Light

"The stars have no voice, no way to herald the news of God, but they have something greater than words—they shine in darkness. And those who have eyes to see follow the light right into the presence of Jesus. Can you imagine how the world would be if more of us acted like stars pointing the way to God? If our spirits were so filled with light, that others could find their way to God simply by following our light?"

To read the rest of the article by Renee Miller, go here.

Forgiveness Is a Gift

"And ultimately forgiveness is a gift of grace rather than an act of will. I have to be willing to forgive, but I cannot will myself to forgive. I can forgive with my mind, but forgiveness is finally a matter of the heart. And the forgiveness of the heart comes from God, not from me. My part in it is to be willing to accept it. One test which indicates whether or not forgiveness has really taken place is to look at whatever it is that needs to be forgiven and see if it still hurts. If it does, forgiveness has not yet happened. But I have also learned, and I have learned it through pain, that I must be patient with myself. Just as my body is going to need more time to complete its healing from physical trauma of the accident, so my heart, my spirit, also need time, and I, ever impatient, must be patient with myself."

~~Madeleine L'Engle

I am grateful for Christmas

We were so lucky to have all our children home with us this Christmas. It had almost seemed like son BJ would have to work and be away from us, but he drove here today and left a little while ago to return home with his puppy Troy. AE made the long trip from Seattle to be with us, and I am glad she'll be with us for two more days. Son DC and his wife AA brought laughter to our home; they go back to their new house tomorrow. MJ will stay with us to start her high school varsity soccer practice on Friday.

We shared many gifts today, with great surprises galore. A sweet present from AE when she and partner KA went to Hurricane Ridge in WA State was a fragile, silver leaf for the tree:

December 25

We are celebrating the feast of the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all Eternity. . . . But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.
– Meister Eckhart

"The Lord of Love, immortal and infinite, comes as a divine incarnation in times of great crisis to rescue mankind from disaster. In age after age, whenever violence and hatred threaten the world, the Lord comes down to inspire and protect those who turn to him, who live in harmony with the law of unity. He comes to protect such people from the heavy odds ranged against them, and to reestablish peace on earth and good will among all.

"Yet there is another level on which this divine birth can take place. Every one of us has this choice: shall I prepare for the divine birth to take place in my consciousness by abolishing my own selfishness? It is up to you and me to keep our doors open, to put up a little sign, “Ready for receiving an incarnation.” But our house must not be cluttered up. It must be empty of selfishness and self-will. Only then can the blessed child be born in our humble hearts. "

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By.(Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

What Love Is Born

Episcopal Church and Visual Arts

Blessed Christmas Wishes

The Risk of Birth, Christmas (1973--and now)

This is no time for a child to be born,
With the earth betrayed by war & hate
And a comet slashing the sky to warn
That time runs out & the sun burns late.

That was no time for a child to be born,
In a land in the crushing grip of Rome;
Honour & truth were trampled by scorn--
Yet here did the Saviour make his home.

When is the time for love to be born?
The inn is full on the planet earth,
And by a comet the sky is torn--
Yet Love still takes the risk of birth.

~~Madeleine L'Engle

Silence of the Holy Place

"What deadens us most to God's presence within us, I think, is the inner dialogue that we are continuously engaged in with ourselves, the endless chatter of human thought. I suspect that there is nothing more crucial to true spiritual comfort, as the huge monk in cloth of gold put it, than being able from time to time to stop that chatter including the chatter of spoken prayer. If we choose to seek the silence of the holy place, or to open ourselves to its seeking, I think there is no surer way than by keeping silent.

"God knows I am no good at it, but I keep trying, and once or twice I have been lucky, graced. I have been conscious but not conscious of anything, not even of myself. I have been surrounded by the whiteness of snow. I have heard a stillness that encloses all sounds stilled the way whiteness encloses all colors stilled, the way wordlessness encloses all words stilled. I have sensed the presence of a presence. I have felt a promise promised.

"I like to believe that once or twice, at times like those, I have bumbled my way into at least the outermost suburbs of the Truth than can never be told but only come upon, that can never be proved but only lived for and loved."

~~Frederick Buechner

And sometimes I know this, like Buechner. There is a holiness that I cannot express but can sometimes know. What a grace to fall upon me.

Where's Frosty?

Thank you Miss Cellenia!

36 Roses

36 years ago today husband CB and I were married in St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Bellingham, Washington. Today he surprised me with 36 red roses.




Tonight we are going out to dinner with our children who are home--MJ, AE from Seattle, and BJ from Victoria, TX. Tomorrow the married couple, DC and AA, will drive here from Austin, TX.

Forgiveness

The path of forgiveness is the path of freedom.

Forgiveness is a rebellion against the ego’s self-importance.

Ivan M. Granger

Poetry Chaikana

Christmas Gift Suggestions

To your enemy, forgiveness.

To an opponent, tolerance.

To a friend, your heart.

To a customer, service.

To all, charity.

To every child, a good example.

To yourself, respect.

