the things they have learned.
- Bede Bede
from Homilies on the Gospels, quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom: Writings on the Contemplative Life by Hugh Feiss

I'd always thot it said..."and the Lion shall Lay down With the Lamb

In a zoo in California , a mother tiger gave birth to a rare set of triplet tiger cubs. Unfortunately, due to complications in the pregnancy, the cubs were born prematurely and due to their tiny size, they died shortly after birth.The mother tiger after recovering from the delivery, suddenly started to decline in health, although physically she was fine. The veterinarians felt that the loss of her litter had caused the tigress to fall into a depression. The doctors decided that if the tigress could surrogate another mother's cubs, perhaps she would improve.After checking with many other zoos across the country, the depressing news was that there were no tiger cubs of the right age to introduce to the mourning mother. The veterinarians decided to try something that had never been tried in a zoo environment. Sometimes a mother of one species will take on the care of a different species. The only "orphans" that could be found quickly, were a litter of weanling pigs. The zoo keepers and vets wrapped the piglets in tiger skin and placed the babies around the mother tiger. Would they become cubs or pork chops?

Now, please tell me one more time..........why can't the rest of the world get along?*********************************************************************

Brokenness

The great mystery of God's love is that we are not asked to live as if we are not hurting, as if we are not broken. In fact, we are invited to recognize our brokenness as a brokenness in which we can come in touch with the unique way that God loves us. The great invitation is to live your brokenness under the blessing. I cannot take people's brokenness away and people cannot take my brokenness away. But how do you live in your brokenness? Do you live your brokenness under the blessing or under the curse? The great call of Jesus is to put your brokenness under the blessing.

- Henri J.M. Nouwen
Lecture at Scarritt-Bennett Center

Try Dancing With These Stars

from one of my favourite spiritual sites, Aish.com

by Shoshana Greenspan
They may not be able to run, walk, or even sit up, but oh, how our children can dance.
You have seen our children. Our children are the special children, the ones that you see with braces, crutches, walkers and wheelchairs. The ones who look a little bit different. You always smile kindly when you pass us on the street, in the supermarket, at the playground. You are sympathetic when you see them being lifted onto their special vans in the morning. You are encouraging when you pass them wheeling their own wheelchairs or learning to walk in their walkers and you think that you have seen the extent of their abilities.
But you have never seen our children dance.
They may not be able to run, walk, or even sit up, but oh, how our children can dance.
From the first exhilarating dance after Yom Kippur, the Sukkot holiday is a time of joy and dancing. You have never seen true joy until you have seen our children dance. That's when you can see who they really are. When you see that glow in their eyes, you can glimpse our children's souls. And at the Simchat Beit Hashoeiva for the special children of Jerusalem's Meshi School, that is precisely what we saw.
Outwardly, our children looked the same as on any other occasion. There were the body braces and wheelchairs of spina bifida, the twisted limbs and drooping heads of cerebral palsy, the drooling mouths and fixed stares of the chromosomal disorders. There were the children who struggled to walk on their own, with walkers and crutches, and there were the children who tugged at everyone's heartstrings as they expertly maneuvered their own tiny wheelchairs. There were the children who supported their own body weight, sitting up in their chairs and looking almost normal, and there were the children who curled up in their mothers' arms like babies. There were the children who could speak, and there were the children who communicated only with their eyes. Each child a world unto his own, with his own needs and requirements, his own special abilities and disabilities. Each child a unique individual. The one similarity amongst them was the beaming ear to ear grin on every face. No matter how severe their disabilities, our children can all smile.
And they can dance.
They dance in their wheelchairs, exuberantly spinning through the crowd.
They dance in their walkers, swaying back and forth in the center of the circle.
They dance in their leg braces and full body braces, lifted high on their fathers' shoulders.
They dance in their mothers' arms, gently rocking back and forth to the music.
They don't just dance with their bodies; they dance with their souls.
The circle of dancers began slowly, hesitantly, as if anxious about our children's disabilities. But on this night, our children did not want to be confined or protected. They wanted to dance. And dance they did. As the tempo of the music grew more insistent, the circle of men grew faster, more exuberant. Those children who could control their own movements formed their own circle in the center of the ring of fathers and brothers. And those who could not, were held, lifted or twirled into the heart of the dancers. Everyone was equal on that night. No one was left out. Everyone was dancing.
The dancers came from every segment of Jerusalem's varied population. There were bare headed men, clean shaven men with khaki pants and white knitted kippot, bearded men with black suits and hats, men with long curly peyote and streimels. The children were dressed in every color of the rainbow. There was no division between them. Everyone was dancing with our children.
Sanding on the side and taking it all in, I felt the tears welling up in my eyes, but I didn't let them fall. That night was not for tears. There had been plenty of time for tears throughout the year, times for frustration, for pain, for anxiety. That night was a time for celebration. Not a time to focus on our children's lacks, their weaknesses and disabilities, but a time to celebrate their abilities, their strengths, their uniqueness. A time to dance.
As I looked at the crowd of women -- mothers, grandmothers, teachers and therapists -- I saw the same feelings mirrored on every face. Feelings of love, of joy, of pride in our children. We were celebrating the special soul inside each one of them, that holy inner spark that burns as pure and clear as on the day it was given. Within the deformed bodies, we all saw the radiantly perfect souls.
And seeing those souls is what our lives are all about. Our task on this earth is not to judge people by the color of their skin, dress or yarmulke. Our task is not to judge people by their looks, talents, intelligence or education. Our task is not to judge people by their abilities or disabilities. Our task on this earth is to discover the pure soul within; the inner spark of Godliness that unites us all. Despite our differences, we are all brothers.
A few more nights like this one, a few more nights of unity without regard for our trivial man-made dividers, and we will all be able to join hands as one to greet the Messiah.
And then we will all dance.
This article can also be read at: http://www.aish.com/jewishissues/jewishsociety/Dancing_with_Our_Children.asp

Church Politics as it should be practiced

There was a church where the preacher and the song leader were not getting along. As time went by this began to spill over into the worship service.

