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 ...

  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...

  Good morning, boys and girls! Good morning, Mrs McDaniel! Good morning, girls and boys! Good morning, Father Tom! We are here celebrating Beverly, and in those days of my memory a quarter century ago, first kindergarten chapel of the school year was filled with excited 3, 4, & 5 year-old children, sitting together with their class and teachers. Our ongoing school theme was LOVE GOD, LOVE NEIGHBOR, which Beverly called our “two rules” - - and Beverly started the school year’s first kindergarten chapel service by saying, “We have two rules at our school: who can tell us the first rule?” Tiny hands shot up eagerly and Beverly pointed and called a child by name.  “DON’T THROW SAND!!” Beverly affirmed that throwing sand is not allowed, and went on to explain that we are a Christian school, our first rule is LOVE GOD.  Then, thinking she had set the stage for the next question, she went on, “So, our first rule is LOVE GOD. Who knows what our second rule is?” Again, little...

\ I know because, until I turn my ears off, I can hear it: in the next room NewsNation is telecasting a piece, The People Speak Up About The Iran War. I thought it wasn't a war, it was an action to prevent war. Sure as hell looks like war to me. Maybe we need a law like Putin's law that arrests and jails people who call Russia's action in Ukraine "war." My only Speak Up is to observe that Mad Dog Mattis was right, only now there are two. Actually this Time around there's a whole Executive Branch full of them. Life around us is beyond chaos, it's madness, insanity that reinforces my lifeTime observation that All government is Always, All Ways, All Bad. Which is why we must hold on to democracy's principle of the people's right to change the actors on stage.  ++++++++ The eye of round roast that I cooked sous vide at 131°F from nine o'clock Thursday morning to nine o'clock this morning, then seared, was rosy pink medium and tender sure 'n...

My bad this morning: a mindless movement of the left hand knocked over my mug of hot & black even before my first sip. Instead of peace and quiet I uttered a bad word and took the next few minutes to clean up including turning off the power bar it splashed down onto. Brewed a second mug, and back now. Fortunately and making this goof-up easier, I had already, last week, relocated my sty from the living room window by the Bay to the Beck Avenue room, which doubles as my office study den and Joe's bedroom when he comes to visit. It's an interesting room, with pictures and all my cars.  Also, my bathroom is in here. It's the most shivering cold room in the apartment when the air conditioning is on, the most cozy, as this morning, when the weather outside is cold enough to have the heater on inside.  Old Mr Safety here tries to learn from every mess-up, now's lesson is to be more mindful when moving my hand in a dimly lit space. As well to be careful where I sit my mug ...

Lent 2026 is my contemplation season when, among other things, I'm trying to exercise my brain by thinking "outside the box." In my situation, ninety year old long-retired priest, that may involve challenging long-held beliefs that I've brought along in life growing up in the Christian church, resting in my comfortable assumptions that they are knowledge, when actually they are faith beliefs (see Hebrews 11:1).  This morning in Lent I'm contemplating our faith event of Death, Silence, Life that's Good Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter. For my mind, and for my blogposts on +Time, this is old hat repetitive, but fine, I'm there again. Many scholars of the New Testament know St Paul and Jesus as apocalypticists who anticipated the imminent coming of the kingdom of God, when God would overturn world order and send the cosmic Son of Man figure of Daniel 7 to Earth to establish and rule the kingdom of God on Earth. It would be physical here and now in our resurrecti...

+++++++++++ The death of our beloved Beverly McDaniel is a perfectly natural but most sorrowful Time in our human life cycle. We met Beverly soon after arriving in the diocese  as new members of the clergy family  the summer of 1984. My best recall is meeting Beverly at the February 1985 diocesan convention in Mobile. At one event Linda and I were seated at a table with several Holy Nativity folks, and I made instant and lifelong thereafter friends with Beverly, who was sitting next to me. She was HNES Head of School at the Time, and I worked with her during the admission of my grandson Ray Kelly, and my Kristen, as students. Ray started in third grade, Kristen started in K3 and graduated eighth grade eleven years later. We are a Holy Nativity family.  After retiring from Trinity, Apalachicola late in 1998, we came home to Panama City and Holy Nativity Episcopal Church where we had been members since its founding in 1955. Soon after coming back, I reckon it was early 1999...

At this hour yesterday the tide was out and I thought to blog something but got distracted, probably PPHT put me down for a nap, IDK. Anyway, taken from a blogpost several days ago that I did not post, here, with a bit of response from me, is our OT reading for tomorrow, Sunday, Lent 4A: 1 Samuel 16:1-13 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peacea...

the Big Bang: At the first of ELOHIM creating the skies and the land -- and the land was desolation and emptiness; and darkness was over the face of the deep, and the spirit of ELOHIM was hovering over the face of the waters--and ELOHIM said, "Let there be light"; and it was light. And ELOHIM saw the light, that it was good; and ELOHIM separated between the light and between the darkness. And ELOHIM called to the light "day," and to the darkness he called "night." And it was evening and it was morning -- day one. (TEV, Genesis 1:1-5) +++++++++ Our tribal metaphor by James D Tabor.  Not many will read this, but mox nix mir, it's this morning's rambling lenten contemplation by me for me to me.  The sense of it is that you and I do not see the same or believe the same. What do I believe, what's my religion? It has to do with how Eucharistic Prayer C puts it: At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of  interstellar space, galaxies, ...