Today, December 1st, is World AIDS Day.
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angles charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
BCP, 124 (Evening Prayer, Rite II)
Freedom
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
“The entire law is summed up in a single command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’* If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.” Galations 5:6,14-15
* Lev.19-18
Joke – I can’t resist
Sitting on the side of the highway waiting to catch speeding drivers, a State Police Officer sees a car puttering along at 22 MPH. He thinks to himself, “This driver is just as dangerous as a speeder!” So he turns on his lights and pulls the driver over.
Approaching the car, he notices that there are five old ladies — two in the front seat and three in the back – eyes wide and white as ghosts.
The driver, obviously confused, says to him, “Officer, I don’t understand, I was doing exactly the speed limit! What seems to be the problem?”
“Ma’am,” the officer replies, “You weren’t speeding, but you should know that driving slower than the speed limit can also be a danger to other drivers.”
“Slower than the speed limit?” she asked. No sir, I was doing the speed limit exactly… Twenty-Two miles an hour!” the old woman says a bit proudly. The State Police officer, trying to contain a chuckle explains to her that “22” was the route number, not the speed limit. A bit embarrassed, the woman grinned and thanked the officer for pointing out her error.
“But before I let you go, Ma’am, I have to ask… Is everyone in this car ok? These women seem awfully shaken and they haven’t muttered a single peep this whole time.” the officer asks.
“Oh, they’ll be alright in a minute officer. We just got off Route 119.”
Anglican Orders
Pope Leo XIII’s Apostolicae Curae (On the Nullity of Anglican Orders) Promulgated September 18, 1896.
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York respond: Saepius Officio
Answer of the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to the Bull Apostolicae Curae of H. H. Leo XIII on English Ordinations.
I re-read Saepius Officio this morning. Ah, yes, I am confident in my priestly ordination. Foolishly so, perhaps, but confident none-the-less. We tend to cast out each other all the time. Too bad for us.
Not bad for melodrama
Here is an interesting article from the National Catholic Reporter.
What do you think? How does this relate to what may be happening within the Anglican Communion and The Episcopal Church?
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Not bad for melodrama
A year ago we lamented in this space the disappearance of the U.S. Catholic bishops. Well, we meant that in a metaphorical sense. They hadn’t actually disappeared; they had just become far less visible on the national scene than in an earlier era.
Here’s how we put it: “We are watching the disintegration of a once-great national church, the largest denomination in the United States, into regional groupings bent on avoiding the spotlight and the big issues.â€
We noted that there was war and starvation everywhere; fresh clergy sex abuse reports out of Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Spokane, Wash., to name a few; 20 percent of U.S. parishes without a pastor; a Congress poised to reduce health care coverage and food stamps; the United States accused of torture and keeping combatants in secret prisons; and so on. And the bishops had nothing to say. They would talk only to each other about internal church matters.
We are compelled, then, to report that the bishops have not entirely disappeared. For they gathered again, in Baltimore this year, and, continuing their trip inward, issued documents on such burning issues as birth control, ministry to persons with “a homosexual inclination,†and how to prepare to receive Communion. Now, none of these matters is unimportant. Don’t get the wrong impression. We’ve had documents aplenty about all of them before. And these topics — unlike the war in Iraq, say, or what it means to have a president and vice president endorsing torture — are even covered in the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
Over and over again
I keep listening to this over and over again. I just cannot get past how incredibly beautiful and haunting is:
Praise the Lord O My My Soul (Greek Chant)
Vespers (All-Night Vigil), for alto, tenor & chorus, Op. 37
Composed by Sergey Rachmaninov
Sung by the USSR Ministry of Culture Chamber Choir with Irina Arkhipova
Unbelievable, particularly Irina Arkhipova and those who sing the Basso Profondo part!
iPod Shuffle – 4:20 pm
Here is what the mighty iPod gave up to me this later Tuesday afternoon – and yes, it is almost dark outside. Blah.
1. Jon Brian, Magnolia, from the ‘Magnolia’ soundtrack
2. The Russian State Symphony – Rachmaninoff, Hymn of Praise, from ‘Sacred Treasures’
3. Sarah Brightman, Scarborough Fair, from ‘La Luna’
4. Joi, Asian Vibes, from ‘One and One is One’
5. ‘Till Tuesday, What About Love, from ‘Welcome Home’ (brings back memories of sitting in my drawing and graphic design classes doin’ work and listenin’ to tunes)
6. Sarah McLachlan, Mary, from ‘Fumbling Towards Ex…’
7. Benedictine Monks, Anon: Santus Dominus Deus Sabaoth,
8. Berlin, Take My Breath Away, from ‘Top Gun’ soundtrack
9. Aimee Mann, Beautiful, from ‘The Forgotten Arm’
10. Moby, Bring Back My Happiness, from ‘Everything Is Wrong’
11. Skott Freedman, I’d Like to Think I Would, from ‘Some Company’ (simply a beautiful song!)
Via:
Fr. Jim Tucker of Dappled Things:
The rules, for bloggers who want to play:
Get your ipod or media-player of choice, select your whole music collection, set the thing to shuffle (i.e., randomized playback), then post the first ten songs that come out. No cheating, no matter how stupid it makes you feel!
A real change?
Considering past discussion on “open communion” and whether the Eucharist is simply a memorial or having something to do with “real presence,” here is a snippet of an interview by The Catholic Herald in the UK with Archbishop Rowan Williams.
and the sun goes down
I hate this time of year! It is 5:00 pm, the sun went down, it is dark, and I want to go to bed.
Anglican Uniatism
I just finished reading a rather longish paper (41 pages) given by Fr. Aidan Nichols, OP, for the Anglican Use Conference in 2005. It is an interesting paper tracing the developments of the Catholic expression within Anglicanism. He ends up talking about the hope of reunification of the Western Churches, particularly Rome and Canterbury.
He writes of the possibility of something like an Anglican Uniate Church where those Catholic elements remaining within Anglicanism come under papal authority but are given rights to their own liturgical traditions and some sort of self-governance.
The “Anglican Use” Roman Rites are for those Episcopalians who could not countenance the ordination of women to the priesthood, who wanted to swim the Tabor, but keep the various English traditions. The Book of Divine Worship is the result – merging strains of the Roman Rite, Sarum, and various Anglican traditions. It is an interesting book. I have a copy.
Anyway, here is the paper. I thought it was interesting reading.