The Arrow's Path

A friend of mine from the local Ministerial Association gave me a little booklet he picked up years ago in Conventry Cathedral in England . The copyright date in 1963. There is a lovely introduction entitled, "What is Evensong?" in the front of it. Here is what text says with capitalization, punctuation, and spelling are exactly as printed in the original: "Evensong in Coventry Cathedral is a very tiny fragment of something else: it is a fragment of the worship which is offered to God by christian people, every hour of the twenty-four, in every part of the world. When you come to Evensong here, it is as if you were dropping in on a conversation already in progress-a conversation between God and men which began long before you were born, and will go on long after you are dead. So do not be surprised, or disturbed, if there are some things in the conversation which you do not at once understand.  "Evensong is drawn almost entirely from the Bible. Its primary purpose...

Saint Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle. Be our protection against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray; and do Thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host - by the Divine Power of God - cast into hell, satan and all the evil spirits, who roam throughout the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

Occasionally, he hits on something good.

South Dakota State played well against Nebraska last night. They still lost 17-3; but they gave the No. 6 team in the land all they could handle. The Nebraska starters had to play the whole game. Not too shabby for a I-AA team.

"Frequently we tried to point out the absurdity of racism in the hope that our white compatriots would be embarrassed into dropping something that could be so ludicrous. And so I would suggest that instead of skin color we should substitute a large nose, since I possessed one. Can you imagine if we were to say that this university was reserved not for whites, as happened under apartheid, but for large noses only-that would be the chief requirement, not academic ability? And if you were afflicted with a small nose, to have to apply to the Minister of Small Nose Affairs for permission to attend the university reserved for large noses. Everyone in most audiences where I told this story would be rolling in the aisles at the stupidity and the absurdity of it all. It would have been wonderful had it been just a laughing matter of this kind. Sadly it was anything but." -Archbishop Desmond Tutu. No Future Without Forgiveness . (New York: Doubleday, 1999). Pg. 93.

NCAA.com put out an interesting editorial about the evolution of the football helmet that can be found here . This is in part due in my estimation to the current buzz (one might go so far as to describe it as hysteria) about concussions in contact sports, particularly football. I have always found this an interesting evolution. Long gone are the days of strapping on your leather helmet: In the 50's and 60's, the helmet evolved into, basically becoming a metal then hard plastic version of the leather helmet with the addition of a rudimentary face mask (which was really just a bar at first): Gradually, the helmet's face mask itself began to evolve: Combines with new space age style lightweight plastics and foams, the helmet mask ultimately became a type of full, goalie style face mask (This little number costs just under $1000 to purchase new): Ironically, being a military history major, the football helmet evolution followed the pattern of design that helmets worn...

I have decided to make my own Children's Day by Day Advent activity calendar, as everything I have found online or in liturgical supply catalogs are dubious at best. My one ground rule is that it has to be Advent related. There are plenty of so-called Advent calendars out there, but upon examination, you find that they are simply Christmas activities disguised as Advent. Also, I am probably going to try a two-track one, with an activity for younger and older kids. Anyone have any ideas to share? I am willing to share my finished product with anyone who wants one.

I didn't feel like I did that much home canning this year, particularly since my garden plot at the community garden was washed out (more than once). The sheer lack of cabinet space in my pantry due to canned goods seems to bely that perception. Lots of apple butter and pickles, amongst other things. Yum.

Chuck Berry and John Lennon...what a pairing. I never ceased to be amazed what you can find on Youtube.

There's a very interesting piece of sports writing here  by Michael Rosenberg concerning Violence in Football that is worthy of a read. CNNSI is a little paranoid about quotes and plagiarism, so I won't quote it directly. However, the basic gist of the article, as I understand it, is to pose a moral and ethical question of when does a sport (in this instance football) become too violent to watch as a fan in good conscience? That is an interesting question that I have wrestled with off and on for many years. I don't particularly like hockey because all out fist fights are a common part of that game, and players are seldomly ejected. They go to the penalty box, but usually they get back into the game at some point. If hockey would immediately eject any players fighting, then I would be more likely to get into hockey. I like the actual game itself, at least if I can watch it live. (Watching hockey on TV is another matter entirely.) Having said that, I don't think fisti...

An editorial about usury   by my friend, Father Tim, in Sioux Falls. I haven't heard that word used in public discourse in years, which is ironic as the financial housing meltdown was premised on usury loans. Good job, Fr. Tim!

