It's grown to be tentative anyway, and this morning I think I'll not write a blogpost, I'll just post in +Time the thoughts of a couple of other people whose views seem clearly in my ballpark.  Maybe along with car pictures sent to me by a respected colleague and close friend. Why the car pictures? One reason is that they Push me back, push me back, way back, Push me back, push me back, waaay back; not back to seventeen, but close enough to score. That's the car, a beauty! If you don't think so, no matter: the polls closed and your vote was too late to be counted anyway. Below is my stuff for today. If I were Roman Catholic I'd have to be a Franciscan, otherwise no way, Jose; my Faith is to shun dogma and believe that what I say I believe isn't worth the paper it's printed on, the only thing that matters about faith is whether I live it. Or reasonably try to live my promises. Father Richard has it right, his essay below (scroll down) is worth its paper...

Up alive and awake way too dark o'clock this morning so, neither live enough nor wake enough to do anything sensible, started browsing live earth-cams in places I can't get when it's daytime in North America. Kiev where people were walking across the square, automobile traffic in Moscow, Istanbul with the bridge, Bulgaria was turned off, Murmansk, Iraq was turned off, I didn't think to check Kabul. Saudi Arabia was on and live, I should've snapped a pic when there were just a few people on their Hajj circling the Kaaba, but I went back a few hours later to see quite a gathering; though, owing to covid precautions, not the massive crowd I recall seeing in the past. The picture looks like they're standing chatting, but not so: except for the guards inside the fence, everyone is walking at a quick pace, all moving counterclockwise.   Live stream views of the Great Mosque of Mecca, Al-Masjid al-Haram, in Saudi Arabia. The largest mosque in the world has as centrepie...

  We had a great hymn at church this past Sunday. Noticing that many gave up singing and put it down, I'm guessing it was because our particular tune "Nun danket all und bringst Ehr" does not repeat and the second half takes you by surprise every time and you stumble and finally give up; but Arthur Reed's poem makes for a magnificent hymn, and it is: 1 Spirit divine, attend our prayer, And make this house thy home; Descend with all thy gracious power; O come, great Spirit, come! 2 Come as the light; to us reveal Our emptiness and woe, And lead us in those paths of life Where all the righteous go. 3 Come as the fire and purge our hearts Like sacrificial flame; Let our whole soul an off'ring be To our Redeemer's name. 4 Come as the dove, and spread thy wings, The wings of peaceful love; And let thy Church on earth become Blest as the Church above. 5 Spirit divine, attend our prayer; Make a lost world thy home; Descend with all thy gracious pow'r; O come, gre...

  Job 1:1; 2:1-10 There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered the Lord, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me against him, to destroy him for no reason.”  Then Satan answered the Lord, “Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives. But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.” The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, he is in your power; only spa...

Good morning and welcome!  Our first reading for today is from the Old Testament book Esther (traditionally dated about 5th century BCE. It's a deliciously vengeful story of events turning upon themselves, today it might be called karma, on which the Jewish holiday Purim ("lots") פּוּרִים is based (or vice versa). Here's a quote I lifted from a Wikipedia article on the "hero king" Xerxes of the Esther scroll/book story: "Xerxes I  ( Old Persian :  𐎧𐏁𐎹𐎠𐎼𐏁𐎠 ,  romanized:  Xšaya-ṛšā ;  c.  518  – August 465 BC), commonly known as  Xerxes the Great , was the fourth  King of Kings  of the  Achaemenid Empire , ruling from 486 to 465 BC. He was the son and successor of  Darius the Great ( r . 522 – 486 BC ) and his mother was  Atossa , a daughter of  Cyrus the Great ( r . 550 – 530 BC ), the founder of the Achaemenid empire. Like his father, he ruled the empire at its territoria...