and all will be well, and all will be well

1 Corinthians 13:1-13
If I speak in the tongues of men and angels,
but have not love,
I have become sounding brass or a tinkling symbol.

And if I have prophecy and know all mysteries and all knowledge,
and if I have all faith so as to remove mountains,
but have not love, I am nothing.

And if I dole out all my goods, and
if I deliver my body that I may boast
but have not love, nothing I am profited.

Love is long suffering,
love is kind,
it is not jealous,
love does not boast,
it is not inflated.

It is not discourteous,
it is not selfish,
it is not irritable,
it does not enumerate the evil.
It does not rejoice over the wrong, but rejoices in the truth


It covers all things,
it has faith for all things,
it hopes in all things,
it endures in all things.

Love never falls in ruins;
but whether prophecies, they will be abolished; or
tongues, they will cease; or
knowledge, it will be superseded.

For we know in part and we prophecy in part.

But when the perfect comes, the imperfect will be superseded.

When I was an infant,
I spoke as an infant,
I reckoned as an infant;

when I became [an adult],
I abolished the things of the infant.

For now we see through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know as also I was fully known.

But now remains
faith, hope, love,

these three;

but the greatest of these is love.


to all those we lost during 2009, to all those we love, May the mercy and Love of Jesus the Christ be yours

And an Angel of the Lord Appeared unto Them

 

And the Word Became Flesh

 
And pitched His tent among us

And There were Shepherds keeping night watch over their flocks...

 

LIGHT, LIFE , LOVE and MERCY TO ALL

 

 

 

Christmas

"And when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself."
— Sigrid Undset
Hiroshima 1945
"It was a night spent in the basement of a burnt out building.
People injured by the atomic bomb took shelter in this room, filling it.
They passed the night in darkness, not even a single candle among them.
The raw smell of blood, the stench of death.
Body heat and the reek of sweat. Moaning.
Miraculously, out of the darkness, a voice sounded:
"The baby's coming!"
In that basement room, in those lower reaches of hell,
A young woman was now going into labor.
What were they to do,
Without even a single match to light the darkness?
People forgot their own suffering to do what they could.
A seriously injured woman who had been moaning but a moments before,
Spoke out:
"I'm a midwife. Let me help with the birth."
And now life was born
There in the deep, dark depths of hell.
Her work done, the midwife did not even wait for the break of day.
She died, still covered with the blood.
Bring forth new life!
Even should it cost me my own,
Bring forth new life!"
by Sadako Kurihara


May all who venture forth find the Love and Mercy of the Christ Child born again and again in our Hearts and minds.LOVE LIGHT and Hope to all!!!

 

Stalingrad or Fortess Madonna

 

The Stalingrad Madonna,Dr. Kurt Reuber

During this Season most Holy,surrounded by comfort and joy,it is good to reflect. These Madonnas were drawn by a German Doctor,a physician treating the German 6th army,a Lutheran Pastor and friend of Albert Schweitzer.Dr Reuber, in cold that is impossible to imagine, in a hopeless situation, attempted to bring some light to the darkness of Stalingrad.The Stalingrad Madonna,drawn on back of a Russian map, served as a reminder to some, that there was Light life and hope.Still,even in the frozen inhuman hell of the savage battle for the city on the Volga.The second Madonna,drawn at Christmas in 1943, one year later, is darker,Mary and the Christ looking like hunted refugees[which,essentially there were}after Dr Reuber had been in a prison camp for one year. Where oh where was the LIGHT that The Darkness could not Overwhelm?Perhaps in the hearts of some, and in a small bunker where a doctor tired to keep himself and others alive.These Madonnas speak to me deeply,of suffering and hope.That is the message of Christmas

The Jesus Sufi?The Festival of Lights

"And make mention of Mary in the Scripture, when she had withdrawn from her people to a chamber looking East,
And had chosen seclusion from them. Then We sent unto her Our Spirit and it assumed for her the likeness of a perfect man.
She said: Lo! I seek refuge in the Beneficent One from thee, if thou art God-fearing.
He said: I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a faultless son.
She said: How can I have a son when no mortal hath touched me, neither have I been unchaste?
He said: So (it will be). Thy Lord saith: It is easy for Me. And (it will be) that We may make of him a revelation for mankind and a mercy from Us, and it is a thing ordained."
The above quote sounds Coptic,or perhaps an early translation of Luke.It is not. It is from The Quran, 19:16-21.Yes, The Holy Quran.Perhaps if all of us found what UNITES us instead of divides, a slow understanding might emerge.
Tonight begins the celebration of Hanukkah ,the festival of lights. Our elder brothers celebrate once more their captivity ransomed by the Lord God.I wish blessings to all who celebrate this season.light upon light upon light.Cue Goethe.

