The Arrow's Path

This is great ...

Today is the Feast Day of St. Michael and All Angels, commonly calledMichaelmas. In some places Michaelmas is a big to do, especially in towns where St Michael was the patron. One of the prayers I often use at the four corners of a house, when I do a full house blessing is the Prayer of St. Michael: Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle, be our protection against the malice and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him we humbly pray; and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly host, by the power of God, thrust into hell Satan and all evil spirits who wander through the world for the ruin of souls. Amen.

If you would like to donate ONLINE for rebuilding St. James' Episcopal Church which burned down this summer and is one of our many Episcopal parishes on the North Side of the Standing Rock Reservation, please go to  http://www.ndepiscopal.org/  and follow the DONATE selection on the bottom of the page. The Special Instruction is "St. James."  Thank you very much!

The National Catholic Register did an unusual piece here by interviewing famed coach and ESPN commentator Lou Holtz about his faith. Granted, both are devout Catholics, but it was refreshing to read someone from the sports world actually talking with some substance about their faith. Usually all you get from any media is what I call the 'post-game fist pumping for Jesus" self-righteous religious fluff that really portrays nothing of theological substance. I particularly liked this bit: " I used to pray that God would make me a great athlete, and he never did. Yet he put me in the coaching profession, where I’ve experienced 45 years of being involved in great games and competitiveness and having a positive influence on other people’s lives. Had I been a great athlete, I’m not sure I would have even gone into coaching. I may have turned out feeling that my life ended when my athletic career ended, as happens so many times with various athletes. "I do know this:

Al Jazeera did a very interesting 45 minute program about the relationship of War and Hollywood. It's worth watching. Hollywood and the war machine - Empire - Al Jazeera English

barely. I had a long weekend of Diocesan convention, Sunday services, and the parish wild game feed. I am alive and will hopefully be back to regular blogging after I recover.

Despite the hysteria the media will no doubt make of this, you, you can simply translate it *correctly* as "Jesus said, 'My bride...' " The Church has always been referred to as the Bride of Christ. It can be completely, logically explained without circumstantial evidence and crackpot theories.

 It is supposed to frost tonight... And seeing as I am out of shelf space as well as out of jars, here endeth the canning season. And all God's people said, "Thanks be to God!"

I plan to have some pictures up tomorrow of the quadruple baptism we had yesterday. But for today, here is a picture of the dessert counter for the feast we had afterward. That was a lot of pie.

I was at the local grocery store on Saturday. I had to run and get a few items at the last minute, and it was quite busy in the store. Most of the check out lines had a queue of at least 3 or 4 people. I just got in one, thinking one was just as good as another. After standing there for a few moments, I noticed there was a cashier in a line a few lines over that did not appear to have anyone in line. Her light was on and was looking around, trying to get the attention of some customer she could help.I walked over and put my few items on the counter. The only difference between this cashier and any of the other cashiers was that she was wearing an Islamic head scarf. It was not a burqa, but it was a full Islamic head scarf. I had just come from a meeting, so I was wearing my full clerical collar and jacket. The cashier was very friendly and asked me how I was. I said I didn't know why no one was in her line, but I was not about to pass up a quick check out. Without missing a b

 It was my daughter's turn to bring snacks for her pre-school class today. She had been telling us about that she was learning about catepillars in pre-school. Her first day, she even came one with a construction paper tiara-like thing with antennae. For a little bit of a treat (we have to bring healthy, non-allergy related snacks, which is basically crackers, cheese, or fruit as far as I can tell...), I decided to keep with the theme and make some catepillar snacks. Since they could not be sugary, I searched around the interest. It turns out Pinterest is good for something after all. There were ideas on out there for caterpillar fruit kabobs. I upped the ante a little bit and added eyeballs. I admit, the eyes were technically sugar frosting, but I thought kids would not touch black olives. And what tray of caterpillars is complete without some green, leafy lettuce for the caterpillars to munch on until snack time? There were no takers on the lettuce, but most of the cat

I really hate it these days when you get a year subscription to a magazine, and you have not much more than gotten your first edition delivered and you start getting the "It's time to renew your subscription" letters. I realize print media is extremely cut throat these days when the internet seems to slurp up everything, but that is just irritating because you can never tell if it is, in fact, time to renew or it is just the monthly 'renew now' letter.

One of my pet peeves about modern preaching and modern pastoral counseling is the complete ignorance of many preachers/priests/pastors when they throw in what I call "pop theology." Like its cousin pop psychology, pop theology is theology that is taken from greater popular culture and usually applied haphazardly and erroneously. Usually this bit of well intentioned "pop" information is usually devoid of any actual academic underpinnings or substance. It is simply what is popular, and what is popular is usually not academic heavy lifting or really all that helpful in the grand scheme of things.  In fact, pop theology is usually unhelpful and trite. One of those things that gets under my skin is when preachers or pastoral counselors try to apply the pop theology understanding of St. John of the Cross' Dark Night of the Soul . Dark Night of the Soul is a quite long poem (often in 2 volumes) steeped in Christian Mysticism and Catholic theology of perfection of th

The Naval Academy Glee Club sings the Naval Hymn, which is actually one of my favorites. It is often sung in very secular settings like military memorials, but it actually is quite Trinitarian at least in the original form. It is one of my favorites to use at funerals, as it has a nice processional dirge about it. There is a little write up here with the original verses . FYI...for those trying to look up "Naval Hymn" in the Episcopal Hymnal, the official name is "Eternal Father, Strong to Save." Our hymnal never lists it in any index as the "Naval Hymn," even though that is the title most people know it as.

My step-grandmother Helen (she was always just a regular grandmother to me) passed away this afternoon in Tyrone, Georgia, after being in hospice care for a short time and having had major health issues for a number of years. +Eternal rest grant to her, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon her. May her soul, and all the souls of the faithful departed, by the mercy of God rest in peace.+

Click on the picture with your mouse and spin it around for a 360 degree view. See if you can catch the error in this and the cameo of yours truly.

Color is grand, don't get me wrong. I still believe, however, that the best medium for capturing shadows and light contrasts is still good old black and white photography.

No, there are not Muslims this time .

Do Remember Those Who Actually Labored!

I have been meaning to post this for a couple of days now, but congratulations to my old ball coach, Ken Sparks, on his 300th career win . In a world where football coaches are increasingly ladder climbing punks and showboats, Coach Sparks has always been a class act. He's battling prostate cancer that he will have treated after the season is over. Good job, Coach!