white headed woodpecker
Sitting on the couch in the living room I turned and looked out the front door. This woodpecker was bounding down a cedar tree and got himself drink from a bowl of water. Then bounded back up the tree.
a prayer
Going through some old journals this afternoon and I ran across this prayer I wrote about 5 years ago. I was working at a church. Had lots of plans. God had different plans.
This prayer is still fitting.
May I walk in harmony. May I listen profoundly. May I see perceptively, hope unendingly, believe faithfully, move boldly, trust implicitly, love grandly, share selflessly, think wisely, act confidently, respond humbly, care transformingly, laugh contagiously. May I see Your face, know Your heart, speak Your words. Grant to me this day the bounty of Your presence again. Grant to me life.
good words
“Whatever’s wrong with society is wrong with me too.”
~Paula Carrigan
Folks in the church leadership like labels. Makes sense of things. So often too such labels make bogeymen out of people, almost enemies of the People, whose addictions and failures and rampant wrong leanings afflicts the noble hearted pastor.
A big one these days is consumerism. Only the biggest consumers I’ve seen are often pastors. Oh, not always with flat screen televisions or vacations to the Bahamas or two jet skis to use at the river twice a summer.
But it’s there. Just scratch the surface. See what they care about. See what they want to satisfy their souls. They consume, pouring out time and money and resources to get it. Only because it’s not the same as the rest of the slobs they can decorate their consumerism in spiritual words or hide their consumerism beneath distracting good deeds. At the same time they judge they wallow unaware in their own accusations.
Did I say they?
Me. Best not to throw stones. Even the ones with ecclesiastic stamps of approval.
sacred space
When Ignatius Loyola went to the University of Paris, a group of young men gathered round him. What did he do? He taught them to pray, in the shape that came to be known as the Spiritual Exercises. Because Ignatius had been a remarkable soldier, people sometimes think of the Jesuits he founded as a sort of army. In fact what united them was not any sort of military discipline, but a shared experience of the Spiritual Exercises. Many other unexpected Christians shared that experience. Baxter, a Puritan contemporary of Cromwell, said he was converted by reading and praying his way through a dog-eared copy of the Exercises. In the 1800s, Russian Orthodox Christians made the same discovery. In the 1900s it was an Anglican who produced one of the best editions of the book.
When we turn to God in personal prayer centred on Jesus, the walls that divide the Christian churches melt away. We find that we can pray together. The secret history of the church is not in the councils, doctrines, crusades or bishops, still less in churches or cathedrals, but in the body of Christians who pray to the Father through Jesus Christ his son: what you might call the contemplative tradition, where men and women share a Sacred Space.
From the Irish website Sacred Space, which follows up this thought with an invitation to actually pray and a guide to help with it.
birds of the day
Regular posts will resume shortly. For now… more birds:
A northern (red-shafted) flicker. Why is it called a red-shafted flicker? Because its feathers have a red tinted shaft. Makes sense now, doesn’t it?
Lesser goldfinch
Mountain chickadee about to jump in for a bath
looking for lunch in the neighborhood
During the fire a few of us were standing outside talking. This red-shouldered hawk flew behind, and very near, one of my neighbors and into a tree in his yard. I’ve seen him around a few times since, the hawk that is… and the neighbor too I suppose.
No doubt his normal hunting range has been fairly reduced. The fellow in the picture below needs to keep his wits about him.
Strike!
Jenna Fischer, Pam from The Office, has written a great little post on the Hollywood writer’s strike.
I’m not a screenwriter, and likely will never be one. But I really support this strike, as a writer. The writers are the foundation of any good entertainment. Casts get famous, but it is the writing of a show or movie that sets it apart. Because they are behind the scenes, however, writers are often forgotten and ignored. Ignored by studios who are run by people with very little creative talent, besides squeezing more dollars out of society. The writers are asking for what is rightfully theirs, part of the royalties for the content they, not the studios and not the actors, created. The multi-national corporations, however, would rather break the union, force the writers to hide once more. I’m for this strike, no matter how long it lasts. The studios are ruining entertainment in this country and they need to lose for all sorts of reasons. No better reason, in my mind, than giving writers more money.
It’s a Dance! Moving with the Holy Spirit
It’s a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit is out.
Buy your copy of It’s a Dance: Moving with the Holy Spirit
today!
For more information wander over to the official It’s a Dance Website. There you’ll find the official It’s a Dance blog, Perichoresis, where the conversation continues. Also check out the soon to be updated books and sundries blog, Book Trails, where I’ll be highlighting books, movies, and whatever else that fits in with the Holy Spirit theme.
each word a grain of rice
Or rather ten grains of rice.
Free Rice! And it’s not some neo-conservative proclamation asserting the innocence of the present secretary of state in some apocalyptic post-Bush flurry of current administration criminal proceedings by the next Congress.
Define a word. They give rice.
I’m taking the GRE next week and this is much more fun than sitting with flashcards.
I spent a bit of time this morning and got a 1000 grains of rice with a high of 45 there at the end.
