Heart thread - 04/10/2010

Let us pray for the departed, those who mourn, and the people of Poland.

President of Poland Killed in Plane Crash in Russia

By ELLEN BARRY, MICHAL PIOTROWSKI and NICHOLAS KULISH

MOSCOW — A plane carrying the Polish president, Lech Kaczynski, and dozens of the country’s top political and military leaders crashed in a heavy fog in western Russia on Saturday morning, killing everyone aboard. [NYT]

Let us "pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living" [Mother Jones].

Miners Found Dead: Four Missing Miners Found Dead At Upper Big Branch Coal Mine
MONTCOAL, W.Va. — Searchers found four bodies deep in a West Virginia coal mine shattered by an explosion, raising the death toll to 29 and ending an excruciating week for families holding onto faint hopes that their missing miners had somehow survived. [Huffington Post]

It appears that the W.Va. mine disaster could have been averted
AS RESCUERS continue to try to find the four remaining miners trapped after the Upper Big Branch coal mine exploded on Monday, we're finding out plenty about Massey Energy chief executive Don L. Blankenship and the operations of that doomed facility. None of it is good. What's been revealed is a distressing effort to render ineffective the mining regulations that were strengthened in 2006 to bring a measure of safety to a very dangerous job. [Washington Post editorial this morning]

We continue to remember Klady:

So far so good. Dr. said the fractures are "stable" so I should not need surgery. Will get new xrays in a week to check on it and then decide whether to proceed with a hard cast or consult with a surgeon if things change or I want a 2d op. Mobility poor - just a few steps with crutches exhaust me - will be cooped up at home for a long time. Royal PITA, but nothing worse. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

For the people of Thailand:

BANGKOK, April 10 (Reuters) - Four civilians and four soldiers were killed in clashes between the army and red shirt protesters, the Bangkok deputy governor said on Saturday without giving details.

For David and Glen and all who seek employment but do not have it.

For the people of Kyrgyzstan:

Kyrgyzstan is observing a period of mourning for the 79 people believed to have been killed by government forces Wednesday. The clash appears to have driven from power President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. [Voice of America]

For the people of Sudan:

KHARTOUM, Sudan - Sudan's first multiparty elections in more than two decades will go ahead despite the withdrawal of several opposition parties alleging campaign irregularities, the election commission said Saturday. [AP]

For Margaret and all who struggle for grace [see here]. For deliverance of all held in bondage (or perceiving themselves as in bondage) to law.

Pray for a reordering of our values:

The Preposterous Reality: 25 Hedge Fund Managers Are Worth 680,000 Teachers (Who Teach 13 Million Students)
"It’s going to take a lot of political will — over a long period of time — to reorder our most basic economic values."
In 2009, the worst economic year for working people since the Great Depression, the top 25 hedge fund managers walked off with an average of $1 billion each. With the money those 25 people “earned,” we could have hired 658,000 entry level teachers. (They make about $38,000 a year, including benefits.) Those educators could have brought along over 13 million young people, assuming a class size of 20. That’s some value. [Les Leopold at Alternet, h/t to Ellie]

For the Church that it may be the Church, in thanksgiving for the witness of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and for Mark who had insomnia this morning.

Today is the 65th anniversary of the martyrdom of Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I had insomnia early in the morning, so I passed the time reading Bonhoeffer's “Widerstand und Ergebung: Briefe und Aufzeichnungen aus der Haft.” (Bonhoeffer's prison writings). My focus for meditation today has been this brief, simple, but profound quote from Summer 1944:

Die Kirche ist nur Kirche, wenn sie für andere da ist.

The Church is only Church if it is there for others. [Mark at amictus sindone]

Mark also shared this:

Unsere Kirche, die in diesen Jahren nur um ihre Selbsterhaltung gekämpft hat, als wäre sie ein Selbstzweck, ist unfähig, Träger des versöhnenden und erlösenden Wortes für die Menschen und für die Welt zu sein.

Our church, which has been fighting in these years only for its self preservation, as though that were an end in itself, is incapable of taking the word of reconciliation and redemption to humankind and to the world.

For the people of A Community of the Servant Savior Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas.

