The Arrow's Path

Stewart Mandel over on CNNSI wrote a good editorial  on the current state of the football BCS chicanery. Of course, the BCS officially stands for the Bowl Championship Series. I tend to refer to it in a more derogatory acronym involving the words System, a crude term for manure, and a Bull which spell out BCS and my thoughts about it nicely.   About ten years ago, College Football stuck us with inaugurated this BCS madness in their quest to make more money crown the true football champion without having a true March Madness style playoff which would probably make less money . They somehow managed to get the Madness part, but not the playoff. I find the idea of a limited playoff system of not more than 4 to 8 teams to be palatable. I do not like the idea of a full blown playoff system, however.  People ballyhoo the argument that a playoff system would devalue the regular season, but I know for a fact that that is indeed the case. When I was at Carson Newman, a Div. II school where the...

I found this interesting letter from Saint Basil: Letters and Collected Works (Philip Schaff, ed.) that might be good to ponder for Thanksgiving. To whom the letter was addressed is unknown, possibly Olympius, a colleague which he addressed other letters of this character: " After  by God’s grace I had passed the sacred day with our sons, and had kept a really perfect feast to the Lord because of their exceeding love to God, I sent them in good health to your excellency, with a prayer to our loving God to give them an angel of peace to help and accompany them, and to grant them to find you in good health and assured tranquillity, to the end that wherever your lot may be cast, I to the end of my days, whenever I hear news of you, may be gladdened to think of you as serving and  giving   thanks  to the Lord.  If God should grant you to be quickly freed from these cares I beg you to let nothing stand in the way of your coming to stay with me.  I think you will find none to love you ...

This has been floating around some other blogs today, and I thought I would post it here. It's a great thought for the day: " Every age has its own outlook. It is especially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds... by reading old books." -- C.S. Lewis from the  'Introduction', St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

Tripp posted this on facebook. I liked it, so I gave it a whirl: Rules: * Grab the book nearest you. Right now. * Turn to page 56. * Find the fifth sentence. * Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note to your wall. * Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST. ------------------------------------------------------------- Seeing as my secretary made me move all the books off my desk back onto the bookshelf, the only book in arm's reach contained the sentence (as per the directions): "It is better for thee to keep silence, and in faith adore, according to the divine Word, than daringly to search after things which neither thou canst reach, nor Holy Scripture hath delivered to thee." -From Appendix to Lecture IX by Our Holy Father Cyril, Archbishop of Jerusalem, from the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers , 2nd Series. Volume 7. Phillip Schaff, editor.  

I know, I know...no one wants to think about Christmas gift giving yet, but Advent starts on November 30th this year. It's right around the corner! Especially in these troubling economic times, available money to spend isn't what it used to be. Thus, we need to be more selective about how we spend what few dollars we have. I might suggest this year that instead of wasting money on gifts you don't need, you might consider making a charitable donation to a various cause in the name of the person you want to get a gift for. What is neat about this neat about this idea is that it is really a two-fer gift. Someone gets a gift (are at least a warm fuzzy feeling) and real needy people in the world get a gift that actually need.  As such, here is my annual list of charities you might consider buying someone "a gift" from with the gift actually going to some actual needy cause directly. 1. If you want to sponsor a child, http://www.worldvision.org  does a great job. I'...

The SciFi Channel finally announced when the final episodes of Battlestar Galactica will begin airing: January 16th.  Just in time to fill the post-football bowl season void.  Excellent. 

I feel like I am forgetting a saint here in my new sidebar format. I have all my favorite saints on one sidebar or the other. The ones currently are: Dietrich Bonhoeffer (patron saint of the blog, from whence "costlygrace" is named) Thomas More (Anyone who could so politely tell off Henry VIII deserves space)  Joseph and Mary (I hope the reason for the Holy Family is obviously) St. George (patron saint of England) St. Augustine (the rest of Western theology is a footnote on him) St. Barnabas (I was ordained on his feast day to the diaconate, I was ordained a priest on                                          Ascension, so I have to like Barnabas.) St. Nicholas (the real Saint Nicholas, patron saint of archers amongst other things) St Michael the Archangel (defender against evil hackers) I just feel like I am missing a biggie. Maybe St. Patrick...what do you think? I am going to offer a poll on the sidebar. If you choice isn't there, leave a comment. If it is, leave a comm...

I have finally decided to bite the bullet and redo my blog from a one-sidebar layout to a two sidebar layout. I've been wanting to do this for a while and finally figured out a HTML script that I liked for it that actually works well with blogger.com.  I am also tinkering with peripherals like colors and fonts and such, so it will be a work in progress for a while. I would appreciate any constructive feedback...

