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Signs of the Times  •  11 August 2016  •  No. 83

¶ Processional. “Just a Closer Walk With Thee,” by legendary clarinetist Pete Fountain, who died Sunday at age 86.

¶ Good news! “Monarch Butterfly Population More Than Triples Over Last Year.” (Pictured above: Monarch butterfly wintering in Michoacan, Mexico.) —Terry Turner, GoodNewsNetwork

¶ Invocation. “Alleluia,” Countertop Ensemble.

¶ Call to worship. “In my vision, Heaven’s Voice made the mountains shake and the meadows rumble. And I said, ‘I am not worthy to see such things! My lips cannot speak such wonder. My hands cannot hold it. I am only a little girl.’ But the One who breathes every breath said to me: Do not say ‘I am only a little girl.’” —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Send me,” a litany for worship inspired by Jeremiah 1:7-9 and Isaiah 6:1-8

¶ Just amazing. A group of fifth-graders at Bell Gardens Elementary, assisted by their teacher, Leslie Hiatt, convinced the California State Assembly to pass a bill requiring the teaching of the Mexican Repatriation from the 1930s, when more than 1 million US citizens and lawful residents of Mexican descent were deported. —Lani Cupchoy, Yes! Magazine

¶ This week brings anniversaries of two priests murdered in the midst of their liturgies.

        • Salvadoran Archbishop Óscar Romero was born on 15 August 1917 in El Salvador. He was assassinated on 24 March 1980 by members of an extrajudicial “death squad” with ties to the US-backed government of El Salvador. An outspoken critic of the military crackdown in his country, the day before his murder he pleaded with soldiers, "I beseech you, I beg you, I order you, in the name of God, stop the repression!"

        • Brother Roger, a Protestant who founded the ecumenical order of monks at Taizé, France, was killed on 16 August 2005 by a person later deemed to be mentally ill. Born 12 May 1915 in Switzerland, he began his ministry sheltering refugees fleeing Nazi control. Over the years the community has become a popular pilgrimage site, especially for young adults. (See Ken Sehested’s “In Memory of Brother Roger.”)

        • Both of these recall the tragic assassination barely two weeks ago of Fr. Jacques Hamel, parish priest in Saint Etienne-du-Rouvray, France, also while saying mass, by two young men claiming affiliation with the Islamic State.

        • Murder comes in many forms—some face-to-face, some from a distance; some personal, some ideological; some by those simply “following orders.” All are forms of derangement. All are forms of “possession.” All are, in fact, variations of atheism, the conviction that God is unable to make history turn out right and in need of surrogates.

¶ Hymn of praise. “Go Rest High Upon That Mountain,” Vince Gill, Alison Krauss & Ricky Skaggs.

¶ Remember, the US “Shock and Awe” bombing campaign, initiating the 2003 war in Iraq? The phrase itself comes from a 1996 publication by Harlan K. Ullman and James P. Wade, “Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance.”
        “The intent is to impose a regime of Shock and Awe through delivery of instant, nearly incomprehensible levels of massive destruction directed at influencing society writ large, meaning its leadership and public, rather than targeting directly against military or strategic objectives.”
        The FBI’s definition of terrorism: “Appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction. . . .”

¶ Hymn of intercession and the centennial of the Battle of the Somme. "Pie Jesu" (“Merciful Jesus”) by Sarah Brightman, Paul Miles-Kingston. The music accompanies actual film footage (3:34) from World War I’s “Battle of The Somme,” when French and British allies took the offensive against German troops in France, 1 July-18 November 1916. The British suffered 57,000 casualties on the first day of the offensive. All total, more than 1 million men were wounded or killed, making it one of the bloodiest battles in history.

¶ “The United States escalated its war against the Islamic State in Libya on Monday as part of a new military campaign against the extremist Sunni terrorist group’s stronghold in North Africa. . . . By linking the Libya action to [President Bush’s September 2001 authorization for military force against terrorism], the administration will not have to officially notify Congress. That means that the campaign in Libya can continue indefinitely.” —Helene Cooper, New York Times

¶ Mehdi Hasan gives 'War on Terror' a reality check. (1:49 video.)

¶ Peter van Buren, active in Iraq reconstruction following the invasion of Iraq, writes about those squandered efforts in We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People.

