A Massachusetts school principal is renaming "St. Patrick's Day" with "O'Green Day" in an effort to be "inclusive and diverse"....
If we purge all Christian names from the American lexicon, the world will be made perfect. Seriously, "O'Green Day"?
Sunday, March 18, 2012
The Fourth Sunday In Lent
It turned out I was a little optimistic, as the shed was much sturdier than I thought. What should have been a morning’s work turned into a full day. Somewhere near sundown I managed to get the last joist undone, and also managed to drop a roof beam on my head. Jenni mentioned that this was the third head wound that I had received that year, as both the boom on our sailboat and some teenager’s runaway surfboard had also given me some dents. As I noted how my head was gradually becoming a relief map of my misadventures, Jenni volunteered, “I think you’ve lived your Lent for this year.”
One of the many lost traditions in Christianity is to be found on the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Much like its parallel Sunday on the Third of Advent, this is a feast day that serves as a type of “gasket” during the season of intention and, in ancient times certainly, had developed around it a variety of particular practices.
The Fourth Sunday in Lent [again, it is a Sunday in Lent rather than of Lent, as all of the Sundays are feast days celebrated outside of the dour intentions of Lent], is variously known as Rose Sunday [as is its Advent counterpart], Refreshment Sunday, Mid-Lent Sunday or, the most unusual of all, Mothering Sunday. The latter title did not refer to one’s mother, but to one’s ‘mother church”, as it was the tradition to return to one’s home congregation, and distant family, on this particular Sunday.
Other traditions that developed around the Fourth Sunday in Lent involved clergy wearing rose-colored vestments, the use of flowers on the altar, and the baking of special cakes or loaves of bread, as the traditional Gospel reading for this day was the feeding of the five thousand. In our English-based tradition, it was the only day during Lent when the sacrament of marriage could be offered.
All of this was done to remind worshippers that prayerful intention and amendment of life are not to be left to one particular season, anymore than the celebration of the Resurrection is to be left only to Easter. We live our Lent many times during the year and, we hope, live the Resurrection even more often. In our pattern of faith, while we find moments of Lent and moments of Easter, each extreme is experienced as part of a journey that is always a dynamic blending of the two, so it is the totality that matters, rather than the fragments. That way, the rich and various experiences of our lives, from the daunting to the fulfilling, always form parts and portions of the whole, as do all of the seasons of the Christian year in their glory.
Lenten Wave #26
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. - John 3:16 [from today's lections].
[A word about the photo: it's a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary that someone placed on the bottom of the ocean at the Palancar Reef in Mexico. It's about 15-20 feet down and the shot is askew as I had neither breathing gear nor buoyancy compensator, so I was having difficulty maintaining my position Next time, I'll be prepared.]
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Egyptian Christians Continue To Struggle
300 Muslim Lawyers Storm Egyptian Court, Prevent Lawyers for Christian From Entering
It's hard to believe that just thirty years ago, Egypt's minister of finance was a Jew.
It's hard to believe that just thirty years ago, Egypt's minister of finance was a Jew.
If You Wish To Read One Article About The Archbishop Of Canterbury, Try This One
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams could not heal church's rifts
I doubt that anyone could, or can. As the Anglican Communion is the last remnant of the British Empire, its time may have come.
I doubt that anyone could, or can. As the Anglican Communion is the last remnant of the British Empire, its time may have come.
Lenten Wave #25
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.
- from The Lorica of St. Padraic
Friday, March 16, 2012
Lenten Wave #24
—John of the Cross
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
Amish Arrested After Buggy Hits Cop Car
More action from one of my former parishes.
Best quote: "Police say several other buggies fled the scene."
Best quote: "Police say several other buggies fled the scene."
Lenten Wave #22
“To stand at the edge of the sea, to sense the ebb and flow of the tides, to feel the breath of a mist moving over a great salt marsh, to watch the flight of shore birds that have swept up and down the surf lines of the continents for untold thousands of year, to see the running of the old eels and the young shad to the sea, is to have knowledge of things that are as nearly eternal as any earthly life can be.” - Rachel Carson
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Lenten Wave #21
"Do your little bit of good where you are; its those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world.” - Desmond Tutu
Monday, March 12, 2012
I'm Rather Glad We Don't Have A $200 Million Annual Budget
It seems to cause a lot of problems.
Turmoil at Trinity Church Amid Vestry Member Exodus
I'm trying to imagine what it's like to overspend on a music budget by $800,000.
Turmoil at Trinity Church Amid Vestry Member Exodus
I'm trying to imagine what it's like to overspend on a music budget by $800,000.
Lenten Wave #20
“God cannot give us a happiness and peace apart from Himself, because it is not there. There is no such thing.” - C.S. Lewis
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