Win David Gilmore's Strat

Thanks to my friends at NPF I became aware of a contest to win a copy of David Gilmore's Black Start.

See here for details.

Good Luck :).

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Woe to the souls where Christ does not dwell!

From Today's Office Of Readings:

A sermon said to be by St Macarius

Woe to the souls where Christ does not dwell!

When God was displeased with the Jews, he delivered Jerusalem to the enemy, and they were conquered by those who hated them; there were no more sacrifices or feasts. Likewise angered at a soul who had broken his commands, God handed it over to its enemies, who corrupted and totally dishonoured it. When a house has no master living in it, it becomes dark, vile and contemptible, choked with filth and disgusting refuse. So too is a soul which has lost its master, who once rejoiced there with his angels. This soul is darkened with sin, its desires are degraded, and it knows nothing but shame.

Woe to the path that is not walked on, or along which the voices of men are not heard, for then it becomes the haunt of wild animals. Woe to the soul if the Lord does not walk within it to banish with his voice the spiritual beasts of sin. Woe to the house where no master dwells, to the field where no farmer works, to the pilotless ship, storm-tossed and sinking. Woe to the soul without Christ as its true pilot; drifting in the darkness, buffeted by the waves of passion, storm-tossed at the mercy of evil spirits, its end is destruction. Woe to the soul that does not have Christ to cultivate it with care to produce the good fruit of the Holy Spirit.

Left to itself, it is choked with thorns and thistles; instead of fruit it produces only what is fit for burning. Woe to the soul that does not have Christ dwelling in it; deserted and foul with the filth of the passions, it becomes a haven for all the vices. When a farmer prepares to till the soil he must put on clothing and use tools that are suitable. So Christ, our heavenly king, came to till the soil of mankind devastated by sin. He assumed a body and, using the cross as his ploughshare, cultivated the barren soul of man. He removed the thorns and thistles which are the evil spirits and pulled up the weeds of sin. Into the fire he cast the straw of wickedness. And when he had ploughed the soul with the wood of the cross, he planted in it a most lovely garden of the Spirit, that could produce for its Lord and God the sweetest and most pleasant fruit of every kind.

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Games for Children

I've got 7 children. As you know, children are always interested in more and more toys. a significant chunk of my yearly budget goes to toy manufacturers as a peace offering. Sometimes Christmas can't come fast enough. and gifts can't seem to come cheap enough.

But If you want to "save buckets" you should shop for
gift ideas at savebuckets.co.uk. They have a great selection of toys that are not too hard on the wallet. They have gifts for all ages and a great selection of electronic games like this year's popular gift,Nintendo's Wii Fit. And if you are into Mario and Luigi,Mario Kart + Wii Wheel is the gift for you.

I'm doing alot of shopping online this season because it is so much easier to be sneaky. I've been known to blow Santa's cover in the past. So this year I'm going techno and shopping stealth.

Happy Shopping.

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A prayer to the Good Shepherd

From Today's Office Of Readings:

St Gregory of Nyssa's commentary on the Song of Songs

A prayer to the Good Shepherd

Where are you pasturing your flock, O good Shepherd, who carry the whole flock on your shoulders? (for the whole of human nature is one sheep and you have lifted it onto your shoulders). Show me the place of peace, lead me to the good grass that will nourish me, call me by name so that I, your sheep, hear your voice, and by your speech give me eternal life. Answer me, you whom my soul loves.

I give you the name ‘you whom my soul loves’ because your name is above every name and above all understanding and there is no rational nature that can utter it or comprehend it. Therefore your name, by which your goodness is known, is simply the love my soul has for you. How could I not love you, when you loved me so much, even though I was black, that you laid down your life for the sheep of your flock? A greater love cannot be imagined, than exchanging your life for my salvation.

Show me then (my soul says) where you pasture your flock, so that I can find that saving pasture too, and fill myself with the food of heaven without which no-one can come to eternal life, and run to the spring and fill myself with the drink of God. You give it, as from a spring, to those who thirst – water pouring from your side cut open by the lance, water that, to whoever drinks it, is a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

If you lead me to pasture here, you will make me lie down at noon, sleeping at peace and taking my rest in light unstained by any shade. For the noon has no shade and the sun stands far above the mountain peaks. You bring your flock to lie in this light when you bring your children to rest with you in your bed. But no-one can be judged worthy of this noonday rest who is not a child of light and a child of the day. Whoever has separated himself equally from the shadows of evening and morning, from where evil begins and evil ends, at noon he will lie down and the sun of righteousness will shine on him.

Show me, then (my soul says), how I should sleep and how I should graze, and where the path is to my noonday rest. Do not let me fall away from your flock because of ignorance, and find myself one of a flock of sheep that are not yours.
Thus my soul spoke, when she was anxious about the beauty that God’s care had given her and wanted to know how she could keep this good fortune for ever.

