Feast of St. Michael And All Angels

A 13th-century Byzantine icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai

Readings:

Eucharistic:
Psalm 103 or 103:19-22
Genesis 28:10-17
Revelation 12:7-12
John 1:47-51

Daily Office:
AM Psalm 8, 148
Job 38:1-7;
Hebrews 1:1-14
PM Psalm 14, 150 or 104;
Daniel 12:1-3 or 2 Kings 6:8-17;
Mark 13:21-27 or Revelation 5:1-14

PRAYER

Everlasting God, who have ordained and constituted in a wonderful order the ministries of angels and mortals: Mercifully grant that, as your holy angels always serve and worship you in heaven, so by your appointment they may help and defend us here on earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Do you prefer the icon above or the statue below?


St Michael's Victory over the Devil, sculpture above the main entrance to St. Michaelis in Hamburg, Germany.
Or the coins?


Archangel Michael as represented on a coin of Emperor Michael V.

Oy! Render unto Ceasar....

Orders of angels according to Pope Gregory I:

Seraphim
Cherubim
Thrones

Dominions
Principalities
Powers

Virtues
Archangels
Angels

Hymn

Ye watchers and ye holy ones,
Bright seraphs, cherubim and thrones.
Raise the glad strain, Alleluia.
Cry out, dominions, princedoms, powers,
Virtues, archangels, angel choirs.
Oh, praise Him! Oh, praise Him!
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia.

J Athelstan Riley

Images from Wiki.
Hymn and list of orders of angels from James Keifer at the Lectionary.

Blogger Mark Getting Help

Those of you who have been following Mark's story will be relieved to know that folks on the local scene are now aware of his situation and will move ahead to help him.

Thanks be to God!

Why Didn't Obama...?

On Chris Matthews' show Friday night, Matthews and his guest pundits did their after-debate quarterbacking. Matthews' guests were Eugene Robinson, a columnist for the Washington Post, and, I believe, Pat Buchanan, who does whatever he does, when he's not on one TV show after another. Matthews, in his usual annoying manner, yapped away saying, "Why didn't Obama emphasize this? Why didn't Obama say that? Why didn't Obama hammer away about poor people more? Why? Why? Why?" Finally, Robinson, who is African-American, in case you didn't know, spoke a stark truth. "If Obama is going to have any chance of being elected, he's got to look like the least aggrieved black man in America."

Exactly right. Let Obama show any hint of the "angry black man", and he's out of the running. A friend emailed me that she had read a criticism of Obama for calling McCain "John", thereby not showing proper respect. Imagine! He called a Senate colleague by his first name. How uppity! Should Obama have shuffled his feet, kept his head down, and called him "Mistah John"?

My Action Figure

With many thanks to my good friend Ann for finding this one.

What Will He Do Next?

From Slate:

Slate Predicts McCain's Next 10 Hail Mary Stunts.

1. Returns to Vietnam and jails himself.

2. Offers the post of "vice vice president" to Warren Buffett.

3. Challenges Obama to suspend campaign so they both can go and personally drill for oil offshore.

4. Learns to use computer.

5. Does bombing run over Taliban-controlled tribal areas of Pakistan.

6. Offers to forgo salary, sell one house.

7. Sex-change operation.

8. Suspends campaign until Nov. 4, offers to start being president right now.

9. Sells Alaska to Russia for $700 billion.

10. Pledges to serve only one term. OK, half a term.

If you go to Slate's site, you'll find an address where you can send in your own ideas.

Y'all tell me if you think I'm getting carried away.

Shamelessly Stolen From Athenae

Sistah, forgive me. I couldn't help myself.

Paul Newman - R. I. P.

Paul Newman in "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof".

From MSNBC News:

NEW HAVEN, Connecticut - Paul Newman, the Academy-Award winning superstar who personified cool as an activist, race car driver, popcorn impresario and the anti-hero of such films as "Hud," "Cool Hand Luke" and "The Color of Money," has died, a spokeswoman said Saturday. He was 83.

