Fourth Sunday in Lent

It's not been a good day even though it's Sunday. Worship in the so-called "contemtempory" stytle of service this morning was dreadful: monotonous insipid songs, a lecture-like sermon, and (of course) no Eucharist; the whole business is, while not anti-sacramental, a-sacramental. The choir (yes, I sang in it) was once again a performance. And Bible class was little betterl; somehow managed to get to the end of Exodus 4 with a good bit of talk about elders, but not much else--except for the prayers led by Donna. Which were good. We were asked to fill out a questionnaire/survey about worship; alas, liturgy was defined as "responsive readings." Good grief!

March 25: THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

It's been an especially busy day and as such I worked quite a while preparing what will eventually be a presentation arguing for the moral rights of sentient beings, a presentation I'm to make at a so-called Oxford-style debate on the EKU campus, April 20. I've asked Pat New in Interlibrary Loans to get me several dozen articles and books, and tonight I called the Chair of the Philosophy Department, Steve Parchment, to secure for me the ID and pw to The Chronicle of Higher Education where Martha Nussbaum has written an especially well-argued statement for the moral rights of animals.

Our lectio this morning had to do with the parable of the sower as told by Luke in chapter 8. I told June that my soul-soil is often not very condusive to deep planting of the seed which Jesus describes as falling on thin soil, rocks, and thorn-infested earth. Right now, even though today is the day we remember the Annunciation, I'm convinced that my soul needs a good bit of harrowing, manuring, and spading. My old Adam has crept back with a vengeance. Prayer is very difficult. I will try to pray the rosary tonight, but I suspect it will be not without much spirit.

Ruth gave me a rosary

On Sunday, the day before June and I left Austin, Ray Gene's wife, Ruth, gave me a rosary (Thank you, Ruth!) after we attended mass together. While I have used Orthodox prayer ropes as aids to prayer for many years, I have never used a rosary--largely because I thought its bead-work a bit complicated, not nearly as simple as praying the Jesus Prayer with a prayer rope. But now that Ruth has given me a rosary, I'm willing to learn more about it and teach myself how to pray with it. I've put Gary Wills' The Rosary on my wishlist at www.amazon.com but will see if the EKU library can get me a copy before I buy it. In the meantime, at Catholic Update, I'm pleased to note the following:

Pope Paul VI warned against exaggerated approaches when he wrote in 1974: "We...recommend that this very worthy devotion not be propagated in a way that
is too one-sided or exclusive. The rosary is an excellent prayer, but the faithful should be serenely free toward it. Its intrinsic appeal should draw them to calm recitation" (On Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, #55).

And at The Rosary I note that "many Protestants now say the rosary, recognizing it as a truly biblical form of prayer—after all, the prayers that comprise it come mainly from the Bible." so I'll give it a try, learning how to pray the rosary in the early morning hours.

Back in Kentucky

On March 6, Monday, June and I received a call from Becky saying that Harold was at the Emory Hospital. We packed quickly and drove down immediately. After a week or so at the lakehouse, Harold was able to return home, and we left for Baton Rogue to visit Evaneline and Jesse for a few days; then it was off to Austin, Texas, to visit Ruth and Ray Gene. We returned home yesterday, March 22.