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Seeing Cheap!

Today's life is getting more expensive by the minute. With all the financial fears people are looking for more practical ways to give gifts this Holiday season. Some are looking at the everyday expenses as a way to give gifts that mean the most.

Why not eyeglasses? Eyeglasses are expensive. What if you could get quality eyeglasses on the cheap? Who would you buy them for? I already have a couple of people on the list ( the good list that is) for some new glasses. One is my son who keeps breaking his and the other is my daughter who's perscription needs updating.

ZenniOptical.com has the most reasonable Prescription Glasses Online I have found. Their huge selection of frames, with single vision lens, sunsensor (potochromic) lens, tinted sunglasses lens, bifocal lens and progressive lens will allow you to find the style and type of glasses you desire. They sell only our own manufactured frames direct to the customer, with no middlemen and virtually no advertising budget, whis allows them the lowest prices.

A recent Chicago tribune article gave kudos to Zenni saying,"If price is paramount, try an Internet merchant. Howard recently bought glasses from Zenni Optical, where you can buy glasses online for $8. Howard had a few add-ons that raised the total price to $41, which is still a bargain. He wears the glasses daily. "I don't know how these people do it, but it's a steal," Howard said. "The glasses are perfect. And the feedback I've gotten from [radio] listeners is they have good customer service."

It is definately worth it to me to try Zenni Optical.

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He gave his life for the unity of the Church

From Today's Office Of Readings:

Pope Pius XI's encyclical "Ecclesiam Dei"

He gave his life for the unity of the Church

In designing his Church God worked with such skill that in the fullness of time it would resemble a single great family embracing all men. It can be identified, as we know, by certain distinctive characteristics, notably its universality and unity.
Christ the Lord passed on to his apostles the task he had received from the Father: I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations. He wanted the apostles as a body to be intimately bound together, first by the inner tie of the same faith and love which flows into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, and, second, by the external tie of authority exercised by one apostle over the others. For this he assigned the primacy to Peter, the source and visible basis of their unity for all time. So that the unity and agreement among them would endure, God wisely stamped them, one might say, with the mark of holiness and martyrdom.

Both these distinctions fell to Josaphat, archbishop of Polock of the Slavonic rite of the Eastern Church. He is rightly looked upon as the great glory and strength of the Eastern Rite Slavs. Few have brought them greater honour or contributed more to their spiritual welfare than Josaphat, their pastor and apostle, especially when he gave his life as a martyr for the unity of the Church. He felt, in fact, that God had inspired him to restore world-wide unity to the Church and he realised that his greatest chance of success lay in preserving the Slavonic rite and Saint Basil’s rule of monastic life within the one universal Church.

Concerned mainly with seeing his own people reunited to the See of Peter, he sought out every available argument which would foster and maintain Church unity. His best arguments were drawn from liturgical books, sanctioned by the Fathers of the Church, which were in common use among Eastern Christians, including the dissidents. Thus thoroughly prepared, he set out to restore the unity of the Church. A forceful man of fine sensibilities, he met with such success that his opponents dubbed him “the thief of souls.”

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The special obligations of our ministry

From Today's Office Of Readings:
A sermon of St Leo the Great

The special obligations of our ministry

Although the universal Church of God is constituted of distinct orders of members, still, in spite of the many parts of its holy body, the Church subsists as an integral whole, just as the Apostle says: We are all one in Christ. No difference in office is so great that anyone can be separated, through lowliness, from the head. In the unity of faith and baptism, therefore, our community is undivided. There is a common dignity, as the apostle Peter says in these words: And you are built up as living stones into spiritual houses, a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices which are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. And again: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people set apart.

For all, regenerated in Christ, are made kings by the sign of the cross; they are consecrated priests by the oil of the Holy Spirit, so that beyond the special service of our ministry as priests, all spiritual and mature Christians know that they are a royal race and are sharers in the office of the priesthood. For what is more king-like than to find yourself ruler over your body after having surrendered your soul to God? And what is more priestly than to promise the Lord a pure conscience and to offer him in love unblemished victims on the altar of one’s heart?
Because, through the grace of God, it is a deed accomplished universally on behalf of all, it is altogether praiseworthy and in keeping with a religious attitude for you to rejoice in this our day of consecration, to consider it a day when we are especially honoured. For indeed one sacramental priesthood is celebrated throughout the entire body of the Church. The oil which consecrates us has richer effects in the higher grades, yet it is not sparingly given in the lower.

Sharing in this office, my dear brethren, we have solid ground for a common rejoicing; yet there will be more genuine and excellent reason for joy if you do not dwell on the thought of our unworthiness. It is more helpful and more suitable to turn your thoughts to study the glory of the blessed apostle Peter. We should celebrate this day above all in honour of him. He overflowed with abundant riches from the very source of all graces, yet though he alone received much, nothing was given over to him without his sharing it. The Word made flesh lived among us, and in redeeming the whole human race, Christ gave himself entirely.

