For Mothers

A Cradle Song

THE angels are stooping
Above your bed;
They weary of trooping
With the whimpering dead.

God's laughing in Heaven
To see you so good;
The Sailing Seven
Are gay with his mood.

I sigh that kiss you,
For I must own
That I shall miss you
When you have grown.

William Butler Yeats

From The Poets' Corner.

A Blessed and Happy Mother's Day!

Jane Austen And Irony

Chawton Cottage



Reader alert! This post is totally self-indulgent of my great admiration for a certain lady's writing. Those of you not interested in Jane Austen can move along before reading further.

In the event that you may have wondered, I am not the person pictured on my sidebar. That is an engraving taken from the only known portrait of Jane Austen made during her lifetime, done by her sister Cassandra. You can see the portrait here. I wanted to put the picture at the top of the post, but I would have to purchase rights from the National Portrait Gallery in London. I sent them an email just to test how it's done, and here is the initial automated response to my email:

Over the next few weeks, we are implementing some changes to our systems in the Picture Library, aimed at improving the services we offer. During the interim period, there may be some delays, and it will be more important than usual for you to contact us well in advance of your deadlines. As usual, we will do our best to help, but offer our apologies, in advance, for any delays, and hope you will bear with us.

The very next day, I received a personal reply:

Thank you for your enquiry below.

If you wish to licence NPG 3630 from the Picture Library, for use on your blog, for a licence period of up to three years, we would charge a licence fee of £18.00 Pounds Sterling. If you proceed in licensing NPG 3630 from us at this cost, we would allow you to use the larger thumbnail of NPG 3630 that appears on the Gallery's own website at....

As you see, the staff member was quite courteous and sent a prompt reply, but, much as I love Jane Austen, I'm not paying the equivalent of $36.00 for the use of the picture. Yes, I'm cheap. Certain museums, such as the Vatican Museum through their Christus Rex site and the Metropolitan Museum in New York, allow free use of illustrations of their holdings.

The quotation beneath the picture on my sidebar is from my favorite of her novels, Pride and Prejudice, words spoken by my favorite character in the novel, Elizabeth Bennett. I consider the words as my philosophy of the proper use of irony.

When I was 16 years old, I read a chapter from Pride and Prejudice that was included in my English literature textbook. It was the chapter in which Darcy first proposes to Elizabeth in a haughty and insolent manner, and she, of course, refuses. The characters and the glimpse of the story captivated me, therefore, as soon as I could, I went to find a copy of the book to read the whole thing.

I adored it. She writes beautifully. Her gift for writing dialogue is unsurpassed. Make no mistake about it; I am passionate about her writing.

I rather quickly went through the other five completed novels, and I loved every one of them. P&P will always be my favorite, but the others move up and down in my list of which is my second favorite. Through the years, I have read all of her books over and over, and I never tire of them.

For a good many years I trekked to New Orleans to attend the meetings of the Jane Austen Society there, but after Katrina, new leadership took over the group, and the events were not to my taste.

One year I traveled to the national convention of the Jane Austen Society of North America held in Santa Fe, of all places. A surprising number of the folks who attended seemed to eat, sleep, live, and breathe Jane Austen. I'm a devotee, but she's not my whole life. Some wore eighteenth and nineteenth century dress to the dinners.

Sometimes I wonder if my tending toward irony is genetic, since my father was a master of irony, but he sometimes used it cruelly toward his wife and children. I hope I don't put it to cruel use. Tell me if I do. Or was it learned at his knee? Or was it learned by reading Austen's books over and over?

Several years ago, I attended a study program on Jane Austen at Oxford University. We stayed in student rooms during the summer break. It was awesome - at least to me - to stay in those hallowed halls, which I had read about and seen in movies and on TV. We took day trips to Steventon, the church where Jane's father served as vicar. We saw the house in Winchester, where she died at the young age of 41, and the cottage in Chawton on the grounds owned by her brother, Edward Knight, where she lived until she moved to Winchester to die. She is buried in Winchester Cathedral.

During one program lecture, as we were discussing irony in Austen's writing, a woman asked the lecturer to explain irony. She said that she had never been able to "get" irony. As I remember, our lecturer was a bit stunned, but, of course, he tried not to show it. He was surprised, I believe, because he must have been wondering why she had crossed the ocean for a program on Jane Austen without having any concept of irony. I can't imagine what one would make of reading Jane Austen without an understanding of irony.

