THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - EQUALITY

Women already have equality under the Son; what women desire is for that equality to be made manifest under the sun.

THE VISITATION

Visitation - Albertinelli, Mariotto -Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Luke 1:39-49

 In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’

 And Mary said,
‘My soul magnifies the Lord,
   and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,
for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.
   Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
   and holy is his name.

Bro John Anthony posted in St. Cuthbert's Cottage

 We honor Mary because she took an active part in God’s plans. She was a consenting partner. Elizabeth recognizes this when she says “Blessed are you among women” – blessed not only because she has been chosen to be the mother of our Lord, but, Elizabeth goes on to say, “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” Mary is praised by Elizabeth because she believed.

 -Br. Geoffrey Tristram Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Image from the Web Gallery of Art.

WHAT IF THE ANGLICAN CHURCH OF CANADA REJECTS THE COVENANT?

The Anglican Church of Canada needs more clarity around what the “relational consequences” would be for not adopting the proposed Anglican Communion Covenant.

This is one of the key messages that Council of General Synod (CoGS) members said the church must convey when the 15th Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) meets in New Zealand Oct. 27-Nov. 7.

All member provinces of the Communion have been asked to report on progress made in response to the covenant, which has been recommended as a way of healing divisions triggered by debates over the issue of sexuality.
....

Emerging from small group discussions, some CoGs members said there’s a lot of uncertainty around what happens when a province decides to adopt or not adopt the covenant. Critics of the covenant have long warned that adopting it could result in a two-tier Communion.

Although a comprehensive study guide on the covenant was prepared and recommended for Canadian Anglicans, “there’s not much interest in discussing it,” reported members of one CoGS discussion group. “We’re not sure why,” they added.

By now, most people know what I think of the Anglican Covenant, and I hope, in the end, that the ACofC will vote to reject, as I hope that my church, The Episcopal Church, will vote to reject at General Convention in July.

H/T to Kurt Wiesner at The Lead.

CRIE DE CŒUR FOR NEW ORLEANS

At the time the picture was taken, the little girl in the left of the picture, Briana Allen, had not yet died from the gunshot wound.  A 33 year old woman, Shawanna Pierce, also died in the the shootings.  The three shooters were armed with two pistols and an assault rifle.

Dirty Sexy Ministry posted a crie de cœur for New Orleans and its people which ends with the following words.

So, I ask that you would pray with me for New Orleans. Pray that we have hope. Pray that we can believe in ourselves, believe that we have value.

Read her entire eloquent and moving post, and please pray for my beloved home city and the people who live there.

The story may be found at NOLA.com.

EISENHOWER ON THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience.  Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications.  In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. 

President Dwight D Eisenhower in his Farewell Address.

Eisenhower was a Republican and a conservative of the sort that no longer survives as a force in the Republican Party.  The Tea Partiers have succeeded in either silencing them or driving them out of the party.

POPE'S BUTLER COOPERATING

Msgr Federico Lombardi

The pope's butler, Paolo Gabriele, is cooperating with the Vatican investigation of the Vatican leaks.  And what if the investigation points to people in high positions in the Vatican, such as a cardinal or two?

Italian media report that a cardinal is suspected of playing a major role in the "Vatileaks" scandal. However, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev Federico Lombardi, denied the reports. He said many Vatican officials were being questioned in the investigation but insisted: "There is no cardinal under suspicion."

He also dismissed as "pure fantasy" a rash of other unsourced reports about the investigation in the Italian media, which have been in a frenzy ever since reports of Gabriele's detention emerged last Friday.

Well, if the Rev Lombardi says so....  But then Lombardi also said:

...that the Pope had never been a member of the Hitler Youth, but journalists quickly pointed out to him that Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope, had admitted this himself in the 1997 book Salt of the Earth.

The ineptitude is stupefying.  If the news is bad, deny, always deny; get the facts later.

I hope the butler is receiving good legal advice, because he's up against heavy hitters.

UPDATE LAGNIAPPE:

WHAT ARE WE CELEBRATING?

Each Memorial Day seems sadder and more difficult to get through than the last.  Yesterday was a bummer, a miserable day.  Perhaps next year I'll ignore the holiday altogether, although I'll probably feel guilty if I do.  What are we celebrating?  Because of my ambivalence about celebrating the day, Charles Pierce's headline resonated powerfully with me. 

Loving the Warrior, Hating the Wars: Our Memorial Daze

The entire article is very good.  I linked to it yesterday and again today.  We are quick to go to war, but why then do we treat our veterans and their families so badly?

Does war lead to anything but more wars?  That is the question, as dithering Hamlet said.

'NO MAN'S LAND' - ERIC BOGLE

And I can't help but wonder, now Willie McBride,
Do all those who lie here know why they died?
Did you really believe them when they told you 'The Cause'?
Did you really believe that this war would end wars?
Well the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame
The killing, the dying, it was all done in vain,
For Willie McBride, it all happened again,
And again, and again, and again, and again.

It's a song that was written about the military cemeteries in Flanders and Northern France. In 1976, my wife and I went to three or four of these military cemeteries and saw all the young soldiers buried there. —Eric Bogle

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY - TO HONOR THE FALLEN

Let us honor the fallen in our wars by caring well for the survivors, the wounded in body, mind, and spirit, the healthy, and the families of the military, both of those who have died and those who still live.

IN MEMORIAM - MAY 2012

Arlington National Cemetery

Memorial Day in the United States is a day of remembrance of those in all our wars who gave everything in the service of their country. We honor them for their courage and dedication to duty. We extend our sympathy to their families and friends, whether the loss is recent or from long times past. We stand with you. We mourn with you.

Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between many peoples,
and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more;
but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
and no one shall make them afraid;
for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken. Micah 4:1-4

Lord God, Almighty and Everlasting Father, we pray for all those who have died in wars. We pray the they may rest in peace in the perpetual light of your love. We pray for your blessing upon the families and friends of all those who have died in service to their country. Console them for their aching loss. Bring them healing of body, mind, and spirit. Give them strength and courage to go forward, and Lord God, above all else, give them your peace that passes understanding to keep their minds and hearts.

Below is the faded bumper sticker that I put on my car in 2003 after the start of the war in Iraq. Originally, the top letters were bright yellow, and the bottom letters were bright blue and red.

The war in Afghanistan began in 2001.


Image at the head of the post from Wikipedia.

Reposted from last year with some editing.

For additional reading, I recommend to you Charles Pierce's Memorial Day post.  A short excerpt is below, but do read it all.

Now, for the veterans of the two wars of the past decade, we're giving them all kinds of favors and goodies and public applause, and maybe even a parade or two, overcompensating our brains out, but, ultimately, what does all the applause mean at the end of the day? We are apparently fine with two more years of vets coming home from Afghanistan, from a war that 60 percent of us say we oppose. But we support The Troops. Will we become a more skeptical nation the next time a bunch of messianic fantasts concoct a war out of lies? Perhaps, but we support The Troops. Will we tax ourselves sufficiently to pay for what it costs to care for the people we send to one endless war and one war based on lies? Well, geez, we'll have to think about that, but we support The Troops.