We are the only More Light Presbyterian Church in this presbytery. More Light Presbyterians are a group working for the full inclusion and membership of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered people. We march in the Houston Pride Parade every year.
We also have a huge organic garden that donates produce to a local food pantry.
For the last twenty years or so, we have provided families living with AIDS a "Christmas Basket" which contains two weeks of food for a family of four. This last December we fed seventy two families.
We are a small church that feels like a big family.
...
Last night about 11 pm an arsonist burned my church building down. We lost everything: two buildings, all our furniture, books, hymnals, a new piano, a wall of crosses from around the world and so many other things. Our building is gone but our church is strong. [Kevin Murphy at Daily Kos]

O God, the creator and preserver of all mankind, we humbly beseech thee for all sorts and conditions of men [sic]; that thou wouldest be pleased to make thy ways known unto them, thy saving health unto all nations. More especially we pray for thy holy Church universal; that it may be so guided and governed by thy good Spirit, that all who profess and call themselves Christians may be led into the way of truth, and hold the faith in unity of spirit, in the bond of peace, and in righteousness of life. Finally, we commend to thy fatherly goodness all those who are in any ways afflicted or distressed, in mind, body, or estate; especially those for whom our prayers are desired; that it may please thee to comfort and relieve them according to their several necessities, giving them patience under their sufferings, and a happy issue out of all their afflictions. And this we beg for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen. [The Book of Common Prayer]

--the BB

Let's lie; no one will notice

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The Big Bang Treaty
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Why is it that a fake news show on the Comedy Network explains facts better than any other alleged news show?

--the BB

Which bolgia?

Where in the Inferno would Dante place Massey Energy chairman and CEO Don L. Blankenship? With the indifferent or the avaricious? Those violent against their neighbor? Falsifiers? Traitors?

According to federal records, MSHA cited the Upper Big Branch mine for more than 1,300 safety violations from 2005 through Monday. Fifty citations came in the last month alone. [source]

Given the track record of safety violations in mines for which he is responsible, I suspect Dante would not be kind.

Many of those fifty citations were for poor ventilation of dust and methane, failure to maintain proper escape ways, and the accumulation of combustible materials. The Charleston Gazette reports that last year, more than ten percent of the enforcement actions taken by MSHA at the Upper Big Branch mine were for unwarrantable failure to follow safety rules, compared to about two percent at mines nationwide.

The CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship, has denied any wrongdoing and said that any suspicion the mine was improperly operated was unfounded. [ibid.]

Blankenship hates unions and only 1.8 % of Massey's workers are unionized. If you have union workers they can report unsafe conditions and refuse unsafe work, which would cut into Blankenship's relentless drive to keep the bottom line where he wants it.

Jason Linkins writes at HuffPost:

Over at ThinkProgress, Brad Johnson pulls video of Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship registering complaints in June of 2009 that the safety rules governing mines were "difficult to comply with" and "nonsensical."

Maybe this was a big red flag that something terrible would one day happen?

Why should anyone comply with regulations when there is no serious consequence for non-compliance?

The agency has the power to seek federal court orders or injunctions against mines showing a pattern of violation and posing a hazard to the health and safety of miners. The agency has never used that authority, officials said. [WaPo cited in Linkins' article]

Ah, the mining companies had figured out how to stymie the regulators... and the feds did not tighten the rules. (Well, if you're a free market fundamentalist you assume regulation is bad and unregulated production and commerce work things out. This raging liberal does not have that much faith in human goodness, believe me.) The Obama Administration knew the rules were being gamed and, besides appointing more judges to adjudicate appeals, has seemingly done nothing to tighten the rules.

You all know where the lobbying money is going to come from. Yep, the coal industry. And, thanks to SCOTUS, corporations are entitled to lobby all they want.

Know any regulators who can stand against that? Of congresscritters?

Lots of rest

I got nine+ hours of sleep last night so I was not posting. Happy Friday everyone!

--the BB

Heart thread - 04/07/2010 - updated

I apologize for the tardiness of this one, though y'all might have thought I was April Foolin' had I posted it on the date proper. Last Thursday was the sixtieth wedding anniversary of my sister Shirley and her husband Jack. Happy Anniversary, Big Sister and Bro!

Grant, O God, in your compassion, that Jack and Shirley, having taken each other in marriage, may grow in forgiveness, loyalty, and love; and come at last to the eternal joys which you have promised through Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Let us pray for coal miners everywhere and especially those killed and those waiting to be rescued in West Virginia. Let us pray for the decency and responsibility to enforce safety regulations with vigor and firmness and hold responsible those whose habitual negligence and disdain for human life make such disasters inevitable.