I give you the first words from Pride And Prejudice:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

Reading the words literally, with no understanding of irony, what does one take away? I talked to the woman afterwards, and she declared that she truly loved Jane Austen's writing. I didn't have the nerve to follow up and question her about what attracts her to Jane Austen's works. I suppose that it's like reading Trollope; one can read simply for the story.

Over the next couple of days, I will have only intermittent access to a computer, so posting will be light or not at all.

Have a lovely weekend, my pretties.

Another Day In Court

Today my son and his wife are officially divorced. As I see it, this is simply a legal affirmation of a state that has existed since last fall. I am sorry to see a family break up, but it has been broken for seven-plus months. For that long, the two have not been husband and wife.

This divorce has hardly been amicable, as those of you who have read my blog for a while already know. You have heard me call it the divorce from hell. Much bitterness, and ill-feeling, and ill-doing has passed between my son and his ex-wife. My prayer is that now the two can move on, away from the anger and bitterness and focus on their two precious children, a girl 11 and a boy 6, and love them well and act in their best interests.

Prayer For the Care of Children

Almighty God, heavenly Father, you have blessed us with the joy and care of children: Give us calm strength and patient wisdom as we bring them up, that we may teach them to love whatever is just and true and good, following the example of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Book of Common Prayer, p. 829

Inner Censor

I write my blog picturing my rector standing over my shoulder reading what I write. I have told him that I have a blog, but he did not ask for the name or the web address. I don't know if he reads it or not, but I rather doubt that he does. I don't believe that I change what I write because of that, because my own inner censor works pretty well. But that picture in my mind is an aid to discretion, to not revealing too much in a public forum about other people with whom I associate.

My rector is a fine man, quite pastoral and compassionate, especially to the sick, the elderly, (including me) and the otherwise needy in our community. We are blessed to have him with us.

Having said all that, on occasion, my inner censor conflicts with my inner rebel and loses the battle, sometimes to good effect, other times with unfortunate results. I'd like to think that I manage to get it right most of the time, but I am an imperfect human being, and I do make mistakes. When I make mistakes, I hope that I learn from them.

Speaking with all the humility that I can muster, my goal in my writing is to glorify God. If it does not, then I pray that God will direct me to using my time in another manner that will better serve to bring honor to him.

I have no illusions about having great influence even among the small group of folks who come here to visit, and I write as much for myself as for others. However, if no one read my blog and no one commented, I would probably stop blogging and keep a diary. I very much like the exchanges with the people who take the trouble to respond to my posts. I like posting comments on the blogs of others, too, and I did that for years before starting my own blog.

I may run out of words one day or burn out; I've seen that happen with bloggers that I admired quite a lot. Thus far, for me, it's been enjoyable. I think that when blogging stops being fun, I will stop blogging.

How's that for an "all about me" post?

The Episcopal Café

Jim Naughton and the group at The Episcopal Café have put together a fine web site. It includes news, art, meditations, and other information on the Episcopal Church and religion in general.

Last night, I was finally able to register to comment. I was already in the system, but I had lost the information that I needed to sign in. Nicholas Knisely at the technical end was quite helpful to me in resolving the problem.

You might want to pay them a visit.

The Feast Day Of Gregory Of Nazianzus

Today is the feast day of St. Gregory of Nazianzus.

There is a traditional list of eight great Doctors (Teachers, Theologians) of the ancient Church. It lists four Western (Latin) Doctors -- Ambrose of Milan, Augustine of Hippo, Jerome of Strido, and Gregory the Great (Pope Gregory I) -- and four Eastern (Greek) Doctors -- Athanasius of Alexandria, John Chrysostom of Antioch and Constantinople, Basil the Great, and Gregory of Nazianzus (also called Gregory Nazianzen). Incidentally, this list is constantly referred to, but I have no idea when or where or by whom it was drawn up.

Gregory of Nazianzus, his friend Basil the Great, and Basil's brother Gregory of Nyssa, are jointly known as the Cappadocian Fathers (Cappadocia is a region in what is now Central Turkey).

Gregory lived in a turbulent time. In 312, Constantine, having won a battle that made him Emperor of the West, issued a decree that made it no longer a crime to be a Christian. In 325 he summoned a council of Bishops at Nicea, across the straits from Byzantium (Constantinople, Istanbul), to settle the dispute between those (led by Athanasius) who taught that the Logos (the "Word" of John 1:1, who "was made flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth) was completely God, in the same sense in which the Father is God, and those (led by Arius) who taught that the Logos is a being created by God the Father. The bishops assembled at Nicea declared that the view of Athanasius was that which they had received from their predecessors as the true Faith handed down from the Apostles.

