Ratings

From The New Yorker: The Forgotten Lessons of the American Eugenics Movement

Mountain

SO pretty

The creation waits in eager expectation...

Mountain by Strahan

Bonhoeffer's Companions

Bonhoeffer's Companions in Martyrdom

To You All Hearts Are Open

This is a prayer prayed at the beginning of the worship service (Rite II) in the Anglican church. It is a good introductory prayer to begin personal heart preparation for Sunday.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may  perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

And here is the prayer of confession coming later in the worship service. I have found it to be a good prayer to use as a prompt for individual confession and as a "just-before bed prayer."

Most merciful God,
we confess that we have sinned against you
in thought, word, and deed,
by what we have done,
and by what we have left undone.
We have not loved you with our whole heart;
we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves. 
We are truly sorry and we humbly repent. 
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ,
have mercy on us and forgive us;
that we may delight in your will,
and walk in your ways,
to the glory of your Name. Amen.

-- One source for these and more prayers, if you don't have a Book of Common Prayer, is the online Book of Common Prayer: www.bcponline.org

Christ, our Passover

"Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast."

Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.

-Words from the Book of Common Prayer, Holy Eucharist, Rite II, during the Breaking of the Bread and from I Corinthians 5:7

No Such Thing As a Winnable War

Two of the three kids are studying the Cold War right now, so of course, like a good Generation X mom, I am making them listen to "Russians" by one of my favorite artists, Sting.... and when they have, they must explain to me how history demonstrates that Sting was wrong.

Read 

Listen

****

And while we are on the subject of Sting, here is one of his best ones, in my humble opinion, a beautifully written extended metaphor (along with the 80's music video which seems weird in retrospect).

Fortress around Your Heart

Under the ruins of a walled city
Crumbling towers in beams of yellow light
No flags of truce, no cries of pity
The siege guns had been pounding through the night
It took a day to build the city
We walked through it's streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the fields I'd known
I recognised the walls that I once made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid

And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire

Then I went off to fight some battle
That I'd invented inside my head
Away so long for years and years
You probably thought, or even wished that I was dead
While the armies all are sleeping
Beneath the tattered flag we'd made
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid

And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire

This prison has now become your home
A sentence you seem prepared to pay
It took a day to build the city
We walked through it's streets in the afternoon
As I returned across the lands I'd known
I recognised the fields where I'd once played
I had to stop in my tracks for fear
Of walking on the mines I'd laid

And if I've built this fortress around your heart
Encircled you in trenches and barbed wire
Then let me build a bridge
For I cannot fill the chasm
And let me set the battlements on fire

When you lose your religion,

you become dogmatic about lesser things.