If they wanted or expected their self-identity and cultures to remain intact, European countries, most noticeably Germany, made huge mistakes a few years ago when they graciously and generously and hospitably, but misguidedly, allowed huge influx of immigrants from Africa and the MiddleEast. Other countries too, but Germany especially is now experiencing the result as immigrants of vastly different worldviews create havoc and chaos as, instead of assimilating into the culture that welcomed them, they work to force their own culture on their hosts, stirring the extreme right wing AFD political backlash that is natural and human and was entirely foreseeable.  Not just Germany either, France with their secular culture and freedom of expression experiencing the violent murderous certitude of Islamist immigrantss against a free press, and the decapitation of a popular teacher who showed a caricature of the Prophet in his classroom.  There is a proverb "love it or leave it."  B...

  Do you think we'll have rain?  IDK, I'm not the meteorologist, the weather icon on my phone said 100% chance of rain today, Monday; and a weather alert dinged saying rain will start in 13 minutes, lasting about 19 minutes, so maybe. Early I went out and saw a couple clouds high, but I didn't go out again to see if it had rained or was raining because I don't like getting my socks wet, and that's what happens. Bubba usually sleeps with socks on because his feet get cold, and his ankles and legs.  Reading early: couple of articles in The New Yorker dated today, March 24, 2025. And the cartoons on those pages, but not all of them. Later the fiction piece, maybe later today, more likely later this week as I have other reading to enjoy as well.  Wiman. If you get "Zero At The Bone," read it slowly, pick up, read a section and put down style. This morning I re-read his Bronk section yet one more Time again, then a couple of new sections. He's like taking a...

This morning Linda commented that this is the first Time I've really, finally been "retired." My life is a history of retiring - - retiring from the Navy at age 42 after twenty years only to set up a consulting business based on what I knew from the Navy; retiring from parish ministry at age 63 after fifteen years only to find myself happily drafted into more of the same but on part-time arrangements serving local Episcopal parishes for another, what?, twenty-five years. And now to be retired because it's high Time and too exhausting to continue; not to go into where I find myself in life.  So then, now retired without a class to teach or a sermon to write, or a commitment to honor. Neither miles to go before I sleep, nor promises to keep.  What to do then with Time that's finally MY Time, not committed to anyone else or the calendar? My day begins not at sunset but at nine p.m., now and then eight o'clock, sometimes as late as ten, seldom eleven, never midnig...

Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves: Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. ++++++++++ This is our Collect for the upcoming Sunday. "Collect" is an archaic Episcopal word for the prayer of the day that we say at the beginning of our Liturgy of the Word. It was meant to order (collect) the thoughts and hearts and minds of worshipers into a common prayer offering. Archaic is my word as I continue to poke at our want to hold onto ancient things, apparently "for old times sake." When I was growing up, we said this particular collect on the second Sunday in Lent; in commenting that it was moved to the third Sunday in Lent, Hatchett (page 175) dates the pray...

Exodus 3:1-15 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferin...