PLAY LIKE LES PAUL

Are you playing Les Paul's guitar on Google today? I am, and I'm having great fun with it.

Les Paul is 96 years old today. Happy Birthday, Les!

UPDATE: Right, Les passed on in 2009. Up there in heaven, Les, can you hear me?

JESUS AND MO - SEE?

Click on the cartoon for the larger view.

From Jesus and Mo.

STORY OF THE DAY - WAITING FOR SIGNS

I used to wait for a sign, she said, before
I did anything. Then one night I had a
dream & an angel in black tights came to
me & said, you can start any time now,
& then I asked is this a sign? & the angel
started laughing & I woke up. Now, I
think the whole world is filled with
signs, but if there's no laughter, I know
they're not for me.

From StoryPeople.

Thanks to Ann, but I had already decided to post the story.

PLEASE PRAY FOR GÖRAN

A Facebook friend alerted us that Göran is to have surgery tomorrow and asked us to pray for him.

Almighty God our heavenly Father, graciously comfort your servant Göran in his suffering, and bless the means made use of for his cure. Fill his heart with confidence that, though at times he may be afraid, he yet may put his trust in you; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Update on Ann's friend with tumors: "continued prayers -- biopsy shows surgery likely."

EARLY BISHOPS OF ROME ELECTED BY CLERGY AND LAITY

From the National Catholic Reporter:

The sacking of William Morris as bishop of the Australian diocese of Toowoomba raises more than a few theological questions about the relationship between bishops and the Bishop of Rome.

Many Catholics believe, and so apparently does Benedict XVI, that the Bishop of Rome is free, by the will of Christ, not only to appoint all bishops in the Roman Catholic church, but to dismiss them as well.

This is an incorrect assumption, and the firing of Bishop Morris provides us with a teachable moment in ecclesiology.

From the very beginning of church history, bishops were elected by the laity and clergy of the various local churches, or dioceses. And this included the Bishop of Rome, known more popularly as the pope.

One of the most important bishop-saints of the third century, Cyprian of Carthage in North Africa, offered explicit testimony about the election of bishops in the early church.

"It comes from divine authority," Cyprian wrote, "that a bishop be chosen in the presence of the people before the eyes of all and that he be approved worthy and fit by public judgment and testimony."

Indeed, when Cornelius was elected pope in 251, Cyprian described the process in a letter to a contemporary: "Cornelius was made bishop by the judgment of God and His Christ, by the testimony of almost all the clergy, by the vote of the people who were then present, by the assembly of venerable bishops and good men."

As I said at Of Course, I Could Be Wrong, where MadPriest posted the story earlier, "The article is brilliantly timely, and, as you say, its significance applies far beyond the story of the persecution of Bishop William Morris by the Vatican.

The NCR was my mainstay for many years, as the newspaper gave me great comfort in knowing that I was not alone in my resistance to swallowing the Vatican line whole and entire."

The Catholic Encyclopedia admits as much:

As to the earliest ages, Ferraris (op. cit. infra) says that St. Peter himself constituted a senate for the Roman Church, consisting of twenty-four priests and deacons. These were the councillors of the Bishop of Rome and the electors of his successors. This statement is drawn from a canon in the "Corpus Juris Canonici" (can. "Si Petrus", caus. 8, Q. 1). Historians and canonists, however, generally hold that the Roman bishopric was filled on its vacancy in the same manner as other bishoprics, that is, the election of the new pope was made by the neighbouring bishops and the clergy and faithful of Rome. Nevertheless, some maintain that the naming of the successor of St. Peter was restricted to the Roman clergy, and that the people were admitted to a part in the elections only after the time of Sylvester I (fourth century). (My emphasis)

MadPriest adds a gentle commentary to the article in NCR:

So there you have it. Of the three main denominations of the Christian Church, Roman Catholicism, Byzantium Orthodoxy and Anglicanism, the most orthodox, when it comes to the election of bishops, is Anglicanism and the province within the Anglican communion that has got it the most correct is the USA. This fact emphasises just how devious and perverted the accusations of revisionism and apostasy, levelled at the US Church by its jealous detractors, actually are, especially as they come mostly from bishops who have assumed dictatorial powers for themselves and who have been elected in processes that reflect those practiced by the secular powers of the cultures they minister within.

OUR FRENCH CAVALRY SWORD

As the story goes, my father-in-law, a doughboy who served in France during World War I, brought the sword home when he was discharged from the Army. A Frenchwoman of his acquaintance gave him the sword, which she said belonged to her deceased husband. I hasten to add that Doughboy Joe was not married when he served in the war.



The hilt of the sword appears to be made of copper or brass, and the blade, which is 34" to 35" in length, is made of steel. The sheath is iron and is entirely covered with rust. The sword and sheath together are heavy and, no doubt, were quite a load when dangling on a belt from the ring of iron on the sheath.