        •“There were almost too many failed projects to document, though SIGIR (Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction) tried. What SIGIR called a ‘legacy of waste’ in an August 2010 report included a $40 million prison that was never opened, a $104 million failed sewer system in Fallujah, a $171 million hospital in southern Iraq that [First Lady] Laura Bush ‘opened’ in 2004 but that still has never seen a patient, and more, totaling $5 billion.”

        • Altogether, the US spent $63 billion on reconstruction in Iraq which “was the largest nation-building program in history, dwarfing in cost, size, and complexity even those undertaken after World War II to rebuild Germany and Japan.”

        • “As one Iraqi said, ‘It is like I am standing naked in a room with a big hat on my head. Everyone comes in and helps put flowers and ribbons on my hat, but no one seems to notice that I am naked.’”

¶ Confession. “Somewhere between Cain and Abel, that's where we live / It's only human to take more than you give / To reach for a fix to fix to fill you up / Take away the pain, oh, but that's not love.” —Mary Gauthier, “Walking Each Other Home”

¶ Essential viewing. Watch this video (1:18) by David Wolfe showing “before and after” scenes from the warn torn city of Aleppo, Syria. (Thanks Kent.) h

¶ The state of our disunion. This week our local paper featured a story about a donation campaign headed by a local charity (one that does great work), and supported by a major grocery store, to collect needed supplies (pencils, markers, notebook paper, etc.) for school children prior to the start of the fall term.
        I will be among those donating. But I have to confess it makes me angry that public schools must depend on charitable subsidy when money is never in short supply for warplanes that cost between $9,000-$20,000 per hour to operate.
        Can you imagine a military pilot set up at a card table at your local mall soliciting gas money? 

¶ “When Soldiers Come Home, Who Tends to Their Moral Injuries.” —Micael Bogar, Yes! Magazine

¶ Best analysis of presidential race I have read to date. “Note that Clinton’s acceptance speech in Philadelphia included not a single mention of Afghanistan. By Election Day, the war there will have passed its 15th anniversary. One might think that a prospective commander-in-chief would have something to say about the longest conflict in American history, one that continues with no end in sight.” —Andrew Bacevich, “The Decay of American Politics,” TomDispatch

¶ This week marked the second anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old African American, by police in Ferguson, Missouri. Two weeks ago a mural of Brown was painted on the metal gate of a vacant storefront by artists in Trenton, New Jersey. It was painted over when some in the Trenton police force and the Trenton Downtown Association were unhappy with the mural, saying it “sent the wrong message about community and police relations.” —David Foster, The Trentonian

¶ Words of assurance. “A kind and steady heart can make a grey sky blue, / And a task that seems impossible, is quite possible for you. / A kind and steady heart, is sure to see you through. / It may not seem like very much right now, / It'll do, it'll do.” —Peter Gabriel, “That’ll Do” (Thanks Randy.)

¶ Good long read. “ISIS Is a Symptom, Not the Cause, of the Middle East’s Disintegration,” by Patrick Cockburn, The Nation.

¶ In a 2007 poll, Americans estimated the number of killed Iraqis at less than 10,000. However a 2015 study by Physicians for Social Responsibility estimates that at least 2 million people have been killed in the Iraq (1 million), Afghanistan (220,000) and Pakistan 80,000) since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. In addition, they estimate another 1.3 million violent deaths in newer conflict zones, including Syria and Yemen. —see Jon Queally, CommonDreams

¶ Khizr Khan, the Muslim-American, who burst into the political spotlight after dramatically calling out Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention, continues to make news, though this time not a way either party prefers.
        In an MSNBC interview, Khan, who lost a son in Iraq in 2004, was asked by Chris Matthews what he thought about the multiple US military engagements in Muslim-majority countries, with renewed US bombing in Libya in the news. Khan replied that these are leaving the US in a “quagmire,” “more vulnerable,” and are creating “chaos for ourselves.”
        Not surprisingly, MSNBC didn’t include this part of the interview in the clip posted on the company’s website.
        That’s not unlike the celebrated October 2013 visit with President Obama by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai. Her telling the President that “drone attacks are fueling terrorism” got little notice. Listen to Ronan Farrow’s interview with Malala about her meeting with Obama. (3:33)