For those injured or endangered by mud and flooding in Rio, most especially those in the slums.

For K. that her kidney stone may successfully be broken up and she released from pain. For B. that he may be healed of infection and recover from side effects of medication. For M. that he might find comfort and healing. For D. that he may have successful treatment and be freed from anxiety.

Update: For D. and N. as D. strikes out on her own and for those who must adjust to this.

For Matt that he may continue in safety and thrive in a new environment, that he may find wisdom to guide him and compassion to surround him, that he and his family may move toward healing.

For the people of Thailand and Kyrgyzstan that civil unrest (see also here) may end in peace with justice.

For victims of violence in Iraq from any and every cause.

For peace in Afghanistan.

For refugees everywhere.

Healing for Scout's broken toe.

For reduction of the threat from nuclear weapons.

For victims of abuse in any context, for their vindication and healing. We'll pray for the healing of abusers after this is taken care of.

For healing of the earth.

Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia.
For He whom you did merit to bear, alleluia.

Has risen, as he said, alleluia.
Pray for us to God, alleluia.

Rejoice and be glad, O Virgin Mary, alleluia.
For the Lord has truly risen, alleluia.

Let us pray. O God, who gave joy to the world through the resurrection of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, grant we beseech Thee, that through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, His Mother, we may obtain the joys of everlasting life. Through the same Christ our Lord. Amen.



--the BB

He that saveth our souls is risen from the dead

O Lord, the women ran unto
the tomb to see Thee, the Christ,
Who hadst suffered for us.
And on drawing nigh,
they found an Angel
sitting upon the stone,
which had rolled away in fear;
and he cried out unto them and said:
The Lord is risen!
Tell the disciples
that He that saveth our souls
is risen from the dead.

--Matins, Thursday of Renewal Week, Pentecostarion

With hymns do we glorify Thy life-creating and saving Rising from the dead

Thou didst crush the brazen gates
and shatter the bars,
O Christ God,
and Thou didst raise
the fallen human race;
for this cause do we
cry out with one accord:
Thou Who didst arise
from the dead, Lord,
glory be to Thee.

--Vespers of Tuesday of Renewal Week, the Pentecostarion

I am a social justice Christian

Because the Torah repeatedly calls us to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan, and the alien. Because the prophets and the psalms and the wisdom literature all hold this out as a criterion of our faith. Because Jesus leads us in reaching out to outcasts and caring for the least in society. Because the epistles and the Apocalypse speak of it as well. In other words, the entire Bible calls us to pursue social justice.



And, because y'all know I won't resist, Glenn Beck is an ass. And a false prophet.

1 John 4.1

--the BB

At the Lamb's high feast we sing

The Easter table with Greek Easter bread in the foreground

Spanakopita (with added sundried tomatoes),
tzatziki, goat brie on mini-toasts - yum!

Imam bayeldi before we sat down for the second course

Detail with greater exposure

I hope y'all had a wonderful first day of Easter. I certainly did (though I regretted overindulgence last night).

--the BB

Քրիստոս յարեաւ ի մեռելոց! - Օրհնեալ է Յարութիւնն Քրիստոսի! - updated with Armenian script

Angels in the heavens, O Christ our Saviour, praise Thy Resurrection with hymns; deem us also who are on earth worthy to glorify Thee with a pure heart.

Mark 16.1-8

When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, ‘Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you.’ So they went out and fled from the tomb, for terror and amazement had seized them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

Glory to the Holy, and Consubstantial, and Life-creating, and Indivisible Trinity, always, now and ever, and unto the ages. Amen.

Χριστος Ανεστη εκ νεκρων
θανατω θανατον πατησας
και τοις εν τοις μνημασιν
ζωην χαρισαμενος

Christ is risen from the dead
trampling down death by death
and upon those in the tombs
bestowing life.

It is the day of Resurrection, let us be radiant, O ye peoples; Pascha, the Lord's Pascha; for Christ God hath brought us from death unto life, and from earth unto Heaven as we sing the triumphal hymn.

Let us purify our senses and we shall behold Christ, radiant with the unapproachable light of the Resurrection, and we shall clearly hear Him say: Rejoice! as we sing the triumphal hymn.

