art

if you don't know ryan & holly - they're good people and you should probably get to know them.

anyway, this painting looks pretty good in our room. thanks guys.

an advent postscript

After waiting the whole year to buy Christmas gifts, the shoppers came out in full force this holiday season, bringing those various retail chains smiles and profits in a much-needed turn upward for the economy.

After waiting through the advent season, the gifts seemed to take their proper place behind the excitement of celebrating Jesus come to earth as a needed Savior of the world.

We read through Isaiah as an abbey this advent. Though the profit is brutally honest about the condition of the world and Israel, twas a good read for the season. Sitting through Isaiah’s surges of passionate fervor and eloquence pulled out many thoughts and emotions on a variety of subjects: my hurting world, Israel’s awaiting a Savior, God’s holiness as a remedy for both, the subversive power of poetry, responsibilities of oaks, and the various forms love becomes to those who are desperately in need of it.

Then there’s the Christmas story which held extra meaning for me this year in the days leading up to Jesus birth. The story of Mary and Joseph, a young couple struggling to move, prepare for a baby, not really wed, and all the hustle and bustle that gets forgotten in “Silent Night.” Their life was noisy. Joseph must have been a bit nervous and flustered and felt like a schmuck for allowing the Son of God to be born in a manger. Mary must have been at least a little frazzled as her screams of child-birth which had the beginning in the Garden were met by the tiny cry of the Savior who came to pave the Way. And it was perfect.

Millions of those same consumers picked out the proper time and place and piled into the church of their favorite style for a single Christmas Eve memorial service, singing songs and lighting candles and leaving feeling good about something (which I suppose is good?). But the season of Advent is much better than a single day or service, it is truly about acting out salvation’s call to wait for the holiness that sets us free, to be still and know that God is God.

A child born unto you. Amen.

the 29 on the 14th

I will remember you today.

You stand for far more than that for which I fall.
You under-mine the authority in secrecy.
You speak radical words I don't understand personally.
You strike fear in power-filled officials.
You commune under the ism that despises it.
You shame yourselves to honor Him.
You listen to sirens at your door.
You pray more earnestly than I do here.
You sing with Paul in chains.
You wonder what comes next.
You wipe tears from your cheek.
You await release while I simply wait.
You represent millions hiding.
You echo around the world in dangerous story.

I refuse to forget you tomorrow.

4 blogs excerpts I "passively" chose not to publish. 3 weeks worth of thought-lines. 2 many people to offend. 1 mind who can trust?

- “[One abbot] troubled by the growing number of cereals made available for breakfast in his community [asked] ‘How many kinds of cereals do we need in order to meet genuine health needs without falling into thoughtless consumerism?’” – from Cloister Walk

- I came downstairs tonight. I stared at my walls and furniture. This is the end of the chapter. In the next thirty days, this room will be transformed from a bachelor pad into a … duo pad? For the first time, the reality of getting married is close. Since the engagement it has seemed far off. But now with Advent here and one month to go, the up hill climb has shifted to more of a slide down the backstretch.

- So there’s been something among others lately that’s been bothering me. I liked emergent because it helped me out of the church. I liked the church because it introduced me to Jesus. I appreciate yet still have strong distaste for the categories and systems in both. I like where I think I am in monasticism.

- I popped another chocolate covered pineapple into my mouth
While the audience applauded for the speaker one last time.
Business casual is a great term for looking nicer than you really are
Though on the screen and talked about throughout the night,
Actual minorities present were few and far between.
Who’s neighborhood will the crackhouses be kicked into
once “we” kick “them” out?
Hurricane indifference blows them to the next subdivision over
Then up goes the success rate

resonating with the words (and pictures) of Vince VanGogh

"The Jesuitisms of clergymen and devout ladies no longer have any hold on me now. You see, for me that God of the clergy is as dead as a doornail. But does that make me an atheist? Clergymen consider me one – so be it - but you see, I love, and how could I feel love if I were not alive myself, or if others were not alive; and if we are alive there is something wondrous about it. Now call that God or human nature or whatever you like, but there is a certain something I cannot define systematically, although it is very much alive and real, and you see, for me that something is God or as good as God…"