The Arrow's Path

The Archer fully endorsed Our Little Roses Foreign Mission Society in Honduras. This new video describes what it is. It's worth watching (about 10 minutes). For more information, including donation options, go to their website here .

As a member of the Order of the Holy Innocents, I commend this prayer for your devotion on this Day. -The Archer ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heavenly F ather, we pray this day for the children of the world. We pray that Thou wilt protect, guide, and provide for those children who are unwanted, unloved, abandoned or abused. We pray for those children who have been left unguarded by being orphaned. We pray for those most in peril, the unborn. Spare them, O Father, from the dangers of disease and drugs, an uncaring mother or father, but most of all from an untimely death at the hands of another. Replenish Thy Church, O God, with a fruitful offspring so that the Church may resound with the joy of their small voices that will one day turn to prayer unto thee, O Lord. Amen Source: Fr. Sack OSF, Louisville, Ky.

A look at the slightly melting Christmas blizzard...

So, Santa came and brought some North Pole weather with him. Thanks a lot, Big Guy.

Best Wishes and a Very Merry Christmas to all!

Dear Editor, I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says "If you see it in The Sun it's so." Please tell me the truth. Is there a Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon 115 West Ninety-fifth St. VIRGINIA, Your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no ...

As many of my readers may be aware, I collect and listen to old radio shows. The wonder of .Mp3's and other audio format makes listening to and collecting dramatic radio from the Golden Age of Radio easy to do. Great for background entertainment while multitasking (not that I know anything about that). For those stuck at home in the Christmas Eve snow storm, or for those who want something to listen to on Christmas eve, I suggest taking the time to listen to one of the following: The great Dragnet Christmas show from 1954, which can be listened to here . The Classic Orson Welles/Lionel Barrymore Campbell Playhouse production of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol from 1939 can be listened to here . Lux Radio Theatre's production of A Miracle on 34th Street from 1948 is here . For those wanting a little adventure and Christmas, The Shadow's Christmas episode is here . And for a little humor, here is The Great Gildersleeve's Christmas Stray Puppy or Fibber McGee and M...

A rather large advertisement from the local paper that I found amusing:

I surfed onto this virtual Christmas card, of sorts , at Hamatorua Monastery (I have no idea where it is, and most of the website is not in English). The virtual Christmas card is an animation of a Nativity Icon with Orthodox chant in 3 languages in the background. As best as I can translate, the hymn text in the background is: "Today the virgin giveths birth to Him Who is the Servent in Essence and the earth offereth a cave to Him who is unapproachable Angels with shepherds give glory, with a Star the Magi do journey, for our sake a young Child is born, who is pre- eternal God." Interesting but strange. See what you make of it.

Jeff Pearlman just wrote an interesting and provocative editorial here about one of the dark sides of professional football. In it, he interviews a former Oakland Raider who helped that franchise win a Superbowl in the early 80's, and was a pro-bowl star that today, almost 3 decades after he played his last game, he can hardly stand and walk. The fact that the NFL eats men alive physically is not a state secret. The average career tenure of all players who get to actually play in an NFL game is less than 4 years. This is not hard to comprehend. When you have to block or get tackled by 350 to 400+ guys every week, not too many guys' bodies are going to be able to take that kind of punishment for too many years, particularly considering that they have all likely played at least 8 years already in High School and College, if not from the time they were in Middle or even Elementary School. Joints and Hips wear out; backs get ruptured discs. They don't call it "smash mout...

As hard as it might seem, tomorrow is the last Sunday of Advent. Christmas is less that a week away. Goodness gracious...Advent has flown by this year. For those wanting to know St. Paul's Christmas Eve schedule, the following is the Ad we have in the papers that a parishioner put together for us. I think it looks great, if I do say so myself: If you are in town, please come join us!

