6 January 2010, Feast of the Epiphany

The sky pitch black, filled with stars. Snow approaching. Vespers at the local parish with the chalking of the entrance: 20 + C + M + B + 10. Home too late to bless our home and will do so tomorrow after Matins. Christus Mansionem Benedicat, "Christ, bless this home."

Merton's The New Man and Frederica Matthewes-Green's The Jesus Prayer arrived today. After house cleaning tomorrow, I hope to settle into one of them, most like the latter for now.

5 January 2010

Bitterly cold with the sky void of clouds. Some fields still stippled with unharvested cotton balls. Skimmings of ice in the middle of the cove. Mallards feeding in toward the shoreline. The sun an orangey disk streaked with pine trees.

We said goodbye to Christmastide and with Evening Prayer entered the Feast of the Epiphany. Tomorrow we bless our home with the traditional chalk markings, going from room to room, saying prayers, asking that the Light of Christ fill our kitchen, living room, bedrooms, study, and laundry room.

Drove to Conyers and saw It's Complicated; the theatre was filled with lots of older folks, all of whom--I think we can safely assume--know just how any human life is complicated. Within the complications of my life, God has been gracious, marking all that is central to my inner life with the simplicity of Christ. This Epiphanytide I continue to ask God and his Word always to a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

Got a Tuesday letter off to Chelsea.

4 January 2010

Deeply cold by the lake, yet I found Mitzy sleeping in a pile of oak leaves. Head clearing. Strange, still unable even to murmur that psalter without coughing. Hour-long sleep in the afternoon, dozing off while listening to an Orthodox priest talk about the Incarnation. It must be the weeks of sleepless nights, for the most part, catching up. Fourth reading: Bernard of Clairvaux, from his Sermons on the Song of Songs. "If you are wise you will show yourself a reservoir . . . ."

3 January 2010, Second Sunday after Christmas

Still Christmastide, the Second Sunday after the Nativity. Eucharist at St. John Church with richly insightful sermon by Pastor Katie this morning. Robust singing of carols. And afterwards: procession outside for the Groundbreaking, the blessing of the ground and the soon-to-be built educational addition:

May this building be a place where your glory dwells, where your Word is studied and taught, where your light shines through us as we serve each other and the community around us. May your gracious blessing descend like the dew from heaven upon this place and all who gather here to be equipped for service in your name.

Pastor Katie confirmed her earlier suggestion that next Sunday I make a "Temple Talk" and during the hour between Eucharists I share some thoughts on how my life has been changed by visiting Haiti during the past five years. I've been working on the presentation for several weeks now; I keep rearranging pictures and try to find the best possible sequence. Kirk was kind to remind me to avoid all bulleted onscreen lists. My hopes are that I'll not inappropriately focus much on myself, but on the people of Haiti, and most importantly, on the grace of God who has given me the gift of Haiti's people.

2 January 2010

Took another Mucinex D at 4:30 this morning. Breathing well now at 9:30. Carole and Hugh came for the South's traditional NY Day supper last night. Introduced me to the Daniel Fast, basically a vegan way of eating (cf. Daniel 10); they begin it on January 10 and continue for 21 days. Inasmuch as my extended fast will come in Lent, I don't intend to join them although I wish them a blessing.

Still having trouble chanting the psalms without coughing; my only remedy is to keep a hot cup of tea or coffee nearby for an occasional sip. It's good to still be singing Christmas carols, songs, and hymns during the Twelve Days.

I continue to work on and review my presentation concerning Haiti. Pastor Katie wrote to say it may be due a week from Sunday.

Reading Merton's "Hagia Sophia," wonderfully fresh and exciting even though I don't quite know what to do with it. It'll have to seep in. Yesterday at Borders I sat down with a paperback copy of The New Man but didn't buy it. Instead, I ordered a used copy online, along with Jim Forest's Praying with Icons and Frederica Mathewes-Green's The Jesus Prayer. About the latter: I listened to a talk on the prayer she gave recently; it was available on Ancient Faith Radio.