¶ According to the transparency group Airwars, July 2016 had the highest number of civilian deaths [in Syria] caused by US-led coalition since the bombing began two years ago. —Andrea Germanos, CommonDreams

¶ Preach it. “But to our wounds only God’s wounds can speak, / And not a god has wounds, but Thou alone.” ―Edward Shillito

¶ Can’t makes this sh*t up. “Deodorant is having a little bit of a moment. People are thinking about it more and talking about it more, and are willing to spend more. What’s really interesting to me here is people are wardrobing, which is they’re buying different deodorants for different occasions.” Sales for deodorant and antiperspirant rose to almost $4.3 billion last year, up more than 7% from the prior year. —Marketplace

¶ Call to the table. “Adagio for Strings,” with scenes from the movie “Platoon.” (7:35)

¶ Some remembrances, however painful, provide essential guidance for truth telling in the future. The second of two atomic bombs dropped on Japan exploded directly over the Urakama Cathedral in Nagasaki, a Jesuit-led congregation at the heart of Japan’s Roman Catholic population, on 9 August 1945. (Thanks Shelley.)

¶ For the beauty of the earth. “The Earth—A Living Creature." Amazing NASA Video. (1:28. Thanks David.)

¶ Altar call. “How many times must the cannon balls fly before they’re forever banned?” —Bee Gees (from 1963! Thanks Marian.)

¶ Benediction. “Peace, Salaam, Shalom,” by Emma’s Revolution with the Community of Christ. (The first few bars are rather discordant—wait for it.)

¶ Recessional. “Study War,” by Moby.

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Just got back from speaking to the Baptist Student Union. They wanted me to talk about ‘seeking God.’ As one student told me, 'We just want to seek God's face and worship him.'
      “So I spoke from Hebrews 12 [vv. 18-29], where it recounts that Moses sought God on the mountain and the mountain shook. There was darkness and gloom, fire and smoke, and Moses said, ‘I tremble with fear.’ The text ends with, ‘for our God is a consuming fire.’
      “I told the students if they seek God, great; but they had better be careful. I've seen this God make sophomores sick, cause otherwise subdued English majors to lose control. I've seen senior marketing majors all set to graduate and pull down some big bucks meet this God and end up going to work the homeless and hungry. I've seen ROTC members meet this God and begin to question whether you can follow Jesus and be prepared to use violence at the same time. I've seen it!" —Kyle Childress

¶ Just for fun. Legendary tap dancers gather at the Kennedy Center to honor Sammy Davis Jr. —The Nicholas Brothers (Harold & Fayard), Chuck Green, Jimmy Slyde, and 'Sandman' Sims. (6:05)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Mercy’s requite,” a litany for worship inspired by Jeremiah 1:7-9 and and Psalm 71

• “In memory of Brother Roger, founder of the Taizé community in France: A meditation on tribulation and contemplation”

• “Send me,” a litany for worship inspired by Jeremiah 1:7-9 and Isaiah 6:1-8

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

Signs of the Times  •  4 August 2016  •  No. 82

¶ Processional. “Now the Powers of Heaven,” Moscow Sretensky Monastery Choir.

Above. Perseid meteor shower, photo by Cody Limber, 2013.

¶ Invocation. “Christ is the one whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” —St. Bonaventure

¶ Call to worship. “Let the weak say I am strong / Let the poor say I am rich / Let the blind say I can see / What the lord has done in me.” —Soweto Gospel Choir, “Hosanna”

¶ “In a gesture of solidarity following the gruesome killing of a French priest, Muslims on Sunday attended Catholic Mass in churches and cathedrals across France and Italy.” —NBC News (1:37)

¶ Hymn of praise. “My grateful heart, so filled with years of living. / Memories flow by me like petals on a stream. / My grateful heart forgives so many sorrows, / Brings peace that lasts forever, / Illuminates the dream.” —Threshold Choir, “My Grateful Heart.”
       The Threshold Choir is a network of some 150 a cappella groups, primarily women’s voices, who mission is to sing for and with those in hospice care.

