Gift: Turning a phrase

 Good Friday morning, good citizens of Christmastide.

Today is the 10th Day of Christmas. It's the day when every true love brings their true love ten lords a-leaping. These are, reportedly, a symbol of the Ten Commandments given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Then again, to paraphrase Freud, maybe a leaping lord is just a leaping lord, unless, of course, you're a stereotypical gay man and then 10 leaping lords is a little glimpse of heaven.

Roman Catholics celebrate The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, which commemorates the naming of the child Jesus; as recounted in the Gospel read on that day, "at the end of eight days, when he was circumcised, he was called Jesus, the name given by the angel before he was conceived in the womb."

There are lots of things on today's calendar of note. Today is the birthday of women's rights reformer and abolitionist, Lucretia (Coffin) Mott, one of the organizers of the Seneca Falls (New York) Convention of 1848.

Martin Luther was excommunicated from the Catholic Church on this date in 1521. The church started formal proceedings against Luther in 1519 for his 95 Thesis. It took some time for the commission to agree on whether his writings were heretical or not. Eventually, they decided that Luther was indeed guilty of heresy, and Pope Leo X issued a bull giving him 60 days to recant. Luther reacted by throwing the bull on a bonfire, so the Pope excommunicated him.

I am amazed that no one has done more with that turn of phrase "throwing the bull on the bonfire". I like it almost as much as the British expression, which could have been said in response to Luther's throwing the bull on the bonfire, "Well, and that really set the cat amongst the pigeons." Watch for its appearance in a future sermon. You have been duly warned.

It was on this day in 1882 that the Irish playwright Oscar Wilde docked in New York. Customs asked him if he had anything to declare. Oscar Wilde replied, "Nothing but my genius."

Herman Melville, age 21, set sail aboard the whaling vessel Acushnet on this date in 1841 from the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, bound for the Pacific Ocean. He was at sea for four years, and his experiences gave him material for Moby-Dick, which begins, "Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world."

Today is the birthday of J.R.R. (John Ronald Reuel) Tolkien (1892). Tolkien was a professor of Anglo-Saxon and, later, English Language and Literature at Oxford University. One day, while grading exams, he discovered that a student had left one whole page in his examination booklet blank. Tolkien, for reasons unknown even to him, wrote on the page, "In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." This single line turned into a bedtime story that he told his children, and from there, a book: The Hobbit (1937).

Today, the New Congress will be sworn in which may take a while because the House of Representatives will first elect the Speaker of the House. The POTUS-elect has thrown his support behind the incumbent but gave him a lukewarm "Best of Luck!".

The math is complicated - he needs 218 votes but there are different possible scenarios as to how he might get there. The Democrats are 100% behind Hakeem Jeffries (that's 215 votes).

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) declared yesterday that he would not vote for House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to serve another term under any circumstances, even if his fingernails were pulled out.

According to reports, there are at least 16 Republicans who have refused to commit to voting for Johnson. Massie, however, is the only Republican member in the House who has publicly stated that he will not vote for the current speaker.

The margin is so slim - reflecting the less than 1% win of the POTUS-elect (Note to the MAGA-DOGE faction: Definitely NOT a mandate) - that we could see a repeat of the 2023 Kevin McCarthy Show, which lasted 15 ballots over 4 days for 215 votes. McCarthy lasted 10 months.

Meanwhile, by practice, the House can conduct no business until it elects a Speaker, meaning the chamber will be paralyzed until it does so.

Welcome to The New Reality MAGA-DOGE Show, which features throwing bull on the fire and setting a cat amongst the pigeons.

See? Tole ya.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.

Gift of the Day: Choosing Gratitude

 Good Thursday morning, good citizens of Christmastide.

It's the ninth day of Christmas when every true love gives their true love, nine ladies dancing. Someone has actually figured out that if you hired nine women to dance for your true love, it would cost $8,308.12 (+10%).

"Nine Ladies Dancing" is symbolic of the Nine Gifts of the Holy Spirit - or, as described in some places, "Nine life principles -(Love, Joy, Peace, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control, and Patience.)

The Calendar of Lesser Feasts and Fasts is empty for TEC but the Roman Church celebrates the Feasts of St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen, both fourth-century bishops.

It is also traditional in some cultures to make a 9-day novena to Our Lady beginning on Christmas Day, so if you did that, your novena would be ending today.

And, the countdown begins. There are 4 days to the ratification of the election by the Electoral College, and 18 days before the inauguration.