Oren Arnold (1900-1980)

Arizona editor and free-lance writer, Oren Arnold was born in Texas in 1900, and attended primary and secondary schools in Henderson, Texas. Following studies at Rice Institute in Houston and the University of Texas, he secured positions as editor of three local newspapers. After his 1927 marriage to Adele Roensch, he accepted the position as Sunday editor of the Arizona Republican and settled in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1932, Arnold began his free-lance writing career, publishing a number of books beginning with Superstition's gold in 1934. He was very active in local civic and religious groups including the First Presbyterian Church of Phoenix, the Phoenix Kiwanis Club, Phoenix Executives Club and the Phoenix Arts Council. He died in 1980.

Ade Bethune's silk screen Icon of the Mother of God

Orange Slice Cake

Have you ever heard of orange slice cake?
I have this old recipe from my grandmother, which she gave to my mother when I was in high school, almost 40 years ago! I haven't made it since DC was a baby, about 27 years ago. Little loaves are in the oven right now. When they come out of the oven, I pour orange juice mixed with powdered sugar on top, then chill overnight.

I cannot remember how the cake tastes, but I'm giving it for gifts. As I mixed, I thought it looked like a modern variation of fruitcake, with dates, orange slices, coconut, and pecans. It was time consuming to chop up the orange slices (but AE helped!) and the dates. There once was a time when I could buy chopped dates in a package, but not anymore here in south Texas.

A Blog Blessing

I was blessed by a new friend at Episcopollyana by a Blog Blessing. Thank you so much! The idea: it’s a game of tag with a difference, rather than looking inwardly, we look outside ourselves and bless, praise and pray for one blog friend. By participating in this endeavor we not only make the recipient of the blessing feel valued and appreciated, but we are having some fun too. We’re going to see how far the blogging blessings can travel around the world and how many people can be blessed! Recipients of a blog blessing may upload this image to their sidebar if they choose to. To read more about the blogging blessing please click here .

I am choosing to tag Garten or Wyrdbyrd, Fran, and Mompriest, who add much to my daily life with their blogs.

Another Christmas Meme

Wyrdbyrd or Gartenfische tagged me for another Christmas meme. Since I'm on "hold" until husband CB and I drive to the airport to get daughter AE, I'll try to do this one.

What is your least favorite holiday task? (eg. shopping, baking, wrapping)
Shopping with crowds of people, but this year I did most of my shopping on the internet, and I am very happy.

What was the worst gift you received?
There have been various things that are piled into my memory; a few are: shoes I didn't choose, potpourri and a book on how to make it, a carbon monoxide detector.

A friend PD told me how one of her daughters exclaimed when she opened a Christmas present: "Don't your friends know you?" That thought comes up to all of us, I bet.

Who is the hardest person in your family to shop for?
My husband; he doesn't want anything and is retired and no longer needs nice clothes. He buys the tools he wants. He doesn't read, except on the internet, so he doesn't read books, which are always a safe bet to buy me!

What holiday tradition would you eliminate if you could?
Not sure--maybe my excessive cookie baking, which is a "tradition," just like the Gingerbread House. . . . .

What do you swear, every holiday season, that you'll never do again, only to find yourself doing it again the next year?
Waiting to the last minute to send out Christmas cards and not writing personal notes in each one. I started out that way, but only the people at the front of the alphabet got a note, which stopped as soon as I realized how late it was for mailing them!

What relative do you dread seeing at the holidays? Or, when you were a child, what relative did you dread seeing?
It used to be my dad, because he didn't like Christmas and got very grumpy. It was a strain when I had small children, and I tried to maintain a balance of good will. My dad didn't know how to be with children either. I wanted to see him, but also dreaded it.

I tag whomever has the time to do this!

Favorite Things

The Crimson Rambler tagged me to try to think up my favorite things:

• My children and their spouses
• Books, books, books--and reading them
• Writing letters and receiving them
• Teaching/talking about God
• Walking around Lake Padden in WA State
• Friends
• Baking cookies, desserts, bread
• Hanging clothes outside to dry on the clothesline
  
• Clean, crisp sheets
• Spending time at Lebh Shomea House of Prayer in Sarita, TX
• Taking (good) classes about God and not just theology
• Eucharist
  
• My children calling me on the phone
• See's Bordeaux chocolates
• Turquoise jewelry, esp. old Navajo pieces
• Nativity scenes where baby Jesus is held by Mary (or Joseph!)
• Trees and leaves, esp. in Autumn, which doesn't happen in south Texas
• Oregon beaches
• Visits back to Washington
• Blogging
• Warm-hot showers
  

I tag Garlic and/or Salt, Mompriest, and Katherine E.

Let Go

When our weekly lectio divina group met today, we prayed with Isaiah 7:13-15:

7:13 Then Isaiah said: "Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary mortals, that you weary my God also?

7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel.

7:15 He shall eat curds and honey by the time he knows how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

This brought to mind a toddler and so I remembered a picture of the child Jesus sweeping, which then reminded me of a week of lectures given by Wendy Wright at the Two Year Spiritual Formation Academy a few years ago. One day she spoke of the Sacred Heart and showed some medieval pictures of a golden haired child Jesus in a heart. Odd though that seems, I was greatly struck by the picture of Jesus sweeping out the heart.

This is a beautiful image of how to let go--let go of expectations, judgments, worries, whatever, all of which may arise during family gatherings that won't fit into the Norman Rockwell image of perfection. I so want everyone to be happy, but I have no way of controlling other people's emotions. Let go, sweep out my false image of control! I am hoping that I can remember the image of the child Jesus sweeping away whatever I need to let go of, remembering that Immanuel (God with us) is here.