For it is meet that the Heavens should rejoice, and that the earth should be glad, and that the whole world, both visible and invisible, should keep the feast; for Christ, our everlasting Joy, hath arisen.
--The Pentecostarion

Alleluia, Christ is risen!
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

--the BB

The beauty of spring

The rosemary is in bloom. There is a legend that the Virgin's mantle turned the flowers of rosemary this delicate blue.


And here is the Red Haven peach tree at the peak of bloom and glorious beyond words.


Shabbat shalom, y'all.

--the BB

Holy and Great Saturday

John 19:38-42

After these things, Joseph of Arimathea, who was a disciple of Jesus, though a secret one because of his fear of the Jews, asked Pilate to let him take away the body of Jesus. Pilate gave him permission; so he came and removed his body. Nicodemus, who had at first come to Jesus by night, also came, bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, weighing about a hundred pounds. They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews. Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.

First, the conclusion of the Matthew Passion (I am listening to the whole thing today).




Then the harrowing of hell:



Hell was wounded in the heart when it received Him whose side was pierced by the spear; consumed by divine fire it groaned aloud at our salvation who sing: O God our Deliverer, blessed art Thou.
--Mattins of Holy Saturday, Lenten Triodion

Despoiler of death, you have delivered us from the last enemy, claiming us forever as your own. All glory to you!

--the BB

Wound our souls with thy love

O Christ our God,
Thou has worked salvation
in the midst of the earth:
Thou hast stretched out
Thy most pure hands
upon the Cross,
and gathered together
all the nations,
as they cry:
O Lord, glory to Thee.

--Royal Hours of Holy Friday, Lenten Triodion

ιησους ειπεν τετελεσται και κλινας την κεφαλην παρεδωκεν το πνευμα

The sacrifice has been made.

The priest and the sacrifice are one.

The priest and the sacrifice have made the people one with God.

The people have been baptized into the death and rising of the Lamb.

They are now a holy people and a royal priesthood.

And so, on this day, they act as priests and, in union with the Great High Priest, intercede for the world in The Solemn Collects.

We pray, therefore, for all creation and for people everywhere according to their needs.

Let us pray for the holy Catholic Church of Christ throughout the world;
That God will energize it with Good News, flood it with compassion, purge it of error, grace it with humility, and kick it into the current century.

Let us pray for all nations and peoples of the earth, and for those in authority among them;
That tribalism may be set aside and the common good be sought and served in justice and truth, that all may live in peace, health, and concord.

Let us pray for all who suffer and are afflicted in body or in mind;
That we may take heed and become God's means of comfort and relief, messengers of God's love, and strong prophets to name and dismantle oppressive or neglectful structures.

Let us pray for all who have not received the Gospel of Christ;
That God will open their hearts and ours to the truth, and lead them and us to faith, obedience, and transformation.

Let us commit ourselves to our God, and pray for the grace of a holy life, that, with all who have departed this world and have died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is known to God alone, we may be accounted worthy to enter into the fullness of the joy of our Lord, and receive the crown of life in the day of resurrection.

Amen.

--the BB

Viernes Santo

Philippians 2:1-5

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God
as something to be exploited,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a slave,
being born in human likeness.
And being found in human form,
he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death—
even death on a cross.

Lord, we resist yet know you call us to die to self that we might truly live and we know it is the false self we must die to, not the truest self you created us to become. We usually think of this in terms of our individual selves but do you not also call our collective false selves to die? The Church, on every level, is going through bad times these days. Could you help us as your body to also die to self - to forget, by your grace, about institutional survival and abandon ourselves to service and embodiment of Gospel? I think it would joy your heart and suspect the world would know more joy also. Thanks.

Lord, when Thou hast ascended on the Cross, fear and trembling seized all creation. Thou hast not suffered the earth to swallow up those that crucified Thee; but Thou hast commanded hell to render up its prisoners, for the regeneration of mortals. Judge of the living and the dead, Thou hast come to bring, not death, but life. O Lover of souls, glory to Thee.
--Lenten Triodon [adapted]

Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben

What was it like, Jesus, to know where it all was headed but not yet know the outcome? To carry within you the certainty of betrayal, denial, and forsakenness? To move forward in those final hours knowing the Romans would put you to death? Look now, in your boundless compassion, on all those whose hearts are torn with anguish, those who suffer alone, those unjustly condemned, those betrayed, and those with no reasonable hope. Be their companion, their succor, their secret strength. Deliver us all from our acts and intentions of betrayal, denial, and abandonment. Der vogorma. Gospodi, pomiluj, Kyrie, eleison. Lord, have mercy.






