THE CALL OF GOD

The call of God is always accompanied by the promise of God. God’s answer to our protests of inadequacy and weakness is always the same: “I will be with you.”

-Br. David Vryhof
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Bro John Anthony posted in St. Cuthbert's Cottage

PLEASE PRAY FOR MR CATOLICK

Mr CatOLick, creator of the bitingly clever videos which caricature the follies of church folk, mainly those in high places, is going through a very bad time.  He needs our prayers and our support now.  Let him know you care either at his blog or on Facebook, if you are Tom Catolick's friend.

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

 

BUT DO YOU LIKE THE HATS?

Prince Philip, the Queen, Camilla, and Catherine

The Baltimore Sun has a slide show of today's grand celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee on the River Thames

YOUR DUCK IS DEAD

A woman brought a very limp duck into a veterinary surgeon. As she laid her pet on the table, the vet pulled out his stethoscope and listened to the bird's chest.

After a moment or two, the vet shook his head and sadly said, "I'm sorry, your duck, Cuddles, has passed away."

The distressed woman wailed, "Are you sure?"  "Yes, I am sure. Your duck is dead," replied the vet.

"How can you be so sure?" she protested. "I mean you haven't done any testing on him or anything.  He might just be in a coma or something."

The vet rolled his eyes, turned around and left the room. He returned a few minutes later with a black Labrador Retriever. As the duck's owner looked on in amazement, the dog stood on his hind legs, put his front paws on the examination table and sniffed the duck from top to bottom. He then looked up at the vet with sad eyes and shook his head.

The vet patted the dog on the head and took it out of the room. A few minutes later he returned with a cat. The cat jumped on the table and also delicately sniffed the bird from head to foot. The cat sat back on its haunches, shook its head, meowed softly and
strolled out of the room.

The vet looked at the woman and said, "I'm sorry, but as I said, this is most definitely, 100% certifiably, a dead duck."

The vet turned to his computer terminal, hit a few keys and produced a bill, which he handed to the woman.  The duck's owner, still in shock, took the bill. "$500!" she cried, "$500 just to tell me my duck is dead!"

The vet shrugged, "I'm sorry. If you had just taken my word for it, the bill would have been $25, but with the Lab Report and the Cat Scan, it's now $500."

Don't blame me.  Blame Doug.

WHAT IS CARBON PAPER?

Not long ago, I was disgraced by a package of carbon paper. More precisely, I was disgraced by a visit to my local stationer’s, where I tried to buy a package of carbon paper. (I needed to transfer a drawing from surface A to surface B, and it seemed to me, then as now, that carbon paper has endured all these years for expressly that purpose.) 

The cashier, a sweet young thing of 20 or so, met my request as though it had been uttered in Klingon. “Carbon ... what?” she stammered, agape. I fled — as fast as my decrepitude would allow.

What is carbon paper?

Carbon paper: Duplicating paper coated with messy black stuff; used between two sheets of white paper in a typewriter.

Take that, sweet young thing of 20 or so!

Although I took a typing class and worked at summer jobs doing mostly typing, I never got past 40 wpm with mistakes.  Carbon copies were the bane of my existence, even after the advent of Selectric typewriters.  Typing was never my forte, but with the advent of the age of the internet I'm quite grateful for my admittedly limited skills, since I'm not forced to hunt and peck.  I am compelled to add that I've seen folks hunt and peck with two fingers faster than I can type.  

Image from trusty Wikipedia.  What would I do without Wikipedia?

Thanks to Paul (A.) for the links.  What would I do without Paul (A.)?

STORY OF THE DAY - HOME IMPROVEMENT THERAPY

Don't let them fool you, she said. It's 
impossible to remodel without deep & 
painful personal growth & they don't let 
you put therapy under home 
improvement

That's why we don't do home improvements, unless they're absolutely necessary.
 
From StoryPeople.

OMAR KHAYYAM - 'WHEN LIFE HAS BEEN DRUNK TO THE DREGS'

When life has been drunk to the dregs,
whether at home or abroad;
and its full measure used up,
whether it’s been bitter or sweet;
have some wine,
since after you and me,
the moon will go on
waxing and waning
from crescent to full.

Translated by Juan Cole
from Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, [pdf] Whinfield 134

MARRIAGE = ONE MAN AND ONE WOMAN?

Esther J Hamori does a nice summing-up of the biblical references to marriage which demonstrates clearly that one man and one woman was not always the biblical norm.

Opponents of marriage equality often appeal to the Bible to support their views. So what is this "biblical standard for marriage" we keep hearing about? Marriage in the Bible is not restricted to one man and one woman, or in fact to any one model. There is, however, a unifying theme to the diverse pictures of God-ordained marriages in the Bible, and it is that different kinds of unions are accepted in different places and times, evolving in tandem with broader cultural shifts.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post.

The sign below from Happy Place tickled my funny bone. 

Thanks to Tobias on Facebook for the link to the article.

PLEASE PRAY FOR THE ELECTIONS OF BISHOPS

Rose window - Washington National Cathedral

Four bishops of The Episcopal Church will be elected today.

PRAYER FOR THE ELECTION OF A BISHOP

Almighty God, giver of every good gift: Look graciously on your Church, and so guide the minds of those who shall choose bishops in the Episcopal dioceses of Atlanta, Rhode Island, Western Massachusetts, and Texas, that they may receive faithful pastors, who will care for your people and equip them for their ministries; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

H/T to Penelopepiscopal.

Image from Wikipedia. 

UPDATE FROM Episcopal News Service via The Lead:

The Rev Douglas John Fisher in Western Massachusetts

The Very Rev. Robert C. Wright in Atlanta

The Very Rev. Nicholas Knisely in Rhode Island.

The Rev. Jeff Fisher, suffragan in Texas

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH!

Why is June Pride Month?  Liz at Common Ground explains.

In the 1950’s and 60’s, there was a bar in New York City’s Greenwich Village called “The Stonewall”. It was a gay bar, patronized mostly by men and transgendered individuals who were typically married and outwardly “straight” members of their communities. These were family men, professional men…all of whom had good reasons they felt for keeping their sexual orientation or non-traditional gender identity or gender identity expression firmly under wraps.

Throughout the 50’s and 60’s, the police would raid the bar and put whoever was in it on a given night in a police wagon. They’d threaten the newly arrested men with exposure unless the men agreed to pay a sum of money each to walk away. In most, if not all instances, the money was paid.

On June 27, 1969 however, all that changed. In what some compare to the courageous act of Rosa Parks not to move to the back of the bus, when the police came by for their usual “fundraiser”, a group of patrons in the bar started what could only be described as a riot in the Village, protesting the egregious treatment and discrimination and declaring once and for all that enough was enough.

The bar (which has since closed although there is a marker on the wall where it stood in the Village) was never raided again because from that point forward, people took pride in who and what they were and if they didn’t, well then they probably didn’t hang out at the Stonewall any more.

The gay pride flag was designed by Gilbert Baker who is said to have taken his inspiration from the black civil rights and hippie movements. It was debuted in 1978 at the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian Freedom Day Parade. Its colors, always shown in the following order, symbolize:

• RED = Life
• ORANGE = Healing
• YELLOW = Sun
• GREEN = Nature
• ROYAL BLUE = Harmony
• VIOLET = Spirit

And that is why June is Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Heterosexual and Transgender Pride Month…

Of course, you already knew that, right?