Tuesday, October 19, 2010

The Prayer of St. Brendan

I nicked this from Katherine Mary Martin's+ notes on FB. A profound prayer from a Celtic Saint who possibly saw the shores of North America centuries before "Lucky Leif"...

Shall I abandon, O King of mysteries, the soft comforts of home? Shall I turn my back on my native land, and turn my face towards the sea?
Shall I put myself wholly at your mercy, without silver, without a horse, without fame, without honour? Shall I throw myself wholly upon You, without sword or shield, without food and drink, without a bed to lie on? Shall I say farewell to my beautiful land, placing myself under Your yoke?
Shall I pour out my heart to You, confessing my manifold sins and begging forgiveness, tears streaming down my cheeks? Shall I leave the prints of my knees on the sandy beach, a record of my final prayer in my native land?
Shall I then suffer every kind of wound that the sea can inflict? Shall I take my tiny boat across the wide sparkling ocean? O King of the Glorious Heaven, shall I go of my own choice upon the sea?
O Christ, will You help on the wild waves?

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Apologies to Elizabeth+

I hacked off a Blogger this week. The expression of my convictions were ill-tempered and only served to inflame that person. For that, I'm sincerely sorry.

I am, and will remain unapologetically aligned with the cause of life. I remain convinced that abortion is not the way to conduct neither contraception nor family planning. I contend that though there are cases of sexual assault, and extreme medical conditions where a woman's life is at a bona-fide risk (e.g. ectopic pregnancies), these are not normative. Too, I contend that through its original charter, there are groups like Planned Parenthood that are engaged in a proactive campaign of in-utero genocide against select groups based on racial or socio-ecconomic status. (I believe it's founders expression for these groups was "human weeds").

All of this not withstanding, I fear that in my zeal, I've stomped personally on an individual. This was never my intent, and the fact that may have occurred troubles me as while advocating particular causes, I'm not here to afflict or insult anyone personally. So, to Elizabeth, I offer you my sincere apologies and ask your forgiveness. We may (and should) discuss and debate these watershed issues, it should be done so in the spirit of love and charity (a concept that we are both committed to as Anglican Clerics).

May the LORD Bless and Keep you.
May the LORD make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May the LORD lift His face unto you and give you peace.


Sunday Morning at Celebration Anglican



Funny, but my musical tastes (when it comes to sacred music) are fairly staid. In fact, my tongue-in-cheek expression is "If its not Baroque, don't fix it". This particular piece is one of the few contemporary worship songs that makes the exception to that general rule. When I hear or sing it, the lyrics strike a longing for that day when, in the return of the Almighty, all of creation is reset to its proper alignment.

Enjoy your sabbath rest today, and let it create a hunger for the ultimate sabbath rest that we'll experience at the culmination of all things.