The little phrase ‘God is’ amounts to a revolution.



----- Karl Barth

Lord, shed upon our darkened souls the brilliant light of your wisdom so that we may be enlightened and serve you with renewed purity. Sunrise marks the hour for men to begin their toil, but in our souls, Lord, prepare a dwelling for the day that will never end. Through our unremitting zeal for you, Lord, set upon us the sign of your day that is not measured by the sun. -- Ephrem the Syrian



The memorial of Saint Ephrem of Syria was on 9 June but he is a figure who is never met at the wrong time. Breakpoint published The Lyre of the Holy Spirit by T.M. Moore last week.

One of the hymns and anthems of another Philadelphian, Eliza Edmunds Hewitt.



Stepping In The Light



Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior,

Trying to follow our Savior and King;

Shaping our lives by His blessèd example,

Happy, how happy, the songs that we bring.



Refrain



How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior,

Stepping in the light, stepping in the light,

How beautiful to walk in the steps of the Savior,

Led in paths of light.



Pressing more closely to Him Who is leading,

When we are tempted to turn from the way;

Trusting the arm that is strong to defend us,

Happy, how happy, our praises each day.



Refrain



Walking in footsteps of gentle forbearance,

Footsteps of faithfulness, mercy, and love,

Looking to Him for the grace freely promised,

Happy, how happy, our journey above.



Refrain



Trying to walk in the steps of the Savior,

Upward, still upward, we follow our Guide;

When we shall see Him, “the King in His beauty,”

Happy, how happy, our place at His side.



Refrain

On The Bible Study Hour today, Dr. Boice continued his exposition of Genesis 45. Joseph has revealed himself and his identity to the brothers who had sold him into slavery so many years before and he now tries to reassure them in his love for them, asking that they draw near. The sermon has the title Come! Come!, and Dr. Boice draws the parallels using the richness and warmth of that word. How frequently in Scripture it is the pivotal word, the message of hope and reassurance, the invitation to fellowship and life in the presence of God.



In Matthew 11:28: Come unto me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.



The special promise and invitation of Matthew 19:14 and Luke 18:16: But Jesus called them unto him, and said, suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God.



It is the insistent word used by those who stood witness to the transforming grace of the presence, words and person of Jesus.



The woman at the well who hurries to her village to spread the good news in John 4:29: Come see a man who told me all things that ever I did: is not this the Christ?



In John 1:44-46, Philip going to find Nathanael and to tell him that the Law and the Prophets are fulfilled in this man Jesus of Nazareth: And Nathanael said unto him, Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, Come and see.



The angel standing watch at the empty tomb who gives the triumphant account to the women in Mark 16:6: He is risen. He is not here. Come and see the place where they laid Him.



Other passages will surely come to your mind. All of them reminders of how gracious is the call and invitation, the promise that He will make us welcome home.



Just As I Am



Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that Thou bidst me come to Thee,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.



Just as I am, and waiting not

To rid my soul of one dark blot,

To Thee whose blood can cleanse each spot,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.



Just as I am, though tossed about

With many a conflict, many a doubt,

Fightings and fears within, without,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.



Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind;

Sight, riches, healing of the mind,

Yea, all I need in Thee to find,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.



Just as I am, Thou wilt receive,

Wilt welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve;

Because Thy promise I believe,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.



Just as I am, Thy love unknown

Hath broken every barrier down;

Now, to be Thine, yea, Thine alone,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come.



Just as I am, of that free love

The breadth, length, depth, and height to prove,

Here for a season, then above,

O Lamb of God, I come, I come!

Humility and charity are the two master-chords: one, the lowest; the other, the highest; all the others are dependent on them. Therefore it is necessary, above all, to maintain ourselves in these two virtues; for observe well that the preservation of the whole edifice depends on the foundation and the roof.



Today is the memorial of Saint Vincent de Paul, constant servant of the poor, the enslaved, the abandoned, the ignored, the pariahs. Founder of the Vincentian Fathers and The Daughters of Charity. He is the patron of charities and of hospitals.

John Bell at Notes From a Hillside Farm writes on the events that brought him and his family to their place on the land.



You see, it all started with the cows.



Wonderful. Read it.

26 September 1460



Pope Pius II assembles European leaders, then delivers a three-hour sermon to inspire them to launch a new crusade against the Turks. The speech works, but then another speaker, Cardinal Bessarion, adds a three-hour sermon of his own. After six hours of preaching, the European princes lose all interest in the cause; they never mount the called-for crusade.



