In lieu of actual content, I bring you two from one our sponsors, Blessed George Herbert:
Church-Rents and Schismes
Brave rose, (alas!) where art thou? in the chair
Where thou didst lately so triumph and shine,
A worm doth sit, whose many feet and hair
Are the more foul, the more thou wert divine.
This, this hath done it, this did bite the root
And bottome of the leaves: which when the winde
Did once perceive, it blew them under foot,
Where rude unhallow’d steps do crush and grinde
Their beauteous glories. Onely shreds of thee,
And those all bitten, in thy chair I see.
Why doth my Mother blush? is she the rose,
And shows it so? Indeed Christs precious bloud
Gave you a colour once; which when your foes
Thought to let out, the bleeding did you good,
And made you look much fresher then before.
But when debates and fretting jealousies
Did worm and work within you more and more,
Your colour faded, and calamities
Turned your ruddie into pale and bleak:
Your health and beautie both began to break.
Then did your sev’rall parts unloose and start:
Which when your neighbours saw, like a north-winde,
They rushed in, and cast them in the dirt
Where Pagans tread. O Mother deare and kinde,
Where shall I get me eyes enough to weep,
As many eyes as starres? since it is night,
And much of Asia and Europe fast asleep,
And ev’n all Africk; would at least I might
With these two poore ones lick up all the dew,
Which falls by night, and poure it out for you!
The Call
Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
Such a Way, as gives us breath:
Such a Truth, as ends all strife:
Such a Life, as killeth death
Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
Such a Light, as shows a feast:
Such a Feast, as mends in length:
Such a Strength, as makes his guest.
Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
Such a Joy, as none can move:
Such a Love, as none can part:
Such a Heart, as joyes in love.
I’m in a northern mood today probably brought on by a sudden temperature drop and the pines and ravens on the way to work this morning…
In any case, I was musing that we’re entering troll season…
Culturally, Celtic traditions have made a certain impact upon American pop spirituality. I’m thinking of Halloween in particular here; that’s the time when “ghouls and goblins” come out due to cultural connects with the Celtic Samhain and the Christian response with All Saints and All Souls (which, as far as I can tell, seems to have early support if not origins in Anglo-Celtic regions—Alcuin was a big earlier promoter).
In Scandinavian traditions, however, the thin time when unnatural critters abound is not the autumnal equinox but the winter solstice—Yule. Quite a number of the beast tales in the thattr tradition are set in midwinter or Christmas. In fact, several Christmas courts of the early kings cower in terror of a trollish beast ravaging the countryside awaiting a hero (often bear-kin, of course) to dispatch it.
No real point—just a passing thought.
You are Spice.
You’re not from around here, are you? You’re extremely valuable. While you resemble mundane cinnamon, you are much more interesting. People fight wars over you, but your giant worms protect you.
You enlighten people; make them aware, prescient, even clairvoyant. Your pure essence can reveal people’s true selves, if they survive their encounter with the real you. You’re addictive, dangerous, seductive, and above all else, necessary for space travel.
| Link: The Which Spice Are You Test written by jodiesattva on OkCupid, home of the The Dating Persona Test |
h/t Rev. Dr. Mom
I couldn’t not link to this plea to learn Latin in the New York Times.
I never really learned English until I learned Latin.
Lee directs us to this sobering post on peak-oil, population, and food supply.
From the Rule, Chapter 48: On Manual Labor:
And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty
should require that they themselves
do the work of gathering the harvest,
let them not be discontented;
for then are they truly monastics
when they live by the labor of their hands,
as did our Fathers and the Apostles.
Let all things be done with moderation, however,
for the sake of the faint-hearted.
It seems clear from the passage above and others like it that Benedict envisions his monasteries as self-sufficient as possible. Certainly divisions of labor were well known in the economies of his day as well as later periods—but Benedict praises the manual labor that produces the community’s needs as worthy of true monastics.
In this day and age, I don’t see self-sufficiency as practical or even desirable for most of us, and yet I know there’s more that we can do. M and I have always dreamed of being able to have a big garden where we can grow more of our food than we do. M has been working on identifying locally-grown organic foods for our table.
Benedict has examples scattered through the Rule of what simplicity looked like in his time and place. As we consider our response to our various crises, I keep turning again to consider what “simplicity” can and should mean for us. Not just “consuming green” but re-accenting the motto people of our age grew up with: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
My city just appeared on a list of the five most caffeinated cities in America.
I’m just proud to have done my part in making this achievement possible…
(h/t T19)
Life is, at the moment, kicking us around a bit–especially M. So if y’all could spare some prayers I’d appreciate it. And if you know her IRL, an email/phone-call/get-together would be greatly appreciated…
No, this isn’t what you think it is.
Rather, I’m drawing attention to the statement from the Anglican Peace and Justice Network.
Note these lines from the recent ACNS email about the communique:
A primary recommendation noted “our firm conviction that the Anglican Communion increase its presence in the regions and countries in conflict, and to be in solidarity with the affected local Anglican provinces and jurisdictions.“This “increased solidarity” is especially needed, the communiqué says, with the Anglican provinces in the Great Lakes region of eastern Africa.The Great Lakes region includes countries surrounding Lake Kivu, Lake Tanganyika, and Lake Victoria. Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda have a combined population of 107 million people.
The whole Friedman-style flat earth thing is our reality; it has an enormous effect on our worldwide communions—Anglican and otherwise. What I keep discovering, though, is that I am constantly tripping over my massive ignorance about what has and is going on in other parts of the world.
Case in point—the reference in the above statement to the African Great Lakes region. How many of us know where that is? How many of us know what has happened there over the last few decades? While most of know know about the Rwandan Genocide, how many of us know anything about the Second Congo War, aka the Great War of Africa?
One of the pieces that bothers me here is that this war officially ended in 2003. I was a functioning literate adult the whole time it was going on but had no sense that it was happening.
 | John-Julian, OJN on Ain’t It Odd…… |
 | Richard Scott Nokes on Ain’t It Odd…… |
 | Anastasia on Ain’t It Odd…… |
| Anastasia on Discipleship at the Cafe |
 | bls on Discipleship at the Cafe |
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