STORY OF THE DAY - DEEPEST DESIRES

Wish for your deepest desires, she said 
& when I asked if they'd come true, she 
said they always do, so you might as well 
get them out in the open while you're 
still young enough to correct any serious 
mistakes.

From StoryPeople.

PLEASE PRAY...

Please remember the parish community of St Peter's at Ellicott Mills and the families and friends of Rev. Dr. Mary-Marguerie Kohn and Brenda Brewington, the two women who were shot by a mentally-disturbed homeless man. From David@Montreal:

beloved Giants:

I'd ask your prayers for dear brother Paul's Jannita who begins chemo today, and for Gwendolyn's Jim who is to be prepped for  radiotheraphy on the newly-discovered cancer in his brain.

prayers for justice for the Lakota man who while undergoing surgery was also violated by some sick individual who carved initials of hate on his chest at leave it lay where Jesus flang it. prayers for all those who cry out for justice please. prayers for the two wonderful priests (margaret & Joel) who serve this man.

prayers for a transformative outcome to the vote in North Carolina today. and speaking of transformative opportunities, prayers for the people of France and Greece: that they not abandon their inter-connectivity with the rest of creation and they try with their new governments to 'save themselves.'

prayers for the people Syria, for the people of Darfur, for the healing of Charles Taylor's victims.

prayers for the people who live in the shadow of the Mexican-American border, and those who sacrifice their lives there.

prayers for John Andrews and B.C.'s discernment. for all those in discernment. prayers for those needing a way forward. prayers for all those gathered up in Bishop Steven's powerful prayer/blessing today.

birthday blessings for Jane whose day it is.

thank-you beloved Giants

love always- always Love

Thank you.

Thanks to Paul the BB for the picture at the head of the post

SISTER SARAH SAYS THINGS ARE AFOOT IN HAITI

old pavilion worship space with the beginnings of construction for the new

Things are afoot at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.  We have been worshiping under a pavilion in the former cathedral parking lot, located between the old cathedral and the old convent.

However, we have a big event coming up later this month: the consecration of the Diocese of Haiti's first suffragan bishop. After 150 years, this is a big deal.  We are the biggest diocese numerically in the Episcopal Church, so there is a lot of territory to be covered.  The cathedral already needed a more solid worship space, something with doors and walls (I heartily concur as I listen to the downpour outside), and Holy Trinity Music School needs a place to hold concerts since the destruction of the Salle Ste Cecile two years ago.  With the upcoming consecration and the need for space for the guests, this new, much larger pavilion is going to be a real blessing.  If I understand correctly, the sides of the building will not go on until afterwards, which will leave more space around the building open for the congregation.

Canon Oge Beauvoir is the suffragan bishop-elect who will soon make history in the Diocese of Haiti.  Read Sarah's entire post and see the rest of her pictures to find out what else is afoot at the site in Port-au-Prince.

Sarah, a  Sister of St Margaret and an Episcopal priest, is in Haiti to help with the recovery from the earthquake that devastated the country a couple of years ago.

GILES FRASER - THE LOOSE CANON

St Mary's, Newington

Giles Fraser in the Guardian:

The first impression of my new parish is of feeling loved and wanted by a whole group of people and for what seems like no reason whatsoever. On a stormy Tuesday night they came to my putting-in service, having prepared mountains of Jambalaya rice and patties, all togged up in their Sunday best and ready to sing their hearts out. Bottles of champagne appeared on the doorstep. Afterwards, the party in the church lasted until midnight. Wonderful.

I didn't invite anyone to my induction service at St Mary's, Newington. I've had my fill of polite rejections since resigning from St Paul's – too many unconvincing smiles in the street by former friends and colleagues who suddenly wouldn't break step to say hello. It is a miserable thing to have to face but, as I went through the long list of people I invited to my induction at St Paul's in 2009, I just couldn't work out who among them were still my friends. And I didn't have the emotional strength to decode all those nicely written excuses that middle-class people would come up with for not attending.

Grandpère and I had a similar experience in the groves of academe when he was a somewhat unwilling whistle-blower for telling the truth upon being asked. Some folks wouldn't even look at us. Others gave us a cold greeting and made it clear that no conversation would follow.   The shunning hurt, but, since I never thought of any of those people as friends anyway, it was not as painful as if friends suddenly stopped speaking to us.  GP suffered more than I, because he worked at the university and was demoted.  Had he not been tenured, he probably would have been fired.  Two of his co-workers without tenure were terminated.

I laughed at Giles' references to 'the pathologies of the English boarding school system', Philip Larkin's poem 'This Be the Verse' on 'mum and dad', and the establishment.  One way or another, 'they' get us all.

Read Giles' entire column.  It is excellent.

Giles' series on his life in the new parish is titled Loose Canon.  And why not?

UPDATE: From it's margaret in the comments - Psalm 55 ( a portion thereof)

For had it been an adversary who taunted me,
then I could have borne it; *
or had it been an enemy who vaunted himself against me,
then I could have hidden from him.
But it was you, a man after my own heart, *
my companion, my own familiar friend.
We took sweet counsel together, *
and walked with the throng in the house of God.

VEEP JOE BIDEN FAVORS SAME-SEX MARRIAGE - GEAUX JOE!