However, the Arians did not accept this decision peacefully, and the controversy continued for many more years.

In 379, after the death of the Arian Emperor Valens, Gregory was asked to go to Constantinople to preach there. For thirty years, the city had been controlled by Arians or pagans, and the orthodox did not even have a church there. Gregory went. He converted his own house there into a church and held services in it. There he preached the Five Theological Orations for which he is best known, a series of five sermons on the Trinity and in defense of the deity of Christ. People flocked to hear him preach, and the city was largely won over to the Athanasian (Trinitarian, catholic, orthodox) position by his powers of persuasion. The following year, he was consecrated bishop of Constantinople. He presided at the Council of Constantinple in 381, which confirmed the Athanasian position of the earlier Council of Nicea in 325. Having accomplished what he believed to be his mission at Constantinople, and heartily sick of ecclesiastical politics, Gregory resigned and retired to his home town of Nazianzus, where he died in 389.

James Kiefer at The Lectionary

Padre Mickey, our blogging expert on the saints of the early centuries of Christianity, has an excellent post on St. Gregory at Padre Mickey's Dance Party.

I seems that the good Padre can be serious at certain times. Who knew? I thought he was always joking around and playing his bass guitar.

NOTE: Half the pleasure of putting up a post on the saints of the day is learning about their lives. The other half is finding lovely paintings and icons to put at the top of the post.

Feast Day of Julian of Norwich

Julian is one of my favorites among the saints. The constant thread that runs through all of her writing is the limitless love of God for all his creatures, without exception, without qualification, the love that is given freely and can never be earned.


Very little is known about the person who wrote these meditations and reflections, not even that author's name. According to the opening lines of the manuscripts that are available, she was a woman living in England during the fourteenth century. On May 13, 1373, when she was thirty and a half years old, she reported seeing sixteen showings, or mystical visions. Quite soon after this event the young woman recorded the content of these revelations in a text entitled "The Book Of Showings". Some fifteen to twenty years later, she produced an extended version of the same sixteen revelations. At some point in her life she became an anchoress, and entered a cell attached to the Church of St. Julian at Norwich, in East Anglia. She took the name of the patron saint of her anchorhold according to the custom of the anchorites and and anchoresses. It is not known whether she embraced the anchorite life-style before or after she wrote the later edition of the "Book of Showings", but the civil records of Norwich indicate that the Lady Julian remained in the anchorhold at Norwich until her death sometime between 1416 and 1419 A.D.

From the Foreword by Patricia M. Vinje

....

While we are in possession of over fifty manuscripts of her contemporary, Walter Hilton, we have at the most five for Julian. It would seem that her work was not well circulated in her day or in ours. Why is this? I would venture two guesses: First because she is a woman; and secondly, because she is creation-centered. While Hilton's claim to fame was the tired image of climbing the spiritual ladder, Julian ignores such bouquets to established powers for a way of living that is non-competitive, non-compulsive, that is curved and compassionate to all creatures....

From the Foreword by Matthew Fox


From Julian's "Showings":

God said:

"This I am-
the capability and goodness
of the Fatherhood.
This I am-
the wisdom of the Motherhood.
This I am-
the light and the grace
that is all love.
This I am-
the Trinity.
This I am-
the Unity.
I am the sovereign goodness
of all things.
I am what makes you love.
I am what makes you long and desire.
This I am-
the endless fulfilling of all desires."


The quotes above and the version of Julian's words have all been taken from Brenden Doyle's Meditations with Julian of Norwich.

PRAYER
Lord God, who in your compassion granted to the Lady Julian many revelations of your nurturing and sustaining love: Move our hearts, like hers, to seek you above all things, for in giving us yourself you give us all; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

As usual, Saint Pat, at No Claim To Sainthood, was ahead of me with lovely post of her own in honor of Julian.

The Fatal Dick Cavett Show

Dick Cavett was my favorite talk show host ever. His was the wittiest and most literate of the talk shows. He'd get in his sly, dry witticisms, but he appeared not to have a large ego. He'd let his guests have the floor in all their brilliance, silliness, egotism, and wildness. Recently, Cavett wrote a piece in The New York Times titled "When That Guy Died on My Show". I'm sorry, but only those with access to "Times Select" can read the whole thing.

