PLEASE PRAY FOR PAUL THE BB

From Paul:

I have had three root canals in as many months. This Tuesday I will have sinus surgery to drain all the infection and repair a deviated septum at the same time. They will be working in three sinuses on my right side. It is day surgery and Bill will be with me that day and night. The doctor will remove plastic stents when I see him ten days later. So I will be out of commission for the next two weeks. Your prayers are requested and appreciated.

Between this and holidays and too many doctor appointments paychecks have been slim and medical expenses high. I give thanks that I am insured and still employed and think of those who lack work and seek it, those without insurance, those who are homeless. Let us hold them in our hearts also and seek to make our social systems better.

O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant Paul the help of your power, that his sickness may be turned into health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Three root canal surgeries for tooth problems, even as he suffered from sinus problems. Poor baby. Better times await him!

Still Paul doesn't forget those who are less fortunate, so let us join with him to remember them in our prayers.

As a bonus, if you click on the link above to Paul's blog, you will find a delightful picture of his large family of children.

UPDATE: JCF said...

I also have a Problem Tooth, about which "Something Will Sooner-or-Later Have to Be Done": if you can spare any, I'd love some prayers as I discern this...

Of course, we will include you and your Problem Tooth in our prayers, JCF.

A STUTTERER REVIEWS "THE KING'S SPEECH"

Torey Lightcap at The Lead links to the review of "A King's Speech" by the L.A. Times movie critic, Charles McNulty, who also happens to stutter.

Public speaking consistently ranks as one of life's most stressful events, up there with divorce, bereavement and home foreclosure. But there's a look of paralytic terror on the face of the protagonist of "The King's Speech" that goes beyond any working definition of stage fright. As the man who will one day become King George VI prepares to deliver a few ceremonial remarks, his doomed countenance suggests not so much a judgmental audience as a firing squad.

Colin Firth, who portrays "Bertie," the second-born, stammering son of Great Britain's King George V, captures the adrenaline-racing horror of a person obliged to speak when speech itself is an uncertain thing. As someone who has stuttered since childhood, I recognize his symptoms only too well — the blood-drained complexion, the collapsing gait, the passive acceptance of death in the eyes.

Since I have terrible stage fright without a stutter, I can't even imagine what it would be like to face a group of people focused on my words in fear that the words would not come out.

But "The King's Speech" is more than just a movie about stuttering. It dramatizes the difficulty of self-acceptance, the painful ownership of the life you have rather than the one you assumed you'd get. The film is also about finding one's voice, which I like to think of as a style of being that embraces the unique history you've been handed. Finally, it's about the possibility of incremental change, or, as a wise speech therapist once put it to me, "learning to stutter more easily," an approach that has had far more widespread application than I could have ever realized at the time.

Ah yes. The movie is profound in ways that had not yet surfaced in my conscious mind. What a splendid review of a splendid movie! Please read it all.

Thanks to Torey also for the link to the video of the actual speech by King George VI, which you may hear in the video below.




H.M. King George VI, broadcast speech to the British Empire from Buckingham Palace on September 3rd, 1939...at the outbreak of WW2.

DOUG'S NEW YEAR MESSAGE TO US ALL

OH DEAR!

THE FORECAST (CALLS FOR PAIN)

Not, I hope, the forecast for the year 2011.

H/T to Adrastos at First Draft.

PLEASE PRAY FOR FRANK AND CAROL

From David@Montreal

cherished Giants:

I've just had a call from Carol, the heroic wife of my very dear cousin Frank who, as you'll remember has been putting up a heroic fight against lukemia and the compications it brings.

unfortunately Frank and Carol have had a pretty horrendous holiday season. the original plan to admit him before Christmas was abandoned when the hospital found themselves with some pretty serious viral outbreaks and Frank was sent home for his own protection. since then, they've been treating him daily as an outpatient with Carol having to drive to and from Whitrock BC to Vancouver each day and eight hours in the hospital, seven on seven.

in addition to the rapidly depleting white blood cell/platlets, the primary foe of the moment is an aspergillis fungal infection in his lungs.
with no spleen and a non-existent immuse system as his body still recovers from his second genetic transplant on Sept 22, the hospital is throwing everything they have at the fungus without success so far.

with a two hour drive each way, eight hours in the hospital each day, a recent fall by Frank and a nurse who inappropriately suggested it might be time for them to give up, Carol was really quite raw when she phoned,but before she had to go we were able to discuss getting some psycho-pastoral support for her and some practical help at home. working my computer while we spoke I even managed to find a Roman Catholic priest in hospital chaplaincy who it turns she knows slightly and she has promised to contact him for resources.

unable in my own financially precarious state to call her back, my heart knows that more than a call from me what my cousins need are prayers, and I couldn't ask for better than you my beloved Giants of prayer & practice

David

For Frank:

May God the Father bless you, God the Son heal you, God the Holy Spirit give you strength. May God the holy and undivided Trinity guard your body, save your soul, and bring you safely to his heavenly country; where he lives and reigns for ever and ever.
Amen.

For Carol:

O merciful Father, look with compassion upon your servant, Carol, for whom our prayers are offered. Remember her, O Lord, in mercy, nourish her soul with patience, comfort her with a sense of your goodness, lift up your countenance upon her, and give her peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

HAITI - ONE YEAR LATER - ERD

Since the bulk of my financial support for recovery from the earthquake in Haiti goes through Episcopal Relief and Development, I was pleased to see that Nicholas Knisely at The Lead posted a link to the Episcopal Relief and Development Report on the work that has been done in the country during the past year through donations to Haitian relief.

