CROSSING THROUGH ARIZONA

From undercovernun.

Thanks to Ann.

VOILA! - MY WEE TREE...

...is up!



Yesterday, I carried the tree down from the upstairs closet, uncovered it, set it on the table covered with my pretty red damask tablecloth, and - voila! I bought the tablecloth at 75% off, price $5.99, at an after-Christmas sale several years ago.

The tree is an upscale version of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, sparse on limbs and needles, but with the decorations, the sparseness doesn't stand out. My grandchildren laugh at my tree every year, but I love it. After Christmas is over, I put the cover back on the tree and carry it up to the closet until next year.

UPDATE ON AILEEN

December 20, 9 p.m.

This is a message from Aileen's cousin, Tammy---

Just talked with Aileen's mom and the doctors put in the trach tube. Aileen responded to her mom by blinking, and she followed her with her eyes. Her blood pressure is stable and her heartbeat as well. She still has a bit of a high temperature. Please keep praying for my sweet, precious cousin Aileen. Thank you all so much for the prayers!!!! We all love her so much and I know she is going to pull
through this.

---Blessings to all, Sally

From Ann. Sally is the priest who ministers to Aileen and Mike.

UPDATE: Prayer request from David@Montreal:

Beloved Giants of prayer & practice
It turns out my cherished cousin Frank is not to see Christmas at home.

They discovered a serious growth on one of his lungs, and he's been hospitalized, with the doctors unable to give any idea how long the treatments will take- especially with holiday scheduling.

They're going to be removing the mass and giving him treatment. The news comes via my Mam who received the call who was quite shaken by this news of her Godson, so she doesn't remember all that Frank shared with her, but she reports that his morale was good- as always- but he specificially asked that I share this news with you, the Giants and ask for your prayers for himself and for Carol.

thank-you

love-always-always Love

David.

PORCUPINES AND GRACE NOTES

From an earlier post at Wounded Bird from an email sent by Susan S.:

Fable of the porcupine

It was the coldest winter ever and many animals died because of the cold.

Some porcupines, realizing the gravity of the situation, decided to group together to share warmth.

This way they were better covered and protected ; however - the quills of each one wounded their closest companions.

After a while they decided to distance themselves one from the other and soon after they began to die, alone and frozen.

So they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth.

Wisely, they decided to go back to being together.

They learned to accept the little wounds that were caused by these close relationships, in order to benefit from what their companions offered.

It was this way that they were able to survive and thrive.

Moral of the story:

The best relationships are not ones that bring together perfect beings, but are instead ones where individuals learn to live with the imperfections of others and can still accept the gifts they have to offer.

Paul (A.) said...

Alternative moral: In order to survive you will have to learn to live with a few pricks.

"THEY HAVE NAMES"

12 U.S. Military Killed in Afghanistan Last Week
12.19.10

US Army SPC Ethan L Goncalo, 21, Fall River, MA
US Marines SSgt Stacy A Green, 34, Alexander City, AL
US Army CPL Sean M Collins, 25, Ewa Beach, HI
US Army Willie A McLawhorn Jr, 23, Conway, NC
US Army SPC Patrick D Deans, 22, Orlando, FL
US Army SPC Kenneth E Necochea, 21, San Diego, CA
US Army SPC Derek T Simonetta, 21, Redwood City, CA
US Army SPC Jorge E Villacis, 24, Sunrise, FL
US Marines Sgt Justin E Schmalstieg, 28, Pittsburgh, PA
US Marines LCpl Jose A Hernandez, 19, West Palm Beach, FL
US Army SPC Sean R Cutsforth, 22, Radford, VA
US Marines LCpl Jose L Maldonado, 21, Mathis, TX

May all who died serving their country rest in peace and rise in glory.

May God give comfort, consolation, and the peace that passes understanding to those who love the departed service members.

Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

List and title of the post from The Daily Office.



My faded bumper sticker that was once bright yellow, red, and blue.

BLUE CHRISTMAS - THE LONGEST NIGHT

Tonight, many churches will celebrate "Longest Night" or "Blue Christmas" services. From Episcopal Life.

During these shortest days and longest nights of the year, many Episcopal Church congregations are offering services meant to bring comfort to those who struggle to find the joy of the Advent and Christmas seasons.

Often called Blue Christmas or Longest Night services, many take place the evening of December 21, the night of the winter solstice, and are designed for people who are coping with loss. Those people hear the Christmas song that describes "the most wonderful time of the year with the kids jingle belling and everyone telling you 'Be of good cheer'" but instead feel they are living the lyrics of the 1957 hit "Blue Christmas" when Elvis Presley sings "I'll have a blue Christmas without you, I'll be so blue just thinking about you."

My friend, Elizabeth Kaeton, is quoted in the article. Elizabeth says:

"It's probably one of the most pastoral things I do at Christmas," said the Rev. Elizabeth Kaeton.

Kaeton places the rationale for offering a Blue Christmas service squarely within the message of Christmas. Noting that Episcopalians proclaim in The Book of Common Prayer's Preface of the Commemoration of the Dead (pages 349 and 382) that "life is changed, not ended," she said. "I think this message gets carried into this service in a way that Christmas sentimentality doesn't."