I did not remember the incident he writes about before reading the piece, possibly because, quite understandably, the show never aired. Here's what Cavett says:

When I’m doing an appearance somewhere and taking questions from the audience, I can always count on: “Tell about the guy who died on your show!” I generally say, “I will, and I promise you that in a few moments you will be laughing.” (That gets a laugh.) I go on: “First, who would be the logical person to drop dead on a television show? A health expert.” (Laugh.) I go on to explain that he was Jerome I. Rodale, the publisher of (among other things) Today’s Health Magazine. (Laugh.) The irony gets thicker.

My late father-in-law was a great fan of Rodale's and of Adele Davis, whom I view as health food pioneers. I remember his breakfasts of what we jokingly called his "compost heap". The mix included wheat germ, dessicated liver (vile-tasting), brewer's yeast, (not tasty, either), prunes, and other assorted health-promoting ingredients.

However, I do remember my father-in-law speaking of trans-fatty acids as not good, 40 or so years ago, back when no one else was talking about them. He would not eat foods with trans-fat in them. He read labels closely. He lived to the age of 91 with very little attention from doctors, getting their ministrations only in crisis situations. But I digress.

Back to Cavett's show:

He [Rodale] was extremely funny for half an hour, talking about health foods, and as a friendly gesture he offered me some of his special asparagus, boiled in urine. I think I said, “Anybody’s we know?” while making a mental note to have him back.

I brought out the next guest, Pete Hamill, whose column ran in The New York Post. Rodale moved “down one” to the couch. As Pete and I began to chat, Mr. Rodale suddenly made a snoring sound, which got a laugh.

....


To this day, I don’t know how I knew [he was dead]. I thought, “Good God, I’m in charge here. What do I do?” Next thing I knew I was holding his wrist, thinking, I don’t know anything about what a wrist is supposed to feel like.

Next, in what felt like a quick film cut, I was standing at the edge of the stage, saying, “Is there a doctor in the … (pause) … audience?”

....

I went home and looked up Robert Frost’s poem “Out, Out —,” which contains the words, “… And they, since they/ Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs.”

....

Months later, Katharine Hepburn asked me to stop by her house in Manhattan to talk about her possibly coming on my show....Her first words were not “Hello” but “Tell me everything about the man who died.” Her dad was a doctor and she loved, and pretty much practiced on her fellow actors, medicine.

When I got to the part about asking for a doctor, I said, “Why did I take that awkward pause after saying “Is there a doctor … ?”

“Because you knew,” she said, “ ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’ would get a laugh.”

It's funny, but it's not funny, if you know what I mean, but I was reminded of how much I enjoyed Cavett's show, and that there's no one like him on TV now. Too bad.

Un Embarras De Richesses

At church today, we had a visiting priest, because our priest is on vacation. He was not old - or so it seemed to me - but he was quite stiff and limited in his movements - I'm guessing arthritis - however, he gallantly did a splendid job with the liturgy. He gave a spirited sermon, choosing as his passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus says, "Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

He made the distinction between liking and loving and that we have the power of the Spirit to aid us to do what we cannot do on our own. He said that the world needs what it has always needed - love, like in the song, "What the world needs now is love, sweet love." I can't really do his sermon justice, as I don't have it before me.

I know its not according to the rubrics in the prayer book, but at the end of the service, he proceeded to ask a young boy who was celebrating a birthday to give the dismissal. The boy loved it, and did a good job of it, and the congregation gave a spirited response.

Yesterday, I had read MadPriest's wonderful sermon in which he preaches from the same passage in John and says this:

Jesus came to earth to tell people one thing: “God loves you.”

That was the gospel of Jesus. It was the good news that he, himself, while he was with us, preached. Not the good news that later Christians would see in the Christ event, but the good news.

And this:

Look, I’ll be honest with you. There are some people in this church who I don’t “lurve.” In fact, some people annoy me a little bit at times. I am certain that some of you feel the same about me. That’s life. But, I’ll tell you something. If any of you are ever in trouble or sick or dying or feeling that your world is so awful that death would be a release, then I will take the loving option and I will be there beside you. It won’t be perfect - I’m only human - but it will be the best that I can do.