¶ “The George W. Bush administration embarked on a five-year campaign focusing on voter fraud and managed charges against all of 120 people nationwide. One study found 31 cases of voter impersonation nationwide in elections since 2000. That’s out of more than 1 billion votes cast.” —Asheville Citizen-Times editorial, 2 August 2016

¶ This is amazing. “In the last 10 days, courts have issued six major decisions against GOP-backed voting restrictions in five different states.” —Ari Berman, The Nation

¶ The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision striking down North Carolina’s voter restriction legislation is especially accusative, saying the legislation is marked by “racially discriminatory intent. . . . We cannot ignore the record evidence that, because of race, the legislature enacted one of the largest restrictions of the franchise in modern NC history” and that the law targeted minority voters with “almost surgical precision.” —Asheville Citizen-Times editorial, 2 August 2016

¶ Read about the “Garden of the Righteous” in Tunisia which memorializes Muslims who have risked their lives to save Jews and others from terror.” —Robert Satloff, “How we honor Muslims who stand up to terror”

¶ Confession. “One of the defining features of living in a putatively classless democracy, as has often been observed, is a constant feeling of status anxiety. In the absence of a clearly delineated hierarchy, we determine where we belong by looking above, at those we resent, and below, at those we find contemptible.” —Hua Hsu

¶ St. Isaac the Syrian (aka St. Isaac of Nineveh, at right) was a 7th century monastic and theologian of the inner life and ascetic practice, born in the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula (in what is now Bahrain, where the US Navy’s Fifth Fleet is stationed). Once appointed bishop of Nineveh, he lasted only five months before returning to a hermit life.

¶ Much has been made of the line in Michelle Obama's Democratic National Convention speech about the White House being built by slaves. (Commentator Bill O'Reilly, straight-faced, assured his listeners that these laborers were well-fed and housed at government expense.)
        You can read more about this—and a longer history of racial relations in the US with the White House as the narrative pivot—in Clarence Lusane's The Black History of the White House, including the fact that the day in 1901 after President Theodore Roosevelt had dinner with Booker T. Washington (then deemed the safest of African American leaders because of a shared commitment to segregation) what until then had been the "Executive Mansion" was formally re-named "The White House."

¶ Chances are you heard Rev. William Barber’s speech at the Democratic National Convention. (You can watch it here. 10:43). Word for word, it may have been the most stirring of four days of speeches (excepting, maybe, Khizr Khan’s challenge  to Donald Trump. 6:03.)
        What you may not know is that Barber’s closing refrain, “Revive Us Again,” was a direct quote from the final verse of the 1863 revivalist hymn by W.P. Mackay: “Revive us again; fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled with fire from above. Hallelujah thine the glory. . . .”
        This conversionist theme, long a suspect topic in cultured company, reminds me of Dr. King’s persistent refrain—“America, you must be born again”—especially near the end of his career as it became more clear that the structures of injustice went well beyond segregation.

¶ “So, a Muslim-American couple of uncommon valor may play a crucial role in bringing down Donald Trump. God has a great sense of humor.” —Jeffrey Goldberg on Twitter

¶ Of all the overlooked items in this year’s presidential nomination conventions, nothing more threatens the prospect of peace in the world’s most dangerous region that this. “Both Republicans and Democrats Went Backward on Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. Now What?” by Sam Bahour and Geoffrey Lewis, Forward.
        The Republican party platform reads, “We reject the false notion that Israel is an occupier.” On the Democratic side, “Clinton supporters rejected an effort to amend the platform which would call for ‘an end to occupations and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories.” Both positions are “out of line with international law and dozens of United Nations resolutions” and “also totally out of sync with US foreign policy.”

¶ “Of the 2,472 delegates at the [Republican National] convention, only 18 of them were black, the lowest percentage in over a century, according to History News Network and the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.” —quoted in Bill Moyers & Michael Winship, “Donald Trump’s Dark and Scary Night,” CommonDreams

¶ Urban artscape! Philadelphia’s amazing outdoor murals. —CBS Sunday Morning (5:46. Thanks Abigail.)

Left. Meg Saligman's “Common Threads,” one of many amazing murals in Philadelphia, reflects the links between the past and present and across cultures.

¶ Words of assurance. “Just the Way You Are.” Husband enlists a flash mob to sing to his wife, who has MS, on their wedding anniversary. (Thanks Anne.)