"If we really understand why Christ came to us, then you really have to think about death and eternal life," she said.

Amen.

We hold before God:
those for whom life is very difficult;
those who have difficult decisions to make , and who honestly do not know the right thing to do.

We hold before God:
those who have difficult tasks to do and to face, and who fear they may fail in them;
those who have difficult temptations to face, and who know only too well that they may fall to them, if they try to meet them alone.

We hold before God:
those who know that they can be their own worst enemies.

We hold before God:
those who have difficult people to work with;
those who have to suffer unjust treatment, unfair criticism, unappreciated work.

We hold before God:
those who are sad because someone they loved has died;
and any who are disappointed in something for which they hoped very much.

William Barclay

From Celtic Daily Prayer.

Elizabeth posted a lovely Blue Christmas service at her blog, Telling Secrets. Working with rector, Max Wolf, and director of music, Alex Helsabeck, the three produced a lovely service for All Saints Episcipal Church in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Picture from Adventus.

O ORIENS

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Blackfriars in Oxford.

December 21

O Oriens, splendor lucis æternæ, et sol justitiæ:
veni, et illumina sedentes in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Dayspring, Brightness of the everlasting light,
Son of justice, come to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death!

Isaiah 9:2

The people who walked in darkness
have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
on them light has shined.

Text from Fish Eaters.

Reposted from last year.

"SONGS OF PRAISE"

More about this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wyj62.

It's a comedy congregation in this sketch from The One Ronnie Show. Harry Enfield, Rob Brydon, David Walliams and Matt Lucas all have something to say in this Songs of Praise sketch.

Thanks to Bruce (aka Canon Itchy) for the link.

O CLAVIS DAVID

Antiphon sung by the Dominican student brothers at Blackfriars in Oxford.

December 20

O Clavis David, et sceptrum domus Israel;
qui aperis, et nemo claudit; claudis, et nemo aperit:
veni, et educ vinctum de domo carceris, sedentem in tenebris, et umbra mortis.

O Key of David, and Sceptre of the house of Israel,
that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth,
come to liberate the prisoner from the prison, and them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death.


Isaiah 22:22

I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David;
he shall open, and no one shall shut;
he shall shut, and no one shall open.

Text from Fish Eaters.

Reposted from last year. The O Antiphons are now a tradition at Wounded Bird.

R. I. P. NASH ROBERTS

Legendary TV weatherman Nash C. Roberts Jr., revered as much for his calm, level-headed presence as the accuracy of his hurricane path projections, has died at age 92, WWL-TV has reported.

For more than 50 years, Gulf Coast weather-watchers relied on Mr. Roberts to tell them where tropical storms would come ashore.

From before Hurricane Betsy in 1965 to beyond Hurricane Georges in 1998, Mr. Roberts was widely considered the region's most authoritative source for hurricane news.

And in the age of Super Doppler and satellite imagery, there remained for hundreds of thousands of New Orleanians a great sense of relief in seeing Mr. Roberts on screen with his throwback bulletin-board-style weather map and felt-tip pens.

"He was old school, but you know what? I miss that," said Bob Breck, chief meteorologist at Fox affiliate WVUE-Channel 8 and a feisty competitor for many years.

Breck said he admired Mr. Roberts' independent approach to forecasting big storms.

"I think Nash wasn't afraid to fail. He trusted his instincts and he just followed his gut. I think that's what people remember him for.

"He was just a man who was a giant of the industry."

Even after his retirement from WWL-TV's nightly newscasts in 1984, Mr. Roberts would reappear on Channel 4 whenever a serious storm entered the Gulf of Mexico.

For all those years, you didn't hear the definitive word on where the hurricane would make landfall until you heard it from Nash, standing before his bulletin board with his black felt marker, long after the other TV meteorologists had moved on to high-tech computer-generated images. I can't think of a TV forecaster or reporter working today who inspires the trust of a such vast number of people as Nash did amongst the people on the Gulf Coast.

In July 2001, Mr. Roberts announced his full retirement, setting aside his black markers to care for his ailing wife, Lydia.

"I actually prayed that I would outlive her, so that I could take care of her," Nash told WWL news anchor Angela Hill at the time. "That's how it's working out."

The decision by Nash to step away from the job that he loved to care for the love of his life, demonstrates the character and principles of the man who inspired such trust and admiration in thousands of people.

Mr. Roberts' accurate prediction that Hurricane Georges in 1998 would make landfall east of New Orleans, while all the computer models and other television stations were still insisting Georges would drift to the west, earned him national attention.

I will never forget the evening when the very Bob Breck who is quoted in the article appeared on a rival TV station after Nash predicted Hurricane Georges would make landfall in Biloxi, Mississippi. Breck said, "The storm is not going to Biloxi."

Early the next morning, Breck appeared on TV and said in a strained, squeaky voice, "It certainly looks like it's headed toward the Biloxi area".

May Nash rest in peace and rise in glory as he rejoins Lydia, the love of his life.