Yeah, so the University of Nebraska Huskers got voted "Worst Coaching Hire of the Decade" for College Football on CNNSI.com . I have to agree. Having suffered through every home game in his last season, he was an absolute disaster. The absolutely worst game I ever witnessed live was the homecoming game in Callahan's last year, when the Huskers were down 35-0 at halftime. Adding insult to injury, it was the 10 year anniversary of the 1997 National Championship, so the entire '97 Husker squad was standing on the sidelines watching Callahan smile and doodle on his clipboard. That was absolutely the most horrendous game I have ever seen. Then to top it all off, at the press conference after the game, Callahan took no responsibility whatsoever, and actually had the gall to look the reporters in the eye and say, "The system works!" The only thing that worked with Callahan at Nebraska was the hammer that Tom Osborne brought down after the season was over.

The following is an article I just read from a newsletter I receive. Very good stuff... -The Archer ------------------------------------------------------------------------ As I leave I tell them I will be there next Sunday, same time, same place. -Written by The Rev. Dr. William Gardiner They await me each Sunday, most are in wheelchairs, unable to walk. many don't know who I really am, not of my Anglican faith, but they know that they will hear the Word of God, words of comfort because they know they are in their last days. They no longer can understand deep theological preachings, vagaries on Biblical teachings. They only want to be assured that there IS a heaven, an eternal life where pain and suffering no longer exist, where old age and its infirmities are erased and joy, peace, happiness prevail. They want to know that faith and belief will open the gates to this eternal life. They want to know that the faith of their childhood will bring them to that Kingdom promised them i...

from my friend, Steve, via Facebook: Don't let toy-makers tell your daughter how she should look and think about herself. They don't love her. You do.

My mother sent me one of these pictures and the Christmas suit that I wore when I was eight months old. We put the suit on my daughter and took a picture. Care to guess which one is me and which one is my daughter?

So, I finally rented the Prequel to Star Trek that came out in theaters back in May. I had intended to go see it then, but it was in the Brookings theater the week my daughter was born. Needless to say, I had my hands full then and missed it. I do have to give it a few knocks for logical timeline problems. There is a time traveling schtick in the plot, so as the original Spock (Leonard Nimoy) can make a cameo. That actually worked well as a plot device, believe it or not. But I will be interested to see how they fix these inconsistencies in the coming prequel sequel. I mean, come on, they blew up Vulcan. What's that about? I also thought the villain in this movie needed some work. He was one of the few in the cast that did not do a particularly good acting job. I thought he came off as wooden and not that particularly scary. He was creepy, but only in the weird-guy-that-stares-at-you-for-hours-on-the-Greyhound-bus-trip kind of creepy. He was not very compelling in my opinion. I do ...

"The Christian story is precisely the story of one grand miracle, the Christian assertionbeing that what is beyond all space and time, what is uncreated, eternal, came into nature, into human nature, descended into His own universe, and rose again, bringing nature up with Him. It is precisely one great miracle. If you take that away there is nothing specifically Christian left." -CS Lewis, God in the Dock , p. 80.

but this is a good one: ---------------------------------------------- "What do you make?" The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. One man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, 'What's a kid going to learn from someone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?' He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: 'Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach.' To emphasize his point he said to another guest; 'You're a teacher, Joyce. Be honest. What do you make?' Joyce, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, 'You want to know what I make? (She paused for a second, then began...) 'Well, I make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. I make a C+ feel like the Congressional Medal of Honor. I make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 without an I Pod, Game Cube or movie ren...

There is a book I got from the library by Alan Wakefield, the Curator of the Imperial War Museum in London, called Christmas in the Trenches . For those interested in Military History or the World War I era in particular, I would highly recommend reading this book. The book basically breaks down with several first hand accounts of every Christmas of the first World War. It talks about morale, and what people were sending to help out the troops, etc. It is truly a fascinating work, and very accessible for people not all that familiar with the First War World. It focuses primarily on British troops starting with Haig's British Expeditionary Force, which makes sense since the author is by the curator of the Imperial War Museum. The book also touches on Gallipoli and the Eastern Front as well as some of the things going on in Africa. It is a good Christmas time read for history buffs.

