HAPPY NEW YEAR

The New Year is about to begin, in just a few hours. If we are fortunate, we will ‘ring in the New Year’ with family and friends and no or few bad things will have happened to us during the last few months.

Very likely, however, some bad things will have happened, either to our family or to our friends, or to lots of folks in lots of places in the world.

And at the same time, very wise people, friends, family, Church, etc., urge us to wish our fellow and sister creatures well and to pray for all that is best for them. And we are assured that faith can move mountains; that if we have but the faith of a grain of mustard seed; that if we seek we shall find; etc., etc..

In a word, we are assured that it is most worthwhile to pray, to pray earnestly and diligently; that our petitions will be listened to and responded to by a loving and involved and Just Creator.

How is one to square all of this with the sure knowledge that crap happens to good people, that we are all going to, or indeed have, suffered great reverses, great losses at one time or another?

Or is it all a lot of …you know what?

Well, I have been doing a little thinking about this since…well, for awhile. And I came across a line or two which might be of help to anyone having trouble with believing in the usefulness, the efficacy, of prayer.

I found the following paragraph in Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. I pass it on in hopes that it may be of use to you.

Sometimes people will say things like, ‘Your prayers didn’t work, but thanks.’ as if a person could be praying for only one thing. A miracle. But in the hardest situations, all one can do is to ask for God’s mercy: Let my friend die at home, Lord, and not in the hospital. Let her go quickly, God, and with her loved ones present. One Benedictine friend, a gentle, thoughtful man who has been in constant physical pain for years and is now confined to a wheelchair, says of prayer, ‘Often, all I can do is ask God, Lord, what is it you want of me?’ From him I have learned that prayer is not asking for what you think you want but asking to be changed in ways you can’t imagine. To be made more grateful, more able to see the good in what you have been given instead of always grieving for what might have been. People who are in the habit of praying – and they include the mystics of the Christian tradition – know that when a prayer is answered, it is never in a way that you expect [emphasis mine].

We should wish family and friends all that is best in the forthcoming year. We should pray for an end to injustice and terror and for victory for the Good Guys.

But the best prayer probably remains what it always has been, even if it sometimes is a bitter pill: Let Thy will be done.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!

YouTube Site of British Monarchy

The link below will take you to an interesting site.

It is the new YouTube site ... The Royal Channel The Official Channel of the British Monarchy.

http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel

Check it out.

A new window on the most important monarchy on earth.

QUOTE(S) OF INTEREST

Abraham Lincoln on harry reid:

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I ever met.

A SHORT PRAYER RE WAR ON TERROR

We are half way in the week between Christmas Day and New Years Eve.

The bleatings of the majority leaders of the US House and Senate have ceased, temporarily, due either to the inanities of their pronouncements or to the time of year.

How will the Republic ever get along without reid and pelosi speaking to the nation on a daily basis?

Presidential candidates are either on holiday break or continuing to campaign. Most, I think, are on break.

The Bhutto assassination will probably bring some of them to a podium.

CNN has released an email re the killing. Don’t you just love it the way CNN attempts to influence international affairs and scoop the diplomats??

Thirteen of our family and friends have gathered repeatedly during this in-between week. There have been Church services and dinners and outings to malls and hitherings and thitherings [are those words?]. We have talked very little of terrorism and murders and the national democrat party. But we continue to watch and to think and to pray for success to the Good Guys.

For Good Guys read: the United States of America.

A good, short prayer re the War on Terror could sound something like:

Dear Lord, we pray for American and Allied victory over the barbarous enemy. We pray for a just end to terror. Protect all who work toward this end. Let our policies be Your Policies. Enlighten those of us who are ignorant. Amen.

Definition of ‘victory over a barbarous enemy’: suppression and destruction thereof.

Wouldn’t it be something to hear a prayer like that in church once in a while?? Why not say it like it is? We don’t just want peace. We want a win, a victorious peace. Why not say it out loud?

There was a time when nations at war did say it out loud.

But that’s a topic for another day.

BOOKS AND MOVIES

Two books were received as gifts this Christmas. And one movie is about to be seen.

Band of Brothers, Stephen Ambrose…….
I have watched the HBO series once a year for years now……and now I have the book.

I recommend it to all folks……for a testimonial of ….of a lot of things. It is possible to imagine that you know these young men, men who now are not so young.

Read about em and be proud. They are among America’s Finest.

The other book is theme-related: Selected Chaff, the Wartime Columns of Al McIntosh, part of the inspiration for the Ken Burns documentary The War.

Commentary on both of these excellent volumes will be forthcoming.
I recommend this book to all as well.

Read it and be proud.

The movie we are to see is Charlie Wilson’s Secret War. We go to few movies, but this one appears to be a winner, the story of an American who took care of business: his personal life and his patriotic duty.

The favourite way to watch movies at The Study is in the library with dog and drink close at hand. HSIT!!

I am hoping that this is the continuation of a response to lefty trash which has been and is so pervasive.

A review, comments will appear.

BENAZIR BHUTTO....R.I.P.

Score one for the barbarians.

The West, and more importantly, the United States, have lost a friend in a most dangerous region.

A reminder, a brutal reminder that our nation, our way of life is at war with a barbarous enemy.

And a significant portion of our leadership does not have a clue.

CHRISTMAS 2006

Christmas Eve, Morning, and Day are over.

We were a group of twelve: parents, children, grandchildren, in-laws, and friends gathered together in Church and in two homes.
Friends were in from Chicago.

First there was the Childrens’ Service at 5:00 on Christmas Eve Day. And then Christmas Eve Dinner.

And then Lessons and Carols and Mass at midnight.

And then Christmas Morning Breakfast followed by gift openings.

And then Christmas Dinner and more gift openings.

And all the blessed fellowship: twelve folks gathered together, laughing, reminiscing, remembering the good times, and looking forward to the future.
How sweet it was.