From Christian History Magazine at ChristianityToday.com

Jon Barlow at Barlow Farms links to this great optical illusion. It's a pity that the word "unbelievable" has been so cheapened and disfigured. There are times when you need it.

Rocket Trail at Sunset and a Dove of Peace.

David Heddle at He Lives posts a good introduction to the work and agenda -- it can't be called scholarship -- of the Jesus Seminar.

" ... not just a Catholic relic but a treasure of all Christendom."



Mark Shea says that he's always believed in the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. He's not the only one.

Duane Garner at Amber Bach --- who writes, enigmatically, that "I am the gift horse's dentist" --- also links to a series of photographs of the awful fate of a Suzuki that someone seems to have thought might be amphibious.

It's scarcely "man bites dog" when Albert Gore, without blushing, proclaims falsehood as truth. But the former Vice-President's speech on Iraq, delivered Monday in San Francisco, was also decidedly peculiar.



Gore's speech was one no decent politician could have delivered. It was dishonest, cheap, low. It was hollow. It was bereft of policy, of solutions, of constructive ideas, very nearly of facts -- bereft of anything other than taunts and jibes and embarrassingly obvious lies. It was breathtakingly hypocritical, a naked political assault delivered in tones of moral condescension from a man pretending to be superior to mere politics. It was wretched. It was vile. It was contemptible. But I understate.



Thanks to Kevin Holtsberry for the excerpt from, and link to, Michael Kelly's column.

Sudan Peace Act - Declares that Congress condemns violations of human rights on all sides of the conflict in Sudan (including the Government of Sudan), the ongoing slave trade there, the Government's use and organization of "murahalliin" (or "mujahadeen"), Popular Defense Forces (PDF), and regular Sudanese Army units into raiding and slaving parties in Bahr al Ghazal, the Nuba Mountains, Upper Nile, and Blue Nile regions, and its aerial bombardment of civilian targets. Recognizes that the use of raiding and slaving parties is a tool for creating food shortages as a systematic means to destroy the societies, culture, and economies of the Dinka, Nuer, and Nuba peoples in a policy of low-intensity ethnic cleansing.



The Bill offers specific proposals to address the scourges that torment the people of Sudan and, as William Sulik wrote yesterday at Blithering Idiot, it's time to Pass This.

Seven Killed at Pakistan Christian Charity



Gunmen entered the offices of a Christian welfare organization in the southern port city of Karachi on Wednesday, tied workers to their chairs and shot each in the head, officials said. At least seven people were killed and another was critically injured.



The attack took place at the Institute for Peace and Justice. Bishop John Victor Mall of the Anglican Church of Pakistan has seen this kind of violence against his people before.



Please remember our brothers and sisters in prayer, joined to the intercession of Saint Thomas the Apostle, patron of Pakistan.

Art Museum Outside Philadelphia Plans Move



By Ralph Blumenthal of the New York Times



The financially beleaguered Barnes Foundation filed court papers today asking for permission to move its remarkable Impressionist-laden art collection from its longtime Main Line suburban home to a new downtown building that would be constructed with $150 million in grants from two other foundations.



At a news conference, the foundation's officers said the sudden but long-awaited move was necessary to save one of the world's greatest art collections, but any move faces considerable legal hurdles. A relocation and other proposed changes would contravene the will of Dr. Albert C. Barnes, the eccentric millionaire who established the trove, with an estimated worth of $25 billion, as a quirky, anti-elitist academy that because of local restrictions only 1,200 visitors a month can see. ........



A likely new location, they said, would be Benjamin Franklin Parkway, a museum-lined boulevard anchored by the imposing Philadelphia Museum of Art.





Here's a source for more about this extraordinary institution and its collections: The Barnes Foundation

Of all Russian saints, Saint Sergius is perhaps the most inaccessible and mysterious. His life was so simple, so transparent that one can only observe it: he loved God from his childhood with simple and undivided love and throughout his life he was simple with an ever growing simplicity. This is true to such an extent that in the ultimate analysis the more one brings one's eyes to bear upon him the less one feels that there is anything one can say about him. More than any other Russian saint, he seems the most distant and developed in the most profound contemplative silence. Yet, he is surprisingly close to us.



In the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran calendars, 25 September is the memorial of that athlete of virtue and asceticism, the holy monk Saint Sergius of Radonezh.

To Fly Free In Space

Warm thanks to Daniel Nathan Stoddart at Lollardy, who links to Dat Boexken van der Missen "The Booklet of the Mass" (Antwerp, 1507), which he rightly describes as "an excellent look at liturgy in Northern Europe immediately before the Reformation." Woodcuts depict the rubrics of the celebration of the Mass. Recovery and dissemination of this treasure is part of the very fine work of Richard Mammana at Project Canterbury.