I was amused...I have no idea why. -The Archer  The Castle Personality Test You are scared of new experiences. It's hard for you to break outside of your comfort zone. You like to think that people see you as intellectual and wise. You consider yourself to be very smart. You are a very romantic person. You can't help but see the world as it should be. Right now, stress occasionally makes you feel trapped in your life. You usually have a clear perspective on things though! Overall, your life is very peaceful - if not a little solitary. Much of what goes on goes on in your head. You are extremely optimistic about the future. You feel like things are always getting better. The Castle Personality Test

This is my upcoming December article for the parish newsletter. -The Archer P.S...St. Nicholas is also the patron saint of Archers ;) --------------------------------------------------------- The Curate's Corner “Warning: The Following Might Not Be Suitable for Children.” I have news for you: the church usually does not do things like normal people do things. One example of this is that the calendar of the church year is slightly different than the normal everyday calendar. The beginning of the church year does not start on January 1st, but rather on the first Sunday of Advent. Advent originally evolved as a Lenten-like period of fasting and waiting for the coming the Christ child on Christmas. The idea of an Advent fast has largely ceased in America, probably in no small part due to fact that secular Christmas has become a month long holiday extravaganza of cookies, candy, and all out Yuletide celebrations beginning sometime around or before Thanksgiving. If you ask children (youn...

Today is Veterans' Day, which, of course, was originally started as Armistice Day, the day commemorating the end of the First World War. Part of the following I am recycling and expanding upon from a comment I left on another blog . I have always found it interesting that Veterans' Day is now what we used to call Armistice Day. The shift being from a day remembering the End of the War to End All Wars to simply remembering those who fought in wars. Certainly, I have the utmost respect for Veterans. Don't get me wrong. It is certainly important to remember those who laid it all on the line in the service of their country. I just find ironic that a day that initially was created to primarily remember and celebrate Peace has been revised to primarily remember the Veterans of War for their own sake and no so much to remember Peace and the Price of Peace. World War I was such a tragedy in so many ways. Its largely the forgotten war of the 20th Century. Most people have no real id...

My congratulations go out to Senator Obama as the new President-elect. I will pray for him (and I hope you will as well regardless of whether you voted for him or not) and for his coming adminstration. I certainly wish him and his familiy well, especially over the loss of his grandmother who died before she got to see him elected. As such, I offer the following prayer 'For the President of the United States and all in Civil Authority' which is found on pg. 820 of the Book of Common Prayer: "O Lord our Governor, whose glory is in all the world: We commend this nation to thy merciful care, that, being guided by thy Providence, we may dwell secure in thy peace. Grant to the President of the United States, the Governor of this State (or Commonwealth), and to all in authority, wisdom and strength to know and to do thy will. Fill them with the love of truth and righteousness, and make them ever mindfulof their calling to serve this people in thy fear; through Jesus Christ our Lo...

I happened to be surfing around Amazon.com and ran across something that perked me right up. Apparently, Frank Herbert's son and Kevin Anderson have teamed up for another Dune prequel . They've down two three-part Dune prequels that were very good. The Machine Crusade series was excellent. They've also written a two-part Dune postquel (is that a word?) that I have not gotten to read yet. I haven't had the incentive, as I felt like I needed to go back and reread the last Frank Herbert Dune novel, which I haven't read in 10 years, and as I recall was really bizarre. Also, in the interim between the last of the prequels and the postquel , I read Kevin Anderson's very well done series The Saga of Seven Suns, which I have talked about in previous posts on this blog. The series was non-Dune related, but it certainly had some Dune characteristics. Its a massive 7 volume space opera, but its well worth the time. I noticed on Amazon that the new Dune novel takes pl...

From the Prayer For an Election (pg. 822 of the Book of Common Prayer): Almighty God, to whom we must account for all our powers and privileges: Guide the people of the United States in the election of officials and representatives; that, by faithful administration and wise laws, the rights of all may be protected and our nation be enabled to fulfill your purposes, through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN .

I thought Texas Tech/Texas was the upset special of the week. I was starting to sweat it late in the game when Texas marched down the field and scored to take the lead for the first time in the game. Texas Tech looked like they didn't have anything left. But, the Raiders marched down the field and scored with one second left on the clock. Wow. That's all I can say. I am going to have to ponder how I would rank the top ten currently. I'm still not sold on Alabama, but they appear to be headed up to Numero Uno . I still an unconvinced that Penn State could beat any contender from a non-inbred Big Ten conference. I mean, does anyone really think Penn State could beat anyone else in the top ten like a Oklahoma, Florida, or USC ? I like JoePa , but I think not... I suppose this is how I would rank the current top ten beauty pageant . No. 1 Alabama Texas Tech (tie) No. 3 Oklahoma Florida (another tie) No. 5 USC No. 6 Penn State No. 7 Texas No. 8 Oklahoma State (jury is still on ...

It's that time again...no, not Halloween. It is the Feast of All Saints! I've always loved All Saints' Day . Perhaps it appeals to my more catholic understanding of the role of saints, living and dead, but All Saints is probably one of my favorite holidays of the year. We have three baptisms this morning at church, and I, aside from Easter, All Saints is the best time to do baptisms. I just love that image of all the saints, living and dead, cheering on the newly baptized. Anyway, Happy All Saints' Day!