Tuesday Chuckles

I'm told that Anglicans make fudge... Capital Hill seems to be in the "creative mode" too...

Sunday Reverie II

Deacon's Mass

Sunday December 27 was a beautiful morning in Suburbia Majora. Father Toby was on the road and down in Hilton Head, SC. Our minister of Music was also away. this left this humble parish Deacon and a musically inclined vestryman to preside over the celebration that is the First Sunday after Christmas.

We were graced with the homily delivered by Bob Graver, a semi-retired Baptist minister who is a recent convert to Anglicanism. Pastor Bob spoke on the text from Matthew's account of the Nativity and levied the call for each of us to answer when our Lord's messengers speak to each of us.

This humble Deacon had the honor to preside over the Eucharistic Celebration of reserved Sacrament, consecrated prior to christmas.

I look across the blogosphere... Padre Mickey has the Lovely Mona, Father Mark has his helpmate; I have Miss Robin, my wonderful wife of 28 glorious years. She's that lady at my side.

Saturday Night Reverie

Prayers for Rifqa

From the Book of Common Prayer:

Look with pity, O heavenly Father, upon the people in this

land who live with injustice, terror, disease, and death as
their constant companions. Have mercy upon us. Help us to
eliminate our cruelty to these our neighbors. Strengthen those
who spend their lives establishing equal protection of the law
and equal opportunities for all. And grant that every one of
us may enjoy a fair portion of the riches of this land; through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

And:

Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and

prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the
attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the
changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be
defended by thy gracious and ready help; through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.

Rifqa Bary, a seventeen year-old follower of the way desperately needs your prayers today. She will be in court today for a dependency hearing to determine if she is to be returned to her muslim parents. Rifqa contends that if she is sent back, she'll likely fall victim to an honor killing, an answer to "spare the rod, spoil the child".

Her fears aren't baseless by any measure. Honor killings have risen sharply in western nations, the UK has seen a pandemic of this crime. The US and Canada too have seen a rise of this crime which is sanctioned by sharia law and acquits those family members who murder (typically a female) family member for an imagined breach of honor.

For now, I find the deafening silence of the left, especially the feminist left awkwardly irksome. Had this been a case where Rifqa was desiring an abortion or the opportunity to pursue an "alternative lifestyle", the hue and cry would be off the gage.

Santa Claus... a denominational phenomena

I pinched this link from Fr. Dwight Longenecker's Bog, Standing on My Head. The post belongs to the Gentleman Farmer, a blogger dwelling outside the tendril's of Suburbia Majora. You're bound to enjoy a Monday chuckle or two.

Even in Advent...

From the Book of Common Prayer, An Order for Compline:

Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or
weep this night, and give your angels 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.

Even in Advent, people hurt. As I type and as you read, there are those whose bodies are racked with sickness and even fighting for life. There are those who are writhing on a bed of suffering and those who are giving up the fight for life.

We can never allow ourselves to become so busy or self-consumed that we fail to be cognizant to the needs of those in our midst. The Lord help us if this is, or becomes the story of our lives.

A Thought in Advent...

Like the video so aptly demonstrated, the hurting and wounded walk in our midst daily. It is all too easy for us to be blinded and deafened to their tears and their cries.

On that great day of reckoning, when we'll file our "travel vouchers" and settle the accounts, will we be standing there with our hands in pockets saying "Buuuwh?" Or, will we be saying to the Almighty that, in our ministry to the dispossessed that we never saw Him in the soup line. He reminds all of us kids in the peanut gallery that as we extend our hand to the most beat down, we are extending our hand to Him.

St. John the Baptizer's words should still ring in our ears... We all were a face in that clutch of copperheads trying to flee the coming wrath. May we all bring fourth the fruits of repentance, extending the Grace of the Almighty to all.

After the Third Sunday in Advent

Traditionally, this third Sunday in Advent is the Sunday of Gladness. Yet for the hoopla, this Sunday had a tincture of "warning" as contained in Sunday's Gospel reading.

The rub is so simple that a child can get it... Advent is a two-edged season in which we remember the babe, born into abject and crushing poverty that he might identify with us and our utter fallenness. He came, not to wallow in our brokenness, rather to lift us and wash us clean from that filth which stood between us and the Almighty. Too, we look to the King of Glory who is returning to settle a score with the Fallen one, and will establish a kingdom that will neither fade nor fall. To quote the Apostle, Come Quickly LORD Jesus, Your servants ache and long for your reign.