A Call To Action!

Talk about a liturgical earworm! Greenpatch son forwarded this video to me last night: It's been made as an invitation to the 2013 Episcopal Diocese of West Texas Acolyte Festival. I didn't know that acolytes had festivals. Come to think of it, until I moved to my present church four years ago, I didn't even know what an acolyte was. I've been feeling slightly under the weather these past few weeks, hence the lack of bloggery; watching this turned out to be a sure- fire cure. I'm still suffering from shock. Keeping a straight face on Sunday morning is not going to be easy, I can tell you!

Reading The Bible Non Stop - Exodus

Light Bringer, Drawn Out and I WAS AM WILL BE; they're   all there in shipoffool's never to be repeated version of Exodus!

Reading the Bible Non Stop

For all those readers who, as a certain Archdruid puts it so eloquently "have fallen off the [Lenten] wagon with a bang," here's a link to the first of  shipoffools.com's The Bible non-stop - Genesis. From what I can see they've now reached Numbers...after five years sustained effort. There's dedication for you!

What Kind of Wilderness?

...and the spirit drove him out into the wilderness.

                                                                                   (Mark 1)

The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad, the desert shall rejoice and blossom.

                                                                                       (Isaiah 35)

God's Grace and Chocolat

I'm not sure what the theme of my homily today ought to be. Do I want to speak of the miracle of Our Lord's divine transformation? Not really, no. I don't want to talk about His divinity. I'd rather talk about His humanity. I mean, you know, how He lived His life, here on Earth. His kindness, His tolerance... Listen, here's what I think. I think that we can't go around... measuring our goodness by what we don't do. By what we deny ourselves, what we resist, and who we exclude. I think... we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create... and who we include.

 - Pere Henri in the film version of Joanne Harris's  Chocolat

Another recycled Greenpatch:

And by the way, for a brilliant depiction of our shadow sides, the various and mixed motives behind Lenten observances and how they can go horribly wrong, do, if you've not already had a chance to, have a look at Joanne Harris's Chocolat.  The whole novel, but especially the scene near the end when the priest (in the book) or the mayor (in the film version) pigs out in the Chocolaterie window. It would be hilarious if it weren't so sad.

To which I'd add now -  such a wonderful depiction of God's grace - in the screenplay at least, along with the famous Bishop's Candlesticks scene in the film of  Les Miserables. (I prefer the Chocolat take on it myself, though what that says about me I don't like to think!)

Great minds think alike anyhow: as I was pondering all this yesterday Chris Goan of This Fragile Tent pipped me to the post with his Chocolate and The New Kingdom.

Ash Wednesday

Psalm 51 - another much recycled Greenpatch

Lent Approacheth

Well here I am, back down to earth after my recent expeditions and wondering where January went. Why, it's been nearly a week since I last blogged, for a start! I can't believe  that Lent is almost with us. Not yet, surely? Yet I spotted a  large pile of last year's Palm crosses in church yesterday waiting to be turned into ash,  so it must be so.

So, with Ash Wednesday in mind, here's a link to another of the marvellous blessings by Jan Richardson of The Painted Prayerbook - Ash Wednesday: Blessing the Dust.