1 January 2010, Name Day & Circumcision of Jesus

Morning Prayer somewhat hurried.

Always, always new beginnings. With old carrryovers: continuing sinus difficulties; the red pill Sudafed is a four-hour reliable throat clock. Quite manageable discomfort.

New ELWs arrived yesterday. Lovely hymnals. Most become intimate with them.

Thursday, a collectable Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton arrived my postal mail. In addition to everything, a printmaker. Absolutely remarkable. More than all, however, am learning who I am from Pramuk's Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton, slowly unpuzzling that enigma in the Athanasian Creed: "He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity."

Over Two Years Since Posting

I often find myself too scattered to be of much good. For some time now I've been writing into a leather-bound book, albeit sporadically, and I'd forgotten about my opportunities to write here. Since few people know about this effort, I imagine it's safe to keep something of a record of my thoughts and doings, helter-skelter as they are.

This morning June went to some sort of a health seminar on cancer with Mary Sweet, and I stayed home, managing to mow the front and side yards, buy a voltage tester (the garage electricity has gone out), take a nap in the afternoon, and do some reading in The Cloud of Unknowing. Having read it before, I'm surprised at how much I see upon this second (maybe third) reading.

Earlier in the morning I spoke at some length with CFI's Scott Mandl and brought him up-to-date of my efforts to assemble an itinerary for Ivy Salomon when she comes from Haiti to visit family and friends in the States. It's not as easy as I imagined; her family is spread out all over the U.S. and they too have busy lives that make it difficult for Ivy to drop by and stay for several weeks at just any time.

June and I are doing well as a married couple, even in our seventies. Tomorrow we plan to take Matt and Sara Beth Stout out to lunch somewhere in Nicholasville. I'm hoping we'll get to one of the morning Eucharists at Faith Lutheran Church. If not, then we'll spend the afternoon in Lexington and go to the evening contemplative Eucharist.

I need to study myself in the light of acedia and may get Kathleen Norris' new book on the subject.

Having returned from our family reunion, this year at Dauphin Island, I'm delighted that our family has been able to keep itself together. It's a real effort to gather everyone together because we are so separated geographically and at times spiritually. In spite of--or at times, I think, because of--our differences, the blood of us Harnacks runs thick and deep. As paterfamilias, I'm so privileged to have such a wonderful bunch of kids, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. O yes, we argue a good bit (mostly about politics), but in the end there's always the huggings, the looking forward to seeing one another again, and the prayers that sustain us in our variety and differences. Some of us are politically conservative (yea, a libertarian!), others are liberal (listening, of all things, to NPR!), and others largely a-political. But in blood, and I like to think, in the blood of Christ, we are a real family. One, Carol, comes with enormous forgiveness in heart, and her presence is the light of Christ among us. Others come with professional preoccupations, overloads of work that don't disappear even on vacation times. Still others come as precious children, innocent of our family's history, but eager and willing to be lilke the children about whom Jesus says "are of the kingdom of God." For all who came to this year's week-long reunion, I give heartfelt thanks to God for their presence, their determination to keep the tradition going, and their holding of hands in prayer and in grace before our meals. It's all quite wonderful!

Withdrawing Troops from Iraq

For a good while I have been deeply appreciative of Daniel B. Clendenin, long-time associate with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and founder of The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, especially his weekly essay on the Biblical lectionary. As to why I had not noticed it before, I don't know, but yesterday I discovered One Million Blogs for Peace: To End the Iraq War. Inasmuch as I have been been opposed to the Iraq War months preceeding Bush's invasion on March 19, 2003 and watched in horror at our nation's celebration of "Shock and Awe" and have strongly opposed the war ever since, I wish to identify myself with those opposing the war in One Million Blogs for Peace. I have therefore signed online the blog's pledge:
I believe in the immediate withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from the nation of Iraq. I believe in using my blog, in whole or in part, as a tool
toward this end.