Steve Mattson has begun his second year of theology at Mundelein Seminary and has also returned to blogging after some quiet time. He's resumed posting at In Formation. It's good to see the lights in those windows again.

Russ Mayes took First Prize in Sunday's Chili Cookoff. Very good food for a very good cause, it sounds like.

The Milky Way Over Mount Blanc

I was listening last night to Karl Kohlhase's music on his Through The Dark CD, a fine end to a very good day. Spending time with the Lord on Sunday morning, then the afternoon at a street festival celebrating restaurants and galleries in West Chester, followed by a scenic drive down Route 52 past Winterthur and Longwood Gardens for specialty pizza with some of my family at a great little place just over the Delaware border.



A day of happiness and a day to fill the heart. In Him. A day of blessings that made the prayer more urgent, Ut Unum Sint.





From Karl's song One.



In peace we tie the union with our brothers everywhere

In unity we share the family meal

We break one loaf together and we have one cup to share

Which calls for every broken limb to heal



There must be only one body

As there is only one Son

Praying to His God and Father

"Make them one"



One Lord, one faith, and one baptism

One God and Father of all

One Lord, one faith, and one baptism

One God who is over all

Isn't it interesting that heaven's worship is expressed in words set to music, in words that are sung? This is more than interesting, of course. It is important, for music is a gift from God that allows us to express our deepest heart responses to God and his truth in meaningful and memorable ways. It is a case of our hearts joining with our minds to say, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" to the truths we are embracing ... It is what the four living creatures, elders, angels, and the entire creation are doing today in heaven. We join that great heavenly choir rightly, wisely, and joyously when we sing.



When we sing we confess that the words we have heard are true, that we rejoice in those truths, and that we stand together with others who make the same confession.



From a sermon on Revelation 4: 9-11 by Dr. James Montgomery Boice.

Wayne has a fine post on a summer of service and the light it brought.



The Greatest Kids in the World

Karen Marie Knapp posted yesterday on Rich Mullins, who died 19 September 1997. There are a lot of us who owe much to him.



Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.



The Love of God



There's a wideness in God's mercy

I cannot find in my own

And He keeps His fire burning

To melt this heart of stone

Keeps me aching with a yearning

Keeps me glad to have been caught

In the reckless raging fury

That they call the love of God



Now I've seen no band of angels

But I've heard the soldiers' songs

Love hangs over them like a banner

Love within them leads them on

To the battle on the journey

And it's never gonna stop

Ever widening their mercies

And the fury of His love



Oh the love of God

And oh, the love of God

The love of God



Joy and sorrow are this ocean

And in their every ebb and flow

Now the Lord a door has opened

That all Hell could never close

Here I'm tested and made worthy

Tossed about but lifted up

In the reckless raging fury

That they call the love of God





Copyright 1989 - Edward Grant, Inc.

Good to know when you need a fictional e-mail address. Oliver Tseng passed along the following handy knowledge from FuzzyBlog.



Also, I printed this a while ago but it's still cool: The domain name http://www.example.com/ (i.e. example.com) is NEVER in use and solely for use in technical documentation so you can write in a manual bob@example.com and know that poor Bob won't get yet another spam. Thanks to my friend Guy Haas for this one.

Almighty God, in the dawn of creation and in the presence of your Son, your light shattered the force and lure of darkness. And though through the eyes of faith we believe that the darkness cannot overcome the light of Christ, we grieve for those whose mortal bodies have suffered under the reign of evil.



Shatter the darkness of hatred and intolerance that oppresses your people in Sudan.



Please be in prayer in solidarity with the suffering Body of Christ in Sudan. And, if you're near to Washington, D.C., think of being present at the vigil.

Theodore of Tarsus, sixth successor of Saint Augustine in the see of Canterbury, is remembered in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and Anglican calendars today. Venerable Bede writes in the Ecclesiastical History that he was "the first archbishop that all the English Church obeyed." Theodore was consecrated as Archbishop of Canterbury by Pope Vitalian in Rome in 668 and arrived in England the following year in the company of Hadrian the African and Benedict Biscop, a trio of really remarkable talent and gifts.

