Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Monday, July 06, 2009
For you scholarly biblical types
Ancient Text on line.
http://news.aol.com/article/codex-sinaiticus-bible-online/556962?icid=mainmaindl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fcodex-sinaiticus-bible-online%2F556962
And in the news you wished you missed:
Obama laid a wreath at the RUSSIAN tomb of the unkown soldier and
Kennedy's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara died the same day. I wish I didn't see a connection.
http://news.aol.com/article/codex-sinaiticus-bible-online/556962?icid=mainmaindl1link6http%3A%2F%2Fnews.aol.com%2Farticle%2Fcodex-sinaiticus-bible-online%2F556962
And in the news you wished you missed:
Obama laid a wreath at the RUSSIAN tomb of the unkown soldier and
Kennedy's Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara died the same day. I wish I didn't see a connection.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Thank you Barbara Boxer
and Sam Brownback for Getting Together
What? Are you kidding? On what issue?
The issue of a Priest in Vietnam. If you didn't read p.A10 of the NY Times today you might have missed a unique event. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat and Sam Brownback and 37 total US Senators petitioned the Vietnamese government for the release of a Priest who is being detained as a political prisoner for his non-violent writings against communism deemed propaganda against the government.
Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced to 8 years in prison starting in March 2007.
Vietnam now finds itself of "particular concern" to the US Government for its infringements of religious freedom. The Senators' letter reads in pertinent part: "We request that you facilitate Father Ly's immediate and unconditional release from prison, and allow him to return to his home and work without restrictions on his right to freedom of expression, association and movement."
Today would be a good day to pick up the Times. Don't miss the cover story article on the doctrine police inspecting those liberal nuns at Berkeley in an "apostolic visitation" for potential deviancy from the strict lines on (a) married priests (b) the exclusive claim of catholicism as the only way to Jesus and heaven and (c) homosexuality- perhaps troubling in Berkeley and all a singular or collective "no no" for the doctrine police. And that's not an infringement of free exercise because???? A Berkeley sister, who is also a professor, views her service to Christ in a role other than strictly labor force for catholic schools. She wears street clothes, not a habit and wrote an email telling fellow sisters not to give the Apostolic visitors free rein of her house but seat them in the parlor like "uninvited guests." Wow- my question is- who exactly pays the bills for the house? Expect a worse show-down than since Savonarrola was kicked out of San Marco.
Someone needs to seriously tell the Apostolic visitation that Jesus' view of his kingdom is that "none should perish but that all should have eternal life." Kicking around people on doctrinal differences is about as Christian as the Ayatollah's vote tallying. This is America. We like our nuns in Armani suits. I don't think Jesus is offended either by a nun who dresses sharper than a burka-babe.
This Pope doesn't want to be accused of trying to set the clock back to ..oh about....1500
Jesuit Father Tom Reese recently wrote in America magazine that one third of the church has defected in America and no one seems to be wondering why exactly or taking it seriously in stock. The resignation that the core left must be the only true faithful is just wild.
The rule of Rule over Love is why. Jesus was an inclusive character who reached out to all the disaffected, disenfranchised, disenchanted, disgruntled, disabused and downtrodden.
Jesus loved the outcast. The church doesn't want to just make more of them. Trust me.
When the Catholic Church has lost Jesus as it's heart and core it has gored itself from its meaning- and that is what these inquisitional purges suggest to people who know and love the folks getting plainly harassed.
What? Are you kidding? On what issue?
The issue of a Priest in Vietnam. If you didn't read p.A10 of the NY Times today you might have missed a unique event. Barbara Boxer, California Democrat and Sam Brownback and 37 total US Senators petitioned the Vietnamese government for the release of a Priest who is being detained as a political prisoner for his non-violent writings against communism deemed propaganda against the government.
Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced to 8 years in prison starting in March 2007.