Why Not a Star?

Friend DHT gave me copy of a responsive reading from her Unitarian Church this past Sunday. It is #621 "Why Not a Star?" in the Unitarian hymnbook and is by Margaret Gooding (1922-2003).

They told me that when Jesus was born a star appeared in the heavens above the place where the young child lay.

When I was very young I had no trouble believing wondrous things; I believed in the star.

It was a wonderful miracle, part of a long ago story, foretelling an uncommon life.

They told me a super nova appeared in the heavens in its dying burst of fire.

When I was older and believed in science and reason I believed the story of the star explained.

But I found I was unwilling to give up the star, fitting symbol for the birth of one whose uncommon life has been long remembered.

The star explained became the star understood, for Jesus, for Buddha, for Zarathustra.

Why not a star? Some bright star shines somewhere in the heavens each time a child is born.

Who know what it may foretell?

Who know what uncommon life may yet again unfold, if we but give it a chance?

Margaret Gooding

Messiah

Messiah
Notes:	Dr. He Qi is a professor at the Nanjing Union Theological Seminary and a tutor for master candidate students in the Philosophy Department of Nanjing University. He is also a member of the China Art Association and a council member of the Asian Christian Art Association. Fourth Sunday in Advent, Year A: Paul's letter to the Romans speaks of Jesus, "descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord...' -- He Qi's painting imagines the incarnation by placing the new-born Jesus at the feet of the risen Jesus, who emanates the spirit of holiness.
Date:	2001
Artist:	He Qi
Object/Function:	Painting
City/Country:	Country: China

Choose to Learn

"The best things for being sad," replied Merlin, beginning to puff and blow, "is to learn something. That's the only thing that never fails. You may grow old and trembling in your anatomies, you may lie awake at night listening to the disorder of your veins, you may miss your only love, you may see the world about you devastated by evil lunatics, or know your honor trampled in the sewers of baser minds. There is only one thing for it then--to learn. Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the thing for you."

T. H. White, The Once and Future King


I think we each have to learn about outer and inner worlds. Look to the world and see "why the world wags and what wags it." BUT also look to your own inner world and see "why the world wags and what wags it." Only looking outside ourselves does not bring the change that helps us to bring acceptance and recognition to relationships, which form our immediate world. Learning why one gets angry or fearful or even happy is a step towards inner peace, which radiates outward--Is the feeling warranted or is it a reaction from childhood patterns that we fall into without realizing? What do I want to foster in my life? Feeling blamed; criticism of others; judgement of self? Noticing others; seeing the good; growing into the person I am meant to be?

Learning is the openness to the possibilities of the moment. What can I learn from you when you disagree with me? What is under the anger? What can I learn when there is only agreement? What can I learn when I am unhappy? bored? tired? in pain? Do I look for the possibilities or do I slam into the hard door of me, me,me--IMPORTANT ME and look no more?

Do I want to be stuck in this emotion or attitude? Is this how I want to live? I have to be aware enough of myself to make a choice, even if I am stuck in whatever way I am living or acting. This is the process of growing up, and I still need to grow up at my advanced age--there is always more to learn!

This reminds me of the 12-Step aphorism:
AWARENESS--ACCEPTANCE--ACTION

This is the process for change, for growth, and even for repentance.

And here is a little poem that I jotted down:

This or that
not
This and that
Which is my choice?
Both block me
into a box
alone
that's cozy
for awhile
Until I remember
that I'm alone
lost
in the great I Am

Go and look!

Do go over to Purpletologically Speaking and read F5: Rejoicing . PS put poems and quotes along with beautiful pictures for each category of the Friday Five about waiting, darkness, winter, Advent, and Jesus coming. Each is to be savored, like this:

from Meister Eckhart:

We are all meant to be mothers of God...

for God is always needing to be born.

Advent Prayer

Thou son of the Most High, Prince of Peace, be born again into our world. Wherever there is war, wherever there is pain, wherever there is loneliness, wherever there is no hope, come, thou long-expected one, with healing in thy wings.

Holy Child, whom the shepherds and the kings and the dumb beasts adored, be born again. Wherever there is boredom, wherever there is fear of failure, wherever there is temptation too strong to resist, wherever there is bitterness of heart, come, thou blessed one, with healing in thy wings.

Saviour, be born in each of us who raises his face to thy face, not knowing fully who he is or who thou art, knowing only that thy love is beyond his knowing and that no other has the power to make him whole. Come, Lord Jesus, to each who longs for thee even though he has forgotten thy name. Come quickly. Amen.

Frederick Buechner

Gaudete Sunday

I just learned what Gaudete Sunday (third Sunday in Advent) is from Sally at Eternal Echoes. Her explanation is so concise and beautiful that I am copying it here:

"The Third Sunday of Advent is Gaudete Sunday, the 'pink candle' Sunday, the Sunday we light the pink candle on the Advent wreath. Gaudete is the imperative plural form of the Latin verb gaudere (to rejoice). It is a command ordering us to rejoice! In these days of penance and preparation leading up to the feast of our Savior's birth, it reminds us of the joy that is to come, and serves, amid this season of penance, as a kind of 'break' when we recall the hope we have because of the coming of Jesus."