To understand why I and other hundreds of thousands--millions of people worldwide--are convinced that we should remove our troops from Iraq now, visit the following sites:

ENDING THE U.S. WAR IN IRAQ : How to Bring the Troops Home and Internationalize the Peace

AFSC Board Statement on Immediate Troop Withdrawal

Tomgram: Michael Schwartz on Immediate Withdrawal

For a rehearsal of the disasterous program of Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld ("We know where the WMD are"), Rice, Wolfowitz, and other neo-cons have instigated, see the timeline.

November 28

June and I drove from Georgia to Kentucky today; we got in about 6:30 p.m.

This evening begins the Commemoration of Kamehameha and Emma, King and Queen of Hawaii, 1864, 1865. When in Hawaii earlier this year, I heard a little bit about them, but remembered nothing substantial. Here's what I now know:

Within a year of ascending the throne in 1855, the twenty year old King Kamehameha IV and his bride, Emma Rooke, embarked on the path of altruism and unassuming humility for which they have been revered by their people. The year before, Honolulu, and especially its native Hawaiians, had been horribly afflicted with smallpox. The people, accustomed to a royalty which ruled with pomp and power, were confronted instead by a king and queen who went about, "with notebook in hand," soliciting from the rich and poor funds to build a hospital. Queen's Hospital, named for Emma, is not the largest civilian hospital in Hawaii.

In 1860, the king and queen petitioned the Bishop of Oxford to send missionaries to establish the Anglican Church in Hawaii. The king's interest came through a boyhood tour of England where he had seen, in the stately beauty of Anglican liturgy, a quality that seemed attuned to the gentle beauty of the Hawaiian spirit. England responded by sending the Rt. Rev. Thomas N. Staley and two priests. They arrived on October 11, 1862, and the king and queen were confirmed a month later, on November 28, 1862. They then began preparations for a cathedral and school, and the king set about to translate The Book of Common Prayer and much of the Hymnal .

Kamehameha's life was marred by the tragic death of his four year old son and only child, in 1863. He seemed unable to survive his sadness, although a sermon he preached after his son's death expresses a hope and faith that is eloquent and profound. His own death took place only a year after his son's, in 1864. Emma declined to rule; instead, she committed her life to good works. She was responsible for schools, churches, and efforts on behalf of the poor and sick. She traveled several times to England and the Continent to raise funds, and became a favorite of Queen Victoria's. Archbishop Longley of Canterbury, remarked upon her visit to Lambeth: "I was much struck by the cultivation of her mind...But what excited my interest the most was her almost saintly piety."

The Cathedral was completed after Emma died. It was named St. Andrew's in memory of the king, who died on that Saint's day. Among the Hawaiian people, Emma is still refered to as "our beloved Queen."
Proper:Acts 17:22-31Psalm 33:12-22 or 97:1-2, 7-12Matthew 25:31-40

O Sovereign God, who raised up King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma to be rulers of Hawaii, and didst inspire and enable them to be diligen in good works for the welfare of their people and the good of thy Church: Receive our thanks for their witness to the Gospel; and grant that we, with them, may attain to the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end.
Amen.

I'm also back in Kentucky from my trip to Haiti for several weeks and have much to write about--later. Ont he way home June bought a French coffee press for Andy and Anna. I need to mail it to them asap.

Tuesday, October 31

John N. Day's "The Pillars of Imprecation: How to Pray for Your Enemies by Praying Against Them" in Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity (November 2006) gives us a fine essay on how we might pray those psalms which ask God to destroy those who oppress and terrorize us. Day's essay focuses on Psalm 83, the very psalm which The Daily Prayer of the Church asks us to use on Mondays in Week I.