Vietnam now finds itself of "particular concern" to the US Government for its infringements of religious freedom. The Senators' letter reads in pertinent part: "We request that you facilitate Father Ly's immediate and unconditional release from prison, and allow him to return to his home and work without restrictions on his right to freedom of expression, association and movement."
Today would be a good day to pick up the Times. Don't miss the cover story article on the doctrine police inspecting those liberal nuns at Berkeley in an "apostolic visitation" for potential deviancy from the strict lines on (a) married priests (b) the exclusive claim of catholicism as the only way to Jesus and heaven and (c) homosexuality- perhaps troubling in Berkeley and all a singular or collective "no no" for the doctrine police. And that's not an infringement of free exercise because???? A Berkeley sister, who is also a professor, views her service to Christ in a role other than strictly labor force for catholic schools. She wears street clothes, not a habit and wrote an email telling fellow sisters not to give the Apostolic visitors free rein of her house but seat them in the parlor like "uninvited guests." Wow- my question is- who exactly pays the bills for the house? Expect a worse show-down than since Savonarrola was kicked out of San Marco.
Someone needs to seriously tell the Apostolic visitation that Jesus' view of his kingdom is that "none should perish but that all should have eternal life." Kicking around people on doctrinal differences is about as Christian as the Ayatollah's vote tallying. This is America. We like our nuns in Armani suits. I don't think Jesus is offended either by a nun who dresses sharper than a burka-babe.
This Pope doesn't want to be accused of trying to set the clock back to ..oh about....1500
Jesuit Father Tom Reese recently wrote in America magazine that one third of the church has defected in America and no one seems to be wondering why exactly or taking it seriously in stock. The resignation that the core left must be the only true faithful is just wild.
The rule of Rule over Love is why. Jesus was an inclusive character who reached out to all the disaffected, disenfranchised, disenchanted, disgruntled, disabused and downtrodden.
Jesus loved the outcast. The church doesn't want to just make more of them. Trust me.
When the Catholic Church has lost Jesus as it's heart and core it has gored itself from its meaning- and that is what these inquisitional purges suggest to people who know and love the folks getting plainly harassed.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Saints come in all sizes
Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory."[9]
—Letter to the Polish Parliament-
Irena Sendler
The Jerusalem Post heralded the Catholic social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910049663&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
—Letter to the Polish Parliament-
Irena Sendler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irena_Sendler
There recently was a death of a 98 year-old lady named Irena.
During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw Ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an 'ulterior motive' ... She KNEW what the Nazi's plans were for the Jews, (being German-Polish.) Irena smuggled infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried and she carried in the back of her truck a burlap sack, (for larger kids..) She also had a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers of course wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.. During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants. She was caught, and the Nazi's broke both her legs, arms and beat her severely. Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she smuggled out and kept them in a glass jar, buried under a tree in her back yard. After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived it and reunited the family. Most had been gassed. Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.
Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize ... the year Al Gore won instead.
The Jerusalem Post heralded the Catholic social worker who saved 2,500 Jewish children from the horrors of the Warsaw Ghetto:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225910049663&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter
The failure of love was yours
not mine. You chose a thousand idolotries
over the child. You chose an ego
applause and a stage for a fraud
you chose to say not to do
what you couldn't try
The failure of love was yours
not mine. I watched from a distance
and bidded tongue and time
as you were lost in your own image
believed every gossipping lie
The failure of fruit was yours
not mine. You invested in useries, heresies
and immitations of reality
to give yourself an illusional security
and a silly legacy of basement curtains
and google-eyed geriatrics in distress
for whom you couldn't care less.
What is your life worth now
and how worthy is this mockery of Love and Life?
not mine. You chose a thousand idolotries
over the child. You chose an ego
applause and a stage for a fraud
you chose to say not to do
what you couldn't try
The failure of love was yours
not mine. I watched from a distance
and bidded tongue and time
as you were lost in your own image
believed every gossipping lie
The failure of fruit was yours
not mine. You invested in useries, heresies
and immitations of reality
to give yourself an illusional security
and a silly legacy of basement curtains
and google-eyed geriatrics in distress
for whom you couldn't care less.