The Church is the body of Christ: something that can be given. Christ the Incarnate One has a male body that is perfect. But to our incomprehension he does not marry. Why was he born with one sex if he does not need it? Why does he not combine both sexes? We cannot suppose that he does not value the good forces he has received in his body from the Father. He makes use of his endowments: for the creation of a visible fruit, the Church, the community of believers. The Church is his body in such a way that his physical body also finds its fulfillment in it. The acceptance of an individual human body is for him like a beginning for the birth of the Church and the fruitfulness particularly hers. It is not possible to separate the Church wholly from the Lord and place her beside him: she remains his body, although she is his bride. The key that explains it is the Eucharist. He surrenders his body in the Eucharist, in order to form the Church through the gathering together of what he has surrendered into unity. He has the power to lay down is life 'and to take it up again'. This remains a mystery of virginity; this also is one reason why priests should be celibate.



From the meditations of Adrienne von Speyr. The Passion from Within



With many thanks to Chris Kelly, who quoted this passage in response to a typically fine post by Gerard Serafin yesterday.

Ultimately perhaps it comes down to a lack of trust - faith - that God will not give us more than we can handle, as St. Paul says. Second, a belief that universal norms can be held to universally. And third, the faith that even if the laws of the Church did not lead to optimum mental and physical health we still must follow.



TS O'Rama at Video meliora ... reflecting on controversy involving Andrew Sullivan, sexuality, and the culture of dissent.



The analysis reminded me of Chesterton's Father Brown in The Blue Cross, demolishing Valentin's speculation in relativism.



'Reason and justice grip the remotest and the loneliest star. Look at those stars. Don't they look as if they were single diamonds and sapphires? Well, you can imagine any mad botany or geology you please. Think of forests of adamant with leaves of brilliants. Think the moon is a blue moon, a single elephantine sapphire. But don't fancy that all that frantic astronomy would make the smallest difference to the reason and justice of conduct. On plains of opal, under cliffs cut out of pearl, you would still find a notice-board, `Thou shalt not steal.

Gideon Strauss had a nicely done post yesterday called X is Reformed. Check out the good work in the comments box, too.

It seemed intend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me. ----- Fanny Crosby



Her name was one of those I submitted when Mark Byron was compiling his list of the 100 most influential Americans a few weeks ago. Fanny Crosby deserves a place on such a list, certainly, but I also intended the nomination as a gesture of respect for a remarkable Christian woman and one to whom I owe an immense debt. Here are the words of one of her more than 6000 hymns, Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior



Pass me not, O gentle Savior,

Hear my humble cry;

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.



Let me at Thy throne of mercy

Find a sweet relief;

Kneeling there in deep contrition,

Help my unbelief.



Trusting only in Thy merit,

Would I seek Thy face;

Heal my wounded, broken spirit,

Save me by Thy grace.



Thou the spring of all my comfort,

More than life to me;

Whom have I on earth beside Thee?

Whom in heaven but Thee?



Refrain:

Savior, Savior, hear my humble cry,

While on others Thou art calling,

Do not pass me by.

Antimatter Experiment Reports Success



50,000 Atoms of Anti-Hydrogen Made

CERN researchers have enough anti-atoms to test Standard Model.



Antimatter: Mirror of the Universe

September 19 marks the memorial of Saint Januarius, the bishop of Benevento who was martyred in the persecutions under Diocletian in 304. San Gennaro is the patron of Naples and also in a sense the patron of American street festivals. This is the 75th year that San Gennaro will be celebrated in festival in Manhattan's Little Italy.

Psalm 116:15: Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.



It's been edifying to realize how deep and widespread was the admiration for François Xavier Nguyên Cardinal Van Thuân, who died yesterday. This good and heroic man, a young priest when his uncle President Ngo Dinh Diem was assassinated in 1963, was named by Pope Paul VI as coadjutor archbishop of Saigon in 1975 just as the United States Congress abrogated its commitments under the Treaty of Paris and abandoned the Vietnamese people to the Communist onslaught. Having endured deep suffering during thirteen years in prison and re-education camps, this living martyr was exiled from his people and bishopric in 1991.



2 Timothy 4: 6-8: I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.



Cardinal Van Thuân was the author of Five Loaves and Two Fish, The Road of Hope: A Gospel from Prison and Testimony of Hope, based on the course of spiritual exercises he offered at the invitation of Pope John Paul II during the Jubilee Year 2000.



Cardinal Van Thuân was president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace and had been named as the recipient of this year's Faith and Freedom Award by The Acton Institute.



Let eternal light shine upon him, O lord,

with Thy saints for ever,

for Thou art merciful.

Eternal rest grant him, O lord,

and let perpetual light shine upon him.





Update 9/19: From Zenit.



