When you're incapable of praying or practicing your special virtues...

 

Some wisdom...

I saw this on the St. Alban's Episcopal Church Facebook page. I think that it has real wisdom attached to it.

Many priests too are now finding their own baptisms are "invalid" because many through the decades have used the wrong rite. And since you can't be a priest if you aren't baptized, none of the things they've done as a priest, weddings, last rites, communion, are "valid".

I do not share this to mock the Catholic Church, I shared it because this is the time we as siblings need to step up and support them and come along side and share our common love of Jesus and be there for them.

This is not the time to judge their beliefs as "silly" or "insane", our siblings are having a very real crisis in their ranks and it's time for us as a global community of Christians, no matter our denomination, to really show we are a common family, ready to help when another's leaders have slipped.

So please don't attack the Catholic church at this time...Help your Catholic friends and family as their church figures this out.

Great Preaching At The Seminary Of The Southwest---Will it help you to put your suffering in context and without the usual answers?

 It's all good, but hit it at 7:23 for a special blessing...

"Lord I Know You've Been So Good"-Hasan Green & Martha Holloway

Just how I'm feeling...

 

 

A Faith & All-People's Call From The South To Turn Everything Around: Poor People And Friends, Fight for the Right to the Ballot & Freedom of Expression & Road Ahead to Victory

 

Haluski Noodles & Cabbage

Another recipe from my past and one that even I can manage:

Play some good Slovak music on a CD while you cook. I like to have Del Sinchak playing. Tex-Mex or Texas-Czech/Bohemian music also works very well.

Cook a one-pound package of medium or wide noodles. I usually use egg noodles. Drin them.

Chop one head of cabbage that weighs maybe three pounds or so very fine a fry in butter 'til it browns. I like to keep mine a little crunchy, but not everyone does.

Perhaps you would like to add some fennel, onion, or caraway. You don't have to do this, but it's a nice touch. If you're aedding caraway seeds add a tablespoon or two of vinegar. At that point it isn't haluski. Who cares?

Mix the noodles and the cabbage together.

Pour about 6 tablespoons of melted butter over it all.

Have a good hot sausage with it. Wash it down with a good union-made dark beer

Avoid the scale or blood pressure monitors or a visit to the doctor for about a month.

 Photo from Chocolatemoosey.com. Their recipe is different than mine, of course.

Camilo Torres Restrepo (February 3, 1929 – February 15, 1966)

From History of Socialism Facebook page.

Catholic priest, sociologist, and early proponent of what would become Liberation Theology, Camilo Torres Restrepo was killed in an ambush by the Colombian Army on Feb. 15, 1966, shortly after he had joined the National Liberation Army (ELN). #OTD #Colombia #LiberationTheology

Wikipedia says:

Camilo Torres Restrepo...was a Colombian socialist, Roman Catholic priest, a proponent of liberation theology, and a member of the National Liberation Army (ELN) guerilla organization. During his life, he tried to reconcile revolutionary Marxism and Catholicism. His social activism and willingness to work with Marxists troubled some.

As part of the academic staff of the National University of Colombia, he was a co-founder of the Sociology Faculty together with Orlando Fals Borda in 1960. His involvement in several student and political movements during the time won him a large following as well as many detractors, especially from the Colombian government and the church itself. Due to the growing pressure to back down from his radical politics, Camilo Torres was persecuted and went into hiding (leaving his job as an academic) by joining the guerrillas in Colombia. He served as a low-ranking member of the ELN to whom he also provided spiritual assistance and inspiration from a Christian communist point of view. He was killed in his first combat engagement when the ELN ambushed a Colombian Military patrol. After his death, Camilo Torres was made an official martyr of the ELN.

He is perhaps best known for the quote: "If Jesus were alive today, He would be a guerrillero."...He was a life-long friend of fellow socialist Luis Villar Borda and Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez.