Perhaps only the Anglican Church at times celebrates the third Sunday in Advent in this way, but evidently it is a celebration in the Roman Catholic Church. I like knowing the traditions, even if I don't observe them. Plus, I like the thought that this Sunday is one for REJOICING.

Thank you, Sally, for your words and for the following video, which shows some beautiful art:

online Christmas shopping

I love online shopping for Christmas! It has been so easy this year.

What we must be

At The Mercy Blog, Mike has written about faith being spelled "RISK." It's a good piece, especially for this time of year, but also for any time--about being OPEN and how "we must be the answer by our faith. For it is the Christ in us that will always recognize and know the Christ in others – and in all" (quoting Mike).

And also from Mike:

"Civil rights leader Howard Thurman set the stage for us to know this Christ when he wrote of Advent and Christmas as seasons of hope. 'When the song of the angels is stilled,' he said. 'When the star of the sky is gone. When the kings and princes are home. When the shepherds are back with their flocks. The work begins … To find the lost. To heal the broken. To feed the hungry. To rebuild the nations. To bring peace among people. To make music in the heart.'"

O Come O Come O Manual

Thanks to Miss Cellania:

This was so punny, I had to copy it and put it here.

Plus, of course, I like Mary holding baby Jesus.

Prayer connections (or spins)

The book I am reading (more than others) lately is The Soul of Christianity: Restoring the Great Tradition (Plus) by Huston Smith. Today I read about aspects of energy, which I grasped only an inkling of in the cosmology books I read, compared to how prayer "works." I find this beautiful and logical to me, in my oddly illogical mind and heart.

"The most important scientific discovery of all time--anticipated by Einstein, worked out in Bell's Theorem, and experimentally confirmed by the EPR (Einstein-Podosky-Rosen) experiment--proves that the universe is 'non-local.'

"Described in everyday language, the story is this: Particles have spins. In paired particles, when one particle spins downward the other spins upward. Now, separate the two--distance is irrelevant; it can be an inch or to the edge of the universe--and when one particle goes into a downspin, simultaneously the other spins upward. For prayer, nonlocality suggests that the person praying and the person being prayed for are closer than side by side. Distance doesn't apply--they are in the same spaceless mathematical point. When the pray-er plunges deep down into his praying self, his prayer spins downward, so to speak, and spins its recipient upward. When Jesus prayed all night, and during the day, he was 'spun upward' by placing himself in the presence of his Father who so loved the world that he 'spun down'--into his Incarnation, Jesus--and transformed him." (58, 59)

Report on victims of witchcraft in Nigeria

Consortium for Street Children is one source for learning about children at risk, especially connected to the post about Nigeria. I don't know anything about this organization, but there are good links on its website. There is a report about helping the children branded as witches in Nigeria: Supporting Victims of Witchcraft Abuse and Street Children in Nigeria. It is 6 pages long and is by Gary Foxcroft, Programme Director of Stepping Stones Nigeria.

I cannot vouch for the validity for either charitable organization, as I know nothing about them. If you do, please post a comment about one or the other.


Also, there's a post from Grandmere Mimi a few days ago, which ends in the only way I can now:

Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.

Children are targets of Nigerian Witch Hunt

My daughter AE sent me a link to the story about Nigerian evangelical Christians torturing and killing children as WITCHES. There is also a video, but I don't know how to load it here, so I am putting the link to it and sincerely hope you'll watch it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/video/2007/dec/09/video

1 / 20 To see the gallery of pictures, go here. Click to go to the next picture.

Twin boys Itohowo and Kufre stand surrounded by angry villagers who believe they are bringing evil to their lives

Photograph: Robin Hammond/The Observer

Children are targets of Nigerian witch hunt

• Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  
  Tracy McVeigh in Esit Eket
  Sunday December 9, 2007
  The Observer
  
  
  The rainy season is over and the Niger Delta is lush and humid. This southern edge of West Africa, where Nigeria's wealth pumps out of oil and gas fields to bypass millions of its poorest people, is a restless place. In the small delta state of Akwa Ibom, the tension and the poverty has delivered an opportunity for a new and terrible phenomenon that is leading to the abuse and the murder of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of children. And it is being done in the name of Christianity.

Read the rest of the article "Children are Targets of Nigerian Witch Hunt," at Guardian Unlimited.

Watch the video: Child 'witches' in Africa, and click here to see a related gallery.

When I posted the cartoon below this, I had no idea of the stark reality of the wish such children have to grow up.

How can Christianity promote such killings? Salem Witch trials but with CHILDREN!

I wish I could rant like Fran or my daughter, but I am so appalled and horrified that I am speechless.

Goal of life in many parts of the world

This cartoon is from The New South Africa.

Christmas Tree

We have a Christmas tree, but it only has lights on it. We've had it for one week now.

Christmas Three

PS tagged me for this Christmas Three meme, and she also "gave" me this cute picture (in contrast to it being 79 degrees F. outside right now)!