John Paul II Recalls Cardinal Nguyên Van Thuân's Heroism

Sends Message to Vietnamese Prelate's Elderly Mother



VATICAN CITY, SEPT. 17, 2002 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II sent a number of messages, including one to Cardinal François Xavier Nguyên Van Thuân's mother, highlighting the late prelate's heroism.



The Vietnamese cardinal, who died of cancer Monday at age 74, had spent 13 years in communist prisons and camps, including nine in solitary confinement, after Pope Paul VI appointed him coadjutor bishop of Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) in 1975.



When he was exiled from his country, John Paul II welcomed him to the Roman Curia and eventually made him president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.



Upon hearing the news of the cardinal's death, the Holy Father sent a telegram of sympathy to his mother, Ngo Dinh Thi Hiep, who is currently in Rome.



"The Church recognizes in your son a faithful and courageous witness of the Gospel, who was faithful in his trials out of love for Christ and the Virgin Mary," John Paul II wrote.



The Pontiff has also expressed his condolences to Vietnamese Catholics, by sending a message to Bishop Paul Nguyên Van Hóa of Nha Trang, president of the country's episcopal conference.



The telegram recalls "this great priestly and episcopal figure of your country, who with exemplary fidelity and courage, gave witness to his faith in Christ, being closely associated to his mission through his ministry and to his passion through the suffering he endured."



The Pope also sent a telegram to Bishop Giampaolo Crepaldi, secretary of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and its members.



"The beloved deceased brother leaves an indelible memory of a life spent in consistent and heroic adhesion to his vocation, as a priest attentive to the needs of the Christian people and a pastor full of zeal for the Gospel, always faithful to the Church, even in the harsh time of persecution," the papal message states.



At 5:30 p.m. Friday the Pope will preside over the cardinal's funeral in St. Peter's Basilica. The Mass will be concelebrated by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, and other cardinals.

I was listening last night to The Lauds of Saint Ursula performed by the musicians of the Early Music Institute at Indiana University under Thomas Binkley. It's a fine recording of an exceptional work by Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the mystic, theologian, abbess, proto-scientist and composer whose memorial is celebrated today.



God works where He wills, to the glory of His Name not that of earthly man. Indeed I have always a trembling fear, since I know no safety of any possibility in myself. But I stretch out my hand to God that I might be upheld by Him as if by a wing that lacks every weight of force and flies through the wind.



A reply from Hildegard to the monk Guibert of Gembloux, AD 1175



tr. Abigail Ann Young

If you have a ring in your nose, a tongue stud, loads of tattoos, spiked hair, an overblown estimation of your own authenticity, no particular interest in America, and absolutely no ability to aid in her defense, D'Souza wants to talk with you.



That's a good line from Christopher Flannery's review of Dinesh D'Souza's What's So Great About America in the current issue of the Claremont Review of Books. Flannery's review, The Home Front: Left, Right, and (Elusive) Center, also includes consideration of books by Gore Vidal, William Bennett, and Roger Rosenblatt.



The Fall issue of the Claremont Review features The Path to Victory: A Symposium on the War in which five commentators -- William F. Buckley, Jr., Frank Gaffney, Mackubin T. Owens, Norman Podhoretz, and David Tucker -- assess Angelo M. Codevilla's ongoing "Victory Watch."

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday of this week are Ember Days, one of the four seasonal groupings of such days, reminders of our need for penitence and a dying to self and of our reliance on God who orders our seasons. The tradition of marking these days was already ancient when the times of the year for their observance were fixed almost a thousand years ago by Pope Gregory VII, the great and saintly Hildebrand of Tuscany.





Karen Marie Knapp has posted well on our continued need for the message and witness conveyed by these days.

It's been ten months since the fire at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Manhattan and here's an excellent reason to visit if you've not been there in a while. The "Time of Hope" exhibit, the last edition of "The Ages of Man" exhibitions organized by the bishops of Castile and Leon, will be presented at the cathedral September 27- November 24.



The exhibitions in the series were conceived as efforts at evangelization through the exposition of Christian culture and have been viewed by millions of visitors in Spain and the Netherlands. "Time of Hope" includes more than 100 important works, including paintings by Goya and El Greco, and spans the great artisitic traditions in the history of Europe, as described by Zenit:



The Romanesque-period works highlight the divinity of Jesus, who reigns from the cross and from his Mother's arms. The Gothic works, with the exaltation of pain, depict Jesus' compassion for people. The Renaissance, from within the most classical culture, proposes Christ as the sculpture and measure of man. Baroque works will also be displayed.



The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, with its Great Rose Window and The Chapels of the Seven Tongues among other treasures, is itself worth a long trip and an extended visit. The opportunity to see these great Spanish works of art in such a setting is a blessing.