On the blunt side of the blade is an engraved inscription which says as nearly as I can make out "Mre d'Armes de Chât (?) Xbre 1883 Cavrié légère MLé (?) 1822 - (?)1883". The serial number stamped on the handle of the sword is (? ?) A 20893.

I wish we knew a bit more about the sword. I Googled around and found no pictures of the exact same sword, only similar swords. The weapon appears to be an 1883 French cavalry sword, and it seems not to be a hidden treasure worth a bucket of money.

Update from: susan s. in the comments:

What you call the "handle" is also referred to as the "hilt". It is made up of the guard which is what is made of metal and the handle which appears to be wrapped in leather and stitched into ribs to keep it from slipping in the hand. (I learned all I know about these things on the American version of "Antique Road Show.")

STORY OF THE DAY - FAST FORWARD

Fast forwarding through her messages
hoping to hear from old boyfriends who
finally realize the treasure they've
thrown away.

From StoryPeople.

I READ THE NEWS TODAY OH, BOY

Rick Santorum announces the formation of a presidential exploratory committee.

"Let America be America again."

Brilliant!

Rep. Anthony Weiner chokes up and admits he did it and then lied about it.

"This was a very dumb thing to do."

Really?

The Louisiana House of Representatives unanimously approved a bill to place a Ten Commandments monument in front of the State Capitol.

"HB277 generated debate prior in a House committee when it was questioned whether such a monument could make non-Christians and Jews uncomfortable." (My emphasis)

What can I say?

UPDATE: Neither Rick Santorum nor any of his brilliant aides came up with his campaign slogan. The words come from a poem by Langston Hughes:

Let America Be America Again

Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.

(America never was America to me.)

by Langston Hughes

ST LUKE'S IN MARYLAND THE FIRST TO JOIN THE RC ORDINARIATE

From the The Huffington Post:

An Episcopal parish in Maryland announced Monday that it will become the first in the United States to join the Roman Catholic Church under a Vatican process designed to bring disgruntled Anglicans and Episcopalians into its fold.

St. Luke's Episcopal parish in Bladensburg will become part of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington within the next few months. It will sever ties from its liberal bishop, who has spoken out in favor of same-sex marriage and other controversial issues.

The bishop, John Bryson Chane, said in a statement Monday that he approved the separation. Chane said the decision was made with "mutual respect," adding that "Christians move from one church to another with far greater frequency than in the past, sometimes as individuals, sometimes as groups."

The parish will lease its land from the Episcopal diocese with the option to purchase.

Godspeed to the folks at St Luke's. The transition seems to have taken place in a civilized manner, and the people and clergy had no notion that the property was theirs to take without compensation.

Nowhere do I find mention of the size of the congregation at St Luke's nor whether the entire congregation joined the ordinariate.

UPDATE: I learned something else new tonight. Anglicanorum coetibus is pronounced Anglican-orum chay-tee-boose). I did not know that.

UPDATE 2: For further information on St Luke's Church and their process of moving to the Roman Catholic ordinariate see Ann Fontaine's post at The Lead.

D-DAY - IN REMEMBRANCE

In remembrance of all who fought and all who died in the Normandy beach landings which began on June 6, 1944, and in the battles to secure territory that followed the landings.

The Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in France is located on the site of the temporary American St. Laurent Cemetery, established by the U.S. First Army on June 8, 1944 and the first American cemetery on European soil in World War II. The cemetery site, at the north end of its ½ mile access road, covers 172.5 acres and contains the graves of 9,387 of our military dead, most of whom lost their lives in the D-Day landings and ensuing operations. On the Walls of the Missing in a semicircular garden on the east side of the memorial are inscribed 1,557 names. Rosettes mark the names of those since recovered and identified.

From the American Battle Monuments Commission.

It's amazing that the plan for an invasion of this magnitude by the Allied Forces was kept secret and completely surprised the German forces in the area.

Grandpère and I visited in the late 1980s. The cemeteries are sad and beautiful. The ghosts linger on the hallowed ground. I remember seeing old veterans searching for the graves of their comrades in arms, and family members searching for the graves of their loved ones, and the quiet tears that often followed once they found the markers.

Until I visited the site, movies notwithstanding, I never quite realized the difficulty of the landing at Omaha Beach, the steepness of the cliffs, the exposure once the troops reached the top, not to mention those who were shot or drowned when they left the landing boats. More than 4,400 Allied troops died in a single day.

For those who died in the service of their countries.

ALMIGHTY God, our heavenly Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; We give thee thanks for all those thy servants who have laid down their lives in the service of their countries. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence, that the good work which thou has begun in them may be perfected; through Jesus Christ thy Son our Lord. AMEN.
(Book of Common Prayer, p. 42)

Note: Reposted from last year and the year before.