¶ “Americans overestimate the terrorist threat emanating from refugees. When asked to estimate the number of refugees charged with terrorism since 9/11, only 14 percent say it’s fewer than five, while 28 percent estimate it to be 100 or more. The actual number is 3.” —Shibley Telhami, Brookings

¶ There have been 998 mass shootings since Sandy Hook. Only 4 involved Muslims. 998 involved males. But yeah, must be a Muslim problem, not a male violence problem. —Mother Jones

¶ “A new exhibit in Austin, Texas examines a little-known chapter in the state's history, a time when Texas Rangers and white, civilian vigilantes massacred hundreds—if not thousands—of Mexican Americans or Tejanos between 1915 and 1919 in what historians have called some of the worst state-sanctioned racial violence in the US.” —Cindy Casares, Latina (Thanks Charles.)

¶ Hymn of intercession. “All my life I've been waiting for / I've been praying for / For the people to say / That we don't wanna fight no more / There will be no more wars / And our children will play / One day.” —Matisyahu, “One Day”

¶ “The lovely true thing about America even in the age of Trump” by Garrison Keillor is more than worth the effort.

¶ Preach it. An interview on NPR Weekend Edition (24 January16) with Bruce Lisker who at 17 was framed for his mother’s murder and who was exonerated in 2009 after 26 years in prison. When asked about how he negotiates anger, he said:
        “Yeah, that's going to come up, isn't it?  I don't do recrimination, I don't do bitterness, I don't do carrying that around because that would damage me. And I came up with something that I repeat as often as I have a voice: It's impossible to travel the road to peace unless you first cross the bridge of forgiveness. And the only hope of peace and happiness that I have is to, the minute something like that comes up, and it does, forgiveness is not a light switch, it's a dimmer, and somebody keeps sneaking over and turning it up—but you have to be mindful, you have to not go to the fear, not go to the anger, not go to that side but go to the love of yourself, of your family.” —read more of Abigail Hastings’ sermon, “Resilience Mojo for the Bonobo Year”

¶ Legendary jazz and pop singer Sarah Vaughan (left) was honored this year on a “Music Icons” commemorative stamp by the US Postal Service.

¶ Call to the table. “Be my love, for no one else can end this yearning / This need that you and you alone create / Just fill my arms the way you've filled my dreams / The dreams that you inspire with ev'ry sweet desire.” —Sarah Vaughan, "Be My Love"

¶ Best one-liner. “Assuming one is against police when they’re against police brutality is like assuming one is anti-parent when they’re against child abuse.” —Rosemary Jones on Twitter

¶ For the beauty of the earth. Perseid Meteor Shower 2016. (5:03)

¶ “Olympians Without Nations: First-Ever Team of Refugees Heads to Summer Games.” —Christopher Zumski Finke, Yes!
            Syrian refugee Yusra Mardini (right) fled war in her home country in August 2015, and boarded a tiny dinghy in Turkey with 18 other refugees. When the engine stopped working and the dinghy began to take on water, Mardini, her sister and another refugee got into the water and pushed the boat across the Aegean Sea for more than four hours, until they reached Lesbos. In 2012 she represented Syria in the World Swimming Championships. The 18-year-old now lives and trains in Berlin.

¶ Altar call. “Faith steals upon you like dew: some days you wake and it is there. And like dew, it gets burned off in the rising sun of anxieties, ambitions, distractions.” —Christian Wiman, My Bright Abyss

¶ Benediction. “So let us persevere in the pace we have kept, laying aside every fear, looking to our Pioneer, who for the joy set before him disregarded all shame, that every lame and languishing name be ransomed and reclaimed from death’s grievous and groanful domain. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Faith is contagious,” a litany for worship inspired by Hebrews 11

¶ Recessional. “Windsor’s Toccata,” performed by Olivier Latry. (Thanks Naomi.)

¶ Lectionary for Sunday next. “Peace is not the silence of the sepulcher, drowning sad-soul songs of lament. Peace isn’t passive. It’s not always nice or good-natured, cheerful or charming, winsome or quiet or sweet. Prophecy that provokes no crisis, asserting no claim or prompting no offense, is a liturgy deaf to Redemption’s resolve, inflated with pious pretense. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Peace, peace, but there is no peace,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 12:49-53 & Jeremiah 6:13-15

“Secret Book” mural (left) by Joshua Sarantitis, located on a building near the Free Library of Philadelphia, conveying the expansion of imagination by reading.