The History Channel website has a very interesting interactive program about World War II which can be found here . All photographs from the period are in color, and there are some excellent plane and aircraft carrier schematics. For a history major, I found this fascinating.

The South Dakota Children's Museum  finally opened this week in Brookings. They have been renovating a closed elementary school for over a year. A local philanthropist has largely fronted the money for the project. (It always pays to have a millionaire in town.) They had hoped to open the museum earlier in the year, but with the torrential rains in Brookings this summer (wettest summer on record), it got delayed until after Labor Day. As you will see in the slide show, the museum was well worth the wait. I decided to take my family and my youth mentoring pupil to the museum yesterday, having just opened on Sunday. My Brookings Youth Mentoring student was about to jump out of the car because he was so excited to be the first in his class to get to go. One neat thing that I learned being on the Brookings Historic Preservation Commission is that the original school was on the Historic Landmark register. Even with the massive renovation and addition, the philanthropist w...

What was with the Daily Lectionary this morning? The Old Testament readings from the Daily Lectionary  over the past few weeks have been going through the Book of Job. Job is one of my favorite Old Testament books for many reasons. However, yesterday, we finally had the last chapter of Job. And I assumed we were done with it. But today, we had a random reading from the 28th Chapter of Job . While a beautifully poetic passage, I was curious why the Lectionary felt it needed a rebuttal, particularly this one, to the closing chapter yesterday? I know bible scholars go bananas over the "happy ending" in Job that many believe is a sanitized later addition to the text. I am not completely sold on those arguments because, like most Biblical Textual and Source Criticisms, there is an awful lot of hearsay and conjecture, but scant, if any, actual proof that would stand up in any court of law, or what I call a "House of Cards" exegesis. But, even if we had to end the Job ...

Reality finally caught up to Reggie Bush, the USC Heisman trophy winner in 2005. There has been much ballyhooing regarding his action to voluntarily return the Heisman. As other reports indicate, he conveniently returned it the day the Heisman Trophy committee met behind closed doors, likely to strip him of it whether he went along or not. There is a good little blurb here on what some former Heisman trophy winners had to say on the debacle. For the record, I don't give a hoot nor a holler about the Heisman. Never have since Peyton Manning got ripped off back in 1997. Most of the time, its a complete popularity contest. Most of the Heisman voters (and I've personally contacted several over the years) don't even bother looking at game film on most of the candidates. Their votes are made up in their mind before the season even starts. I've even had more than one Heisman trophy voter off the record tell me they've sold their vote for money. The Heisman trophy is se...

After a long Diocesan Convention this weekend out in Pierre, I decided to take Monday and Tuesday of this week off and get out of town for a night. We packed up the car and drove about an hour and quarter north to Marvin, SD, where Blue Cloud Abbey resides. Blue Cloud Abbey is a truly special place. I've been to a lot of monasteries over the years, but Blue Cloud is my favorite. The grounds are gorgeous, and the monks are quite gregarious. There aren't any pictures of it, but as it happened during Evening Prayer yesterday when we got there, the Abbot clothed a new novice monk with the Benedictine cowl. I had never seen that before in a monastic liturgy, so it was a nice event. This morning, since we are already up (my daughter decided to wake up at 4 AM), we went to Morning Prayer. My daughter discovered the main Abbey church has a great echo, so we had to take a walk outside while my wife enjoyed Matins. Luckily, the sun was rising, so we got some great shots. We also to...

This month's Archaeology Magazine has a wonderful cover article about Dogs in Antiquity . It was a wonderful article with a lot of side bar anecdotes (links to which are found in the article as well) about archaeological finds concerning dogs. It is a truly fascinating read and well written.

The American Friends of the Diocese of Jerusalem got the following blurb posted on the Episcopal News Service and asked me to pass it along to my blog readers.

More from the BBC here . Having heard some horror stories while I was living in Cambridge from folks who lived through it, this is a well deserved commemoration.

" The Enduring Solitude of Combat Vets ."

Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects, for good or ill, all other lives: So guide us in the work we do, that we may do it not for self alone, but for the common good; and, as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.   Amen. 1979 Book of Common Prayer, pg. 261

I will make a comment about college football. At least I will post a link here that is worth consideration. I used to be adamantly against the idea of paying amateur football players for playing a collegiate sport. With the off season realignment scamper for greener monetary pastures whilst throwing neighboring schools under the bus (if you don't believe me, go watch the press conference when Nebraska or Colorado announced they were leaving the Big XII and going to the Big Ten and Pac-10. Count how many times the terms like "money" and "revenue" are used), I am now reconsidering that position. I am still not certain that paying players is the right approach for many reasons, not the least of which is a Pandora's box of entitlements that paying of players (men and women) from every sport (not just football) is going to create. Many schools simply can't afford to do it, which will create an even greater have/have not dichotomy in college sports. Most ...

One of the hymns we sung last Sunday was a classic Lutheran hymn named A mighty fortress is our God...everytime I hear that hymn, I have to suppress a chuckle, not because of the hymn, I like that hymn, but because of an event associated with it in my mind. I was an intern at a church in South Omaha, very near Offutt AFB if you are familiar with Omaha at all, before I went to seminary. One time we had a phone call out of the blue from some family that had just had a death in the family. Turned out in the guy's will he wanted to be buried at this particular church I was working at. We never got the full story why exactly, he must have attended the church many years ago when he was in the Air Force, but no one really seemed to remember him. In the Episcopal/Anglican tradition, we generally try not to turn down families that want a Christian burial, regardless of the circumstances. So, Father Bob and I tried to plan out a general funeral service, and we tried to think up some hy...

Today is the first major kickoff day for the NCAA football season. Usually I am all a quiver and have made several prognostications about the upcoming season. With all the off-season hoopty-doo with conference realignment and the unbridled display of sheer avarice and greed on just about everybody's part in big time college football, I have to admit college football this year is not all that appealing. I had held out naive hope over the years that college football was not solely about the money. With the off season such as it was, it left a very bad taste in my mouth that is not liable to go away in the near future. Perhaps at some point in the future, I may return to commenting on college football, but I frankly do not care right now. There might be one possible exception in the new coach at Tennessee, who I really like as a person. He seems to actually have class. I'd expect nothing less from a Dooley. Sadly, I think he is going to have his hands full for the next two to ...

I used to really like the newspaper column, Dear Abby, at least when the original Abby was still in control of it. Her daughter has taken it over now, and I often in jest refer to it now Dear Scabby because the topic quality now borders on the bizarre and sometimes even the perverse. I read the column though for entertainment value, as it is a good glimpse into American culture. I read  this article  a few days ago in the local paper. The column is largely reprinting letters received from readers in response to the Dear Abby column from July 14th, found here . The original letter in question is half way down the column after the ad. (You'll see what I mean about the topic quality in the first few letters from the July 14th edition.) The more recent column was a truly fascinating glimpse into America's great denial that death actually happens. Perhaps I am unfairly targeting America because that is more generally the West's problem in particular. I was in a liturgy class...

The following is a litany for the peace talks in the Middle East, commended for use by The Cathedral of St. George the Martyr, Jerusalem -The Archer O Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, Have mercy upon us. O Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world, Grant us your peace. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy . Lord, have mercy. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the birth in Bethlehem of the Word made flesh, Jesus your Son; who dwelt among us full of grace and truth. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. We thank you for his life; his death here in Jerusalem as he carried our sins and suffering, and for his glorious Resurrection in which he gave us new life with him. Lord in your mercy , hear our prayer. We thank you for entrusting to us the ministry of forgiveness, reconciliation and peace-making for the healing of your creation. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. We pray for all victims...

There's a new church plant. Guess where, and then  click here .

You have to read this to believe it. I hope he doesn't cry...it is football after all.

Today is September 1st, and it is hard for me to believe. The stores are already packed with Halloween stuff. I am still waiting for the day when I start seeing Christmas stuff on September 1st, but that's a separate issue. I think I am still adapting to weather on the Northern Plains. There were only a very small number of days this summer that actually felt summer-ish to this Southern boy. I don't think it ever really got really hot, at least what I would call hot. There were a few days that were close, but I never stuck to my car seat because of humidity. Unless that happens, it feels like several months of late spring. Not that I'm complaining. Its nice not to have exorbitant Air Conditioning bills in the summer. I just dread the fact that there may be snow in the next month. It snowed the first week of October last year if I recall, as it froze all the leaves off the trees before they peeked. The Farmer's Almanac said we are suppose to have a milder winter th...