Pearsall vice Auld Lang Syne Interesting and horrifying to have lived into a latter age of the children of Rachel. Conscience of nation and world, rant, Isaiah. Jeremiah, prophesy. Not waxing sentimental over 2012, nor making merry, simply letting go. For all the bad and good, joy, grief, tears and laughter, Connecticut darkened all, giving new life and truth to 12th century Bernard of Cluny, de contemptu mundi and #595 in The Hymnal 1940         The world is very evil,         The times are waxing late;         Be sober and keep vigil,         The Judge is at the gate;         The Judge that comes in mercy,         The Judge that comes with might,         To terminate the evil,         To diadem the right.         Arise, arise, good Christian,       ...

One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism Isaiah 61:1 - 62:3 (KJV) 10 I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. 11 For as the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown in it to spring forth; so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before all the nations. 1  For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. 2 And the Gentiles shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory: and thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. 3 Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a ro...

First Sunday after Christmas Day This Sunday takes precedence over the three Holy Days which follow Christmas Day. As necessary, the observance of one, two, or all three of them, is postponed one day. Almighty God, you have poured upon us the new light of your incarnate Word: Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. So, what are those three Holy Days? Saint Stephen, Deacon and Martyr, December 26. Saint John, Apostle and Evangelist, December 27. The Holy Innocents, December 28. In my experience, observation of Holy Days is pretty much limited to Anglo-Catholic parishes anyway. This collect is in classical three-part format. Address to God (ending in a colon). Single petition. Close in the Name of the Trinity. The petition, “Grant that this light, enkindled in our hearts, may shine forth in our lives” passes th...

Stormin’ Norman is dead, a general who was admired, trusted and trustworthy, who looked the part of a beloved war hero, General Norman Schwarzkopf, a great bear of a man. My memory of a hero general from the Vietnam War is William Westmoreland who, by my recollection, came to speak to our class at the Naval War College, Newport, RI. Admiral Thomas Moorer, who was CNO and then Chairman of the Joint Chief, also came to speak to us. During the question and answer session after his presentation, an officer stood, expressed frustration with the president’s war policies, and asked Admiral Moorer what he would do. He looked around cautiously, asked the Vice Admiral who was president of the college if members of the press were present, then, assured that there were not, talked about using tactical nuclear weapons in the north. We were a ferocious group and he got a standing ovation. Our other hero during my Navy years was Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, who eased many administrative regulatio...

Luke 2:22-40 (KJV) 22 And when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished, they brought Jesus to Jerusalem, to present him to the Lord; 23 (As it is written in the law of the Lord, Every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord;) 24 And to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, A pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons. 25 And, behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and the same man was just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel: and the Holy Ghost was upon him. 26 And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, before he had seen the Lord's Christ. 27 And he came by the Spirit into the temple: and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him after the custom of the law, 28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, 29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depa...

Whether it’s going on fifty-five years ago or this very moment, life never gets better than having daughters and granddaughters around. It’s 7:03 and the only ones awake are Linda and Caroline and Papa, all three of us having amazingly slept past six o’clock, unheard of here. Caroline just asked, “Nana, will you cook bacon now?” so they’re in the kitchen. The fragrance of bacon cooking will surely roust Charlotte. The girls always look forward to breakfast here, because Linda cooks bacon for them, which they don’t eat at home and which in fact neither Linda nor I eat. But beloved daughters and granddaughters get whatever they want. It’s just the way it is here. Plus, Caroline is named for me.  Thomas Carroll W+ loving +Time

Christmas Magic Magical things happened in our Christmas Eve services at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church last evening, something different each time. You had to be there. The congregation of our ten o’clock service was blessed by our Rector’s incomparable Christmas sermon. Everyone who wasn’t there to hear it will always be impoverished without ever knowing it. The sermon was truly magic, like stars being sprinkled on us.  At our four o’clock service our children’s choir sang so beautifully that it was all anyone could possibly ask or want for Christmas. One song was so timely, poignant, lovely and touching that I could hardly bear it: You be an angel, I’ll be a star We’ll shine down on Bethlehem. Calling people near and far, Calling them to Bethlehem.  Listen to the angel, look at the star, Come to Bethlehem tonight. The world is needy, much is wrong, But even more is right, in Bethlehem tonight. You be an angel, I'll be a star. As our own little angels sang, the...