Aus Liebe will
Aus Liebe will mein Heiland sterben,
Von einer Sünde weiß er nichts.
Daß das ewige Verderben
Und die Strafe des Gerichts
Nicht auf meiner Seele bliebe.

For love,
For love my Savior is now dying,
Of sin and guilt He knows not.
So eternal desolation
And the sinner's righteous doom
Shall not rest upon my spirit.

--the BB

Heart thread - 03/31/2010

Let us recall that the suffering of all sentient beings is part of the ongoing Passion of Christ, in whom all things exist. Let us pray for those going through their own Holy Week.

For Kathy having tests done.

For Dave waiting to hear test results.

For Mark who has had an awful day.

For Declan struggling for health and for his family.

For Jonathan and the Missus.

For Robert Whitaker and his family.

For a blogger and his brother.

For all victims of every form of abuse that they may find healing (which presupposes some truth and justice as well).

For all field workers as we recall the life of César Chávez.

For clergy trying to make it through Holy Week and for altar guild members everywhere.

For those attacked for being real and those afraid of their own reality.

He who is rich made Himself lowly for our sakes: rising from the Supper, He took a towel and girded Himself, and bowing down He washed the feet of the disciples and the traitor.
--Lenten Triodion

We need to be raised from the dead

John 13:21-32

After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, "Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me." The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. One of his disciples--the one whom Jesus loved--was reclining next to him; Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?" Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, "Do quickly what you are going to do." Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, "Buy what we need for the festival"; or, that he should give something to the poor. So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night. When he had gone out, Jesus said, "Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

Jesus, you handed the sop to Judas but, as I recall, your friends all ate that night and that same night they all forsook you. When it comes time to live as you ask us, we all fail rather miserably. I'm rethinking the "gates of hell" bit. The church may prevail against its own brittle death-dealing self. Sigh. If your Spirit can renew the face of the earth it can certainly renew us. We need to be raised from the dead. Srsly. Domine, ad adjuvandum nos festina!

I pray this knowing that we have already been raised with Christ, but we need to be raised from our habits of death to live as risen people.



--the BB

Heart thread - 03/29/2010

I ask your prayers for K. who is going in for a CT scan sometime this week.

I got a lovely card today saying: "Thank you for your love, support and prayers while I'm getting well. Love, Declan and his family." Since you all have been part of that love, support, and prayers I wanted you to know.

I ask continued prayers for Dave. His surgery today went well but it will be a while before biopsy results.

And for Steven who is gearing up for his cardiac catheterization on Wednesday.

For those slain or injured by suicide bombers in the Moscow subway.

For reduced tensions between North and South Korea.

For all who rebuild their lives, no matter what or where the disaster.

For our beloved Fran who always freaks before she speaks (or sermonizes).

Margaret asks our prayers for K. L. who had neck surgery today.

Kirstin is praying for a friend in the ICU, and for all who are homeless and who don't have health insurance.


--the BB

Tuesday in Holy Week

John 12:20-36

Now among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor. "Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say--'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name." Then a voice came from heaven, "I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again." The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, "An angel has spoken to him." Jesus answered, "This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself." He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, "We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?" Jesus said to them, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light." After Jesus had said this, he departed and hid from them.

Lord, how often are we in the position of those Greeks. We would see you. Even if we put aside our distractions and deceits, you are often obscured, even and especially by your churches and our godly pieties. Set us free from all that hides you: smarmy platitudes, easy answers, self-serving lies, and every distortion of your pure Gospel. Teach us, and teach your church, to follow you in the way of the grain, to die to what we know in order to be raised into what God knows.

Heart thread - 03/28/2010

I ask your prayers for Dave who has surgery tomorrow morning. May all go well and may he get good news. May his anxiety ease.

We remember this night all those endangered by tornadoes.

I give thanks for the six households that gathered to worship this morning at Our Saviour, South Valley, and especially for those who labor on its behalf and who have a vision of possibilities.

I offer heartfelt thanks for the arrival of spring in New Mexico. Not for my little garden but for the sake of food throughout the earth I pray for bees and other pollinating insects.

Prayers for the success of a new beginning on START treaties between the Russian Federation and the USA.

For our President as he travels.

For the 153 trapped in a Chinese coal mine after it was flooded.

