Prayer for America - For Relief and Protection From the Property (or Koch Brothers) Congress

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American Right Wing Jesus Idol/ology – Guns, Violence, Racism – Not Faith But Fear – False Christianity

Ted Cruz and Entourage at Media (prayer)

With Inspiration from this blog article:

http://austinisafecker.wordpress.com/2013/10/21/the-right-and-their-false-christianity/

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Prayer to God(dess)

Prayer to God(dess)

Our God(dess)

Who dwells in Paradise

Blessed are your Names

Thy reign of Peace come

Thy plan for Earth

Be-come

As it is already in Paradise

Give us this day in Humility

Provide us from your Bounty

Our daily Bread and

Mutual peace of Mind

And forgive us our Anger

Even as we try to Forgive

The anger in Others

Let us not fail to Be the

Good side of Human

And Protect us from

Our less than Human

Dark Side.

Amen.

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A House of Prayer

St Thomas/High Altar/5 Av/53 St/NYC

From a journal – May 2003

...Rushing to my express bus on Fifth Avenue I glanced up the steps into an unused entrance to Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, a structure I have mentioned before in this journal – (a place where I have gone to pray and mediate and admire the unique massive stone altar piece and stained glass)...

I saw a Muslim engaged in his 4th (?) prayer of the day. He was shoeless – white socks on gray stone – I had seen something like this before, at this same spot, on a cold dark winter night at 5:30 P.M. last winter or one winter ago – one loses track of time here in New York –

...glanced before, at that time, and did not pay much attention to that scene – (did not wish to stare or to intrude on prayer which can be both a public or a private thing). (I was also in a hurry to catch my bus). Later I tried to recollect the scene, reconstruct the scene – but the memory did not fit. Was not reminded of it again until today.

I thought that there were stone saint icons on the side of that locked wooden door area. Today, in less darkness, I noticed the angle of the pray-er’s focus. That focus was not in the direction of the stone statues but on stone support columns – round pillars rising up to typical gothic angle – an arabic angle? – a muslim angle? Which came first, the gothic or the...-

Does not matter. I am reminded of this pray-er and Isaiah’s words. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” Those words more than ever are needed today in this world.

God be praised!...

http://thisculturalchristian.blogspot.com/2008/06/house-of-prayer.html

http://urbaninfidel.blogspot.com/2010/09/muslim-day-parade-2010.html

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Cardinal Dolan's Prayer for the 1% GOP Convention

My fellow Angry White Males

Let us Pray 

For dear fellow One Percenter Mitt

And One Percenter Paul

Whom God has chosen to bless

With lots of PAC cash and

To lead us forward

Out of the darkness caused 

By you know who 

In the White House
(pause for boo-s, house noise)

Restore our Nation

Restore Religious Freedom

So savagely ripped from our 

Christian breasts by the 

Godless Pro-Choice crowd

And…(pause for applause)

(of) politics and fraud—

We’ve made a pretty mess at home,

Let’s make a mess abroad.

And let us ever humbly pray

The Lord of Hosts may deign

To stir our feeble memories

Lest we forget—the Maine.

Take up the White’s Man’s burden.

To you who thus succeed

In civilizing savage hordes,

They owe a debt, indeed;

Concessions, pensions, salaries,

And privilege and right

With outstretched hands you raised to bless

Grab everything in sight.

Take up the White Man’s burden

And if you write in verse,

Flatter your nation’s vices

And strive to make them worse.

Then learn that if with pious words

You ornament each phrase,

In a world of canting hypocrites (like me)

This kind of business pays.

A-men.

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5477/ 

Hiroshima - People Gather to Remember and Pray

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Penn State – NCAA – Pedophilia Cover Up – Paterno Chantry

Paterno Chapel (Chantry) - Penn State Campus

The NCAA is going to investigate this pedophile mess at Penn State.  That is like the USCCB putting out another paid for white paper on priests and buggery.  

If the NCAA could not or did not stop these crimes against humanity done under their willful noses, what exact good can they do now except pay for a white paper saying how they came in, investigated and now everything is safe again at Penn State.  Safe to do sports business as usual again, emphasis on the word busine$$.

Joe Paterno did not sell his soul to Penn State in the last decade or two.  He sold it very early in his career long before any of his talent or luck kicked in to make him so successful and an American Football Icon.  He sold it to that silent secret male only crony club that dominates and rules every college, university and corporation in America.  

