NOTABLE DATE

 

I'm told this won't happen for another 100 years, which makes good sense to me.  ☺

Thanks to Doug on Facebook for the reminder.

HA HA HA

Senator Huckleberry - er - Lindsey Graham (R-SC) to President Obama:

“You just got reelected. How about doing something big that is not liberal?” Graham said in an interview with Fox News. “How about doing something big that really is bipartisan? Every big idea he has is a liberal idea that drowns us in debt. How about manning up here, Mr. President, and use your mandate to bring this country together to stop us from becoming Greece?”

From The Hill.  Watch the video at the link.

STORY OF THE DAY - CONNECT THE DOTS

Resorting to connecting the dots this morning 
because it was a long night & he needs to do 
something really simple to get started again.

Yes, and so I did this morning without urging from anyone.

From StoryPeople.

FEAST OF THOMAS MERTON

The splendid and moving icon of Thomas Merton was written by Brother Tobias Haller.

Thomas Merton has been a major influence in my spiritual life for many years, since the 1950s when I read Merton's biography The Seven Storey Mountain. The book had a profound effect on me in deepening my faith. Since the first, I've read a good many of Merton's other writings.

Merton's prayer below sustained me many through many periods in my life when I felt directionless or doubtful about choices I've made.

The Living Spirit

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Collect of the Day: Thomas Merton, Contemplative and Writer, 1968

Gracious God, you called your monk Thomas Merton to proclaim your justice out of silence, and moved him in his contemplative writings to perceive and value Christ at work in the faiths of others: Keep us, like him, steadfast in the knowledge and love of Jesus Christ; who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

ANOTHER BAD DOG

 

 

A lively young puppy named Quiz
Called a monster through no fault of his
He was such a whiz
At prodigious show-biz
His human remained in a tizz

BAD DOGS 2

 

 

 

 

 

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Thanks to Ann.

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

 

A Song for Simeon

Lord, the Roman hyacinths are blooming in bowls and 
The winter sun creeps by the snow hills; 
The stubborn season has made stand. 
My life is light, waiting for the death wind, 
Like a feather on the back of my hand. 
Dust in sunlight and memory in corners 
Wait for the wind that chills towards the dead land.

Grant us thy peace. 
I have walked many years in this city, 
Kept faith and fast, provided for the poor, 
Have taken and given honour and ease. 
There went never any rejected from my door. 
Who shall remember my house, where shall live my children’s children 
When the time of sorrow is come? 
They will take to the goat’s path, and the fox’s home, 
Fleeing from the foreign faces and the foreign swords. 

Before the time of cords and scourges and lamentation 
Grant us thy peace. 
Before the stations of the mountain of desolation, 
Before the certain hour of maternal sorrow, 
Now at this birth season of decease, 
Let the Infant, the still unspeaking and unspoken  Word, 
Grant Israel’s consolation 
To one who has eighty years and no to-morrow. 

According to thy word, 
They shall praise Thee and suffer in every generation 
With glory and derision, 
Light upon light, mounting the saints’ stair. 
Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer, 
Not for me the ultimate vision. 
Grant me thy peace. 
(And a sword shall pierce thy heart, 
Thine also). 
I am tired with my own life and the lives of those after me, 
I am dying in my own death and the deaths of those after me. 
Let thy servant depart, 
Having seen thy salvation.
(T S Eliot)

Am I jumping the gun?  Is publishing the poem today Adventicide?  I don't think so, because the meaning of Eliot's words are Adventish in their own way.  Besides, I like the poem.

Collect for the Second Sunday in Advent

Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

ANONYMOUS COMMENTS

For the present, anonymous comments are not allowed at Wounded Bird due to the large number of spam comments that make it through Blogger's spam filter. I'm sorry about those of you who comment as Anonymous and sign your names. I'll try later to enable the function again.

IF YOU LOVE WORDS...

...you'll love these!

How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.

Venison for dinner again? Oh deer!

A cartoonist was found dead in his home. Details are sketchy.

I used to be a banker, but then I lost interest.

Haunted French pancakes give me the crêpes.

England has no kidney bank, but it does have a Liverpool.

I tried to catch some fog, but I mist.

They told me I had type-A blood, but it was a Type-O.

I changed my iPod's name to Titanic. It's syncing now.

Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.

I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.

I stayed up all night to see where the sun went, and then it dawned on me.

This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.

When chemists die, they barium.

I know.  Some of these are repeats.  Don't tell me; just laugh again.

Thanks, Frank.

WHO WROTE THIS?

Statement on same-sex marriage by English Prime Minister David Cameron:

He said he did not want gay people to be "excluded from a great institution", but would not force any groups to hold ceremonies in their places of worship. 

Ministers will reveal their response to a consultation next week. MPs will be given a free vote on the issue.

The "Church of England" responded:

It is important to be clear that insistence on the traditional understanding of marriage is not knee-jerk resistance to change but is based on a conviction that the consequences of change will not be beneficial for society as a whole. Our concern is for the way the meaning of marriage will change for everyone, gay or straight, if the proposals are enacted. Because we believe that the inherited understanding of marriage contributes a vast amount to the common good, our defence of that understanding is motivated by a concern for the good of all in society.

The proposition that same-sex relationships can embody crucial social virtues is not in dispute. To that extent, the Prime Minister's claim that he supports same-sex marriage from conservative principles is readily understandable.  However, the uniqueness of marriage is that it embodies the underlying, objective, distinctiveness of men and women. This distinctiveness and complementarity are seen most explicitly in the biological union of man and woman which potentially brings to the relationship the fruitfulness of procreation.

To remove from the definition of marriage this essential complementarity is to lose any social institution in which sexual difference is explicitly acknowledged. To argue that this is of no social value is to assert that men and women are simply interchangeable individuals. To change the nature of marriage for everyone will be divisive and deliver no obvious legal gains given the rights already conferred by civil partnerships.
  
We believe that redefining marriage to include same-sex relationships will entail a dilution in the meaning of marriage for everyone by excluding the fundamental complementarity of men and women from the social and legal definition of marriage.

Given the absence of any manifesto commitment for these proposals - and the absence of any commitment in the most recent Queen's speech - there will need to be an overwhelming mandate from the consultation to move forward with these proposals and make them a legislative priority.

We welcome the fact that in his statement the Prime Minister has signalled he is abandoning the Government's earlier intention to distinguish between civil and religious marriage.  We look forward to studying the Government's detailed response to the consultation next week and to examining the safeguards it is proposing to give to Churches.

Except for the weak acknowledgement in the second paragraph that "same-sex relationships can embody crucial social virtues" and the references to the English Government and the Queen, the statement could have come from the Vatican.

Who wrote this anonymous press release in the name of the "Church of England"?  What minds came together to produce this rubbish?  Or was it just one person?   Judging from the people I know in the Church of England, the response most certainly does not express the mind of the entire church.  Was General Synod consulted?  Is it possible for the people in the head office of the Church of England to be more out of touch?   Many questions; no answers as of yet.

H/T to Simon Sarmiento at Thinking Anglicans.

UPDATE: While we're on the subject, please read Mark Harris' brilliant response to the "Church of England's" response to David Cameron's statement on same-sex marriage. Thank you.