--the BB

Monday in Holy Week

Ever since you rose from Jordan's muddy waters, Jesus, you have disturbed us, questioning our assumptions, challenging our way of doing things, upsetting all our power structures, and daring to force us to reexamine who we are and what it means to be fully human. Now you insist on marching headlong toward the nearest seat of power. I told you, nothing good will come of this, and you gave me that tender, infuriating look that insists it will. Lord, help my unbelief.

--the BB

Merry Christmas!

What? You were expecting Palm Sunday?

That too. But my Christmas present from my BFF was two half-days of yard help and today was one of them. Frankly, he did all the planting of roses and herbs and most of the annuals. I weeded, pruned, mulched, and did some of the planting of annuals and hauled off trash. Best of all, we had time to visit and talk about this and that.

Today's additions to the yard were six bare root roses, five French lavenders, three other herbs, and 42 mixed pansies and violas.

Remember the south wall with snow and iris?


Two standard miniature roses and all that lavender have joined the iris.


The Methley plum is quite stunning this evening.


And here is a view of the entire yard as seen through the Red Haven peach tree.


Alas, I think we saw all of three bees or other insects, so pollinating does not seem to be happening. Sigh.

But Easter dinner should have a floral backdrop.

--the BB

Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday

I intend to reprise last year's practice of featuring Bach's St Matthew Passion during Holy Week.

Lord Christ, you acknowledged that paving stones and roadside rubble can be more faithful and better witnesses to you than we often are. Forgive our faithlessness. Anoint us with the Spirit that we may acknowledge you and proclaim your truth, your justice, your compassion, your forgiveness, and your glory. Strengthen us to follow where you lead. For your mercy's sake. Amen.

Ashes to the earth Which is already flesh, fur and faeces

In my beginning is my end. In succession
Houses rise and fall, crumble, are extended,
Are removed, destroyed, restored, or in their place
Is an open field, or a factory, or a by-pass.
Old stone to new building, old timber to new fires,
Old fires to ashes, and ashes to the earth
Which is already flesh, fur and faeces,
Bone of man and beast, cornstalk and leaf.
Houses live and die: there is a time for building
And a time for living and for generation
And a time for the wind to break the loosened pane
And to shake the wainscot where the field-mouse trots
And to shake the tattered arras woven with a silent motto.
--T. S. Eliot, East Coker

When I read this passage, the opening lines of East Coker, I cannot help thinking of the Sunday when I drove into the Ninth Ward of New Orleans and beheld vast expanses of grassy fields where there were once homes, streets, and people living their lives. The photo above is not from there; it is a field where homes had been bulldozed and cleared. I drove by it most mornings on my way to work. In the Ninth Ward I could not bring myself to take many photographs. It seemed too intrusive on human grief.

If we pay attention, nature will remind us how brief our lives are. I never cease to marvel at how swiftly vegetation will rise up through our concrete and asphalt, tearing apart our momentary construction, covering it over with vines, digesting it, obscuring it, obliterating it. I think about the six thousand years of history for which we have written records, then the thousands and tens of thousand years before that. I read at Wikipedia that "Anatomically modern humans first appear in the fossil record in Africa about 195,000 years ago...." On a planet 4.5 billion years old that is hardly impressive.

A silent motto is woven into an arras, probably a slogan with no little arrogance, some dynastic slogan or weighty scriptural citation, or something form the classics.

Hercules tapestry (an arras)

Whatever the motto, meant to endure for the ages, it is now part of a tattered arras (tapestry), a memory of an age gone by. This sends my mind leaping to Durham Cathedral where I could see old battle standards hung in a chapel where I attended Mass early one morning. Unraveled glory of dedicated warriors, shreds of battles now forgotten by most. Only a military historian or archivist is likely to know the tales behind each standard hanging high overhead, gradually yielding to time until nothing shall remain except, perhaps, the iron pole that holds it now.

"Old stone to new building...." My imagination remains in Northumbria, visiting Hexham where Wilfrith brought relics of St Andrew. As one descends beneath the abbey, carefully if one is of my height, one can see old Roman stones, still bearing remnants of transcriptions, re-used to create this Christian shrine.

Impermanence. One of the most basic realities, yet one we face so poorly.

My body gives a little snort as I think of Disney's The Lion King and the song "circle of life." I am glad someone, I can no longer remember who, noted that the experience is very different if you are a dead lion disintegrating into grass or a live antelope about to be ripped to shreds and eaten.