Thing is with selling your soul, it is not so easy to buy it back as that myth might seem to indicate.

But if you know you have looked the other way in terms of in-house corruption, possible kickbacks, freebie drugs, prostitutes and cash in white envelopes to Sports Journalists, money laundering through sports foundations and not to mention the added bonus of looking the other way on the pedophilia (kid rape racket on campus) thing, maybe you or your spouse should build a Chantry.

A Chantry is a private chapel or altar in a cathedral dedicated specifically to constant prayers and masses said in the name of the deceased and for the purpose of relieving their sentence in purgatory for all the sins they, usually kings and princes, had to do in the name of the greater good of the state.

Henry VIII outlawed these funded rackets, mostly to steal the funding, but also because any good Protestant knows that you are either saved or not.  That once dead, all the prayers in the universe cannot get you out of hell if you were a like a total royal bastard or nasty prick pain in the ass in your lifetime - in other words, a monster.

I find it ironic that something like a month after Joe Paterno signs his share of his  house over to his wife, his wife is dedicating the Paterno Family Chantry on the Penn State Campus.  That chapel is no doubt for the purpose of praying, and praying, and praying for all eternity to get Joe Paterno’s soul out of Purgatory. 

Prayers for the forgiveness of the things he found necessary to do as a prince on campus and for the deeds, ugly and perhaps borderline legal to keep the seats filled, the cash flowing, out of Beaver Stadium, the second largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere, capacity 106,572.  That’s a lot of stadium for the virtual middle of nowhere in the middle of the vast dark forests of central Pennsylvania.

Does the stadium wag its tail on the Penn State Campus or is Penn State merely the tail?

Whatever. 

I’ll say a pray for Joe while he is alive and fighting now lung cancer.  I am not a total bastard.  But prayers after he is dead is a waste of time.  You are either saved or not saved.  The prayers at his Campus Chantry will go on so long as the funding continues.  I hope they haven’t invested the Chanty’s foundation/funds too heavily in the Wall Street casino scam.

So it goes. 

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Tea-Vangelist Rick Perry – Accidental Candidate

In the true spirit of Texas exceptionalism, Republican Christian Texas Governor Rick Perry prayed for Texas Christians yesterday in a quarter filled stadium at a white Christians only welcome event.  (So openly out of the closet the GOP these days – don’t you think - their idea of exceptional brotherhood.)

He prayed for Texans and their miseries, no doubt caused by an incompetent in power since 2000 when as Lieutenant Governor under George W. Bush, he became governor by default.  No doubt one of these decades, he will find a way to fix Texas, as governor, when all his prayers are answered. 

Having become the accidental governor of Texas, he is no doubt praying he can become the accidental GOP candidate for president.  And eventually become accidental president.  That’s gonna take a hell of a lot of praying, no pun intended.

Best of luck Rick.

Micah Challenge - Praying for the poor

Micah Challenge - Praying for the poor

An article from Britain and the worldwide prayer for justice tomorrow.

In the light of recent discussion of prayers, it's worth considering that 60 million evangelical Christians around the world will be praying tomorrow for justice around the world in the hope of abolishing extreme poverty. Leaving God out of it, as they would not wish to do, this is still an impressive and potentially important ritual, because it marks a turn towards social justice from one of the most traditionally conservative kinds of Christianity.

The prayer will be used in churches around the globe on 10.10.10. A children's prayer is also available.

O Lord, our great and awesome God, loyal to your promise of love and faithful to all who honour and obey you, hear our prayer.

We pray for those who live in poverty,

we cry out for those who are denied justice and

we weep for all who are suffering.

We confess that we have not always obeyed you.

We have neglected your commands and have ignored your call for justice.

We have been guided by self-interest and lived in spiritual poverty.

Forgive us.

We remember your promises to fill the hungry with good things, to redeem the land by your mighty hand and to restore peace.

Father God, help us always to proclaim your justice and mercy with humility, so that, by the power of your Spirit, we can rid the world of the sin of extreme poverty.

As part of your global church, we stand with millions who praise and worship you.