The first week the preacher preached on commitment and how we all should dedicate ourselves to the service of God.
The song leader lead the song
"I Shall not be Moved."

The second week the preacher preached on tithing and how we all should gladly give to the work of the Lord. The song leader lead the song
"Jesus Paid it All."

The third week the preacher preached on gossiping and how we should all watch our tongues. The song leader led the song
"I Love to Tell the Story."

With all this going on, the preacher became very disgusted over the situation and the following Sunday told the congregation that he was considering resigning. The song leader lead the song
"Oh Why Not Tonight?"

As it came to pass, the preacher did indeed resign. The next week he informed the church that it was Jesus who led him there and it was Jesus that was taking him away. The song leader lead the song
"What a Friend We Have in Jesus."


My thanks go out to Pastor Hammond for furnishing and quite possibly living these insights.

Prayer should be brief and pure, unless it happen to be lengthened by an impulse or inspiration of divine grace.
- Rule of Benedict
Quoted in Essential Monastic Wisdom, by Hugh Feiss

A Magnificent Story of A Broken Hallelujah

Someday I will stand before
the Lord of Song
With nothing on my tongue
but this broken Hallelujah

And it will have to be enough
because it is all I have





Please see this Film if you can.

Saint Ralph's Spiritual Advisor and Running Coach

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7AgO8VxEdo

"You know Father Superior, when it comes to anarchy, Nietzsche really had nothing on Christ."
Father Hibbert

Saint Ralph

Solutions to some of life's most difficult problems.

1. If you are choking on an ice cube simply pour a cup of boilingwater down your throat. Presto! The blockage will instantly remove itself. Then call the doctor.

2. Avoid cutting yourself slicing vegetables by getting someone else to hold while you chop.

3. Avoid arguments with the Mrs. about lifting the toilet seat by using the sink.

4. For high blood pressure sufferers: simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes, thus reducing the pressure in your veins. Remember to use a timer.

5. A mouse trap, placed on top of your alarm clock, will prevent you from rolling over and going back to sleep after you hit the snooze button.

6. If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

7. You only need two tools in life - WD-40 an d Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and should, use the WD-40. If it shouldn't move and does, use the duct tape.

8. Remember: Everyone seems normal until you get to know them.

Daily Thought: SOME PEOPLE ARE LIKE SLINKIES. NOT REALLY GOOD FOR ANYTHING BUT THEY BRING A SMILE TO YOUR FACE WHEN PUSHED DOWN THE STAIRS

Christians commemorate the Transfiguration on August 6.

Matthew 17
The Transfiguration 1After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
5While he was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"

Bruce Springsteen

Bruce's Devils & Dust CD is chock full of songs about hope, love, and redemption, as well as tales of sin, brokenness, and confession. The album's spiritual highlight is "Jesus Was an Only Son," which poignantly captures the bond between Mother and Child:

As he walked up Calvary Hill /
His mother walking beside him /
In the path where his blood spilled /
Jesus was an only son /
In the hills of Nazareth /
As he lay reading the Psalms of David /
At his mother's feet …

Well, Jesus kissed his mother's hands /
Whispered, "Mother, still your tears" /
For remember the soul of the universe /
Willed a world and it appeared. (I like that, don't you?)

Springsteen told The New York Times that although he's "not a churchgoer," his music is "filled with Catholic imagery … a powerful world of potent imagery that became alive and vital and vibrant. … As I got older, I got less defensive about it. I thought, I've inherited this particular landscape, and I can build it into something of my own."
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2007/august/8.59.html

Either we are adrift in chaos or we are individuals, created, loved, upheld and placed purposefully, exactly where we are. -Elisabeth Elliot



Joy is to feel the doors of the self fly open into a wealth that is endless because none of it is ours and yet it all belongs to us. -William Sloane Coffin

Andrei Tarkovsky. A Man Worth Knowing, Whose Films are Perhaps Worth Seeing.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/features/fof.html

The most revered Russian filmmaker since Sergei Eisenstein, Tarkovsky offers an unabashedly religious worldview, without which, he wrote, "people cease to feel any need for the beautiful or the spiritual, and consume films like bottles of Coca-Cola."

Raised in the Russian Orthodox tradition, director Andrei Tarkovsky once told an interviewer, "I consider myself a person of faith, but I do not want to delve into the nuances and problems of my situation, for it is not so straightforward, not so simple, and not so unambiguous."

Nature, not seen as fallen in the Eastern church, but rather good at its core, possible even of bringing one to salvation, plays a major role in his films.

The influence of Russian religious history is also evident in his use of the Holy Fool, an archetype of Russian literature—often characters of deep faith, seen as fools by the world, yet who see God's reality as it truly is.

All his films deal with apocalyptic scenarios; indeed, one film idea he had was titled "The End of the World," yet he refused the label "pessimist." Indeed, he said of apocalyptic literature, "It would be wrong to consider that the Book of Revelation only contains within itself a concept of punishment, of retribution; it seems to me that what it contains above all, is hope."

"I believe that it is always through spiritual crisis that healing occurs," Tarkovsky wrote. "A spiritual crisis is an attempt to find oneself, to acquire new faith… . It seems to me that the individual today stands at a crossroad, faced with the choice of whether to pursue the existence of a blind consumer, subject to the implacable march of new technology and the endless multiplication of material goods, or to seek out a way that will lead to spiritual responsibility, a way that ultimately might mean not only his personal salvation but also the saving of society at large; in other words, to turn to God."