This captures, so well, the Lake of the Tahoes. My father took this picture.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Sunday, October 17, 2010
How humble You are! How powerful You are!
O Infant, Your judgment is powerful!
Your love is sweet! Who is able to stand against You?
Your Father [is] in heaven and Your mother on earth.
Who is able to speak about You?
After we have scorned we bow before You, the Hidden Power!
How bold You are, Babe, who bestows Himself upon all.
At everyone who meets You You smile. To meet
everyone who sees You You eagerly eait. It is as if Your
love hungers for human beings. You distinguish not Your parents
from strangers, not the one who bore You from maidservants, nor
the one who nursed You from harlots. Is this Your boldness or Your
love, all-merciful One?
What moves You to bestow Yourself upon each who has seen You--
upon the rich and upon the poor? With them You take shelter without
their invoking You. From where did it come to You so to hunger for human beings?
From Hymn 13 on the Nativity, Ephrem the Syrian
A wonder is Your mother: The Lord entered her and became a servant;
He entered able to speak and He became silent in her; He entered her thundering and
His voice grew silent; He entered Shepherd of all; a lamb he became in her; He emerged bleating. The womb of Your mother overthrew the orders: The Establisher of all entered a Rich One; He emerged poor. He entered her a Lofty One; He emerged humble. He entered her a Radiant One, and He put on a despised hue and emerged. He entered, a mighty warrior, and put on fear inside her womb. He entered, Nourisher of all, and He acquired hunger. He entered, the One who gives drink to all, and He acquired thirst. Stripped and laid bare, He emerged from [her womb], the One who clothes all.
From Hymn 11 on the Nativity, Ephrem the Syrian
O Infant, Your judgment is powerful!
Your love is sweet! Who is able to stand against You?
Your Father [is] in heaven and Your mother on earth.
Who is able to speak about You?
After we have scorned we bow before You, the Hidden Power!
How bold You are, Babe, who bestows Himself upon all.
At everyone who meets You You smile. To meet
everyone who sees You You eagerly eait. It is as if Your
love hungers for human beings. You distinguish not Your parents
from strangers, not the one who bore You from maidservants, nor
the one who nursed You from harlots. Is this Your boldness or Your
love, all-merciful One?
What moves You to bestow Yourself upon each who has seen You--
upon the rich and upon the poor? With them You take shelter without
their invoking You. From where did it come to You so to hunger for human beings?
From Hymn 13 on the Nativity, Ephrem the Syrian
A wonder is Your mother: The Lord entered her and became a servant;
He entered able to speak and He became silent in her; He entered her thundering and
His voice grew silent; He entered Shepherd of all; a lamb he became in her; He emerged bleating. The womb of Your mother overthrew the orders: The Establisher of all entered a Rich One; He emerged poor. He entered her a Lofty One; He emerged humble. He entered her a Radiant One, and He put on a despised hue and emerged. He entered, a mighty warrior, and put on fear inside her womb. He entered, Nourisher of all, and He acquired hunger. He entered, the One who gives drink to all, and He acquired thirst. Stripped and laid bare, He emerged from [her womb], the One who clothes all.
From Hymn 11 on the Nativity, Ephrem the Syrian
Saturday, April 24, 2010
The well-intentioned idea of presenting the appealing, useful side of faith fails, I think, because it doesn't question deeply enough the basic consumer ethos. The transaction that takes place between a shopper-seeker and the goods acquired (groceries, furniture, the key to the meaning of life) is one that leaves the seeker in control, in a position of judging, evaluating, and rejecting the parts he doesn't like. But entering faith is more like making a promise or beginning a marriage. It involves being grafted into a community and requires a willingness to grow and change. If it didn't, if it merely confirmed us in our comfortable places, how could it free us to be more than we are?
--Frederica Mathewes-Green
--Frederica Mathewes-Green
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Saturday, April 3, 2010
Young Amish girls sitting atop round hay bales and playing with a cat.
Daffodils bursting up.
Green. The grass is so vividly green!
The warmth.
Holding an impromptu Good Friday service with my mother, candlelit and directed by the Book of Common Prayer's order.
The tilling of garden beds and corn fields.
My mother's new hand-made rocking chair.
New barn kittens and rambunctious kittens of our own!
Buds and blooms.
The running of creeks.
Birds, their songs, their flight, their scurrying away.
...home.
Have a blessed Holy Saturday.
Daffodils bursting up.
Green. The grass is so vividly green!
The warmth.
Holding an impromptu Good Friday service with my mother, candlelit and directed by the Book of Common Prayer's order.
The tilling of garden beds and corn fields.
My mother's new hand-made rocking chair.
New barn kittens and rambunctious kittens of our own!
Buds and blooms.
The running of creeks.
Birds, their songs, their flight, their scurrying away.
...home.
Have a blessed Holy Saturday.
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