We've already had two violent acts that have taken lives and destroyed property: the truck incident in NOLA, which injured 26 and killed 10, and now a TESLA cybertruck explosion in front of Trump Tower in Los Vegas, which left 1 dead and several injured. Both are being investigated as domestic terrorist attacks.

Violence begets violence. Project 2025 is a political platform with violence baked into every line. There is already a war between the racist MAGA and the elitist DOGE over the H1B visas. The MAGA folks are hoarse but still screaming "Mass Deportation" and the DOGE folks, immigrants themselves like Musk (Ramaswamy was born in Cincinnati, OH), argue that H1B visas help bring "smart" people to this country who work for lower wages and are grateful for the opportunity.

But, they aren't racist, they argue. Or, elitist. They're businessmen. Entrepreneurs who understand more about The Spirit of America than most people who were born here.

I don't think you need special glasses to see where this is going.

I've been meditating on the Nine Gifts of the Spirit this morning. I've also been thinking about the 18 days before the Inauguration. If I'm going to make it through the challenging days ahead, I think I need to get myself into a 9-day cycle of a Spiritual Novena that has a daily focus on one of those gifts.

If I lose sight of the gifts of life that are available to me, I am sure to lose my deep sense of gratitude. And, if I lose that, it's just a short drop down to sarcasm and cynicism during which a strange kind of darkness will begin to drape itself around my shoulders like an old, worn-out sweater. Hope will be harder to find. I've traveled that road before, which always leads to a bumpy ride down to the pit where despair awaits my arrival.

When that happens, I am certain to lose the essence of my relationship with God and the people of God. And, you know, if I've lost that, I might as well just pack it in.

If this is beginning to sound like that sappy old song, "Count your blessings, name them one by one," well, maybe that's not such a bad thing, eh?

No, counting one's blessings isn't going to dismantle MAGA or DOGE but it will change MY attitude about "Life in These (Barely) United States." And, if I can do that, and inspire others to do the same, violence has a far less chance of taking hold.

A wise person once said that, in this life, all you really need is love. And, a tiara. And, maybe a cupcake. But, most definitely a piece of dark chocolate.

It's all about attitude, which is always about choice. It has ever been thus. The greatest gift is choice, which is why so many people want to take it away or control it or explain why you can't have it.

For me, it starts with choosing gratitude. For me, that means being committed to living a sacramental, Eucharistic life - a life of sacrificing my tendencies toward arrogance and sense of entitlement for the humility of gratitude.

I am so grateful for this cup of coffee. I am so grateful that I live in a cozy, warm house, driving two dependable cars that we can afford, without debt, sharing it all with someone I love, who, for some wild and crazy nonsensical reason knows me well and loves me still.

And, two dogs who love nothing more than to cuddle and snuggle, when they aren't doing zoomies, and are so grateful to be loved - even though they are fed the same thing at almost the same time every single day of their lives - that they return that love unconditionally.

And, family and friends, some of whom drive me right 'round the bend as well as inspire me to be a better person - sometimes for not the best of reasons - and because some of them are so generous it takes my breath away.

And, I am so grateful for my ability to still find joy in the smallest things: White lights around the roof of our home in the darkness. The way a new home is coming together for friends who are homeowners for the very first time.

A slice of homemade apple pie lovingly made by a dear friend which helped celebrate the first day of the New Year. The new mint tea which my beloved found which we enjoy together almost every afternoon.

A huge bag of Ghirardelli chocolate which was a gift from friends I hadn't seen in six years, and from which I take one piece and enjoy as dessert every night. A Christmas present of two small homemade refrigerator magnets bearing the art of a dear cousin.

I'm feeling better about 2025 already. Cancer? Radiation? Chemotherapy? Okay, no, I'm not exactly ready but I can face them with the strength I'm going to need because I am filled with gratitude which allows me to know joy. And, with joy comes a commitment to justice Justice and Joy are inseparable companions in the enterprise of being human in community.

I hope you are inspired to do the same. Oh, 2025 is not going to be easy. But it can be better. One day at a time. One Beatitude at a time. One Gratitude at a time. One joy at a time.

Together.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.

The Gift of the Day

 Good Wednesday morning, good citizens of the cosmos. Today is just chock-a-block full of notable details that make the day itself a gift of the season.

Today is the eighth day of the miracle of light celebrated in the Festival of Hanukkah - which actually ends tomorrow, so I think I've been counting incorrectly. Hmmm . . .

