Out my window
I see the moon,
Stretching toward full
Out my window
I see the grass,
Growing toward green
Out my window
I see the snow,
Fading in the sun
In my heart
I see Lent,
Beginning to flower
I never thought
Pascha might come too soon...
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Remembrance of injury...John XIII
In reference to Judas' betrayal of Christ St. John Chrysostom says:
"These things are written that we bear not malice toward those who injure us; but rebuke them and weep for them; for the fit subjects of weeping are not they who suffer, but they who do the wrong."
St. John starts with Christ's betrayal by Judas and concludes with the example of Joseph as someone who, before Grace and even before the Law, did not cling to remembrance of injury to himself.
"What excuse shall we have, if after the Law, and after grace, and after the addition of so much heavenly wisdom, we do not even strive to rival him who lived before grace and before the Law? Who shall deliver us from punishment? For there is nothing, there is nothing more grievous than the remembrance of injuries."
I was struck by this phrase:"for the fit subjects of weeping are not they who suffer, but they who do the wrong."
It reminds me of the story of a monk who fell into sin and three of his brother monks wept. (I don't recall where I read it.)
The first wept because he himself was in the same sin and feared discovery or judgement.
The second wept because the sin was grievous to God.
The third wept because the sin was grievous to God and because of the damage it did to the sinner.
When I examine my own life I see so much of the bad fruit that comes from resentment against those for whom I ought to weep that I fear lest I do not even make a beginning of repentance. I have confessed over and over the symptoms of my malady but not yet gotten to the rotten core of the matter.
God help me.
"These things are written that we bear not malice toward those who injure us; but rebuke them and weep for them; for the fit subjects of weeping are not they who suffer, but they who do the wrong."
St. John starts with Christ's betrayal by Judas and concludes with the example of Joseph as someone who, before Grace and even before the Law, did not cling to remembrance of injury to himself.
"What excuse shall we have, if after the Law, and after grace, and after the addition of so much heavenly wisdom, we do not even strive to rival him who lived before grace and before the Law? Who shall deliver us from punishment? For there is nothing, there is nothing more grievous than the remembrance of injuries."
I was struck by this phrase:"for the fit subjects of weeping are not they who suffer, but they who do the wrong."
It reminds me of the story of a monk who fell into sin and three of his brother monks wept. (I don't recall where I read it.)
The first wept because he himself was in the same sin and feared discovery or judgement.
The second wept because the sin was grievous to God.
The third wept because the sin was grievous to God and because of the damage it did to the sinner.
When I examine my own life I see so much of the bad fruit that comes from resentment against those for whom I ought to weep that I fear lest I do not even make a beginning of repentance. I have confessed over and over the symptoms of my malady but not yet gotten to the rotten core of the matter.
God help me.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Trader Vic's Spell Cheque Report
Bye far the mass majority of ideas impacting on issues that peak peoples interest are related too stuff that people care a bout. My colleges and I halve studied it and rote a big report. The results are very concerning too us. Weir hoping Yule cheque are web sight fore moor analysis on this reel important tropic. Its to sad when no buddy takes time too reed any moor.
Accept fore those who don't except are theory, most people are apart of are teem. The wrest of them form a small click that is a part from the mass majority of us allot of the times. They do there own thing but cant except that every won ells has there own weigh to. Its to bad we cant just work together but their not excepting of others idea's. Oh well, they're you go.
Buy the weigh, are report tocks allot a bout how spell cheque wont right yore reports fore yew. Wee wreck amend yew reed it.
Accept fore those who don't except are theory, most people are apart of are teem. The wrest of them form a small click that is a part from the mass majority of us allot of the times. They do there own thing but cant except that every won ells has there own weigh to. Its to bad we cant just work together but their not excepting of others idea's. Oh well, they're you go.
Buy the weigh, are report tocks allot a bout how spell cheque wont right yore reports fore yew. Wee wreck amend yew reed it.
How to ruin everything...