What are your three favorite Christmas songs and who sings them?
"Mary, Did You Know?" by Kathy Matea
"Happy Christmas; War Is Over" by Sarah McLachlan
"O Come All Ye Faithful" by Choir of Trinity College

What are your three favorite Christmas foods?
Holiday Sparkler cookies from my mother's recipe
Homemade cinnamon rolls and almond paste roll
Marzipan

What are three Christmas Secrets?
Well, I don't know many secrets, so I'm following Barbara's example, as she is the one who tagged PS. Here's her question:

What are your three favorite Christmas movies?
"It's a Wonderful Life"--the old classic
"A Christmas Carol" with George C. Scott as Scrooge
"The Family Man" with Nicholas Cage

Ok, now it's time to tag someone--How about Crimson Rambler, Garten, Rev SS, and Wyldth1ng?

Holding the Christ Child

San José con el Niño Jesús : Saint Joseph with the Christ Child Overview
Eulogio Ortega
1980s, New Mexico
Bulto
Courtesy of Millicent Rogers Museum Permanent Collection

Instead of always adoring the Christ child, it is nice to see him held!

There are various religious paintings and works of art in the Santos: Substance & SoulPhoto Gallery of the Smithsonian Museum Conservation Institute.

There are lovely pieces to look at. Partly because there is a small exhibit of parisioners' images of the Virgin of Guadalupe at my church, I was especially attracted to this Virgin of Guadalupe from the above site.


Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe : Our Lady of Guadalupe Overview
Rose Leitner
1997, New Mexico
Retablo
The Spanish Colonial Arts Society Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico

When you have the time, visit the museum links, too.

Seton Retreat Center, Emmitsburg, MD

This is where the second residential retreat for the Shalem Winter 2008 class for Spiritual Guidance will be held in February. This past year we were there in January.

Today we all received info from Shalem about getting there, with times, etc. So there's a flurry of emails about arrivals, so we can share a shuttle (and split the cost) from Baltimore to Emmitsburg.

I am feeling excited!

Poem: Life

life is a garden,

not a road

we enter and exit

through the same gate

wandering,

where we go matters less

than what we notice

~ Bokonon ~

(The Lost Book)

LGBT

Fran wrote an interesting post with lots of links about attitudes towards LGBT with her family (very open), presidential running candidates, and others, so go and read**UPDATED***I Don't Even Know What To Call This Post - My LGBT Rant Seems To Work

And I had to copy this logo she had there:

Thank you, Fran!

Take a break!

Miracles

Where there is great love there are always miracles," he said at length...."Miracles ....rest not so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always."

Willa Cather Death Comes for the Archbishop

Advent with Caryll Houselander

Here are some of the pieces that Caryll Houselander wrote about Advent in The Reed of God.

Advent is the season of the secret, the secret of the growth of Christ, of Divine Love growing in silence. (28)

It is a time of darkness, of faith. We shall not see Christ's radiance in our lives yet; it is still hidden in our darkness; nevertheless, we must believe that he is growing in our lives; we must believe it so firmly that we cannot help relating everything, literally everything, to this almost incredible reality.

This attitude it is which makes every moment of every day and night a prayer. (29)

We must not try to force Christ's growth in us, but with a deep gratitude for the light burning secretly in our darkness, we must fold our concentrated love upon him like earth, surrounding, holding, and nourishing the seed. . . . carrying him to wherever he longs to be. . . . (34)

In the seasons of our Advent--waking, working, eating, sleeping, being--each breath is a breathing of Christ into the world. (38)

It was said of Caryll Houselander that she was a "neurotic mystic" and a "sharp-tongued recluse with overwhelming empathy for the suffering." A good article about her says this:

"Halfway through the war, doctors had begun sending patients to Houselander for counseling and therapy. Badly educated, she nevertheless had an uncanny ability to rebuild trust and self-confidence. These people, like the infant Jesus, were unable to fend for themselves and needed "mothering." Never married, Houselander had no children of her own to mother, nor had she ever been properly mothered. She saw these children (and adults) of war as the infant Christ, for whom the only acceptable response was the gift of self. The infant Christ depended on each person to be as a mother, carrying him into the world, and this is what she worked hard to do. One eminent psychiatrist who referred troubled patients to her, Dr. Eric Strauss, said Houselander "loved them back to life." She was, he said, a "divine eccentric.""

The Ego

Hardened Silos of Self

St. Bonaventure and St. Thomas Aquinas both said that being and goodness are the same thing. In fact, if we can get back to the level of pure being, we experience profound goodness. That's the contemplative stance. That's the perspective of the Kingdom. That's the Original Blessing. Jesus recognized the Kingdom because he lived out of that contemplative center.

Many other forms of prayer we've been taught require thinking thoughts or saying and reading words. I'm not saying they're bad; they're obviously good. But we can do all of the above—think thoughts about Jesus and Mary, read the psalms or recite memorized prayer—without transforming our consciousness. We do it in the old system. The ego is still in charge. It may not be conscious, but we think, I'm the center of the world. I have my feelings. I have my opinions and I, in this hardened silo, will now think about Jesus.

Guess what? Nothing will change.

The egg hasn't been cracked. The illusion is intact. When we talk about contemplative prayer, we're not talking about thinking about Jesus inside your old system, but about a transformation of consciousness where you move to a new place beyond over-identification with the ego, beyond identification with the privatized, separate self. That's a true and lasting revolution.

from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr

To subscribe to Richard Rohr's daily email meditation, go here.