It is also the 8th day of Christmas. On this day, every true love gives their true love eight maids a milking. The number EIGHT has a great deal of spiritual symbolism. Here are just a few: the eight Beatitudes, the eight ancient Breviary or Divine Office prayer times (Matins, Lauds, Prime, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, and Compline.), the points of the compass: N, S, E, W, NE, NW, SE, SW.

Today is the seventh and last day of Kwanzaa when the last green candle is lit and the principle of Imani, or faith, is celebrated. "That means honoring our best traditions as a family and community. We look within and above to strive for a higher level of spirituality and a better life for ourselves and for those around us."

Today is also the Feast of the Solemnity of Mary, which honors Mary's role in the birth of Jesus Christ and as the mother of God. The celebration also highlights the importance of Jesus' nature as both human and divine It is a day of Holy Obligation for Roman Catholics, which means they must attend mass. As I recall - and someone can correct me on this - a solemnity holds a higher liturgical rank than a feast day because a solemnity celebrates a mystery. 

Episcopalians, of course, celebrate today as The Feast of the Holy Name, formerly known as The Feast of the Circumcision when it was traditional for male infants to be circumcised. The feast reflects the significance of the Holy Name of Jesus, and the emphasis of the Gospel of Luke on the naming of Jesus rather than his circumcision, because, well, we're Episcopalian and circumcision is just a tad too . . . graphic, if it's all the same to you, thank you very much. (Our Roman friends celebrate the feast of the Holy Name on January 3rd) 

Today, of course, is New Year's Day, a day famously known for the Rose Bowl Parade and football games. It's also famously known as the day to suffer from a hangover, and lots of people will be taking all kinds of silly quack home remedies to ward off the headaches, GI upsets, and queasiness that come with a hangover, all so they can start drinking again while eating chicken wings and chips and dips and drinking alcohol, which is part of the ritual of watching football.

We humans are the source of most of our own misery.

Speaking of which, there are also two more notable occasions on today's calendar. Today is the Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, changing the legal status under federal law of more than 3.5 million African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free.

By lovely coincidence, today also marks the first time the great song Amazing Grace was presented at a prayer meeting in Olney, Buckinghamshire, England, on this date in 1773. Vicar John Newton had jotted down the verses in the attic room where he wrote his sermons.

Which brings me to consider, in my time of prayer and meditation, the gift of the day: The way we measure it from sun up to sun down. The way humans can fill a day like today with amazing significant events over the history of days. Or, the way we can allow a whole day or an entire string of days to float by like the silent shift of the tide, changing only itself and perhaps a tiny bit of the landscape invisible to the eye.

Jesus said it was important to let the day be sufficient unto the day, which was his antidote to anxiety and worry. It is why, in part, I include looking over what happened in days past as part of my prayer and meditation. It reminds me that whether or not something great happens today, history will record it and provide a lesson or two about how to use the gift of this day, today, these moments, which will become "a day in the life" of a person, a family, a neighborhood, a community, a state, a nation, the world.

I've spent part of my morning just considering the lessons of the past year and what it is I want to make sure to bring forward to the year 2025. We are sure to be challenged in ways that we would never have asked for or imagined.

If Project 2025 is any indication, the cruelty will be stunning.

Somehow, we have to figure out, as individuals and communities, how to find our better angels and rise up against the forces of cruelty and oppression and violence.

We're already off to a challenging start this morning with the tragic events that happened on Bourbon Street in NOLA. Twenty-six people were injured. Ten people are dead. Two police officers are wounded. The city is in lockdown only hours before the Sugar Bowl. The perpetrator is dead.

What would lead a person to intentionally drive a truck through a crowd of people who had gathered to celebrate the New Year? What terror must he have been feeling to want to recreate terror? Was the death of the perpetrator "suicide by cop"?

This event has already made its mark on the calendar of days. History will record it and future generations will note it. What we will learn from it has yet to be revealed. Clearly, the religious, political, secular, and spiritual significance and past events of this day had no impact on the person who committed this heinous act. Would it have changed anything?

The sixth chapter of Matthew's gospel, in its entirety, is a good meditation to take with us into the day. It begins with the admonition to give to the needy and includes the Lord's Prayer. It continues with instructions about fasting and how we can not serve two masters. It ends with my grandmother's favorite passage about the lilies of the field, and with these words from Jesus, “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day’s own trouble be sufficient for the day." (RSV)

I think that's exactly how we'll get through Project 2025. One day at a time. And, together. Kindness will help.

I hope something good happens to you today.

Bom dia.