In "The Princess and the Goblin", George MacDonald says this of Curdie's relationship with his mother:
"Not that she and Curdie ever thought of how much they worked for each other: That would have spoiled everything."
puts things into perspective doesn't it?
"Not that she and Curdie ever thought of how much they worked for each other: That would have spoiled everything."
puts things into perspective doesn't it?
Thursday, March 22, 2007
My title
I quite like this. I've often thought of "undamaged" and "bucket" as the perfect words to describe me....
Thanks to V&E, Little Rose and Simply Vic
Thanks to V&E, Little Rose and Simply Vic
 | My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: His Noble Excellency Victor the Undamaged of Ofsted in the Bucket Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title |
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Speed Listening!!!
Have people ever accused you of not being a good listener?
Do they say you tend to cut them off before they finish speaking or seem to stop listening shortly after they begin?
Do you tend to feel slightly bad about this but don't know what to do about it?
Well, here is the solution to your problem. The solution is that you don't have a problem, they do!
After all, they are the ones complaining, aren't they?
The key here is to move beyond the calcified perceptions and perspectives of this pack of whiners.
You can help them to rise above all this pettiness when you realize that these poor misguided wretches need your help.
You can help them by explaining to them that what they perceive as a lack of interest or poor listening skills on your part is actually just the opposite. You were so interested in what they were saying that you were listening faster than they were speaking!
You heard what they had to say even before they finished saying it!!!!
Yes folks this is it. The Holy Grail of interpersonal communications has arrived!
Speed listening is here!!!
Get in on the ground floor of this new field of communications. While you may already be a 'natural' speed listener, there are many ways to sharpen this skill. Imagine being able to skip those long boring meetings at work by using the "secrets of corporate speed listeners" learning module. Haven't you ever noticed that those at the top don't seem to be listening to others, yet they still remain at the top? This is because they are expert speed listeners! Now you can be one too and reap all the rewards you so richly deserve!
Don't delay! Send in now for this special offer and receive, absolutely free, our encyclopaedia of speed. It includes valuable sections on speed listening but also speed talking, speed waiting, speed thinking and much much more! Imagine being able to think through situations and problems so quickly that you have solved problems even before they arise! Think of the glory and praise soon to be heaped upon you by family, friends and colleagues when you implement our "presolution" skill set in your life!
Don't delay! Have your credit card handy and call 1-900-che-atme*
*this call is a pay per use call with standard fees of $25/min average waiting time for non-speed diallers is 10 minutes.
Do they say you tend to cut them off before they finish speaking or seem to stop listening shortly after they begin?
Do you tend to feel slightly bad about this but don't know what to do about it?
Well, here is the solution to your problem. The solution is that you don't have a problem, they do!
After all, they are the ones complaining, aren't they?
The key here is to move beyond the calcified perceptions and perspectives of this pack of whiners.
You can help them to rise above all this pettiness when you realize that these poor misguided wretches need your help.
You can help them by explaining to them that what they perceive as a lack of interest or poor listening skills on your part is actually just the opposite. You were so interested in what they were saying that you were listening faster than they were speaking!
You heard what they had to say even before they finished saying it!!!!
Yes folks this is it. The Holy Grail of interpersonal communications has arrived!
Speed listening is here!!!
Get in on the ground floor of this new field of communications. While you may already be a 'natural' speed listener, there are many ways to sharpen this skill. Imagine being able to skip those long boring meetings at work by using the "secrets of corporate speed listeners" learning module. Haven't you ever noticed that those at the top don't seem to be listening to others, yet they still remain at the top? This is because they are expert speed listeners! Now you can be one too and reap all the rewards you so richly deserve!
Don't delay! Send in now for this special offer and receive, absolutely free, our encyclopaedia of speed. It includes valuable sections on speed listening but also speed talking, speed waiting, speed thinking and much much more! Imagine being able to think through situations and problems so quickly that you have solved problems even before they arise! Think of the glory and praise soon to be heaped upon you by family, friends and colleagues when you implement our "presolution" skill set in your life!