Weird Christmas Trees

Here's a book-lover's Christmas tree--that would be for me! (Except I don't have such empty book shelves and wouldn't treat books this way.)

To look at very odd, totally weird Christmas trees, go here.

What new babies, even Jesus, need

This is how a newborn babe is to be taken care of (NOT put into a scratchy manger):



From the Parish Blog of St. Edward the Confessor. Thank you!

Another Advent calendar

Being all alone tonight, I'm doing the blogging I missed this past week. When I visited Jim's Thoughts, I found a post about Advent with a link to this funny English Advent calendar. Jim wrote this about it:


Here is another, very different, very eclectic calendar from England. I added it on the 6th but do no miss the December 2 window!
Another Calendar

Well, I'll say: I've added this on the 8th and check out the December 2 window and wait until the end.

Billy Keen's Art

Tonight husband CB and I went to Rockport to see the opening of Billy Keen's exhibit "Visions of Santa" in the Rockport Center for the Arts. He has painted a different Santa every year since 1974.

What began as an explanation about an art method has become a rich Christmas tradition. In 1974 native Texas artist Billy L. Keen was showing a coworker how the Old Master painters used a method called "underpainting" to achieve flesh tones. He decided to use Santa as subject of the demonstration because it was the Christmas Season.

Keen hung the painting in the room of his one-year old son. The following year he painted a new Santa for his second son. By the third year, it seemed like a "neat thing to do." After that it became an annual tradition.

I first met Billy Keen about ten years ago when we were both attending the "Listening Heart" series at Lebh Shomea House of Prayer in Sarita, TX. Over the years we've attended Five Day Academies together and then we were in the Two Year Spiritual Academy (2001-03) with his wife Linda. (That is also where I met Katherine E.)

Billy and Linda asked CB and me which Santa we liked best. CB chose one that looked rather like Merlin. I kept changing my mind, but tended to like the ones that look like Saint Nicholas, especially one that seemed to be in the Russian icon style. Many of the Santas seemed to look like Billy, the option of the artist!

Alaskan Angel

Angel (Alaska) This crèche is made up of simple forms carved from wood. This angel has black pig tails and tiny, almost unnoticeable wings (like we're living with angels unaware). All the figures have a tiny red dot for a mouth, eyes with pupils and tiny eyelashes at the corners of their eyes. I like the thought that the angel's wings are so small "like we're living with angels unaware." It's a sweet image. This is from Day 6 at the Advent Calendar site.

A Lot Like Christmas

I liked Susan Estrich's editorial in today's paper "A Lot Like Christmas." She writes about growing up Jewish and now bringing up her children as Jews in the secular American Christmas holiday season. She ends her piece like this:

I know a lot of people who are doing their best, married to men or women of a different faith, to raise their children to belong to both. I'm not sure how you can simultaneously believe that Jesus was the messiah and that he wasn't, or that Allah is and isn't God, but the only thing worse, it seems to me, is believing, as many kids today do, in "nothing." When I ask some of the kids I know what they "are" and they say "nothing," I'm always a little horrified. More than a little. They get Christmas presents, but they don't celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday. They just do the secular part. They get the presents, but not the gift.

The gift is knowing who you are. That is what I have tried, sometimes awkwardly and inartfully, to give to my children. It is what my parents, for all their failings, gave to me. The gift is faith in something larger. And it's not something you can find under a Christmas tree if all you're really looking for is a present.

Wacky Meme of the Month

Okay, so Fran tagged DCup who then tagged Wyld (and then me) with a nifty story building meme that was started by Splotchy who wrote...

Here's what I would like to do. I want to create a story that branches out in a variety of different, unexpected ways. I don't know how realistic it is, but that's what I'm aiming for. Hopefully, at least one thread of the story can make a decent number of hops before it dies out.

Whomever I tag at the end of this, if they chose to accept the mission, will most likely be in another circle altogether. I probably should not be the one linking the two but we shall see.

I woke up hungry. I pulled my bedroom curtain to the side and looked out on a hazy morning. I dragged myself into the kitchen, in search of something to eat. I reached for a jar of applesauce sitting next to the sink, and found it very cold to the touch. I opened the jar and realized it was frozen. (Splotchy)

"That's strange," I said out loud to no one in particular. My fingers slowly reached towards the jar again. My body experienced a wave of apprehension as weighted blanket covering me as I did so. The jar was completely frozen.

I picked it up and stared at it, my fingers stung with little knives of chill. "What the..." again I spoke aloud. Then I realized what had happened with a shock. Suddenly the jar flew from my hand. It shattered creating a collage-like mixture of frozen applesauce and glass shards on my kitchen floor, the lid lazily rolling to a stop across the room.(FranIam)

I stood for a moment considering what all this meant. Oh, I knew what it meant, I didn’t need to waste time thinking about it. He was back. And he was mad.

I ran down the hallway and flung open the door at the end. I was immediately hit with a blast of cold. I took a step back as I tried to catch my breath. I bent over, hands on my knees panting. He always had this remarkable effect on me. After so much time, it no longer scared me, but it was a shock nonetheless……

“You know,” I panted, “There’s no need to break things to get my attention.” (DCup)

I woke up hungry. I rolled out of bed smacking my alarm clock that was singing Carly Simon and thinking to myself I have to stop eating pizza right before bed and then sleeping till noon. I must remember to change that station to something that will actually wake me.