Newman died Friday after a long battle with cancer at his farmhouse near Westport, publicist Jeff Sanderson said. He was surrounded by his family and close friends.

In May, Newman said he had dropped plans to direct a fall production of "Of Mice and Men," citing unspecified health issues.

Newman was an all-around classy man. Grandpère and I saw him on Broadway in "Our Town" in 2003, playing the Stage Manager, his last performance in a play. Joanne Woodward was the artistic director. What a privilege.

To the photographers following him and snapping away before the play opened, "You get 60 of these," Mr. Newman quips, "you can trade them in for a Redford."

Mr. Newman said he was drawn to the role because the play's themes resonate with his own thinking, particularly lately: how important it is to notice the ordinary and take pleasure in the everyday.

"The play questions what we do with our time, how we use it, the things that we ought to be looking at, that we forget to look at," he said. "How gloriously special getting through the day ought to be."

These are values that Ms. Woodward, 72, shares. "It's a bang-on-the-head play,'' she said. "You look at this play and you say, 'Yes, of course.'"

Yes, of course.

Nevertheless, Mr. Newman went on to suggest that this limited-run nine-week production indeed had meaning in his long career. "I decided I would not go to my grave without coming back to Broadway," he said. "There is no second reason."

I'm gushing like a starry-eyed adolescent over a smashingly good-looking movie star, but it's not simply that. I greatly admire the grace, dignity, and generosity with which Paul and Joanne lived their lives, despite the often intrusive glare of spotlights.

I extend my sympathy to Joanne and their children and grandchildren.

Ann informed me of the news of his death and has a good word for Paul at her blog.

UPDATE: Here's a nice piece in Slate, titled "He Used His Fame to Give Away His Fortune", about Newman's Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for seriously ill children, written by a former camp counsellor.

RC Archbishop Hughes Says, "No"

From The Pew Forum:

NEW ORLEANS (RNS) Roman Catholic Archbishop Alfred Hughes has denounced a lawmaker's proposal to pay poor people to undergo sterilization as "an egregious affront to those targeted and blatantly anti-life."
....

Hughes spoke out in response to a proposal by state Rep. John Labruzzo, a Republican from suburban Metairie, to combat poverty by offering poor women and men $1,000 to undergo reproductive sterilization and vasectomies. In addition, the lawmaker said he is considering whether to propose tax incentives for college-educated people to have more children.
....

Catholic teaching holds that tubal ligation and vasectomy are wrong, because they rob sexuality of one of its main purposes, the transmission of life.

More broadly, the plan "would also constitute a form of eugenics that the church and this country have always condemned," Hughes said.

Hughes is correct about eugenics but wrong about tubal ligation and vasectomy. That's not his business. I wonder if he knows that many in his flock have the surgeries, even without anyone paying them $1000.

Brilliant And Eloquent

"It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Russia as Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where — where do they go? It's Alaska. It's just right over the border. It is — from Alaska that we send those out to make sure that an eye is being kept on this very powerful nation, Russia, because they are right there. They are right next to ... to our state," she said.

Sarah Palin in her interview with Katie Couric.

UPDATE: Yard sign from 5 O'clock Shadow at Daily Kos. H/T to Paul, the BB.

Passing Gas Is Against The Law?

From MSNBC News:

SOUTH CHARLESTON, W.Va. - A West Virginia man accused of passing gas and fanning it toward a police officer no longer faces a battery charge.

The Kanawha County prosecutor's office requested that the charge be dropped against 34-year-old Jose Cruz.
....

"The gas was very odorous and created contact of an insulting or provoking nature with Patrolman Parsons," the complaint alleged.

Cruz acknowledged passing gas, but said he didn't move his chair toward the officer nor aim gas at the patrolman. He said he had an upset stomach at the time, but police denied his request to go to the bathroom when he first arrived at the station.

"I couldn't hold it no more," he said.

All right, I'm on record. If I die soon, it's all Lapin's fault. I nearly choked to death from laughing when when I read this. I feel fine now, but I fear that I'm not out of danger, as there could be ill effects from the trauma later.