Matthew 5: 43-44



Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.



On this September day in 1963, at 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, the sermon "The Love That Forgives" was scheduled to be preached on the text from Matthew. Denise McNair, 11, Carole Robertson, 14, Cynthia Wesley, 14, and Addie Mae Collins, 14, four young black girls, were changing into their choir robes in the basement of the church when the bomb, set by segregationists apparently dead to conscience and saving faith, exploded, killing the four girls and injuring twenty others.



The bombing came only 18 days after the hope of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Rev. Martin Luther King's sermon that day: "I Have A Dream." Dr. King preached at the funeral for the murdered girls.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar, began at sundown this evening.

Attack of the Conscience?



Call it instinctive revulsion or moral intuition, Hollywood’s prevailing take on cloning is a sound artistic response to the twin pitfalls of human greed and arrogance. The United States Senate could use a dose of that same intuition.



Charles A. Donovan of the Family Action Alliance considers Hollywood's presentation and treatment of cloning and the genetic revolution.

All of the books in the Chip Hilton series written by the great Clair Bee are now back in print. The new edition of the books was produced by the Nashville religious publisher Broadman & Holman, who insisted on some changes and adjustments in the text of the stories and "the primary departure from the originals is an unapologetic insertion of religious themes to appeal to Christian readers."



Thomas M. DeFrank of the New York Daily News has a perceptive appreciation of the series and a consideration of the changes that were required by the publisher in the current issue of The Weekly Standard. Unfortunately, linking to DeFrank's article isn't permitted.

Greater Vision had a big night when the 2002 Singing News Fan Award Winners were announced, taking seven awards.



The soloist of the year is Ivan Parker.

It was the great witness Whittaker Chambers, I think, who wrote somewhere that to hear Fannie Lou Hamer speak, or Martin Luther King preach, or Marian Anderson sing was to hear a voice that spoke from the center of sadness, even from the center of the earth. The words have been in my mind because of a couple of evenings spent listening, for the first time in a while, to the voice of Leontyne Price, who might easily be added to the list.



JB at Kairos had posted the words of There Is A Balm In Gilead last week and I'd been reminded of renditions by Jessye Norman and Leontyne Price, the latter in a collection from RCA Victor Red Seal called The Essential Leontyne Price: Spirituals, Hymns & Sacred Songs. These are not, of course, recent recordings but I've checked and the set remains available here and here and, in fact, at less than $20 for the 2 CD set, is practically being given away. You owe it to yourself to have this collection in your library.

September 13 is the memorial of Saint John Chrysostom, one of the pre-eminent Greek Fathers and a Doctor of the Church. Bishop, pastor, scholar, exegete, the Doctor of Preachers.



With a Kingdom held out to us, we let that alone, and keep pursuing shadows and dreams all our days. And yet God in His love toward man and exceeding gentleness, hath done the same as if an affectionate father should, on his son's becoming disinclined to a continual stay with him, manage to bring this about in another way. For since we have not the right feeling of desire after Him, He keeps putting divers other things before us, so as to hold us to Himself. Yet not even for this do we abide with Him, but we keep springing off to childish playthings.



On the Epistle to the Romans, Homily XV



ROM. VIII. 28 -- And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.

Revive thy Church, Lord God of hosts, whensoever it doth fall into complacency and sloth, by raising up devoted leaders, like thy servant John Henry Hobart whom we remember this day; and grant that their faith and vigor of mind may awaken thy people to thy message and their mission; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.



The Collect for today, as the Episcopal Church marks the memorial of John Henry Hobart, third bishop of New York and founder of Hobart College and The General Theological Seminary. Bishop Hobart is buried under the chancel of Trinity Church in Manhattan.

Psalm 46



God is our refuge and strength,

a very present help in trouble.



Therefore we will not fear, though the earth be moved,

and though the mountains be toppled into the depths of the sea;



Though its waters rage and foam,

and though the mountains tremble at its tumult.



The LORD of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our stronghold.



There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,

the holy habitation of the Most High.



God is in the midst of her;

she shall not be overthrown;

God shall help her at the break of day.



The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are shaken;

God has spoken, and the earth shall melt away.



The LORD of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our stronghold.



Come now and look upon the works of the LORD,

what awesome things he has done on earth.



It is he who makes war to cease in all the world;

he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear,

and burns the shields with fire.



"Be still, then, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations;

I will be exalted in the earth."



The LORD of hosts is with us;

the God of Jacob is our stronghold.

Psalm 27



The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.