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Leadership: This Election and Social Justice

"I voted for "change" so I might have some left in my pocket!" Actually I voted my conscience regarding the issues of life and liberty.

I have been struggling to decide how to blog for this month's Synchroblog. It is on "Leadership", so I decided to wait until I knew what leader we would have. The following is my first podcast. It is a reflection on the election results and it's apparent theme, and while my bias is obvious, I think it is what I ultimately wanted to say on the subject.



Here is a list of other Synchrobloggers writing on "Leadership":


Jonathan Brink - Letter To The President

Adam Gonnerman - Aspiring to the Episcopate

Kai - Leadership - Is Servant Leadership a Broken Model?

Sally Coleman - In the world but not of it- servant leadership for the 21st Century Church

Alan Knox - Submission is given not taken

Joe Miller - Elders Lead a Healthy Family: The Future

Cobus van Wyngaard - Empowering leadership

Steve Hayes - Servant leadership

Geoff Matheson - Leadership

John Smulo - Australian Leadership Lessons

Bryan Riley - Leading is to Listen and Obey

Susan Barnes - Give someone else a turn!

Liz Dyer - A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Polls...

Helen Mildenhall - Leadership

Tyler Savage - Moral Leadership - Is it what we need?

Bill Ellis -Leadership and the Re-humanizing of the World

Ellen Haroutunian - A New Kind of Leadership

Matt Stone - Converting Leadership

Julie Clawson - target="_blank">Leadership Expectations

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Electioneering in PA

Here is a video set regarding some shady dealings in the attempt to steal the vote for Obama in Pennsylvania. Phew! It's gonna be a wild ride.

Brought to you by the Black Panthers who say, “We will not allow some racists and other angry whites, who are upset over an impending Barack Obama presidential victory, to intimidate blacks at the polls,” Muhammad said. “Most certainly, we cannot allow these racist forces to slaughter our babies or commit other acts of violence against the black population, nor our black president.”

“We love Barack Obama - he gives our people great hope and light for advancement,” Shakur said. “Every president America has had has been a white man. Now the black man must be given his time to rule. Obama is a man of justice and a leader who wants to do right.”

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Hot Air Parodies ACORN!

HotAir.com has a parody of ACORN's sister organization WALNUT getting out the VOTE - TWICE! And idiot Americans sign on!

Also on Hot Air...who's the chump?

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We must re-educate our minds towards peace

From Today's Office Of Readings:

From the Second Vatican Council's pastoral constitution "Gaudium et spes" on the Church in the modern world

We must re-educate our minds towards peace

Men must not be content simply to support the efforts of others in the work for peace; they must also scrutinise their own attitudes. Statesmen, responsible as they are for the common good of their own nation and at the same time for the well-being of the whole world, are very much dependent on the opinions and convictions of the general public. Their efforts to secure peace are of no avail as long as men are divided or set against each other by feelings of hostility, contempt and distrust, by racial hatred or by inflexible ideologies. There is then a very great and urgent need to re-educate men and to provide fresh inspiration in the field of public opinion.

Those engaged in education, especially among young people, and those who influence public opinion, should consider it a very serious responsibility to work for the re-education of mankind to a new attitude toward peace. We must all undergo a change of heart. We must look out on the whole world and see the tasks that we can all do together to promote the well-being of the family of man. We must not be misled by a false sense of hope. Unless antagonism and hatred are abandoned, unless binding and honest agreements are concluded, safeguarding universal peace in the future, mankind, already in grave peril, may well face in spite of its marvellous advance in knowledge that day of disaster when it knows no other peace than the awful peace of death.

In saying this, however, the Church of Christ, living as it does in the midst of these anxious times, continues unwaveringly in hope. Time and again, in season and out of season, it seeks to proclaim to our age the message of the Apostle: Now is the hour of God’s favour, the hour for a change of heart; now is the day of salvation.

To build peace, the causes of human discord which feed the fires of war must first be eliminated, and among these especially the violations of justice. Many of these causes are due to gross economic inequality and delay in providing necessary remedies. Others arise from a spirit of domination and from a contempt for others, and, among more fundamental causes, from human envy, distrust, pride and other forms of selfishness. Since man cannot bear so many violations of due order, the result is that, even where war does not rage, the world is constantly plagued by human conflict and acts of violence.

The same evils are also found in relations between nations. It is therefore absolutely necessary that international institutions should co-operate more effectively, more resolutely and with greater coordination of effort, in order to overcome or prevent these evils, and to check unbridled acts of violence. There must also be constant encouragement for the creation of organisations designed to promote peace.

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