“Happy Birthday To Ewe!”

From the Kansas City Star:

LONDON | Britain’s Prince Charles surprised his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, with an unusual gift on her 60th birthday: two sheep, Agence France Presse reports.

Camilla is delighted with the rare breed ram and ewe, which cost the heir to the throne about 300 pounds ($617) each, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.

It headlined its story: “Happy birthday to ewe!”

An unnamed friend of Camilla told the paper: “The royal family have so much already that they don’t actually give wildly extravagant presents. Their gifts tend to be more thoughtful — although some may view them as a little bit crazy.”

Crazy? Not at all. What woman would not be thrilled to get two sheep for her birthday?

Here's the kind local human interst story that MadPriest should be giving us, but he appears to be falling down on the job. With him having three border collies, who are bred to herd sheep, but are now herding MadPriest and his long-suffering wife, you'd think he'd take note.

Good Ones - Woof, woof!

Clumber, the old dog, has some good ones. Check him out at Barkings Of An Old Dog.

Getting Here

Well, I'm here safe and sound at my nephew's house. I could not get my boarding pass online before I left, as I usually do. I was told that I would have to see the ticket agent at the airport. Paranoia set in immediately. I assumed that I was on some watch list, because of having the same name as someone else, or because I write critical stuff about Bush, or whatever. Not so. The airlines's computer system for issuing seating arrangements was down. Simple as that. Not about me at all.

I had dutifully put my toothpaste, shampoo, and make-up in the plastic zipper bag to show to the TSA people and removed my shoes. After passing through, as I was putting my driver's license back in my wallet, I noticed that I had forgotten to throw away my 8 oz. water bottle, and there it was in my purse, having passed through the x-ray machine with no problem. If I thought all the "safety measures" made us safer, I would not mind the annoyance so, but my purse has already passed through the x-ray machines with pepper spray in it, which I had forgotten to take out. So you see....

I sat next to a young man who was traveling with a group to a Christian summer camp in Iowa. He asked me if I was visiting family, and I said yes. I threw in the story about the reception for the scholarship winner and that the scholarship was for gay and lesbian young people. (See post below for details of the reception.) He didn't know what to say to that and put in his earphone.

We did not have a gate at either airport, perhaps because we were traveling in a small plane, and it was an up and down the steps with my carry-on affair. Thank God for kindly gentlemen who help old ladies carry suitcases.

We made a very hard landing upon arrival, very hard. I'm surprised the tires survived. It's good to be with the family. Everyone seems to be doing fairly well. I'm pleased that the invitation to the reception was the trigger to get me to make the trip here. It was time I came.

Tripping Out - Again

Tomorrow morning, I leave to visit my sister's family and to attend a reception in honor of the young man who won the scholarship from the The Dillenkoffer Endowment, an endowment established in memory of my sister by a friend of hers. My sister passed away 15 months ago from pancreatic cancer. I still miss her so very much. I know she will be with us in spirit as we celebrate with the young people, for she always loved a party.

I'm looking forward to seeing my brother-in-law, nieces, and nephew, and their families again, and to meeting the young people who received the scholarships. The winner received $10,000 per year for four years, and the runners-up each received a surprise gift of $1000.

I probably won't be posting, but I will have computer access, so I won't shut down the comments while I'm gone. I'll be back home on Monday and posting again probably on Tuesday. I know you'll all be waiting breathlessly for my return to the blogscape.

God bless you all, and please, behave yourselves while I'm gone.

Young College Republicans

Here's a link to a video from Talking Points Memo titled "The Few, the Brave," which shows Max [Blumenthal] spending some quality time at the National College Republican Convention last week.

The video is funny, but when you think about what's happening in Iraq now, it's not so funny. It's madness.

Feast Day of St. Macrina

Image from The Orthodox Church in America.


To cleanse your palate after my previous post, go to Padre Mickey's site to read his lovely post on the saint of the day. El Padre likes the saints from the early history of the church, so I leave them to him.

From the Diocese Of Wenchoster

Image from Pharisaios.

Recently, I received the latest update from the Diocese of Wenchoster on a new features included on the diocesan web site. The Frankly Unfriendly Catholic section is one innovation:

Welcome to the web page of the Frankly Unfriendly Catholics, upholding the one true apostolic anglo-catholic faith.

On this site you can learn about the appalling apostasies we oppose and those we affirm:

Frankly Unfriendly Catholics was formed to promote the one true apostolic anglo-catholic faith unpolluted by modern apostate liberals; tone-deaf simpering evangelical blasphemers; or women.

You can join us and become a F[rankly] U[nfriendly] C[atholic] buddy or read about and nominate a heretic.