What is your life worth now
and how worthy is this mockery of Love and Life?
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Saint Paul it appears is actually in his tomb.
What's the big deal you say? They couldn't actually confirm anything until recently when they cut through thick marble to take some fragment for carbon dating and discovered also in his tomb a blue fabric (like the kind you see on Hebrew prayer shawls perhaps?) and royal purple cloth with red fragments of incense (used by priests perhaps?) This image above is the earliest known image of him apparently.
If you were shipwrecked three times, floated out to sea for a night and a day, were stoned to near death and left for dead, flogged, and imprisoned repeatedly,and travelled from Jerusalem to Rome, everywhere inbetween and back (without frequent flier miles or a Eurorail pass), you might find yourself looking rather gaunt and in need of a shave too. Today and yesterday we remember these martyrs. He likely met his demise when the mad nut-job Nero torched half of Rome and all the Christians he could find in his path.
Paul didn't ask for Martyrdom, it was just the price he was forced to pay. Christ didn't ask anyone to sign up for psychological suicide bombing anywhere or anyone- he died so you would have life and have it abundantly. Living at half-mast or half living isn't the sort of living death martyrdom that Jesus ever asked for. He died so that you would truly live-to the full in all abundance.
and coming in at less than the weight of a priority package......23 week old baby
Is it a miscarriage- NO, it's a Heartbeat!
Monday, June 29, 2009
The funnest place to be
Casa Italiana
In Washington, DC one of the greatest Italian language schools on the East Coast (Embassy approved and all) is at the Casa Italiana on 3rd and F near Judiciary Square metro just behind the Building Museum adjacent to Holy Rosary Church. This past Sunday there was an old fashioned block party called Fiesta Italiana (I am told they do it every year) with pizza served on the sidewalk, canolis, gelato, bocci ball played in the parking lot, italian ceramics made by the artists who study italian ceramics in the basement there and hundreds of folks lining up to buy whatever they were selling in those huge banquet style trays on the side.
I happened inside Holy Rosary church to admire the art and statuary and sat for a prayer. I
prayed something like I wish someone I knew came inside the church so we could hang out at the fiesta together. Just then (literally seconds later) the doors burst even wider open and loud singing surrounded a large banner of the Blessed Mother as three priests processed inside followed by masses of people who had been processing underneath the banner and within minutes the Blessed Sacrament was Exposed on the Altar and everyone was singing in latin.
That still quiet voice then said "You Know Me and I'm here now" as I stared at the exposed Sacrament.
Yes, but do you play bocci ball? Then I shut myself up.
In Washington, DC one of the greatest Italian language schools on the East Coast (Embassy approved and all) is at the Casa Italiana on 3rd and F near Judiciary Square metro just behind the Building Museum adjacent to Holy Rosary Church. This past Sunday there was an old fashioned block party called Fiesta Italiana (I am told they do it every year) with pizza served on the sidewalk, canolis, gelato, bocci ball played in the parking lot, italian ceramics made by the artists who study italian ceramics in the basement there and hundreds of folks lining up to buy whatever they were selling in those huge banquet style trays on the side.
I happened inside Holy Rosary church to admire the art and statuary and sat for a prayer. I
prayed something like I wish someone I knew came inside the church so we could hang out at the fiesta together. Just then (literally seconds later) the doors burst even wider open and loud singing surrounded a large banner of the Blessed Mother as three priests processed inside followed by masses of people who had been processing underneath the banner and within minutes the Blessed Sacrament was Exposed on the Altar and everyone was singing in latin.
That still quiet voice then said "You Know Me and I'm here now" as I stared at the exposed Sacrament.
Yes, but do you play bocci ball? Then I shut myself up.
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