One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

For in the time of trouble he shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide me; he shall set me up upon a rock.

And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the LORD.



Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek.

Hide not thy face far from me; put not thy servant away in anger: thou hast been my help; leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.

When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.



Teach me thy way, O LORD, and lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies.

Deliver me not over unto the will of mine enemies: for false witnesses are risen up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty.

I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Please send immediate prayer for Erin, who's now in the hospital with undiagnosed symptoms, and for her family to remain strong. Thank you.



From Ganns Deen at Mere Madness.

One of the best things about this season of the year is the beginning of new lecture series and the installation of important new gallery exhibits. Here's a hearty recommendation for two such, should you be lucky enough to find yourself near Philadelphia this week. Professor John Lukacs, one of the finest of contemporary historians, will lecture Friday evening at the International Institute for Culture in their series Christianity and the Creative Imagination. His subject is Tradition, Land, and Conservatism.



Dr. Lukacs will address the ways in which Western man once lived in a cultural harmony with nature and the land, forming an often organic unity. He will also analyze the intellectual and historical trends which have served to break down this relationship, causing the destruction of the environment, the alienation of persons from a sense of place, and the loss of beauty in daily life.



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Friday is also the official opening of a major exhibit of the drawings, models, and maquettes of the sculptor Anthony Visco at the Connelly Center at Villanova University. The exhibit is curated by the gallery's director, the distinguished artist Rev. Richard G. Cannuli, O.S.A.



Anthony Visco is a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Art. After graduation he was the recipient of the Fulbright-Hayes Grant to study in Italy where he attended studios at the Academia delle Belle Arti in Florence. In 1975, he was awarded the Elizabeth T. Greenshields grant for figurative sculpture. He is a member of Classical America and has received the coveted Arthur B. Ross award twice for sculpture in an architectural setting. Along with his commission work, Mr. Visco teaches out of his studio and is on the faculty of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts where he chaired the Sculpture Department from 1986 to 1992.



Mr. Visco designed and created The Stations of the Cross in the Chapel of Saint Joseph at Saint Joseph's University and recently completed two bronze commissions for the National Shrine of Saint Rita in Philadelphia.

The feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary was a good day to hear that on March 25, 2003 Priests for Life will hold a special Mass and afternoon retreat at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, DC, to ponder and celebrate the pro-life meaning of the Feast of the Annunciation.

September 8 is the memorial of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It's an unusual day when I don't learn something from Steven Riddle at Flos Carmeli.

Consider Sacrificing the Need to Be Right. Or meditate with him on The Proper Dwelling Place of God.



And now he has my thanks in a different way for an entry on Edwin Arlington Robinson that brought back to me a day of stress and happiness during my last year at prep school. A recitation of Richard Cory was received well enough to gain me second place in a school competition. A friend took the palm with a fine presentation of an excerpt from Jonathan Edwards's Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.



Visit Steven at Flos Carmeli. Frequently.

The Jewish High Holy Days begin at sundown this Sabbath evening as our elder brothers in faith commence the celebration of Rosh Hashanah.



John Cardinal O'Connor, archbishop of New York, wrote on this day in 1999: The Jewish High Holy days come once again, reminding our world of who created it, who blesses it with life and who judges it in his merciful justice. G-d who gives all humanity the dignity of being made in his image, has chosen Israel as his particular people that they may be an example of faithfulness for all the nations of the earth. With sincere love and true admiration for your fidelity to the Covenant, I am happy once again to send my greetings for a blessed New Year.



L'shanah tovah tikotevu!

A Heart, a Cross, a Flag. What arose from the ashes.

JB at Kairos posts some important points on just war theory and its current application. A valuable contribution.

There've been some quite radical developments in the dispute following yesterday's announcement that the episcopal Bishop of Pennsylvania Charles E. Bennison had proceeded to the canonical defrocking of Rev. David L. Moyer, rector of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont for "abandoning the communion of the church."



... the feud took an international turn yesterday when Father Moyer revealed that the Rev. Charles Carey, archbishop of Canterbury and symbolic leader of the worldwide Anglican communion, had made him a priest in the Church of England just days ago.



"It keeps me a priest in good standing in the eyes of the head of the Anglican communion," Father Moyer, 51, said in a telephone interview.



The Rev. Robert Duncan, bishop of Pittsburgh, also issued a statement condemning the defrocking as invalid and "due-process denying." He made Father Moyer a priest of the Pittsburgh diocese.