December in South Dakota.

So, yesterday's championship game for the SEC was supposed to be the game of the season. Undefeated Alabama and undefeated Florida. A de facto playoff game with BCS implications. An epic match up for the ages. Instead we got an epic beat down because apparently Urban Meyer didn't get the memo. So, Alabama proved they were the SEC No. 1 team. Congrats to the Crimson Tide, they earned it. I'd say the same thing for Texas, but they didn't earn it after their horrendous game in which they only won because the referees decided to give it to them. (That's all I'm going to say about that. Moving on...) I think TCU, Boise State, and Cincinnati have legitimate gripes when they get passed over for the national championship.

The two major conferences that have conference championship games play tomorrow. Some leagues without divisions, like the Big Ten, don't do this. Those conferences lose out on a substantial money maker, but also don't have their top two teams beating the bejeepers out of each other right before Bowl season either. I guess it is a pick your poison situation. The SEC has undefeated No. 1 Florida and undefeated No. 2 Alabama going head to head. Florida has basically gone wire to wire this season as No. 1. There was one week where the AP poll had Alabama at No. 1, but the BCS rankings poll always had Florida at No. 1. I will call that a regular season wire to wire No. 1, seeing as Florida deserves to be No. 1 as they are the defending national champs until proven otherwise on the field. This game is basically a rematch of last years SEC championship game. Both teams were undefeated then as well. The kicker this year is that Florida is weaker than last year's squad, and Alabama ...

"Prayer is a great blessing if practiced in a proper inner state and if we teach ourselves to give thanks to God-both when we receive what we ask and when we do not receive it. For when He gives, and when He does not give, He does it for your good. Thus, when you receive what you ask, it is quite clear you have received it; but when you do not receive it, you also receive, because you thus do not receive what is undoubtedly harmful for you. And not to receive what is harmful means to be granted what is useful. So whether you receive what you ask or not, give thanks to God in the belief He would have always given us what we ask were it not often better for us not to receive it." -Saint John Chrysostom

Trinity Church-Wall Street has a really neat interactive Advent calendar here . Each day of Advent will feature an Anglican Communion story involving partnerships between churches and missionary activities around the world. The official description from the site is here . That is one of the more innovative website ideas I have seen in quite a while.

Ice Climber for the 8-bit Nintendo. That's up there with Super Mario Bros. That seriously just made my day.

There is a small book compiled on the life and miracles of Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myra, which can be found online here in online book form . Obviously, it is from an Eastern Orthodox perspective and references Orthodox liturgical terms like Troparion, but its really solid if you are wanting to tell the story of the real St. Nicholas to children or use a Powerpoint for said purpose. I am told it is the first attempt to extract scenes from icons of the Church's beloved Saints in order to bring them to life with simple stories for children and teens Hat tip: Orthodox Education Blog

I caught the following little clip from MSNBC.com, referencing what I call America's forgotten epidemic: Meth addiction. Visit msnbc.com for breaking news , world news , and news about the economy I remember the nights I was on call during summer I was doing Clinical Pastoral Education as a chaplain at the University of Tennessee medical center. If there was a night down in the Emergency Room where they had less than a dozen cases that came in of Meth addicts, it was considered a good night. The E.R. doctors and nurses called this one section of the E.R. "the Green Mile because many times there so many cases of Meth users that flooded the E.R. that the patients were given distinctive green hospital gowns and lined up in the hallway because they had run out of rooms to place them all as they slept it off and went into various stages of Detox withdrawal. The E.R. staff didn't refer to that hallway as the "Green Mile" to be mean, it was just so heart breaking that y...

It is well worth watching this interview between Rowan Williams and with the Revd Patricia Sawo, a church leader and mother from Kenya. Now, if you want to actually do something about it, go to the Episcopal Relief and Development website and donate to AIDS education work in Africa or consider sponsoring a child in WorldVision's Hope Child program which targets children from areas hit hardest by the AIDS crisis.