Click on the images for the larger view.






The full report is here. ERD operates with very low overhead, with the greater part of the donations going to the people who need help.

Make a donation at Episcopal Relief and Development.

Update from Ann in the comments:

ER-D also hires local workers and buys supplies locally whenever possible - building the economy while helping with recovery.

Thanks, Ann.

AND SO IT BEGINS...

From Ruth Gledhill in the London Sunday Times, which you cannot read online without a supscription:

Priests and worshippers from to 20 Church of England parishes are to convert to Catholicism under a new scheme that allows Anglican opponents of women bishops to defect to Rome.

The founding members of the new Anglican Ordinariate, who include three former Church of England bishops, two of their wives and three Anglican nuns, will today be received into the Catholic Church in a low-key ceremony at midday Mass at Westminster Cathedral. The bishops are due to be ordained as Catholic priests in two weeks.
....

John Broadhurst, former Bishop of Fulham - whose resignation from the Church of England took effect at midnight last night and who is among those being received - told The Times: "This could herald a real transformation of the religious scene and be an aid to the conversion of England." (My emphasis)

Besides Father Broadhurst, the others being recieved today are Andrew Burnham, former Bishop of Ebbsfleet and Keith Newton, former Bishop of Matabeleland who retired to England in 2005, Edwin Barnes, former Bishop of Richborough and David Silk, former Bishop of Ballarat in Australia.

Not simply low-key, but nearly under the radar unless you're paying attention, which Ruth Gledhill always does. So the "stampede" out of the Church of England begins.

Anglican opponents to women bishops did not need a special scheme to defect to Rome. They were always free to do so. And "Father Broadhurst" won't be "Father" for two weeks, because as of the stroke of midnight, he was, and still is, a layman.

Some might say layman Broadhurst's commentary, the words in bold print, on what the reception will mean to all-England is a tad over-hyped, and I might be one who would say just that - "an aid to the conversion of England"? Really?

From America Magazine:

The 1230 Mass today at London's Westminster Cathedral looked like any other. But for the hint in the booklet for the feast of Mary, Mother of God, that after the homily would be a "Rite of reception and confirmation", there was nothing at all to indicate the significance of what was to happen. The celebrant, an auxiliary bishop of Westminster, Alan Hopes, said nothing at the start of Mass, and it wasn't until the end of a lengthy homily on Mary as Theotokos, or God-bearer, and the controversies of the fourth-century Council of Nicea which led to this Feast, that Bishop Hopes mentioned that they would be receiving some former members of the Church of England into full communion.

They included, he said, three former bishops and their relatives, as well as three Anglican nuns.

It would have been hard, if you had just dropped into the Cathedral for Mass, to understand the significance of what was happening.There was nobody around to explain that these are the founding members of the world's first Ordinariate, the scheme created by Pope Benedict to allow for the corporate reception of Anglicans.

Is there not a touch of irony in that the anti-women bishops bishops and nuns were received into the Roman Catholic Church on the feast of Mary, Mother of God? What would Mary say?

H/T to Jim Simons at Three Rivers Episcopal for the link to the article in America, and thanks to Ann V. for calling the post at "Three Rivers" to my attention.

NEW YEAR'S WISH

Paul (A.) strikes again!

On New Year's Eve, Marilyn stood up in the local pub and said that it was time to get ready. At the stroke of midnight, she wanted every husband to be standing next to the one person who made his life worth living.

Well, it was kind of embarrassing.

As the clock struck twelve, the bartender was almost crushed to death.


Cheers (and Happy New Year!),

Paul (A.)

PLEASE PRAY FOR TRACY AND MRS MADPRIEST

After just getting over a nasty chest infection, Tracy now starts the new year with an infection in her leg.

O God, the strength of the weak and the comfort of sufferers: Mercifully accept our prayers, and grant to your servant Tracy the help of your power, that her sickness may be turned into health, and our sorrow into joy; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

Tracy blogs as Petty Witter at Pen and Paper. You may want to drop in and leave an encouraging word. She's been confined to the house for a month, except for Christmas day before the leg infection set in, with only her husband Neal (Themethatisme) for company (poor baby!).

UPDATE: MadPriest says:

Mrs MP suffers from migraines. Of course, being Mrs MP she is not content to just have headaches, flashing lights and nausea she has to have the type of migraine that causes sinus pain. This (which sometimes happens twice a month) is an agony which she can only compare to acute toothache.... Please pray for Mrs MP. She is so miserable at the moment as her Christmas holiday has been pretty much ruined by it. And migraines and depression go together like pouring water onto a chip pan fire.

A BLESSED AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I bind unto myself this day
the strong name of the Trinity.
I humbly praise the aweful name:
the Three in One, the One in Three,
of whom all nature hath creation -
eternal Father, Spirit, Word,
Praise in the God of my salvation!
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

I bind this day to me for ever
by power of faith:Christ's incarnation,
His baptism in the Jordan river,
His death on the cross for my salvation.
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming on the day of doom,
I bind unto myself today.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ be with me this day.

From Celtic Daily Prayer.