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Neil Richard Sewell
Nov. 8, 1924 – June 26, 2013

He has gone now.

The toil of row

The dance of row  

He sacrificed long ago

“There’s no living farming,” he said,

Sitting on the tractor,  then half my sixty years.

From plant to plant he went – rolling aluminum

 Working no longer by the measure of the Sun but by artificial shifts

Plans made by machines for machines

He once coaxed plants from seed

Decades upon decades he coaxed

Metal from machine.

He made a living for his family without

Complaint – in the lair of belching dragon noise,

Molten napalm

The roar took his hearing

But he saved the farm 

JWS  –  December 2013

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Image“Therefore   Christ brings about brings about the unity of scripture, because he is the endpoint and fullness of Scripture. Everything in it is related to him. In the end he is its sole object.”  [xii preface]

Henri de Lubac

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Image We hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all.* For that is truly and in the strictest sense “Catholic,” which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole Church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.

*This is the way forward for Christians beset with controversy and rancor on every side. We return to the ancient faith as we have received it from the Apostles.  We look back in order to move forward! JWS

 The Commonitory of St. Vincent of Lerins . Veritatis Splendor Publications. Kindle Edition.

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“We in the West have been trained and conditioned since childhood, firstly by over-anxious mothers and then by the values of society, to be afraid of pain, to see it as an enemy to fight and repel. Television advertisements don’t say, ‘Relax and learn to ease it’ when showing someone in pain. They say, “Take this pill or that pill and they will make you relaxed enough for your headache to go.  They implant attitudes which make us think we have to buy our way out of pain. In subtle ways they tell us that we DESERVE relief from it; that it is one of our rights to lead a pain-free life.”

Ursula Fleming  — Grasping the Nettle [pg. 33]

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Meister Eckhart

Meister Eckhart

The Renewal Works team proposes, the Rector endorses supported by the Vestry that beginning in September through the Cycle of the coming Church be the Bible Challenge to read the Bible in one year, Yes the entire Bible, Yes !  Where did we leave God?  Where did leave him?  For many of us, in truth, we left him at our mother’s knee or children’s Sunday school.  What was going on as you left him?  They were telling the stories of God’s people, Abraham, Isaac & Jacob and stories of Jesus, God’s son.

I suggest if that is true for you that you find a good children’s Bible; good in that it recounts just the facts of the story without elaboration.  If you have children of your own, so much the better; read the stories and as you read, eavesdrop,  overhear you as you read  the story of God’s loving care of his people through history.

As the Meister said, “Your best chance is look where you saw him last!”

Note:  Over 200 people pledged to read the Bible, 80 to read the Bible all the way through.

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ImageAnn Coulter summarized her view of Christianity in a 2004 column, saying: “Jesus’ distinctive message was: People are sinful and need to be redeemed, and this is your lucky day, because I’m here to redeem you even though you don’t deserve it, and I have to get the crap kicked out of me to do it.” She then mocked “the message of Jesus … according to liberals,” summarizing it as “…something along the lines of ‘be nice to people’,” which, in turn, she said “is, in fact, one of the incidental tenets of Christianity”.

I think she if a little off about loving people but we are on being “nice” to people.  “Nice” is rooted the word for impotence so Jesus was many things but nice was not one of them: compassionate, kind & loving but nice, I don’t think. 

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ImageToday Pope Francis has released his first Apostolic Exhortation – on the proclamation of the Gospel in today’s world. Near the beginning he lays down a challenge, “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since “no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord”. The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk; whenever we take a step towards Jesus, we come to realize that he is already there, waiting for us with open arms.”

 

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To let go doesn’t mean to stop caring;
It means I can’t do it for someone else.
To let go is not to cut myself off…
It’s the realization that I can’t control another…
To let go is not to enable,
but to allow learning from natural consequences.
To let go is to admit powerlessness,
which means the outcome is not in my hands.
To let go is not to try and change or blame another,
I can only change myself.
To let go is not to care for, but to care about.
To let go is not to fix, but to be supportive.
To let go is not to judge,
but to allow another to be a human being.
To let go is not to be in the middle arranging all the outcomes,
but to allow others to affect their own outcomes.
To let go is not to be protective,
It is to permit another to face reality.
To let go is not to deny, but to accept.
To let go is not to nag, scold, or argue,
but to search out my own shortcomings and correct them.
To let go is not to adjust everything to my desires,
but to take each day as it comes and cherish the moment.
To let go is not to criticize and regulate anyone,
but to try to become what I dream I can be.
To let go is not to regret the past,
but to grow and live for the future.
To let go is fear less and to love more.