Don't delay! Have your credit card handy and call 1-900-che-atme*
*this call is a pay per use call with standard fees of $25/min average waiting time for non-speed diallers is 10 minutes.
Jacob's Ladder
I love connections but I am often too dense to see them. My parish Priest drew the connection between what Christ says here and Jacob's Ladder in the Old Testament:
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
In effect Jesus is telling Nathaniel that He is more than king of Israel but the means by which Israel came to be. St. John Chrysostom says that Christ is correcting Nathaniel's insufficient picture of who He is.
How often He needs to do this with me. I am willing to give Him a crown and "make Him a king" but it is all in my own fantasy where I am the ultimate authority. I believe C.S. Lewis once said something like: "I used to live in a very small world all my own, occasionally wondering whether there was room in my world for God. I now find myself in a much larger world wondering whether God can believe in me."
God help me.
"Jesus answered and said unto him, Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? thou shalt see greater things than these. And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man."
In effect Jesus is telling Nathaniel that He is more than king of Israel but the means by which Israel came to be. St. John Chrysostom says that Christ is correcting Nathaniel's insufficient picture of who He is.
How often He needs to do this with me. I am willing to give Him a crown and "make Him a king" but it is all in my own fantasy where I am the ultimate authority. I believe C.S. Lewis once said something like: "I used to live in a very small world all my own, occasionally wondering whether there was room in my world for God. I now find myself in a much larger world wondering whether God can believe in me."
God help me.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
From morning prayers....
"Teach me to treat all that comes to me throughout the day with peace of soul, and with the firm conviction that Your will governs all. In what I do and say guide my thoughts and feelings. In unexpected events, do not let me forget that all things are sent by You. Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without making others bitter or embarrassing them."
I am especially struck by the last bit as I consider my life:
"Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without making others bitter or embarrassing them."
Lord teach me and make me open to Your teaching today.
Amen
I am especially struck by the last bit as I consider my life:
"Teach me to act firmly and wisely, without making others bitter or embarrassing them."
Lord teach me and make me open to Your teaching today.
Amen
Monday, March 12, 2007
V&E - New blog - old photos
My friends V and E have a blog. It is over here. They were crowned last spring here in Ottawa. Before the wedding the boys took V out for a "special crowning" at the Barley Mow in Ottawa. I've published these photos before but, as I warned him many moons ago, this gift will keep on giving.
My friends Andrew and Marta will be crowned this spring.....what will happen to Andrew?
My friends Andrew and Marta will be crowned this spring.....what will happen to Andrew?
Friday, March 09, 2007
I'm better at drama
I have a miserable cold. It is miserable and I am miserable at dealing with it. Did I mention it was all-round miserable?
When something bad happens to me I'm able to find a way to make the best of it or offer it to God if it's a "big thing" like losing a job or breaking up etc. I'm not so good at dealing with things like this miserable cold (did I mention how miserable it was making me?) The everyday, mundane events are more of a stretch for me than the 'blockbuster' dramatic stuff.
When something bad happens to me I'm able to find a way to make the best of it or offer it to God if it's a "big thing" like losing a job or breaking up etc. I'm not so good at dealing with things like this miserable cold (did I mention how miserable it was making me?) The everyday, mundane events are more of a stretch for me than the 'blockbuster' dramatic stuff.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Today's reading .... Not my will
One of the many good things about Lent is that the fast is not of my choosing. To be sure I choose to what extent I keep it and in conjunction with my spiritual Father I try to apply the season to my personal life. But there is this underlying sense that it is not My fast but Our fast, the Fast given us by Christ through the Church. That is a good thing.