I am quite opposed to embalming, more or less hermetically sealed coffins and concrete liners. It is right and good and holy that my body return to the earth. The rest is artificial, a whole industry based on denial and illusion. Would you not rather become rich soil than some disgusting slime in a sealed box? Really. You get my point.

Personally, I am opting for cremation and my ashes scattered on hillsides because I love the mountains. There are two places where I would like to join the earth again. The old road into Hume Lake overlooking Kings Canyon, one which I have ridden so many times, and Sandia Peak looking down on the Rio Grande Valley. (My future survivors, take note.)

I digress, perhaps influenced by chemicals after a dental adventure. And yet, not. We are born, we live, we die. To be born is to be destined for death. "In my beginning is my end." In my beginning may be found my gene sequence and my historical particularity - born into this setting at this particular time, with all the gifts and curses and indifferent constraints that this entails. In theory, if one could know all the constituent factors at any given moment one could predict what must follow. "In my beginning is my end." Yet since I am incapable of knowing the location and motion of every subatomic particle, and since things get very indeterminate at the subatomic level, well.... the future remains open.

To God it may all be patent. To us, not so much. Still, I know that things will happen in succession. I look at photos of myself as a young boy, a teen, a seminarian, a thirty-something, on up to recent photos. Like a house I rise and fall, crumble, and am extended, removed, destroyed.... Well, we have not yet gotten that far, but it is coming.

There will come "a time for the wind to break the loosened pane."

Can I embrace the totality of my life? Can I embrace my impermanence?


Of course, "end," as John Booty reminds us, is not merely terminus but τελος, goal as well as cessation. In Burnt Norton Eliot led us on "the way down," the via negativa, the way of loss, purgation, and denial. Now we begin to explore the meaning and purpose of it all. There is, indeed, meaning in our lives. We can look to our beginning (more than Roots) for clues.

I love the open fields of New Mexico. They exhilarate me. Perhaps they echo the agricultural expanses of the Central Valley of California where I was born. I feel that I am a child of the dusty soil of the vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley. I shall become, I suppose, part of the soil of the Rio Grande Valley some day.

This thought does not depress me. It comforts me.

As we rapidly approach Holy Week, I hope you have had a blessed Lent.

--the BB

Mater ecclesiae et spes nostra

I would like to dedicate this post to Our Lady, Богородится / θεοτοκος / Mother of God. Friar Gabriel worships and serves the Gospel with his body.






The Angel of the Lord declared to Mary:
And she conceived of the Holy Spirit.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of
our death. Amen.

Behold the handmaid of the Lord: Be it done unto me according to Thy word.

Hail Mary . . .

And the Word was made Flesh: And dwelt among us.

Hail Mary . . .


Pray for us, O Holy Mother of God, that we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ.

Let us pray:

Pour forth, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy grace into our hearts; that we, to whom the incarnation of Christ, Thy Son, was made known by the message of an angel, may by His Passion and Cross be brought to the glory of His Resurrection, through the same Christ Our Lord.

Amen.

h/t to MadPriest

--the BB

You'll have to start by draining this swamp:

AmericanDad lays it all out there and, if you really want a documented sense of what needs to stop, read the whole thing. I've bookmarked it.

His open letter to conservatives:

First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Now the advice. You're going to have to come up with a platform that isn't built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party -- the GOP -- and the conservative end of the American political spectrum have become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it's tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some examples -- by no means an exhaustive list -- of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you're going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you'll have to start by draining this swamp:

Read it all here.

I promise, you will be impressed with his research. Leporello's catalogue has nothing on this.



--the BB

Love is itself unmoving, Only the cause and end of movement

The detail of the pattern is movement,
As in the figure of the ten stairs.
Desire itself is movement
Not in itself desirable;
Love is itself unmoving,
Only the cause and end of movement,
Timeless, and undesiring
Except in the aspect of time
Caught in the form of limitation
Between un-being and being.
Sudden in a shaft of sunlight
Even while the dust moves
There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage
Quick now, here, now, always—
Ridiculous the waste sad time
Stretching before and after.
T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

Perhaps you have heard of the yoga class where, at some point, the instructor asks the class, "What time is it?" A newcomer might be puzzled as to how one should answer since there is no clock in sight but the regulars all respond in unison, "Now."