May our words and deeds declare your perfect goodness, love and righteousness to both the powerful and the powerless

so that your Kingdom may come on earth as it is in heaven. Amen

Sarah Palin/Ketchup - Rand Paul/Mustard - and miracles

When you have a tea party you usually serve petite sandwiches already seasoned with butter etc.

A-mericans and tea partys are not the norm and they are more into barbecue.

As such I have made a mental note to discount anything Sarah Palin or her evil little twin brother Rand Paul says. Discounting cucumber sandwiches with moose burgers sounds about right. And the only logical condiment for moose burger is Ketchup or Mustard.

Am making a mental tweet to myself that Sarah is Ketchup and Rand is Mustard. It just makes any ludicrous thing they say to get attention a little easier to get down.

Sarah’s tweet on Sunday was world class and typical of her proposed management techniques if elected president.

Gulf disaster needs divine intervention as man's efforts have been futile. Gulf lawmakers designate today Day of Prayer for solution/miracle

Did a miracle happen and I missed it on Sunday???

Man-made disasters belong in the realm of mankind to resolve. Sarah isn’t even president and she is already blaming God for not coming through with a miracle to cover her lack of basic management skills. The best is yet to come with that twit and her tea party brother twat.

Big Government Mandate – National Prayer Day

The Tea Party complains about Big Government. They did not complain when Bush and Cheney started an optional oil war in Iraq with its final costs in the trillions. But big government is somehow here and now and under an African American President.

I never heard of the National Prayer Day before the recent court ruling making it unconstitutional. Apparently this big government mandate to make us all pray when the Government tells us to pray is the kind of thing the Tea Party should be complaining about.

I would have thought that the national prayer thing would have been some sort of executive proclamation for the sake of politics. But this National Prayer thing had been a government law since 1952.

What next from Big Government? Tell us when to fast and for how long. Ramadan?

Fighting to Pray in Cordoba

Here is a real odd one that challenges all the phony PR press releases from the RC church about interfaith dialogue.

Two arrested after fight in Cordoba's former mosque

Trouble broke out when the visitors knelt to pray in the building, a former mosque turned into a Christian cathedral in the 13th century, where a local bishop, Demetrio Fernández, recently insisted that a ban on Muslim prayers must remain.

Half a dozen members of a group of more than 100 Muslims from Austria had started praying among the marble columns and coloured arches of the vast building when security guards ordered them to stop.

"They provoked in a pre-planned fashion what was a deplorable episode of violence," the bishop's office said in a statement.

Bishop Demetrio Fernandez Gonzalez of Cordoba is a new hard ass bishop installed in February and is not allowing Muslims to do a prayer thing in the museum attached to his cathedral.

If you look at the picture above the ancient Mosque of Cordoba once occupied all the interior space of a flat roofed mosque. No airy space but good solid bones of beautiful architecture. The cathedral got plopped down in the middle of the Mosque. The mosque as an indoor space is not part of the cathedral. In fact, the former kings used the mosque space as office space and part of the royal court for conducting business.

Like most RC houses of worship with historic importance in Europe, you have to pay a fee to see the architecture of belief in God in another age. Is there belief in God these days by the owners of this once sacred Real Estate? I have to wonder.

The conflict arises these days when tourists, Muslims in particular do not want to wander through church property labeled as museum space when a growing Muslim population would like access to a part of their religious heritage.

Escudero said a space for Muslim prayers would not inconvenience visitors or disturb the cathedral and would promote dialogue and understanding between the two religions. He said there were frequent incidents of Muslims being prevented from praying.

"They argue that canon law does not allow Muslims to pray there, though they have been happy to permit visiting Saudi princes and other dignitaries, including Saddam Hussein, to pray," he said.

"A new bishop was appointed recently and one of his first public statements was to say that Muslim prayers would not be allowed as this would create confusion," he said. "It seems the guards have instructions to prevent prayers with violence, if necessary."

Cathedral authorities reiterated their ban on prayers. "The shared use of the cathedral by Catholics and Muslims would not contribute to the peaceful coexistence of the two beliefs," the statement from the bishop's office said.

There’s that “Confused” word being used again by the Catholics. They used it in Father’ Breslin’s parish in Boulder Colorado where two children of gay parents would be “confused” by church teachings on homosexuality and the entitlement to salvation only to heterosexuals.