Walk Tall
Bigotry and hatred are enemies to us all
But Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness can help a man walk tall
John Mellencamp - Walk Tall
I just love that song
But Grace, Mercy and Forgiveness can help a man walk tall
John Mellencamp - Walk Tall
I just love that song
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Power over sin
Knowledge is not power
repentance is power
I can know all the triggers inside me that predispose me to sin
yet the knowledge only makes me a miserable bystander
as I watch the passions storm through me, sevenfold worse than before
God help me to repent
forgive me
repentance is power
I can know all the triggers inside me that predispose me to sin
yet the knowledge only makes me a miserable bystander
as I watch the passions storm through me, sevenfold worse than before
God help me to repent
forgive me
Monday, March 05, 2007
Cruciform Logic
In George MacDonald's wonderful story "The Princess and Curdie", the young man Curdie is trying to determine whether he had a real or a dream encounter with a great Princess. He doubts the reality of the encounter because he saw her change from one form to another.
His wise mother has this to say in reply to his doubts:
"'Of course,' answered his mother, 'it is not for me to say whether you were dreaming or not if you were doubtful of it yourself; but it doesn't make me think I am dreaming when in the summer I hold in my hand the bunch of sweet peas that make my heart glad with their colour and scent, and remember the dry, withered-looking little thing I dibbled into the hole in the same spot in the spring. I only think how wonderful and lovely it all is. It is just as full of reason as it is of wonder.'"
I don't think it an unfair stretch to say that this is the logic of the Cross. The Apostles wondered how the Crucified One could be the Risen One. Today we wonder how dying to ourselves can bring us to True Life.
It disconcerts us when the inner logic of things is laid bare in such moments of transformation or "double vision". I will never forget travelling with a group of fellow parishioners on pilgrimage. En route we stopped to pick up a Hermit. It was mid November and it had begun to snow heavily with high winds by the time we arrived at his hermitage. He is a small frail, old man and my first thought was that the skirling wind might carry him off like a leaf. Yet even as I looked at him I felt things shift and saw him to be immovably centred, anchored in the Cross. I will try to remember him this Lent for he, like the Risen One he serves is "just as full of reason as he is of wonder."
His wise mother has this to say in reply to his doubts:
"'Of course,' answered his mother, 'it is not for me to say whether you were dreaming or not if you were doubtful of it yourself; but it doesn't make me think I am dreaming when in the summer I hold in my hand the bunch of sweet peas that make my heart glad with their colour and scent, and remember the dry, withered-looking little thing I dibbled into the hole in the same spot in the spring. I only think how wonderful and lovely it all is. It is just as full of reason as it is of wonder.'"
I don't think it an unfair stretch to say that this is the logic of the Cross. The Apostles wondered how the Crucified One could be the Risen One. Today we wonder how dying to ourselves can bring us to True Life.
It disconcerts us when the inner logic of things is laid bare in such moments of transformation or "double vision". I will never forget travelling with a group of fellow parishioners on pilgrimage. En route we stopped to pick up a Hermit. It was mid November and it had begun to snow heavily with high winds by the time we arrived at his hermitage. He is a small frail, old man and my first thought was that the skirling wind might carry him off like a leaf. Yet even as I looked at him I felt things shift and saw him to be immovably centred, anchored in the Cross. I will try to remember him this Lent for he, like the Risen One he serves is "just as full of reason as he is of wonder."
Saturday, March 03, 2007
Nature's Semandron
Withered fingertips pressed against sky
Ache for the quickening thrum of spring
A gesture unmet
A koan only answered in time
Yet shall this tree clap
Thursday, March 01, 2007
Autumn
More recycling...
I've not posted this before but I wrote it years ago...
Moments, leaved together fade to end autumn
September's slash of cold rain
Baked in cool dry furnace of
October brilliance.
Must,
sharpened to sweet by Chill.
Green,
fired to red, orange, Yellow.
Time's kiln releases
sweet ferment of
Life into memory.
Leavening leave-taking
drenches mind's palate
with warmth of slow lightning.
Arc refracts
through lens
of winter's seeming flood.
Earth-bread and Sun-wine
sweet, aching ferment of
life rushing torrentially
into the one cup.
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