Stubbing my toe on my boots on my way to the kitchen, I glanced sideways down the hall and caught the dead body out of the corner of my eye. (Wyldth1ng)

As I limped along, slipping on the melting applesauce and jumping when a shard of glass gouged my foot, I wondered what to do. I could scream or I could call for help or I could clean up the mess. Might as well yell: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!


Then there was a knock on the door. Why would someone knock so early in the morning? And so quickly after I yelled? (Jan)


I tag:
Garlic or Salt
Crimson Rambler
Jiff
Mompriest

Which minority?

I had to copy this from Mystical Seeker:

Post Office today

The line was long at the post office today, but I didn't mind because I mailed ALL my Christmas packages! This is the earliest I've ever done this. Most go to Washington State, and it is a relief to get them on their way.

However, Christmas cards and holiday baking is another story. . . . At least, I've started to address the envelopes for the cards. Ever since my mother died in 1992, our family has been known for a Christmas letter where each member of the family writes his/her own piece. Over the years, there were sometimes struggles, but overall each family member has had the right to compose what he/she wants to. While the kids were still growing, we used to put heights and grades in school after their names, but that stopped when BJ went off to college. Now only MJ is in school (12th gr.), and I don't know what "grade" AE would be in grad school. . . .15th or 16th?

Prayer=Love

Prayer is an act of love, words are not needed. Even if sickness distracts thoughts, all that is needed is the will to love.

St. Teresa of Avila The Way of Perfection

Smile!

And I smiled to think God's greatness flowed round our incompleteness ...

-- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Here in Corpus Christi--

This is Poenisch Park by Paula J. Becker, who very kindly allowed me to post this picture on my blog. She had it on her blog and wrote that she'd drawn it when she had biked down to this park. She has an art studio here in Corpus Christi, TX, but lives in Montreal, Quebec.

This picture shows what our weather this week and weekend are--up to 80 degrees F. but cooling down to the 40-50s F. at night. That's why there are "Winter Texans." This is like Bellingham, WA in the summer! It's nice, but not that seasonal, with only 19 days until Christmas.

Daughter MJ convinced us to go out and buy a Christmas tree last night. It's in our living room, with no decorations or lights yet. It smells very good. We have a Noble Fir, which is what my mother always liked.

My icon of the Theotokos

This (rather crookedly placed) icon is the one my friend NKE bought me in Belgrade, where it was painted. I believe this is the Virgin of Vladimir. Let me know what you think, if you know that icon.

Christmas Cookies

Last month I posted about Christmas cookies. I still haven't baked any, so I decided that I needed to look at the recipe site I'd listed on Nov. 12, so here is the cookie link that I wanted to find:

COOKIES!

Journal Prompts for Advent

Looking at the most recent ExploreFaith.org weekly newsletter, I found these suggestions for journaling each day of Advent. I'm not sure that I'll do it, but I may pick and choose a few. Here they are for your perusal:

Journaling Daily During Advent

Day 1 When I see someone in pain, I respond by… Day 2 When someone is being spoken of in a mean-spirited way, I respond by… Day 3 When I see a child laughing, I respond by… Day 4 When I feel my heart is heavy, I respond by… Day 5 When I encounter someone I dislike, I respond by… Day 6 When my activities are more numerous than the hours of the day, I respond by… Day 7 When I see a handicapped person, I respond by… Day 8 When someone is unkind to me, I respond by… Day 9 When I am asked to do an unpleasant task, I respond by… Day 10 When I have questions about my faith (or lack of it,) I respond by… Day 11 When people disagree with me, I respond by… Day 12 When I am surprised by grace, I respond by… Day 13 When my child or grandchild misbehaves, I respond by… Day 14 When I partake of an excellent meal, I respond by… Day 15 When things aren’t going my way, I respond by… Day 16 When a decision I make turns out to be wrong, I respond by… Day 17 When someone I love is thoughtless, I respond by… Day 18 When I feel warmed by another’s presence, I respond by… Day 19 When I lack what I need, I respond by… Day 20 When God seems far away, I respond by… Day 21 When I meet someone completely different from me, I respond by… Day 22 When others don’t listen to me, I respond by… Day 23 When I hear bad news, I respond by… Day 24 When I hear good news, I respond by… Day 25 What is the gift of my life that I will offer heaven this day?

Surrender

Beautiful is the moment in which we understand that we are no more than an instrument of God; we live only as long as God wants us to live; we can only do as much as God makes us able to do; we are only as intelligent as God would have us be.

- Archbishop Oscar Romero
From his last homily, March 23, 1980

Art to go along with Scripture

Every week I go to the Vanderbilt Divinity Library Revised Common Lectionary site to look at the scripture selections for the coming Sunday. I choose from them the short section of verses that we will meditate upon in our weekly lectio divina group. (It meets on every Wednesday morning, which is why I am doing this on Tuesday night!)

I was so surprised to find a link to a collection of art that matches with different scriptural passages! This is how they phrase this:

Click here to search the Art in the Christian Tradition database for images related to these texts.

The gospel for the second Sunday in Advent is Matthew 3:1-12. Here is one of the pictures selected for this passage. It is from Cameroon, Africa.