¶ Just for fun. “Air Canada announced this morning that as of 2017, passengers will be required to pay an extra fee to transport any emotional baggage they happen to be carrying with them onto their flight.” —Sophie Kohn, CBC Comedy (Thanks Joe.)

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Featured this week on prayer&politiks

• “Faith is contagious,” a litany for worship inspired by Hebrews 11

• “Peace, peace, but there is no peace,” a litany for worship inspired by Luke 12:49-53 & Jeremiah 6:13-15

©Ken Sehested @ prayerandpolitiks.org. Language not otherwise indicated above is that of the editor. Don’t let the “copyright” notice keep you from circulating material you find here (and elsewhere in this site). Reprint permission is hereby granted in advance for noncommercial purposes.

Your comments are always welcomed. If you have news, views, notes or quotes to add to the list above, please do. If you like what you read, pass this along to your friends. You can reach me directly at kensehested@prayerandpolitiks.org.

A note from Gerald,
prayer&politiks’ guardian angel

“Signs of the Times” is on vacation this week, but we’ve posted two election reflection pieces you will enjoy.

 

The first, “O Shizzle! Electoral season parable,” is a first-person story about a happenstance conversation across party affiliation lines, “in this age of un-friending, of only seeking news outlets that contribute to opinions we already hold.”

 

The second piece, “Magdalene’s recovery,” compares this week’s history-making election—of a female presidential candidate of a major party—with history of a more ancient sort, as St. Mary Magdalene gets upgraded in the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar.

 

§  §  §

¶ Micah met me for lunch today to debrief on the fabulous reading of Alyson Mead’s “The Quality of Mercy” and talk back we had at Judson last Saturday.

        We are sitting in the lunch-time packed Waverly Restaurant and discussing race, sexism, religious leanings and the systems of institutionalized colonialism that are keeping all of us down and oppressed. And as those of you know me, my side will be colorful and explicit and bold.

        So I am aware that there is what seems to be a family of tourists sitting next to us. After 40 minutes of this focused and lively conversation Micah asks for the check and goes to pay.

        As soon as he does the woman, who is sitting right next to me, taps me on the shoulder and says, “I hope I don't offend you, but I am a conservative Christian from St. Louis here with my family and I could not help but overhear you two talking, and again I don't want to offend you”—and I'm thinking O Shizzle, she's gonna put me on blast for language or my anti-Christian views or our Black Lives Matters talk. —continue reading “O Shizzle! Electoral season parable” by Thom Fogarty and Micah Bucey

§  §  §

¶ Hillary Clinton’s election this week as the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee surely knocks another hole in the “glass ceiling” obstructing women’s full inclusion into the human enterprise.

        It should go without saying that the struggle for gender justice is far from over; but every advance should be permitted its celebration—even for those who, like me, maintain profound concerns about Clinton’s entanglement with Wall Street’s domination of our economy along with her militarized foreign policy instincts.

        Let me suggest, though, that an event last week will have longer-term implications for greater mutuality between women and men.

        I did not know until recently that the Roman Catholic Church (in common with the various Orthodox communions) centuries ago set 22 July as remembrance day for St. Mary Magdalene. Just weeks ago, on 10 June in another of Pope Francis’ bold moves, Magdalene’s remembrance day was upgraded from a “memorial” to a “feast” day on the Catholic liturgical calendar.

        This modification may not sound like much to those of us in low-brow communions; but the elevation is actually quite significant in its context and will, very likely, open doors beyond as well. —continue reading Ken Sehested’s “Magdalene’s recovery: The church’s first evangelist joins an elite group of saints”

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A note from Gerald,
prayer&politiks' guardian angel.

“Signs of the Times” is on vacation this week.
But two new poems have been posted. (See below.)

 

Turn off (what passes for) the news.
Boycott the season’s electoral charades.
Don’t give in to Pokémon’s promise of
“augmented reality.” Attend instead to
unmitigated reality: bloodied, stricken
and strewn. Offer grief the hearing it
demands, the voice it obliges, and
the risk it assumes.
—continue reading Ken Sehested's "Lamentations' call to arms: A poem inspired by the Book of Lamentations"