The question and the answer - or, as we say in liturgical circles, the versicle and the response - challenge our usual way of thinking. We are clock watchers or, increasingly, prone to take out our cell phones many times a day to check the time. Nonetheless, our divisions and expressions of time are all artificial constructs. The true answer is always "now."

Now, after all, is the only moment we have. From within time, commonly conceptualized, the past has passed by and future is yet to come. We draw breath, act, hold still only in the moment.

Eliot calls us away from memory and anticipation into the present moment, like a zen master recalling us to pure awareness in the present, free of interpretation (and misinterpretation), free of desire and regret.

And so this Lent we try, if only fitfully, to enter the moment. To let go of everything but God, even our desire for God, and enter the cloud of unknowing, with no guarantees. Our expectations are inevitably disappointed, our illusions all fail us.

If lucky, we will discern a pattern, an eternal pattern of grace that is the ground and goal of all movement. The only desire we can keep is the desire for God and that, stripped of all idols and false rewards holds nothing desirable in any ordinary sense. We do not really come to the still point; we realize that is where we have always been. We were simply unaware amid the "shrieking, scolding, mocking, or merely chattering." [Good heavens, Eliot has prophesied our current situation, has he not?]

Last Sunday we sang "Just as I am" at church. Just as we are, stripped of everything in the course of this poem, we are in danger of not even being. Yet we are held in the Ground of becoming, thus caught "between un-being and being."

There in that place that is no place and everyplace, the moment that is always and never, the eternal here and now, we have our epiphany, our illumination, "sudden in a shaft of sunlight." The sound - a vibration, a movement within time - that first led us to transcend our ordinary timebound perception calls us once more to awareness.

There rises the hidden laughter
Of children in the foliage

Startled (how very zen) we are called: "Quick now, here, now, always."

We see our constructs as not terribly helpful. "Ridiculous the waste sad time/ Stretching before and after."

Where are you?

Here.

What time is it?

Now.

...behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
--2 Corinthians 6:2b

--the BB

Words, after speech, reach into the silence

Words move, music moves
Only in time; but that which is only living
Can only die. Words, after speech, reach
Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern,
Can words or music reach
The stillness, as a Chinese jar still
Moves perpetually in its stillness.
Not the stillness of the violin, while the note lasts,
Not that only, but the co-existence,
Or say that the end precedes the beginning,
And the end and the beginning were always there
Before the beginning and after the end.
And all is always now. Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still. Shrieking voices
Scolding, mocking, or merely chattering,
Always assail them. The Word in the desert
Is most attacked by voices of temptation,
The crying shadow in the funeral dance,
The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.
--T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

Our journey along the purgative way continues to echo Eliot's juxtapositions: word and silence, living and dying, motion and stillness, end and beginning and now.

"[T]hat which is only living/ Can only die." Where there is simply βιος (bios, biological life) the inevitable consequence is its cessation. Mere life can only die.

Here we might suggest ζωη (zōē, life rooted in the Undying, the life proclaimed by Jesus) as the alternative to that which is "only" living. To attain this latter we let go of the former. One passes, the other abides.

Within this poem we struggle, as Eliot struggles with words, to hold together the polarities, to transcend our simple dualities. There is a motion in the pattern on the motionless Chinese jar. When Eliot writes of the end preceding the beginning, I think of Satie's theory that there is a pre-existent rhythm always and ever before musicians play a note. Satie struggled to express this in his music, to compose out of that which precedes music and makes music possible.

How can we talk of these things? "Words strain/ Crack, and sometimes break, under the burden...." Our noise assails the stillness. Our words tempt and attack the Word. If we can be but silent we might hear that Word speak.



--the BB

4386

03/22/10 DoD:
Army Casualty Identified
Spc. Robert M. Rieckhoff, 26, of Kenosha, Wis., died March 18 in Baghdad, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked his unit with rocket-propelled grenade fire. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 15th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light Infantry), Fort Drum, N.Y.

3/18/10 DoD:
Army Casualty Identified
Staff Sgt. Richard J. Jordan, 29, of Tyler, Texas, died March 16 in Mosul, Iraq, of injuries sustained during a vehicle roll-over. He was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 36th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armored Division, Fort Bliss, Texas.

3/17/10 DoD:
Army Casualty Identified
Spc. Steven J. Bishop, 29, of Christiansburg, Va., died March 13 in Tikrit, Iraq, while supporting combat operations. He was assigned to the 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion, 352nd Civil Affairs Command, U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, Fort Bragg, N.C.