In the Dominican Republic in 1970, a revolutionary group that included Catholic clergy members and university students was founded under the name CORECATO, which stood for Comando Revolucionario Camilo Torres (Revolutionary Command Camilo Torres). In New York City, San Romero of the Americas Church-UCC has founded the Camilo Torres Project in 2009. This project works for social justice and peace for the people of the Washington Heights community. (Some links removed)

See also: Camilo Torres: Prayer Can’t Solve Poverty Alone

He'll Make It Alright!

 

You may want to hold on to this....

 

Maybe you're needing to slow down on judging....

 

Some instructions for using Holy Water from Micheline Hannoun

I'm not going to edit the wording here. I think that English-reading readers will get it. And this is not just for Catholic and Orthodox believers---everyone can do these things.

- There are 8 ways to use holy water in our daily lives, the first starts with blessing ourselves. But we should not be enough to do this Sunday only, because we need blessings and blessings everyday of the week. From here, it is very important to place a small jar of holy water near the door of the house, for the family to be blessed as visitors, especially before leaving the house.

-But our home is a tiny church that needs spiritual protection, we have to bless it. We can spray the holy water by ourselves all around the house, or ask a priest to attend.

- And ensure the frame of the family's blessing, we must use holy water to pray and draw the sign of the cross over the partner and the children before they go to sleep. In this way, we strengthen the link between family members and God. Let's keep a bottle of sacred water near our families for this purpose!

- Let us bless the place where we work, and spray it with holy water, not only for spiritual protection in the work environment, but to sanctify our daily work to the glory of God.

- Let’s not forget our cars. The car is perhaps the most dangerous place to pass an unappreciated time. Never underestimate the importance of holy water filtered in a car, it keeps you away from harm if used with faith and full trust in God.

- Bless your gardens! This was a common habit in the Middle Ages, and people used to spray their plants and their vegetables with holy water, since they relied on plants to live. And the use of holy water to sanctify and bless the plants was showing people's form of divine grace.

-Bless the sick with holy water, for this is considered an act of mercy. And if you visit a patient in the hospital, bless the surrounding area with holy water and leave a bottle of condolence near him when needed.

- Bless your pets, animals accompany individuals and families, and they often help them. And she can be blessed with holy water because all creatures praise God. In the same context, this could apply to livestock and farm animals that feed us.

In the end, we ask a provocative question: What do we say when we use holy water? As always ordered by catholiccompany.com we should know that holy water has blessed the priest's prayers, but we can recite a simple prayer through sprinkling water to determine our intention to use it, and to express our faith in its spiritual power. As we can recite the prayer of the Father, or even the prayer of Saint Michael. Don't forget that you can bless everything you use, for holy water is a spiritual weapon from God.

On Valentine's Day (and every day), love one another as Christ loves you...

From Hasmik Simonian on Facebook:

Time is slow for those who wait...
Fast to the fearful...
Long for those in pain...
Too short for those who celebrate...
But eternal for those who love...
On Valentine's Day, love one another as Christ loves you.

This old soul of mine

 

Memorial Wheat: Part of responding to death and comforting those who mourn

In my tradition it's common to offer memorial wheat to mourners when someone dies. It's a good tradition because while you're making this you can think of the person who passed on and those who are mourning them and it gives you something to offer people and comfort them instead of hurrying away from a funeral or memorial service. It's good to make it the day before you share it. Some folks give it two days.

Get about one-and-one-half pounds of brown wheat berries or something similar. I've seen people use kasha or wheat cereals. Wash it thoroughly and have it boil for a few hours until it is done. Pour cold water over it and let it sit over night.

Spread it out in a pan and---this part REALLY matters---sop up any extra moisture with paper towels. Put it in a large bowl and mix in one-pound of fine walnuts, one-quarter pound of chopped pecans, one teaspoon (or a bit more) of honey, a good bit of powdered sugar, one-half teaspoon of salt, and maybe one-half of a carton of plain bread crumbs or so. Some people add pomegranate seeds. Mix it by hand.

Some people mound it on a platter and shape it with wax paper. I always left it in a bowl, but it's good to smooth it out. Use wax paper for all of the smoothing and molding.