Now mere belief in one God would no doubt “confuse” catholics if they see that a world, a whole universe is saved within the Muslim part of the spectrum and without the use of Roman clergy.

Get a life. Get tolerance. Get sincere belief in your own belief system and stop issuing PR reports about interfaith dialogue when you lock the house of God off to believers in God.

...my house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. ISAIAH 56:7

Words do not count in faith. Actions do!

First Sunday in Lent - Matt 4 1-11 - Feb 21, 2010

I first heard the story of Jesus and his fasting for forty days from the nuns in my grade school. It is a hard idea to teach. I never went to bed hungry. But the concept of not eating on purpose and called it fasting is something as a child I accepted without question.

As I grew older the idea of fasting for forty days seems to defy logic or credibility. If you look at a lot of biblical stories, they are presented to reinforce other stories in the bible. The number forty has to do with forty years the Israelites under Moses wandered in the desert. It rained for forty days and nights on Noah's immense boat.

It took me some years to realize that the season of Lent talks about forty days of fasting and sacrifice but the season discounts and does not count Sundays. Does that mean I can have a banana split on Sunday in between the fasting thing?

Many things in the Bible may or may not have happened exactly as they say. But no doubt and assuredly they really did happen.

I have to look at a dedicated man named Jesus who is trying to purge himself of all the things of this world, to purge them out of his mind. We do not know what went on in his mind in the middle of a very long and lonely separation from the world in the desert.

There is a modern popular horoscope guy in the newspapers and Internet who does a weekly column. He advocates that we take an occasional fast from the media. He is in essence saying, one day a week turn off the television, turn off the radio. Turn off the computer and Internet and the iPod. He says to tune into yourself. Is this so original or novel as idea? No.

Moses when he wanted to change his family, the blood of Abraham, turn them away from the very sophisticated culture of the Egyptians, he had them wander around the desert for forty years to get reacquainted with living in harsh desert conditions, surviving and prospering and becoming once again what they lost while living for centuries in Egypt. They lost the ability to be of themselves and dependent on themselves. It was a return to nature so to speak. It was a return to simpler less complicated days. It was a way of life where the individual on an individual level focused one on one with God and nature.

To do that, Moses ordered or created the Sabbath as a holy day in compliance for a holy day in the Ten Commandments. This is a day to shut out the outside world and to focus only on yourself and your immediate family and on reflection of God and his word. This is a day when you can or should turn off and turn away from the secular world. That one day a week is supposed to be for our spiritual side and in recognition of the Creator. This is a day to recharge our spiritual batteries.

That day of rest is to imitate the day of rest God took after he created everything in six days, is sadly not afforded to many of us in this mad 24/7 modern world. When do you fit in time for yourself or your family? Is a workout at the gym a good withdraw from the world? Is going to the PTA meeting or transporting the kids to soccer practice or ballet a plus or a negative? I cannot answer that. Only you can. The expression goes something like having " quality time" with your loved ones. Think about it.

Jesus who decided he had a destiny to fulfill, a destiny perhaps thrust upon him by the living God. He had to made an adjustment. He had to decide if he wanted to willingly choose that destiny, if he was worthy, if he was ready, and strong enough. He had to start somewhere. He had to fast and pray for a very long time, perhaps even forty days or longer.

In all that pain and suffering and withdraw from the world, he as a human no doubt played those video tapes of things in his life, played those tapes over and over again, things that he was giving up for his ministry to the poor and the ignorant of this world. He went into the desert one sort of man and came out another. He accepted his destiny, harsh as living that destiny would have to be. He, as the Muslims would say, submitted totally to the will of God. God's plan for the world was now his plan as well. No going back. Only forward.

And no doubt, because sometimes fasting gives you a chemical high off your body chemistry kicking in to offset starvation, no doubt he was temped to believe that he was great and powerful and that he could use his vision and his powers solely for himself. But no, this he did not do. If there is one thing that rings true in the gospels is the love and commitment that Jesus had to humanity - the other children of God. Us.

The modern world of Goldman Sachs, Wall Street bankers and Ivy League Harvard educated men and women do not add up in their tens of thousands to the one real man, the mensch, the one and only Jesus of Nazareth!

When they put the gospels together, there may have been some lost passages. What they perhaps left out of some of the gospels, these gospel writers, are the letters, numbers or words of the equation of man, of men as equal to one another and fully worthy of sharing in the those fruits of labor and wealth of this planet equally. The spirit of the message of Jesus comes through by recognizing man and humanity as a critical part of any political, economic or religious equations - then and now.

The world that Jesus envisioned may not be here in this world. It most surely is in the next where the things of this world are totally discounted. A rich man cannot get through the eye of a needle and it is that difficult for any greedy fools to try to carry their gold and cash off this spec of dust of this planet into a vast universe created by the living God.

Jesus sits at the right hand of that living God because he served others first and foremost and because he saw in every individual the potential and treasure of their individual soul.

In the season of Lent that Christians try to use to push off the things of this world in favor of more spiritual things, let us remember why we make sacrifices, make them gladly and remember that others too like Jesus have done them willingly in the past.

We are the present. We as Christians look to the future of mankind as envisioned by God. It is a vision we share with God through Jesus and his examples of love, honor, commitment, sacrifice and personal endurance.

Let us be glad to fast and abstain from the temporary things of this world during this season of sacrifice, this season of Lent. Let us attempt to reset out buttons away from the world of the secular and retread a path to the world of the sacred and spiritual.

Let us be glad to pray. Let us be glad to be there also in spirit with Jesus in that desert of fasting and prayer.

"You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance." (Psalm 32:7)

Amen.


http://ezinearticles.com/?Matt-4-1-11,-First-Sunday-in-Lent&id=3689775

National Prayer Observed - Everyday

Of course everyday is a good day to pray.

Yesterday the White House endorsed a National Day of Prayer with less fanfare and less political pomp as in recent years.

No one group can own nor can any one philosophical approach to the concept of God be monopolized especially in this diverse nation.


Prayer Day receives ecumenical treatment

…Obama opted yesterday for a private observance and a decidedly ecumenical proclamation. The proclamation cites the "one law that binds all great religions together: the Golden Rule and its call to love one another, to understand one another, and to treat with dignity and respect those with whom we share a brief moment on this Earth."

Praising the armed forces, he says "it is because of them that we continue to live in a nation where people of all faiths can worship or not worship according to the dictates of their conscience."

Shirley Dobson, chairwoman of the National Day of Prayer Task Force, said it was "disappointed in the lack of participation by the Obama administration" in the 58th annual observance. "At this time in our country's history, we would hope our president would recognize more fully the importance of prayer," she said in a statement.

But other religious groups praised Obama for dialing back the observance and accused the task force of trying to exclude non-Christians. Dobson is the wife of James Dobson of Focus on the Family, a politically active Christian conservative group…

Prayer! What an Original Idea Bishop Wenski.

There is the bishop of Orlando (second from left - photo above - under right hand of Jesus) who is doing a Mass of Reparation to repent for the mortal sins against God – presumably regarding abortions by women and condom use by men – and in relation to President Obama’s arrogant uppity personal view of life and Christianity.

Notre Dame's Obama invite riles Catholic bishops

This coming week, Bishop Thomas Wenski of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orlando, Fla., will take the unusual step of celebrating a Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God. The motivation: to provide an outlet for Catholics upset with what Wenski calls the University of Notre Dame's "clueless" decision to invite President Barack Obama to speak at its commencement and receive an honorary doctorate May 17.

This is a good thing. Prayer. How Original! “A Mass of Reparation, to make amends for sins against God” for mortal sins like abortions by women and condom use by men.

Sounds good from a PR stand point. Any American Bishop can sign on to the “me too” Radio Talk-Show Litmus Loyalty Test against Obama at Notre Dame. Why not try prayer to set your house in order - Bishop Wenski and the other “me too” American bishops following the same tired party line and protest about Notre Dame’s choice.

Notre Dame as a world class institution has the right to bestow a minor honor on this man. This man has done more in a short time for American greatness, for American healing in a symbolic manner greater than half a dozen Vatican Councils.

From the same Article Above:

"I think the bishops who believe abortion is the ultimate litmus test look at the polls and realize Catholics are not listening to them," said the Rev. Mark Massa, co-director of the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University. "They're playing a very dangerous game because they do not have the moral authority they had before the sex abuse crisis, and they're trying to find a toehold and get heard."

