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,,, and he sat on them

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Yesterday was Palm Sunday, which, seeing that this is lectionary year A when our gospel readings are mainly from Matthew, we opened with our Liturgy of the Palms reading Matthew 21:1-11 ++++ 1 When they had come near Jerusalem and had reached Bethphage, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me. 3 If anyone says anything to you, just say this, ‘The Lord needs them.’ And he will send them immediately.” 4 This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: 5 “Tell the daughter of Zion,  Look, your king is coming to you,  humble and mounted on a donkey,  and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” 6 The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; 7 they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them. 8 A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut ...
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little gray donkey

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  new post - - U S State Department map of the world marked in color to show places Americans should not travel: where is safe for us? where is not safe? myself, I have a lifelong obsession with not being where I am not wanted, especially in personal relationships, but now increasingly because of what I am or may be to others, my neighbors the Samaritans - - people who are not like me.  how to avoid them totally? stay holed up right here in 7H and keep my mouth shut when I go out. like there's No Place, they are all over, everywhere, no place is safe - - and, as a friend used to express it, just because I'm paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get me. in my religion, all this hatred of others on Earth makes no sense at all to me.  ++++ ++++ outside on 7H porch at 5:52 yesterday afternoon and noticed a big stream of smoke across the Bay, over just east of Davis Point.   binocular showed high flames, a boat on fire. shortly later a better photo was posted on Facebo...
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on Christmas Day

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Fog, it's fog season again. Sandburg, right? Carl Sandburg. "The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on."  He must have been thinking of Chicago fog, eh?, not ours. Our fog doesn't move on, it stays for the season it defines for itself about this Time every year. So, it's good, fog season, I like it. I'm not at sea, nor going up in the air Junior Birdmen, and trying to avoid driving in it.  Lost, I've lost my train of thought for this blogpost, haven't I. Yes, I have, it's rhetorical, so on my own I reckon a question mark is not essential. And not only has my thought evaporated, the large chunk of panettone I ate with my mug of hot & black has caused my bp to plummet, shutting my brain down, so back to bed for a short winter's nap this early morning 2025, on Christmas Day, on Christmas Day.  ... and may all your Christmases be white fog on Christmas Day in the morning. For lif...
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Merry Christmas

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O holy night: happy Christmas to all. Not getting out into anything that lasts until we have to drive home after dark, we are at home here in 7H watching online our parish church's Christmas Eve spectacular long titled "Holy Commotion" and living up to its name. They are all good, but in my memories, the absolute worst most pathetic have been the sweetest, dearest and best.  There was a Time, Christmas 1984 to Christmas 1997, when I was very sure that Christmas did not happen anywhere in the world but Trinity Episcopal Church, Apalachicola, the worship, liturgy, spirit, music, choir, musicians were that perfect. That feeling held on in me for many years after my October 1998 retirement. But watching and loving the little characters on show at my old home parish, Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, stole my heart away. We have a beautifully decorated Christmas tree here at home and loved ones are coming tomorrow to open presents and for Christmas dinner, and it me...
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Mary Sunday

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Calvin and Hobbes is a permanent favorite comic strip, especially including Calvin's occasional forays into theology, always on the mark if a step over the line for many folks. But the humor in religion, often hiding subtly waiting to be seen, can be what makes religion credible and tolerable at all, that's each person's call. Anyway, here's our gospel reading for church this morning: Matthew 1:18-25 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you are to name h...
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Saturday before Christmas Day

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Earth is just one of 3.2 trillion planets in our Milky Way galaxy alone. Our sun is just one of 200 billion stars in the Milky Way. The Milky Way is just one of 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe. What may lie outside the observable universe in the entirety of the Pantokrator's creation boggles the mind incomprehensibly.  ++++++++++ It's just you and me, Lord. A man IS an island after all, isolated, an island, it's just us, it's just you and me. And then nothing - - unaware dust - - not even the darkness of oblivion. Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return - - to disperse in a whiff of breeze, Ruach, the breath of God. ++++++++ Now and then, from Time to Time, an essay, meditation, or other sort of article appears that is so exquisite to me as to warrant copy and paste into my weblog. From the NYT, today's Opinion essay by MDC Drout is such, beginning with my identification with what he says about JRR Tolkien and his Middle-Earth, a real...
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