Look At Her! Doesn’t seem like Christmas? Does to me. This morning the wi-fi wouldn’t connect in the family room, so I’m in the living room where the connection is better. Lighted Christmas tree, some lights twinkling like stars.  Years ago on the Sunday afternoon before Christmas we piled into the car and headed across Hathaway Bridge to the west end of Bay County. It was all woods then, innumerable little pine trees ripe for cutting. Except for the “Y” there was no other paved road crossing Highway 98. You found a dirt road, turned onto it and drove slowly through the woods scouting trees. The seeming perfect ones had a flat backside, so you had to keep looking until you found one that everybody agreed was OK. The longer you looked, the more your quality demand faded. When we got home with the tree, it was my job either to make a stand for it or to crawl under the house and get the stand from last year. Christmas Eve 1948 was my first year going to the Midnight Se...

Customary for this day, our OT scripture is Micah 5:2-5a:  But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah,     who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me     one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old,     from ancient days. 3  Therefore he shall give them up until the time     when she who is in labor has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return     to the people of Israel. 4  And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord,     in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great     to the ends of the earth; 5  and he shall be the one of peace. For Micah, prophesying doom for God’s people in the eighth century B.C., the passage has nothing to do with Jesus. But toward the end of ...

In Adult Sunday School class last week, my intent had been to present for discussion General Convention 2012 resolution A049  Authorize Liturgical Resources for Blessing Same-Gender Relationships , and look at the approved liturgy. Instead came what was done in Connecticut, and as my own need to find God somehow in the nightmare, we read in The Book of Common Prayer , our liturgy for the burial of children. In doing, we compared Psalm 116 in a couple of translations, including Today’s English Translation where verse 15 gives the soothing assurance, “How painful it is to the Lord when one of his people dies.”  Inevitably, discussion turned to the horror, and I wondered if I sensed a hopelessness about what could be done to prevent. We are a nation obsessed with rights, our rights, our individual rights. That rights have responsibilities never occurs. Yahoo News this week had an article about a home gardener who turned his front yard into a vegetable garden. Neighbors ...

Growing season for some things and not for others. On advice, we cut the camellias way back and no blooms, maybe next year. The White Empress we did not cut back. My mother would be horrified at cutting back camellias.  Grapefruit are prolific again, both pink and ruby red. The pink are regular size for the most part. The red are small, about orange size, and they don’t seem as ruby red or as sweet as were the original fruit from whence came the seeds that sprouted the trees. Linda’s mother Lucile Peters has all the credit for the grapefruit trees. When she finished her breakfast grapefruit, she would take a few seeds and go out into the yard, punch a hole in the ground with her finger, insert a seed, and smooth it over. That was summer 1997 through fall 2001.  We have four large grapefruit trees now, two of them bearing. We picked a hundred pink ones a week ago and there are more up high to be picked. Haven’t picked but a few red yet. Bees burrow dee...

R=H 201212200330Z Happy Moment of the Week. Papa on the back porch sofa huddled in a bathrobe with hood anxiously playing spider solitaire on iPad as Kristen drives up arriving safely from college proving that relief = happiness. αποκαλυψις minus one and counting. Folks have been calculating and prophesying the end of the world since ancient times. It’s usually based on dissatisfaction with life and events, The Apocalypse of John being a prime example. It originated in the late first century during a time of severe oppression and persecution of Christians. The story, which we call “Revelation” is a response to fear and suffering, promising deliverance for all who remain faithful to Lord and Church; and threatening horrific punishment both for the persecutors and for those who fall away from Christ under pressure. However, the non-event scheduled for tomorrow, December 21, 2012, comes out of complex calendar systems of the ancient Mayans. On a scale of idiot, imbecile, moron, with...