Then this afternoon I read Tobias Haller's sermon on the same passage, in which he channels the same Spirit as MadPriest, from a somewhat different viewpoint:

What is vital is that the Spirit of love — God’s Spirit — should be with us even when there is strong disagreement. And if we find we cannot truly love at all times — for we are imperfect creatures and those we love can be so unlovable sometimes, and surely we ourselves are not always sweetness and light! — if we cannot truly love at our best at all times then it is important that we at least act as if we loved at all times.

....

...The wonder is that if even a simulated love can become genuine, how much more can a real will to love, an enduring, patient love that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things? This is the hard love, a love that weighs something, and it is often not easy to bear. But it is important, so vitally important that we bear it — that we bear with each other.

What riches! Three sermons in two days, and I will probably read more before next Sunday comes. I suppose that not everyone would agree that it is riches to have three sermons of a weekend. However, each, it its way, sheds light on Jesus' call to love both the lovable and the unlovable among us. The Gospel call to love one another has little to do with our "feelings" toward each other, for what Jesus calls us to do is the work of the Kingdom of God, whatever our "feelings". By the grace of God we do what we must do, and if it involves "acting as if", then so be it.

I think of the members of my congregation, whom God has called together to love one another, to bear each other's burdens. Sometimes the going is smooth; other times I'm rubbing against their rough edges, even as they rub against mine. We're a motley crew, but God has summoned us to be his people of love in this place and this time.

Alleluia! Thanks be to God.

No Blessing Of Same-Sex Unions In Canada

From Canada.com

TORONTO (CP) - Canadian Anglican bishops issued a pastoral statement Tuesday that essentially rejects the blessing of same-sex unions but acknowledges there will be further votes on the matter when the church's governing body meets next month.

....

"Not all bishops can conceive of condoning or blessing same-sex unions," the statement said. Feheley said there are 41 active bishops in Canada and a "substantial majority" voted for the statement.

The bishops say they recognize that the provisions of the statement are less than a blessing of same-sex unions or marriage.

But they add that it is "a Gospel imperative to pray with the whole people of God, no matter their circumstance."

For example, the statement suggests a parish, with its bishop's knowledge and permission, could pray with a civilly married gay or lesbian couple that wants recognition of their union and celebrate a eucharist with the couple.

....

Also, "we hope no baptized Christian will be denied communion or confirmation because of being in a committed homosexual relationship or because of their marital status."

The bishops say the ministry of gay and lesbian clergy in the church is "deeply valued and appreciated."

"We acknowledge the pain and conflict that many of you live with daily in your ministry in Christ."

Gay and lesbian couples, along with their children, are fit for Baptism and Communion, but not for a nuptual blessing. However, they can have prayers and a Eucharist, if the bishop permits. Is this truly a step forward? Perhaps, but the logic here escapes me. I am pleased that the bishops acknowledge "a Gospel imperative to pray with the whole people of God, no matter their circumstance."

And from the Anglican Journal, we see the result of the bishops' statement for Shawn Sanford Beck:

Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck, an Anglican priest in the diocese of Saskatoon who recently declared that he intends to marry gay couples if asked and who was asked by his bishop to reconsider his position by March 31 or risk losing his license to minister, has resigned his position.

“To my knowledge, the Rev. Shawn Sanford Beck has not presided at a same-sex blessing or a same-sex marriage. Accordingly, I issued Shawn a short-term licence effective April 1, 2007. Shawn has chosen not to accept licensing and has returned the licence to me,” said Bishop Rodney Andrews in a statement. “He has subsequently resigned his position with the Saskatoon Native Ministry.”

In the absence of a licence from the bishop, Mr. Sanford Beck is now considered “On leave without permission to officiate,” said Bishop Andrews.

....

In an open letter, Mr. Sanford Beck said the church’s ban on same-sex marriages and blessings “is theologically problematic and fundamentally unjust.”

You may wonder why I, a humble Episcopalian in the pew in south Louisiana, write about this? It's been taken up and written about by my betters. I write because I think this is a lame response by the Anglican bishops of Canada, and because I hate that the ministry loses Shawn, who appears to be a good man and a good priest. I have been praying for him and his wife Janice since their story first came to light. I pray that this good man finds his way back to service in the ministry.

I write because I hope that the bishops of the Episcopal Church will take a different approach. What are the chances that they will? Slim, I'd say. Perhaps they will not even go as far as the Canadian bishops.

What I'd really like to see is for the church to get out of the marriage business altogether. The clerics inserted themselves into the process rather late in Christian history. Let the civil authorities handle it, and if the couple wants prayers afterwards, then the church can do that. That would settle one major controversy within the church.