While you are here why not take the F[rankly] U[nfriendly] C[atholic] quiz and discover if you are a Frankly Unfriendly Catholic Wit?

I debated whether to post this, because, although I left the Roman Catholic Church some 11 or so years ago, I have tried to keep my critical statements to a minimum. I learned much that was good while I was in the fold, and I want to give credit where credit is due. Many members of my family and many of my friends remain members of the Roman Catholic Church.

But the recent statements from the pope regarding other members of the Body of Christ are of a piece with statements which embarrassed me greatly by their arrogance while I claimed membership in his church. I say "his church", because I cannot for one minute imagine Jesus making exclusionary statements like the pope's.

The man in the red hat, pictured above, has been frankly unfriendly to Christians who are not members of the Roman Catholic Church. Whether the views he expresses are old or new, they manifest an unseemly pride, which is hard for me to line up with the teachings of the Gospels.

From the BBC:

Pope Benedict has approved a new text asserting that Christian denominations outside Roman Catholicism are not true Churches in the full sense of the word.

....

Other Christian denominations, it argues, cannot be called Churches in the proper sense because they cannot trace their bishops back to Christ's original apostles.

The rest of us who call ourselves Christians and attend what we call churches, are, alas, not really attending church at all. Those of us who have bishops are deluding ourselves if we think they are truly bishops, and our priests are not "real" priests, because they were ordained by bishops who are not "real" bishops.

It would follow that we do not have the "real" Eucharist, because the Eucharistic services are presided over by one who is not a "real" priest.

Many respond that this is nothing new, and I agree with them. This is what I was taught as a child many years ago, but I had hoped that the pope would have distanced himself from this type of language, which I find frankly unfriendly.

I thought it best to respond with borrowed humor.

UPDATE: Dennis in the comments informs me that the section is about Anglo-Catholics, and I have got this all wrong. He is correct. But it's funny, and it works - sort of, even though it's not about the pope's church. Certain of the Anglo- Catholics think that they are "real" Catholics, but, of course, the pope does not agree.

Judgment sometimes falls upon us in this life on earth. For ridiculing a fellow Christian, I am hoist on my own petard.

The Circle Of God's Grace

At the Episcopal Cafe, in Fr. Richard Helmer's column, "A Word From The Edge", he says of the present troubles in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion:

It seems that indeed these days everyone has something to be offended about – to justify spitting out a harsh word or two about the situation in the greater Church....In a bit of a temper, I delivered a scathing brand of humor...and judging by the comments in response, much to the delight of those on this side of the questions at hand in the Communion.

Those words of Richard brought me up short, because I've spoken my share of harsh words that were better left unsaid. I've done my part to add to the tensions within the church.

Richard goes on:

For this reason, I set aside almost all my claims to taking offense. But to my more conservative sisters and brothers (and there are many), there is one accusation I do take exception to. That is the notion, implied or explicitly articulated, that our ecclesiastical and theological position here somehow divorces us from the grace of God, from the hand of God’s blessing.

I, too, set aside many claims to take offense, because of my words which might have given offense. But, as I read Richard's words that followed, I was overcome by a feeling of sadness - one of many times I have felt that emotion at the state of our church. I started to comment at the Episcopal Cafè, but I thought better of it, and decided to say my piece here.

That we have come to this in our church, to the point that members of the church feel the need to cry out, "We are, indeed, included in the circle of God's grace! We are not heretics!" That we have come to this is so very sad.

God bestows grace freely, and who are we to judge who is within or without the circle of of God's grace? I, too, take offense at judgments about who's in and who's out. We are all of us sinners, saved by God's grace, and our role as followers of Jesus is to love God and love each other.

Can't we come together and agree on that, at the very least?

Just Because....Part 2

The Madonna and Child with Two Angels - Sandro Botticelli
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples. Image from Wiki.

Mary’s Song of Praise

And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
to Abraham and to his descendants for ever.’

Luke 1:46-55

Just because I love Botticelli's Madonna paintings and just because I love Mary's magnificent prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God, The Magnificat, was reason enough for me to give you this.

And then these words came to me:

O Blessed One

Mother of God, O holy one,
Inside your body, the Word made flesh,
As an infant suckled at your breast.
The God-child, cared for gently, lovingly,
Grew in wisdom and in grace.

Mother of God, what did you know?
Were you sad? Were you fearful?
Midst the joy of family life,
Did you feel a piercing in your heart?
O blessed Mary, pray for us, sinners all.

June Butler (7/17/07)

How Good Am I?

Not too bad, but not good enough. I don't understand how I am more evil than Padre Mickey, and even MadPriest. Pseudopiskie is the only one I know of who is more evil than I.

Could it be due to my writing about my senator, David Vitter, and his use of DC escort services? Something's not right here.