Thus it is that thy joy in me is so full.
Thus it is that thou hast come down to me.
O thou lord of all heavens,
where would be thy love if I were not?

Thou hast taken me as thy partner
of all this wealth.
In my heart is the endless play of thy delight.
In my life thy will is ever taking shape.

And for this, thou who art the King of kings
hast decked thyself in beauty
to captivate my heart.
And for this thy love loses itself
in the love of thy lover,
and there art thou seen
in the perfect union of two.


---Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) , no title, from Gitanjali, no. 56, published 1912

read the headline in the New York Daily News "Gossip" page for today, The Lord's Day, Sunday, March 22.

I grieve for the family, I really do, but I grieve more for the Church, especially for the Episcopal Church who again has sold their own Good News. Until recently, a funeral was never, never on the Day of the Resurrection, a sign to the world that not even death could take away the joy of the resurrection. Nothing like a good funeral, especially of a celebrity to kill that Good News for the Church, the World, and definitely for the family who will always remember Sundays as the day they buried their daughter, mother, wife, niece, a day of mourning that not even the Day of the Resurrection of Christ from the Dead has made a bit of difference. Poor Church, rest in Peace. Nevertheless, Christ is Risen and Trampled Down Death by Death! Even at the javascript:void(0)grave we make our song, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!

The [excellent]speaker at the Adult Forum at Church Sunday said, If you want St. Mark's to die, just become an observer. Though it could be said as observing everything going on in the Parish, he was talking specifically about the Liturgy.

Why is it so difficult for the person in the pew to choose to watch the rest of the Church instead of take responsibility for their own part and part-icipate?

If one of my eyes removed itself from my body, it might observe me for a moment, not connected with my head, but it would soon die, alone; and if other parts of my body did the same, eventually my whole I would die. I grieve.

C.S. Lewis rephrased Pascal’s wager to say: “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and, if true, is of infinite importance. The only thing it cannot be is moderately important.”

So what has the traditions(s) got to do with Paradosis?

What has all the "traditional" stuff of American Christmas got to do with
The Tradition of the Incarnation? Check it out: Paradosis

Stolen from Margaret's page:

As democracy is perfected, the office [of president] represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.

H.L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)
Source: Baltimore Evening Sun, 26 July 1920

Found this today:

"The caustic cynic. Rather than lashing out at others, these people sit along the sidelines of life and throw darts of sarcasm and negativity at anything that shows vitality and possibility. To an innocent listener, the advice may seem well-meaning, but in truth caustic cynics want all attempts at health and wholeness to fail so they can say, 'I told you so.'"

I realized that this describes me to a "T," And why I am so sad. When "The People" of Israel clamored for a king, "like all the other nations of the world" rather than to accept the providence of the LORD, God allowed ("suffered" in Anglo-Saxon)them to choose Bush, Saul. After that disaster, God suggested that if they yet insisted on a King, at least take the littlest and least of their brethren so that God could still be seen as the true provider. What they had not accounted for was the "s" word, and David, the beloved of God, became just like the rest, yet in term of good/bad, though a murderer and adulterer etc., etc., he was a "good" king.

"The People" have again spoken. The Emperor, though perhaps a nice guy, is still naked, and the color of his clothes, is no more black than white. Too bad we do not see in color rather than black and white.

If the LORD does not build the house.... If the LORD does not keep the city....