12 killed, dozens wounded in weekend shootings across U.S. At least 12 people were killed and dozens more were wounded over the weekend in gun violence and mass shootings in five states. The shootings in Minnesota, Ohio, New Jersey, Georgia and South Carolina come amid a yearlong rise in nationwide gun violence and record firearm sales. The latest violence erupted near a bar in Youngstown, Ohio, shortly after 2 a.m. Sunday. Three people were killed and three others were injured, one of them critically, after an incident inside the bar, Police Chief Carl Davis said at a news conference. He said authorities were searching for suspects and provided no other details. Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said in a news conference that the shooting was "unnecessary" and that "it breaks my heart when we have young men and women" dying. An hour earlier, three people were found dead from gunshot wounds in a condominium complex just south of Atlanta in South Fulton, Georgia. Authoritie...

  My waking mental exercise: Words that begin with the prefix "im" changing a basic word to its opposite meaning, how many, what words can I think of?  Why? what made me think of that? Well, it's that my mind is on next Sunday, Propers below, scroll down, that my favorite Creed (hint: it's not the Nicene Creed) says  the Father incomprehensible, and  the Son incomprehensible, and  the Holy Spirit incomprehensible, and yet  they are not three incomprehensibles but  one incomprehensible,  and the mind shifts to negative prefixes. In Greek-based words I know about "a" and "an" as in agnostic, which means not-knowing as an opposite of the gnostics, who knew the secrets of the kingdom -> this introduces the Gospel of Thomas and off the bat IDs it as a gnostic document; and maybe I don't remember for sure but maybe I've spotted some hints of gnosticism in the Gospel according to John; and rises in Secret Mark, which may be one of several reaso...

Good morning, Sunday School classmates! Someone will say "Happy Birthday, Church!" but I'll just say it's the Day of Pentecost, one of our seven Principal Feasts of the ecclesiastical year, and our subject in class will be the Holy Spirit. That's the BVM, Jesus' mom in blue, front center. Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, who like the Son is co-eternal with Father and Son. Even if you notice that they all go to the same hairdresser, scroll down and see if you can pick the Holy Spirit from those sitting around the table.  Dogmatically, s/he/it is God just as are the other two, Father and Son.  Some outsiders, an outsider is anyone who's looking in the window, pointing and laughing at how outrageous anyone Other is, some outsiders insist that although we claim to believe in One God, it's obviously three gods, but we see our Three in One God, Three Persons, a Trinitarian God. (for next Sunday, not this morning). Let me see if I can get this mornin...