Add some more bread crumbs when it's all smooth so that the wheat is covered over by the bread crumbs. Top it with powdered sugar, raisins, and cinnamon. If the person who has passed is a Christian, you can make a cross on top out of raisins, pistachios or Jordan almonds. It's nice to put a beeswax candle in and light it.

It's also nice when one person serves it to others in little paper cups. Give the leftovers to the family in your bowl and then call in a week or so to get your bowl back and check in to see how they're doing.

 

Matthew 25 For Every One Of Us

 

"Christ has no body but yours..."

 

"As I drop in tonight I pray my shift will go all right..."

I just saw where a mine worker named Charles Inboden graciously posted this prayer on a mine workers' Facebook page. If you don't know what a mantrip is, I have put in a video and a song. The song is from an old-timer and from a time and place when the mantrips were called "lizards."  Please pray for Charles and for everyone doing the hard and dangerous work.

Charles Inboden wrote:

As I drop in tonight I pray my shift will go all right I go down there to make a living just to pay my bills and fill my kitchen I come home and my kids are smiling I thank the Lord another not I survived as I ride that man trip down in that hole I pray to the Lord then I come out whole.

Just a simple prayer for all the miners past present and future.

Meat Pies Recipe

Back when I learned how to make this you could not get pizza dough in the supermarkets. You can use that or any yeast bread dough from the store or that kind of thing and make the dough yourself, but it should be about one-and-one-half inches thick.

Chop up 2 pounds of beef and one big onion, or use lots of onion powder. Cut the dough into 5-inch circles and flatten them out. Combine the meat and onions on top of each piece and fold them into triangles.

Be sure to leave a small opening in the top around the center. 

Oil up a baking sheet, place the pies on it about 1 inch apart, and bake at 350 for about 20-25 minutes.

Now, you can get a little fancy and add some taco mix and cumin powder and garlic powder and add those things after you brown the beef and onion and drain them. You can use round or sirloin steak cut up, and potatoes and onions sliced thin. If you do that, put some butter on top. You can use flour tortillas. You can beat a few eggs and grate up some cheese and pour those over the pies as they bake. Baking time should be about 30 minutes or so if you go a little fancy, or maybe 1 hour if you use the steak and potatoes. 

"Deacon Davis singing that old gospel song."

 

Luke 6:17-26 & Lightnin' Hopkins

Luke 6:17-26:

17.  And he came down with them and stood on a stretch of level ground. A great crowd of his disciples and a large number of the people from all Judea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon

18  came to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and even those who were tormented by unclean spirits were cured.

19  Everyone in the crowd sought to touch him because power came forth from him and healed them all.

20  And raising his eyes toward his disciples he said:

“Blessed are you who are poor,
for the kingdom of God is yours.

21 Blessed are you who are now hungry,
for you will be satisfied.

Blessed are you who are now weeping,
for you will laugh.

22  Blessed are you when people hate you,
and when they exclude and insult you,
and denounce your name as evil
on account of the Son of Man.

23 Rejoice and leap for joy on that day! Behold, your reward will be great in heaven. For their ancestors treated the prophets in the same way.

24 But woe to you who are rich,
for you have received your consolation.

25 But woe to you who are filled now,
for you will be hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now,
for you will grieve and weep.

26 Woe to you when all speak well of you,
for their ancestors treated the false prophets in this way.

* * *

Well, today's sermon was on Luke 6:17-26, and I thought that the pastor did a pretty good of speaking to the reading and I liked the violin solo that followed. As the pastor said, after that solo we all knew what it was like to be blessed.

Three thoughts came to me as the sermon was progressing. One, when the pastor was emphasizing how it's the poor that are blessed and that the rich have a more difficult time I started thinking that I wish that I had not been so blessed for so much of my life to be a (relatively) poor man. I could have done with just a little less blessing and a little more rent money quite a few times. Second, I figured out pretty quickly that part of his sermon was for people who are doing better than I used to be and I do so appreciate the effort to explain things to them. Last, I thought of Lightnn' Hopkins' great sermon on this reading. Here it is:

  

"Put all your requests and your life in His hands and He will (answer) the question of your heart."

