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  The Collect Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. Old Testament Isaiah 64:1-9 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,  so that the mountains would quake at your presence--  as when fire kindles brushwood  and the fire causes water to boil --  to make your name known to your adversaries,  so that the nations might tremble at your presence! When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,  you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From ages past no one has heard,  no ear has perceived,  no eye has seen any God besides you,  who works for those who wait for him. You

  Gospel hymn for Christ the King Sunday 1 Rise up, ye saints of God! Have done with lesser things, give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of kings. 2 Rise up, ye saints of God! His kingdom tarries long: bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong. 3 Lift high the cross of Christ!  Tread where his feet have trod; and quickened by the Spirit's power, rise up, ye saints of God! I bid you stand for the gospel from Matthew. We stand in awe, because Jesus comes personally present in the reading and hearing of his holy Gospel. Matthew 25:31-46 His kingdom tarries long, but Jesus said, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, with the holy angels, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, and he will put the sheep at his right hand and the goats at the left.  Then the king will say to those at his right hand, `Co

In what seems to be opening for me an odd and unexplored bit of life, maybe the best I can do is step back, shut up, quit thinking, get out of myself, watch and wait for whatever comes next. Comes to mind the springtime every year when I was inside, a scruffy boy of five or six or eight, maybe nine, with uncombed black hair and an unwashed face, standing in the kitchen looking out the screen door at the grass in the back yard sloping up to the dense woods beyond, asking mama if I can go barefoot now. Sometimes begging. The day she finally said yes, I didn't wear shoes again until school started in the Fall. The years before the rest of my life. Maybe I'll go back there. Here, scroll down, is far better than anything I can think or say or do right now. If you aren't reading Father Richard, you might try it. He takes the sharp edge off of every morning. T+ Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation From the Center for Action and Contemplation   Week Forty-seven   Thomas Merton: Cont

During my Fall 1962 semester of MBA studies at the University of Michigan, I took a course in international business and economics, and I recall the professor's first recommendation to the class, that we immediately and permanently subscribe to what he called The London Economist and described as the world's most competent publication on economics, business, politics, and related social issues. The masthead of The Economist reading  "a severe contest between intelligence, which presses forward, and an unworthy, timid ignorance obstructing our progress".  The professor's recommendation was wise, although in that period of my lifetime from mid-twenties to mid-eighties, I have found ignorance, especially on the political scene, seldom timid, seldom timid indeed; in fact, almost always arrogantly outspoken. An observation that has been in my mind as I try to understand whether the insanity consuming the nation is being advanced as a political ruse, which I pray; or is

F rom outside the US come several newspapers I enjoy receiving online, including four or five from the Middle East, with varying takes on situations and politics. One is The Times of Israel, which I like partly because I am pro Israel in so many things and so many ways; to some extent, though I am not a Jew, just as I am pro America notwithstanding many troubling things about us.  So anyway, being as I'm no longer posting my daily blog, from time to time I may copy and paste something someone else wrote that especially catches my eye, mind, heart. Arnold Eisen's blogpost for The Times of Israel does that. One reason it so caught my fancy is that I also like to play, in Bible study, on the Genesis account of the impossible conception and birth of Abraham's son Yitzhak, the Oaks of Mamre exchange between Sarah and God, when  God gets the best of Sarah, but Sarah has the last laugh, Isaac himself.  Top photo from 7H looking west beyond Magnolia Beach and Thomas Drive skyline,