Tehillim 80 (Psalm 80) Orthodox Jewish Bible (OJB) 80   (For the one directing. Set to The Lilies of the Edut . Of Asaph. Mizmor.) 1 Give ear, O Ro’eh Yisroel, Thou that leadest Yosef like a tzon; Thou that art enthroned between the Keruvim, shine forth. 2  Before Ephrayim and Binyamin and Menasheh, Stir up Thy gevurah (might), and come and save us. 3  Turn us again, O Elohim, and cause Thy face to shine that we may be saved. 4  Hashem Elohim Tzva’os, ad mosai (how long) wilt Thou be angry against the tefillat amecha (prayer of Thy people)? 5  Thou feedest them with the lechem dimah (bread of tears); and givest them dima’ot (tears) to drink in great measure. 6  Thou makest us a madon (strife, contention) unto shcheneinu (our neighbors), and oyveinu (our enemies) mock us. 7  Turn us again, O Elohim Tzva’os, and cause Thy face to shine that we may be saved. 8  Thou hast brought a gefen (vine) out of Mitzrayim; Thou hast dr...

Happy Birthday! Born December 18, 1885 in Bluff Springs, Florida, Escambia County north of Pensacola, m y grandfather Walter Henry Gentry is 127 years old this morning. He married my grandmother, Mamie McClammy, and they had five children. My mother, Louise Gentry, was second, born 1912 in Bluff Springs. Early, the family moved to Pensacola, where Daddy Walt went into the business with his brothers Lee and Elbert. Lee I don’t remember, but I do remember Uncle Eb.  Established in 1909, Gentry Brothers Loans and Pawns was in several places off Palafox in Pensacola, the last being at 10 E. Intendencia for many years. Seems to me there’s a vacant lot there now. Daddy Walt was always loving and generous with us. My first bicycle came from his pawn shop, as did many other things, including clothing during the Depression, jewelry and the tall radio we had in the living room during my growing up years and listened to "The Shadow" and "It Pays to be Ignorant" a...

With every horrendous massacre, while Americans are still digging graves and weeping, one faction says this proves we need tighter gun control, another side rises up in arms about constitutional rights, there’s political posturing, shouting and name-calling while losing sight of the threat, then it dies down until the next time children are murdered. Gun control isn’t the answer, it isn’t even the question, it’s too late for gun control in the world. Everbody has guns and nobody will permit government to collect them. Gun control is a red herring that doesn't even identify the threat. The shooters are not gun enthusiasts, not gun collectors, not hunters, not even the para-quasi-military lunatic fringe crazies. The shooters are loners, shy, angry, quiet social outsiders feeling abused, bullied; raging, resenting, seething, biding. Profiled, they are mentally ill. Unseen, unnoticable, to some extent invisible, difficult to identify; impossible, unthinkable in America to round up,...

Tacit As a thinking, questioning, doubting person, events of life challenge my faith, cause me to examine, revise, correct, mature my faith. Who and what and where is God, and what does God -- do ? Or indeed does God: perhaps God limits self to being , I AM. Any number of times at school I heard a teacher or administrator tell the children “God will protect you.” Many would witness that this is a naivete not borne out in life and that a single disaster makes a lie of it. A child is killed in an auto accident. At Bay High School a 16 year old girl is struck and killed by lightning while walking across a grassy courtyard on campus. Why? The why  is called theodicy , the question of why evil happens to us if God is loving, omniscient, omnipotent, real. The question turns many people from faith to agnosticism, or to atheism, or to simply walking away from religion. In Night , his personal survivor witness of the horrors of the German Holocaust, Elie Wiesel tells of he and his fel...