When praying such a psalm, Day urges us to place our imprecations before God as follows:

• only is settings of extreme enmity (as, for example, in Dafur)
• only while we practice persistant love of God and mankind (Matthew 22.37-39)
  
• only as we relinquish all personal desires of revenge (Leviticus 19.18)
  
• only as we appeal to God who has told that He alone is the Avenger (Deauteronomy 32.35)
  
• only as we plead with "the perfected saints in heaven" (Revelation 6.9-11)
  

It is, of coursse, difficult to keep such admonitions and cautions in one's heart and mind as we "pray for our enemies by praying against them." As I was reading/praying Psalm 83 yesterday morning and in the post-psalm silence thought about how it as it relates to the Church's (and thus to my own) prayer life, I found it difficult to collect my thoughts adequately after the silence. The DPC's "after-silence" collect (usually good) was inadequate and did not help very much. To help me next month (or whenever I come across psalms of imprecation) last night I wrote this collect:

O God, in your mercy You have promised to deliver suffering and oppressed peoples from the hands of those who hate you; as we live between Your command to love our enemies and Your promises to undo those who murder, rape, and pillage the innocent, we ask that You fill those who are evil with shame that they may seek Your name and repent of their evil; seeking to be obedient to your will and forsaking every personal desire for retaliation, we implore You to execute Your divine justice for the sake of those who suffer oppression; within the Company of Heaven and in the love and justice of Christ, we offer ourselves and these petitions through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and rules with You and the Holy Spirit forever.

If you would like to read Day's essay, let me know. And let me know how the collect above might be improved so that I might learn how to pray for my enemies while praying to God against them.

October 29, 2006

Yesterday Chelsea ran her best personal 5k at Masterson Park in Lexington: 23 minutes, 16 seconds. During the race she was in considerable pain, pain in both of her lower ribsides. So proud of her! Later in the afternoon I took her to a party at First Baptist Church where with some of her friends they played cards and went to Starbucks afterwards. Before going to bed, June, Chelsea, and I prayed for Harold and for the people of Dafur. Then we turned our clocks back an hour and went to bed.

Pentecost 17: Tuesday, 5 September 2006

Matins outside early. Have decided to go to Haiti, November 14-21. It's okay with June; in fact, she encourages me. Perhaps need to update beneficiaries documents. Weeded front garden and cut shrubs; sweaty. Saw a female velvet ant on the driveway.

Pentecost 17: Monday, 4 September 2006

It's been a long time since posting; since my last, I've had to have the laptop repaired, June had her car accident (two weeks ago), and my two online classes are well underway. I've started reading The Brothers Karamozov. More importantly, I've become overly judgmental about a number of issues and desparately need to re-order the priorities of my heart and head. For the time being I'm taking a vow not to say anything controversial about liturgies and politics. Prayer must become more intense, more contemplative.

Chelsea was with us this weekend; she's a saving grace. Yesterdday we saw The Illusionist. Good movie. The Eucharist at Faith Lutheran Church was comforting; Pastor's homily on kicking dogs was to the point. The Gospel is hard to put into practice. I'm too insistant, especially with June. Must quit reading John 6 to her and simply act with Jesus, the true Bread, in my guts. Getting up before dawn will help.

Read Chekhov's "Gooseberries." Searing. So much like Ivan. Those raindrops on the window hammer for me. Am seriously thinking about going to Haiti in November.

Pentecost 6 / Friday, July 21

Gordon and I fished off the dock last evening until it got too dark to see. We've heard from Carole that her physician has reason to think she has some kind of lung cancer. A PET scan is required and after that, next Monday, a team of doctors will evaluate things and make recommendations on what to do. When I came into the bedroom, June was praying the psalms and together we said Evening Prayer, doing the Litany slowly. The reading from Matthew 20 about the two blind men whom Jesus healed was good to hear. I rose again early this morning and said Morning Prayer on the deck. Psalm 88, "O Lord, I cry to you for help in the morning my prayer comes before you." Zonnie and June have gone off to the peach packing plant while Gordon and I are at home; he's resting, trying to find some relief from his chronic back pain. Am reading "Who's Afraid of Post-Modernism? Good book.