Joe Biden comes out in favor of same-sex marriage on Meet the Press:

GREGORY: Have your views evolved?

BIDEN: The good news is that as more and more Americans come to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who do you love and will you be loyal to the person you love? And that’s what people are finding out what all marriages at their root are about. Whether they are marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals. [...]

GREGORY: You’re comfortable with same-sex marriage now?

BIDEN: Look, I am Vice President of the United States of America. The president sets the policy. I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men marrying women are entitled to the same exact rights. All the civil rights, all the civil liberties. And quite frankly I don’t see much of a distinction beyond that. [...] I think Will & Grace probably did more to educate the American public than almost anything anybody has done so far. People fear that is different and now they’re beginning to understand.

Joe is probably right about the influence of the TV show Will & Grace.  Well, well.  Meet the Press is good for something besides giving cash and air time to tired, aging pundits with views left over from the 20th century.

Watch him.



H/T to Athenae at First Draft.

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR - THE CONSEQUENCES OF OPPRESSION

Thanks to Juan Cole at Informed Comment.

ABOUT WENDY...AND STORMY AND BADUT

Pictured above are my son's cats, Stormy and Wendy.  Stormy, the male, looks very much like a Russian blue.  Wendy, the female, is a brown and gray tabby, who has been having intestinal problems lately, in that she doesn't hold her food down.  She's been thoroughly examined and tested by the vets, and they can find nothing wrong.  She's lost weight, but not a dangerous amount, and is now on a special diet of expensive cat food, which did not immediately solve the problem.

Some of what Wendy regurgitates includes hair balls.  My son told the vet the story of Stormy and Wendy.  A stray female tuxedo kitten came to my son's house, and the family took her in, as much as they could, because she was and is half feral.  Turns out the 'kitten' was pregnant.  She was so small that she had to have been impregnated the first time she came into heat and, from the appearances of the 5 kittens in the litter, possibly by more than one male.   Badut (Don't ask about the name.  I have no idea.) stayed in the house when she had her litter and until the kittens were weaned, but now she prefers outside, except in very cold weather.

Badut was quite conscientious about feeding her litter, but Wendy was the nanny who did the cleaning and grooming, since the mother cat showed no interest in those chores.  My son found good homes for all the kittens but Stormy, whom they kept in the family.  Stormy is a very large cat, although you can't tell from the picture.  Wendy is a normal-sized female, but she still grooms Stormy as she's done since he was born.  The vets finally concluded that Wendy was ingesting too much hair by grooming herself and the huge Stormy, and her digestive system could not handle all the hair.  They've put her on an anxiety medication to try to keep her from vomiting, and it seems to be working.

In addition to her compulsion to groom Stormy, Wendy has to put up with his attempts to mount her.  Once he gets her down, she's so much smaller, she doesn't have a chance, and when my son goes to rescue her, Stormy gets a crazed look in his eyes as though to say, 'I'll tear you limb from limb, if you disturb me!'  All the more need for anxiety medication for poor Wendy.

And that's not all.  Whenever Badut decides to spend time in the house, Stormy still tries to nurse from his tiny Mama.  What a sight!  He's about twice her size.   He's never forgotten, but his Mama wants none of it, which may be one reason why she spends so much time outside.

Stormy is seemingly a large cat with a small brain, who yet manages to rule like a king.  Such is life with the feline members of the household.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - MEISTER ECKHART

Man’s last and highest leave-taking is leaving God for God.

UPDATE:  The thought above in a broader context:

I will put into plain words what St. Paul means by wishing to depart from God. Man’s last and highest leave-taking is leaving God for God. St. Paul left God for God: he left everything he could give or take of God, every concept of God. In leaving these, he left God for God since God remained to him in his essential self, not as a concept of himself, or as an acquired thing, but God in his essential actuality.

From An Introduction to Meister Eckhart

H/T to Windhorse in the comments at Adventus.

EL CINCO DE MAYO - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, GAYLE!

Today is my beloved sister Gayle's birthday. She died six years ago on April 27. We celebrated her life in a memorial service on her birthday, May 5, 2006. After the service, we had a quiet gathering of friends and family. Later that evening, we had a not-so-quiet gathering, in other words, a party. Gayle loved parties, so it was fitting.

She also loved that she shared her birthday with the Mexican celebration. Of course! Another occasion for a party.

¡Viva México! ¡Viva El Cinco de Mayo!

Viva Gayle! May we meet in the kingdom!

Friends of Gayle set up The Dillenkoffer Endowment to provide scholarship grants to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered teens.  We know that it's not easy to come out as a teenager. The consequences, at worst, can be nothing less than deadly. I greatly admire all the young men and women who have the courage to step forward and claim their identities in the face of the difficulties.

If you would like to make a donation, here's the link.

(Reposted from last year with slight editing.)

CHRIST'S PRESENCE

Bro John Anthony

10:28am May 4

Knowing Christ to be present and active within us is the true reward. Our service to others, our generosity, are the manifestation of the life of God, the love of God, the generosity of God active within us. What could be a better reward than God within us?

-Br. Mark Brown
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Bro John Anthony posted in St. Cuthbert's Cottage