God's Love

Today in the Wisdom Class book study, an older man told us about how he was just then connecting a saying about love, "I love you and there's not a damn thing you can do about it," with Thomas Merton!

He said that when he was much younger, he had a friend who was "super-religious." This friend took eight of them (probably all service men) to Gethsemane in Kentucky to meet Thomas Merton. They spent a day with him. And now he thinks that's where he heard that saying, which has stayed with him for these many years.

He said he's pretty sure that "Tom" said this to him and his friends. I can imagine that this would be appropriate language for telling young servicemen of God's unconditional love (grace).

God says, "I love you and there is not a damn thing you can do about it!"

The Virgin of Vladimir is an icon who chose me. I have a reprinted copy of her that I pray with, but now I realize I also have a handwritten Virgin of Vladimir. I received her for my birthday from my friend NKE, whom I first met in Yokosuka, Japan Naval Base when we were both in 7th grade. This past summer she and her sister accompanied their parents on a trip to Belgrade, where she found this for me. I so appreciated receiving a handwritten icon from such a dear friend that I did not try to decipher which icon of the Theotokos she was.

Yesterday a more local friend (NKE lives in California) LP told me about the journey that brought her to teach about icons at All Saints. When she was going to the Episcopal Theological Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX, she took an independent study course on icons with Fr. David Stringer (my former sp. dir.) at All Saints. For Advent that year, he suggested that she sit with her chosen icon every day of the season.

When she told me that, I felt like I'd been given a divine invitation, somehow enveloped in love of God and NKE's friendship with the icon she gave me. NKE and I have been friends for over 40 years; we were bridesmaids in each other's weddings; we've written letters (thanks to Snail Mail) and emails throughout these years, really at times being journals for each other.

Today I sat with the Virgin of Vladimir and found her eyes to be as piercing as they were the first time I ever sat with her. She holds the pain of the world in her eyes, which causes me to have tears. Tears are the gift of God, so I am assuming sitting with a few tears is my gift. We'll see if that continues throughout Advent.

At least it is the answer to our interim priest's question at the end of her homily yesterday: "What is one intentional way that will help me stay awake this Advent?"

And today I also awakened to the similarity NKE's gift icon has to the Virgin of Vladimir. I believe that she gave her to me, one that had been written in prayers.

Christians in Iraq

Go to MadPriest's and read about what the video below says!

I'm a Christian who believes in non-violence, but having had both my parents serve in the U.S. Marine Corps, blogging with Wyldth1ng, hearing about son DC's friends in the military, and watching the "60 Minutes" segment about Christians in Iraq, I am wondering what the viable options are in Iraq. The segment on "60 Minutes" brought the violence home to me in ways the regular news has not.

Excerpts: The Purge

National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Like a ticking time bomb, the national debt is an explosion waiting to happen. It's expanding by about $1.4 billion a day -- or nearly $1 million a minute.

What's that mean to you?

It means almost $30,000 in debt for each man, woman, child and infant in the United States.

Even if you've escaped the recent housing and credit crunches and are coping with rising fuel prices, you may still be headed for economic misery, along with the rest of the country. That's because the government is fast straining resources needed to meet interest payments on the national debt, which stands at a mind-numbing $9.13 trillion.

To read the rest of the article go to National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute. I first saw this at Truthout.org.

"The Galaxy Song" by Monty Python

For a rousing song about our insignificance in this amazing universe, listen to Monty Python's song "The Galaxy Song" and watch NASA photography, go HERE.

Thank you Les Engrages.org.

NASA Image of the Day Gallery

Two galaxies perform an intricate dance in this new Hubble Space Telescope image. The galaxies, containing a vast number of stars, swing past each other in a graceful performance choreographed by gravity. The pair, known collectively as Arp 87, is one of hundreds of interacting and merging galaxies known in our nearby universe. Arp 87 was originally cataloged by astronomer Halton Arp in the mid 1960s.

Advent Calendar

MadPriest introduced a lovely on-line Advent Calendar, which is sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of Washington on their website. This is the art they use for the primary page:

Look and See

If your heart were sincere and upright, every creature would be unto you a looking-glass of life and a book of holy doctrine.
– Thomas a Kempis

"The pure in spirit, who see God, see him here and now: in his handiwork, his hidden purpose, the wry humor of his creation. The Lord has left us love notes scattered extravagantly across creation. Hidden in the eye of the tiger, the wet muzzle of a calf, the delicacy of the violet, and the perfect curve of the elephant’s tusk is a very personal, priceless message.

"Watch the lamb in awkward play, butting against its mother’s side. See the spider putting the final shimmering touches on an architectural wonder. And absorb a truth that is wordless. The grace of a deer, the soaring freedom of a sparrow hawk in flight, the utter self-possession of an elephant crashing through the woods – in every one of these there is something of ourselves. From the great whales in the blue Pacific to the tiniest of tree frogs in the Amazon basin, unity embraces us all. "

by Eknath Easwaran

The Thought for the Day is today's entry from Eknath Easwaran's Words to Live By. (Copyright 1999 and 2005 by The Blue Mountain Center of Meditation.)

Select the Thought for the Day for any day of the year.

I love books!

Go to Brian's Guide for these cute cartoons.