Pentecost 6 / Thursday, July 20

Zonnie arrived. We grilled vegetables and fish and ate together. She is doing well, maturing quite wonderfully. A wind across the lake this evening. Began Thursday with evening prayer downstairs in the study room where Gordon will sleep tomorrow evening.

Psalm 81, "Sing with joy to God our strength."
Psalm 116, "You, O Lord, have rescued my life from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling."

Lectio: Matthew 20.17-28. Whoever wish to be first among you must be your slave.

I need to look at the church's calendar more carefully.

The Kalendar of the Episcopal Church asks us to remember the witness of Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Amelia Bloomer, Sojourner Truth, and Harriet Ross Tubman today.

Pentecost 6 / Wednesday, July 19

As always the day begins in the evening, and tonight's Evening Prayer for Wednesday was full of mercies.

Psalm 125, "The Lord stands round about his people."
Psalm 91, "You shall not be afraid of the terror by night . . . ."

The lectio was Matthew 20.1-16, and it came to me that at nearly 70, I have in many ways been of last to be hired.

This afternoon, after my grocery shopping in Covington, we recei ved a call from Chris, asking us to come and talk with Stan, so depressed. We went. Later June and I took a boat ride on the lake; the air everywhere was hot. Tonight I ask the merciful Father to restore Stan. And bless Chris. We heard from Becky that Adam is now feeling the pain of the broken and reset arm. In the litany, pray for them.

I'll need to get up early tomorrow to clean the rooms for Zonnie and Gordon. May the almight Lord bless my sleep.

_____________

Early rising. Morning Prayer well before dawn.

Psalm 65, "You are to be praised, O God in Zion; you make the dawn and the dusk to sing for joy."
Psalm 147, "How pleasant it is to honor God with praise."

This morning's hymn, "O Morning Star," especially reminiscent of days past.

The reading in Numbers 16.35-50 is some Scriptures is also the beginning of 17. Wonder why.
More importantly, another of those "terrible stories." The second reading, Romans 4.13-25, more helpful. An icon of Abraham.

Cleaned up the kitchen and got things straightened out up there. My job before going to the airport is to clean the two downstairs rooms. June wants up about 7. Coffee is ready for her.

Pentecost 6 / Tuesday / July 18

Evening Prayer today, after we came home visiting Adam, getting some print cartridges and paint for the swing, began just before going to bed:

Psalm 28, "My heart trusts in the Lord, and I have been helped."
Psalm 127, "Unless the Lord builds the house, their labor is in vain who build it." Especially mindful that it's vain "rise so early and go to bed so late" unless God is building my house, my family, my life.

Lectio: Matthew 19.23-30 (It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.)

This morning up a little before seven after a fitful sleep. Carole gets the results of her medical scan today at 9:45. Lots of do. Zonnie arrives tomorrow and Gordon on Thursday.

Pentecost 6 / Monday

Up early. Morning Prayer:

• Ps. 57, "Awake, lute and harp; I myself with waken the dawn."
• Ps. 147, "Every day will I bless you and praise your Name for ever and ever."
• Number 16.-19. One of those "terrible texts" (Spong) in which Korah, Dathan and Abriam and their families are swallowed up by the earth as a consequence of their rebellion again Moses. Don't know what to make of it.
• Romans 3.21-31

Budget for the next thirty days settled; SunRocket voicemail set up; termit and pest control gentleman (Shawn) provided June with estimates; checked AC air filter (MERV 8) and found it unnecessary to exchange it. Took at look at My Morning Prayer set of CDs. Will go to McDonough later today. Must locate and return library books.

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Yesterday I sent off a request to lessen the tax burden to KTRS, took a look at the mid-July budget (good work there!), and cleaned out the outside utility storage room so that it looks organized. A lot of old wood and junk needs to be hauled to the "dump."

Today it's worship at FBC, B'ville; later tonight we go to hear the Ugandan Girls Choir at Carole and Hugh's church. Should be a good day.