“The Kingdom of Heaven is not for the well-meaning: it is for the desperate.”
– James Denney
Feeding frenzy or feeding friends
James Ferrenberg, an Eastern Orthodox “sinner and extremist” who writes Paradosis, offers this personal story:
A couple of nights ago while praying over our meal, I flubbed the Lord’s Prayer:
“Give us this day our daily bread, as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
It occurred to me later that I am going to starve.
How glad I was that I had kissed you once more.
“It is now all over, I soon shall have conquered my last enemy… Oh my dear sister, how glad I was that I had kissed you once more.”
– Janneken Munstdorp, Martyrs Mirror, p. 990
Nowhere else to go
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go.
– Abraham Lincoln
Talking Greek to me
When she received a touching story via email from her daughter, Elva said:
“You young people with your e-mails! (laughs) I’m elevated and happy that they can send such beautiful things. (laughs) When they talk about e-mails, I don’t understand what they’re talking about. They’re talking Greek to me.”
Christ compels no one.
“The Lord Christ compels no one to come to His glory…”
– Felix Mantz, Martyrs Mirror, p. 415
Elva gets her first email
I recently created a website to share pictures of my grandmother going for a walk, since my relatives live out of state and can’t visit as often as they’d like. I also set up an email address for my grandmother.
The other day my aunt sent Grandma her first email.
Here’s my 93-year-old grandma’s response.
The Congressman from Vega
My uncle, who is politically-attuned (read: fanatical to the point of insanity and I still love him), just found out that his favorite former Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich is a Vegan. Vega is a bright star in the constellation Lyra, 25 light years away. Possibly John Dean is an Andromedan.
Searching for George Fox
Many founders of religious groups would hardly recognize their modern-day successors. That would surely be true of George Fox, the originator of the Friends (Quakers) movement.
Continue reading “Searching for George Fox”
Listening to the talking lama
My Methodist-Buddhist uncle asked if I would watch my grandma for a few hours so he could go out tonight to hear a llama speak. I complimented him on his interest in Peruvian culture. I was teasing him. He meant a lama, a Tibetan lama. A talking lama.
As Ogden Nash once wrote,
A one-l lama, he’s a priest.
A two-l llama, he’s a beast.
And I will bet a silk pajama
There isn’t any three-l lllama.
Be that as it may, I personally have never heard a talking lama or a talking llama.