The King of Love My Shepherd Is

The idea of progress in the modern sense implies that once man has reached a certain level, intellectual and moral or social, there exists a firm level of being below which he cannot sink. This contention, however, is empirically refuted by the incredible barbarization which we have been so unfortunate as to witness in our century.



So wrote Leo Strauss in the years after World War II. And the century had more horrors still to come. Thirty years ago today, a group of murderous thugs invaded the Olympic Village at Munich, twenty miles from the death camp at Dachau, and took hostage a group of 9 Israeli athletes and coaches after slaughtering two others.



The grim news that ended many hours of waiting and confusion and grief was announced by Jim McKay: "Tonight our worst fears have been realized. They're all gone."



Avery Brundage, president of the International Olympic Committee, an organization as morally obtuse then as now, decreed that the Games would continue.



Showtime will present "The 1972 Munich Olympic Games: Bud Greenspan Remembers" tonight at 10:00 and will repeat the show several times through the month. An earlier film on the cruel events, One Day in September, narrated by Michael Douglas, won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature in 2000.



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Amended 9/6, with my thanks to William Sulik at Blithering Idiot for a reminder of the importance of remembering the dead individually. These are the members of the Israeli delegation who were slain on that grim September day.



Moshe Weinberg, Wrestling coach, 33

Joseph Romano, Weightlifter, 32

David Berger, Weightlifter, 26

Zeev Friedman, Weightlifter, 28

Yacob Springer, Weightlifting instructor, 51

Eliezer Halfin, Wrestler, 28

Mark Slavin, Wrestler, 18

Yosef Gutfreund, Wrestling Referee, 41

Andre Spitzer, Fencing coach, 45

Amitzur Shapira, Athletics coach, 32

Kehat Schorr, Marksmanship coach, 53.



Requiescat in pace.

Episcopal Bishop Defrocks Rosemont Priest



The bishop of the four-county Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania today removed a prominent Main Line priest who says the church has become too liberal on issues such as the ordination of women and recognition of same-sex unions.



Here are other documents in this sad dispute, with thanks to Forward in Faith.



Please remember in prayer Reverend David L. Moyer and the congregation of the Church of the Good Shepherd, Rosemont.





Psalm 119:105: Your Word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.



Lead, Kindly Light

Consider this example: A family recently moved from California to a town in Texas. The mother is Anglo; the father is Latino. They were told by the school district that they could not send their children to the school nearest their home and attended by their children's neighborhood friends.



Why? Because their children are not labeled "white." And because of a court order issued 34 years ago, in 1968, their children's race determines where they must go to school.



Roger Clegg, general counsel of the Center for Equal Opportunity, writes on What Happens When The School You Go To Depends On The Color Of Your Skin.



THE DESTRUCTIVENESS OF CONTINUING DESEGREGATION ORDERS:

Eye of the dragon.

After fifteen years in the Chair of Peter, shouldering immense burdens and vast responsibilities, acting often in an atmosphere of misunderstanding, hostility, controversy and suspicion, Pope Paul VI seemed scarred by pain and bowed by weariness. This intense, gifted and holy man had been poured out during years of devoted service and was preparing now for a judgment he believed would be "hard, but not harsh." His Holiness died on 6 August 1978.



There was a widespread sense of weariness and melancholy among the faithful, too, an almost fatalistic resignation. But those clouds, years in formation, seemed to burn away during the 33 days of grace that were the pontificate of Pope John Paul I. It was a rare heart that wasn't lifted by the September Smile and its message to "be of good cheer." It's hard to imagine that the extraordinary pontificate of John Paul II would have unfolded in the same way and to so great an effect -- hard to think that the message "Be not afraid" would have reached so many hearts -- had not that simple pastor of souls gone before him and in so brief a time prepared a way.



The ceremony of installation of Albino Luciani, Patriarch of Venice, as Pope John Paul I was on this date in 1978.

An anniversary.



"On Monday, the third day of September, 1838, in accordance with my resolution, I bade farewell to the city of Baltimore, and to that slavery which had been my abhorrence from childhood."



From The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, 1881.

I've always kept terms. From long habit and a traditionalist cast of mind, always felt more at home with the rhythms of the academic calendar, with its ecclesiastical echoes. So September always seems to me the beginning of the year and I'm made glad that the Ecclesiastical New Year is marked by our brethren in the East on 1 September.



The terms traditionally called Michaelmas begin this month. The academic year already underway in most places. The new judicial term set to begin within weeks with the celebration of Red Masses invoking the guidance of the Holy Spirit on all legal proceedings.



Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest,

vouchsafe within our souls to rest;

come with thy grace and heavenly aid,

and fill the hearts which thou hast made.