How many Masses of Reparation have been said by the these same “me too” bishops for the sins of the clergy against the innocent Bishop Wenski? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Tell me!

Or does morality on that issue straddle a thin blurred line? Perhaps the clergy abuse thing is considered a secular matter because it deals, has dealt, with lawyers, lawsuits, civil and not church laws.

Perhaps the true moral authority of some American bishops can be ascertained after May 17 with this “moral” line in the sand tempest in a moral teapot thing about Obama at Notre Dame - by seeing who is on or off this loyal “me too” bishops' self righteous petition being passed around at present.

A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama

By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire

Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009

Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.

O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…

Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.

Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.

Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers” we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.

Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed” anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.

Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.

Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.

Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.

And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.

Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership style, President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.

Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.

Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.

Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.

Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.

Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.

And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.

AMEN.

Prayer for a New Year

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May the power above
Grant you a new year
a new start if needed
filled with many blessings.

Days come and go.
Blessings come and go.
Both can be sorely missed
When unnoticed or gone.

Keep in mind perspectives.
The need to live, work, play,
Reflect, construct, learn-
Take some time to pray.

We are not alone.
And yet we can be lonely.
Patience, courage, love,
Are virtues needed these days.

Touch nature and its beauties.
Bring the richness of creation
Into your daily living and drink
Freely of the waters of life.

Always remember,
Never forget,
Count your blessings
All of the time.

Prayer of Francis of Assisi

Lord,
make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Lord,
grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.
-

the great dark

A great dark bird (B-1)
circles above.

It is hard to ignore as I
approach and park, then go
do a late day routine.

Lines in the desert seem
more crisply defined with
clear blue sky overhead.

Black silhouette
against electric blue
is hard to miss.

Driving here everyday sees
training flights all the time
as they round the city.

Oddly comfortable,
a nation’s ready defense
against who or what
I sometimes wonder.

My errand is done.

The image returns as
I start up the car and
look through the windshield.

The great dark bird
continues to fly.

It casts large shadows
while it coasts on solar winds
slowly maneuvering near
its unseen home mountain
(Davis Monthan Air Force Base).

This while four young chicks,
training jets in standard gray,
(not the usual A-10’s)
keep careful speed and distance
to the mother bird.

This all, with nearby
afternoon football play
in a still green autumn park.

Long shadows, fading sun.
A warmth of Sol on the face.

Driving away from the park
and daycare retrieval
I notice (and am part of)...

The great dark’s spread
of larger wings,
casting its personal shadow
on us, my son and me,
as it seemingly glides to conquer
near ground in landing.
over a house as horizon line.

Momentary illusion, partaking
interrupted by reality and
a sobering thought.

The cost overruns had
nothing to due with grace
or beauty.

Haunting end day images
mix with Oppenheimer’s
Hindu recitation. – echo
“ I am become death...
...a shatterer...”

(be not death! I reply)

Where there is life, there is God.

Power. Power.
A dropped egg?

Potential death.
There or here?

Hopeful design
never (a prayer)
to be fulfilled.


(11-29-95, Tucson)
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A House of Prayer

From a journal – May 2003


...Rushing to my express bus on Fifth Avenue I glanced up the steps into an unused entrance to Saint Thomas Episcopal Church, a structure I have mentioned before in this journal – (a place where I have gone to pray and mediate and admire the unique massive stone altar piece and stained glass)...

I saw a Muslim engaged in his 4th (?) prayer of the day. He was shoeless – white socks on gray stone – I had seen something like this before, at this same spot, on a cold dark winter night at 5:30 P.M. last winter or one winter ago – one loses track of time here in New York –

...glanced before, at that time, and did not pay much attention to that scene – (did not wish to stare or to intrude on prayer which can be both a public or a private thing). (I was also in a hurry to catch my bus). Later I tried to recollect the scene, reconstruct the scene – but the memory did not fit. Was not reminded of it again until today.

I thought that there were stone saint icons on the side of that locked wooden door area. Today, in less darkness, I noticed the angle of the pray-er’s focus. That focus was not in the direction of the stone statues but on stone support columns – round pillars rising up to typical gothic angle – an arabic angle? – a muslim angle? Which came first, the gothic or the...-

Does not matter. I am reminded of this pray-er and Isaiah’s words. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations” Those words more than ever are needed today in this world.

God be praised!...
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