Let us sing

Come let us sing to the Lord; *
let us shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving *
and raise a loud shout to him with psalms.

For the Lord is a great God, *
and a great King above all gods.

In his hand are the caverns of the earth, *
and the heights of the hills are his also.

The sea is his, for he made it, *
and his hands have molded the dry land.

Come, let us bow down, and bend the knee, *
and kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For he is our God,
and we are the people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. *
Oh, that today you would hearken to his voice!

The body is one and has many members

Sometimes I get tired of the ways that we overly intellectualize and "rhetoricalize" the words of our faith, but when Paul wrote, "just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so is it with Christ"...In other words...we are supposed to work together, get over ourselves and do for one another.  Now, let's see if we can get busy doing it!

~The Rev. Peter M. Carey

1 Corinthians 12:12-26 (NRSV)

12 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
14 Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot would say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear would say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." 22 On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; 24 whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, 25 that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. 26 If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

St. Francis' prayer before the crucifix

The following is said to be St. Francis’ prayer before the crucifix:

Most high, glorious God, enlighten the darkness of my heart. Give me true faith, certain hope, and perfect charity, sense and knowledge, Lord, that I may carry out Your holy and true command. Amen.

Feast of St. Francis of Assisi ~ Prayer of St. Francis by Sarah McLaughlan

When it is raining...

When it's cold and raining,
you are more beautiful.


And the snow brings me
even closer to your lips.


The inner secret, that which was never born,
you are the freshness, and I am with you now.


I can't explain the goings,
or the comings.  You enter suddenly,


and I am nowhere again.
Inside the Magesty.


~Rumi