On My Desk

We had several house guests this weekend. Our Diocesan Convention met in my town, so my in-laws stayed with us Friday night. Then, on Saturday night, our sweet and cute godson came to stay overnight. Since he is only 22 months, he brought his parents - good friends of ours from my home church in Ann Arbor - and his super fun three-year-old brother. It was a blast, and even though our house isn't very baby-proof, we think they enjoyed the visit. It turns out that an empty but finished basement makes a pretty good race course, and that running up and down provides hysterical entertainment for a good forty-five minutes!

Anyway, to accomodate all our visitors, I promised Luke that I would clean my office (a.k.a. - the Spare Room). This meant actually taking my books out of the boxes, and putting things on shelves to create floor space. In one of the boxes, I found a small picture frame holding the prayer of Saint Francis. I framed several of them for my discernment committee, just four years ago. It seems like another lifetime - and indeed, is signed under my maiden name, as if it was another person who made these small gifts. I knew that I had to put the frame on my desk at work, to try and remember why the prayer was so important to me four years ago. I am sure that its significance has changed, but I just can't quite put my finger on the difference.

Pehaps this prayer will stir something for you as well.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we 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 weare born to eternal life. Amen.

A Light Blazes

Ex-tra, Ex-tra, Read all about it! The Rev Gals have published a book - daily devotionals for Advent and Christmas, including one by yours truly. Everyone should go buy the book! Surprise someone with an early Christmas present! Send it to your favorite priest! Send it to your favorite niece so that she knows that when she grows up, she can be a Rev Gal if she wants to.

There is fancy code in my sidebar, so you can continue to buy the book even when this post has fallen off the page.

Also, other fun people have written devotionals - probably some people that you know! So, even if you're not excited about reading the devotional I wrote, you should buy the book.

And, better yet, money from the proceeds of the book are being sent to Katrina relief. So, in case you missed this advice earlier, buy the book because its doing something helpful.

It hasn't quite sunk in that I'm published and I will have a book with something I wrote in it. But its sunk in enough that I am excited. Fabulous.


Later Editor's Note: I've fixed the link on the sidebar, so now you can really go buy they book!!

What is Tab Collar?

Did anyone else watch Jeopardy! tonight?

Did anyone else notice that the woman in the champion spot was wearing clericals?

I got home sort of in the middle of the little interview time with the contestants, so I hit the DVR rewind button to see what she had said, but they didn't talk about the fact that she was in a collar. Did anyone watch last night and hear more about her?

I just love seeing women in clericals shown on TV. Especially when they aren't part of a crime drama of some kind. I'm just sayin...

Shadowed Beneath Thy Hand

Rosa Parks, 92, Founding Symbol of Civil Rights Movement, Dies

May her soul, and all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Really? Already? or The One Where Its Time for the Friday Five

I'm having a hard time believing that its already Friday this week. Where did my week go? And why is it that on the weeks I have a sermon to prepare, the time seems to disappear much more quickly?

Well, thank goodness the RevGals keep me on task with the Friday Five. So, here are my answers.

1. What was the last CD you purchased?
Well, I hardly ever buy CDs. With the advent of ITunes Music Store, I tend to just buy single tracks. So, I'm going to cheat and go with the latest CD I've accquired, which is Carrie Newcomer's The Gathering of Spirits.

2. Did you like it?
Yep. I love it.

3. Is it the kind of music you would call your favorite?
Yep again. Chicks with guitar music, preferably with a spiritual bent of some kind appreciated but not required. (Think Carrie Newcomer and Indigo Girls)

4. What was the first album (CD for you youngsters) you ever owned?
Hmmm. We had a record player when I was a kid, but the albums were all sort of jointly-owned among the three of us kids. A particular favorite though was "Free to Be... You and Me". That may actually be the last CD I purchased too, since I bought a copy last spring. Our other favorite was a Bill Cosby record, but I dont' remember what it was called.

5. And what was your favorite cut from that recording?
Wow. Its such a great compiliation. I think my favorite from "Free To Be... You and Me" was either "William's Doll" or the title track. From the Bill Cosby album, it was definitely the Noah sequence.