Pray with complete faith to God (and) without any doubt, and trust in advance that He will answer your prayers according to His will, thinking and timing…Be sure that God knows all that you need more than you do, and even if His response to you is late, it is for your benefit because He knows the right time more than you…May God's will be accepted, and accepted in Your life…Put all your requests and your life in His hands and He will (answer) the question of your heart…God's timing for you is the greatest, most beautiful and most joyful for you.---FADY MANSOOR

From Coptic Icons

How to love--Pages One and Two of the instruction manual

Snacks! Sausage balls!

Against my best advice some of you are going to watch that game tomorrow and eat and drink a good bit. Here is a list of union-made snacks and beers that I hope you will hit if you have hit snacks and beer at all:

This is a social justice effort more than it is anything else. I'm not encouraging you to consume, but if you have to consume then come tomorrow spend your money on products made in safe and clean environments where workers have some rights and earn better wages and benefits than our non-union sisters and brother do. 

And---oh, yeah---they left Iron City and other Pittsburgh Brewing Company products off of the list for some reason. Check those cans to find the "Union Made" label before you're in line at the cashier. Genesee and Rolling Rock make the list also. (And don't use self-checkout, please!)

Clamato, V-8, Gatorade and Arizona iced tea, and Matador Beef Jerky, Town House, Cheez-It, Keebler Graham Crackers, Zesta, Chips Deluxe, Pecan Sandies, Soft Batch, Rainbow Chips Deluxe and Maui Style Potato Chips should all be on the list also.

But I got to thinking about making our own snacks, and my first thought was sausage balls. You need to make a big bunch of these--I mean LOTS! And you just need some Bisquick mix, 1 pound of uncooked sausage, a good handful of parmesan cheese (look for that Sun-Re Cheese brand) and one-half cup of milk to get started. You're also going to need a greased cookie sheet and an oven. It should take you about 30 minutes to make a batch unless your hitting the beer pretty hard. Please don't do that.

Now, I started to write out my recipe, which goes heavy on chili powder and has some chicken broth involved, but the best recipe is---guess where?---over at the Blind Pig & Acorn blog where almost recipe should appeal to the folks this blog is written for. So please head over there and use her recipe and say thank-you to the very nice woman who does that great blog.

"You Don't Love God If You Don't Love Your Neighbor" & Not Casting Stones

Rhonda Vincent:

Since Rhonda Vincent mentions it, Matthew 18 is here.

John Chapter 8 is here.

Necessary doubts and struggles that we all have: "Tender Mercies" and a person on his way to salvation

"Tender Mercies" (Robert Duvall, Tess Harper--1983) has been mostly forgotten about, but the movie still holds up. I believe that you can watch it on Youtube, but I found it on DVD.

  

Cracker Cookies from Blind Pig & The Acorn

I'm continuing along with a recipe theme---easy-to-make down-home cooking that even I can do.

Today I want to encourage everyone to go over to the Blind Pig & The Acorn blog for their cracker cookies recipe. You just need crackers, peanut butter, and almond bark or "your favorite type of melting morsels."

The recipe is here. You really can't go wrong with this one.

The Blind Pig & The Acorn is one of my favorite blogs. Please visit with them regularly.

Old Baptist Devotional Hymns---Marvin Williams

 

Pain---A Poor People's Campaign Introduction to Affliction in America

You're not alone.

We're not alone.

We can overcome.

We will overcome.

"You Go To Your Church And I'll Go To Mine"---J.D. Crowe's great version

 

The Fast of Jonah, or The Fast of Nineveh

Depending upon what calendar you follow, the Feast of Jonah (or Nineveh Lent) has either already occurred or begins on Monday, Feb. 14 and runs through to Wednesday, Feb. 16. This commemorates the three days of fasting that Prophet Jonah undertook inside the fish, a parallel and a prophecy of the three days that Christ spent in the tomb, signifying His Death, Burial and Resurrection. It becomes a preparation for Lent. The point is to repent of one's sins, make restitution where it is needed, experience renewal, and return to our faith and path. 

Learn more here.