Karl Barth,Thomas Merton, R.I.P December 10,1968

Yes, these two extraordinary men, both members of that very rare club,genius, each enriching their century with some of the most beautiful words celebrating God yet written.Barth died peacefully of his years in Basel, his home town.Merton,of course was electrocuted by touching an exposed wire on a fan in Bangkok ,Thailand at a conference on monasticism . Each of these men have contributed mightily to my journey,each were honest men, each spoke truth to power,each wrote divinely .Both are heroes to me,and I literally cannot imagine where I would be without their writings, which point me to the Lord.And that,I believe, is what they are; signposts on the road.The mistake is often to give any illuminated soul such attention that we ,I ,forget where they are pointing!Neither Merton nor Barth had any illusions nor delusions in this regard.I will continue to speak with them through the communion of saints, and use them for guidance...Here is Barth on Advent: "then it behoves us all, especially if we happen to be theologians, to keep our mouths shut and first to consider that the Christmas message is not a philosophy, nor an ideology, nor a moral system or anything like that". The Christmas word is "the Word of God to which no one has the key and whose real meaning for us, now as in former ages, is God’s secret. Hidden is the point where the Christmas message concerns each one of us and our whole generation, where its grace and judgement, its promise and command affect us".
...

If God had wanted to deal with us as He is free to do, and as we well deserved it, according to His principle, He would never have become man. But He was and is merciful, and therefore in Christ He has come together with us (with us!), though His holiness and our weakness and wickedness should really exclude any coming together on His part and any thought of cooperation on our part. But God did and does just this, the impossible or – should we say? – that which is practical only for Him the Merciful One, which must happen so that His free and merciful will be done. The fact that also in this respect human beings can believe the eternal Light, means that we do perhaps have the will to do that which concerns us most, and which under any circumstance must be done in common with others. – Karl Barth, Christmas (trans. Bernhard Citron; Edinburgh/London: Oliver and Boyd, 1959), 47.
And here is Merton on Advent taken from
Thomas Merton: A Life in Letters, (Harper One, 2008)
“Here I come with a noise out of the woods, something to say for Christmas…the wise men are on the way, and the shepherds, and our own childhood. And it will be Christmas again, with all the invisible grace of His coming, His revolution. We do not understand that this business about the crib is the real revolution that once for all turned everything upside-down so that nothing has ever been, or can ever be, the same again. But we try hard to sing the ‘old song’ instead of the new one: the song of war, of money, of power, of success, of having a good time: when it is really all much simpler than that. Life is much more fun when you don’t have to have a good time or force anybody to do anything or put anything across.” (Dec. 20, 1962)
Amen

ADVENT

The beginning of the Liturgical year.The time of Patience. Looking over the crowds last Friday, much of the Thanksgiving blessings seemed to have been focused on shopping.No ,no screed on folks shopping.It would be shameful to talk of blessings one day,then judge people for doing something the next[especially since I did some shopping online, and perhaps not everyone has that same privilege .I want to think about waiting,about the long slow painful history of the people of Israel,living, as Stan Hauerwas put it, the way Jesus meant for us, as aliens in the land.The patience of Advent,the slow breaking of light,the recollection ,the foundation we are building spiritually,these are ,for me, the hallmarks of Advent.More tomorrow

giving thanks

...for so many things, for life, for sobriety,for my beloved wife, my wonderful enlightening children,for family,for health, for my senses,to see to hear to touch smell taste to experience.Most of all to be a very very small servant of my Lord,one that screws up much more than not, still, who is loved beyond any possible imaginings. God bless and a wonder filled thanksgiving.

how then to live?

This is the question that faces us, me, in the 21st century. How to live a faith filled life in opposition , as it were,to societal values. Whatever the original intent upon the founding, this experiment in democracy has warped into something that is barely recognizable . Look at the people who frame this debate,look at what and for whom they speak;billionaire oligarchs ,multi national corporations who are faceless,nameless, and never ever held accountable. The Powers and principalities that Paul spoke of , are here and now in control. No secret there.What then can one poor middle aged man do?I can refuse getting involved in their madness, playing their political games, turning their hatred around with steadfastness and humility. I can read the Bible and listen to the revelation,right here and now, not simply from millennia past. I can live accordingly, which does not mean to act is if the past 1500 years have not occurred, as is the case in a recent book.Living like Jesus means going inward,not outwards.It means living a life of unlimited mercy,of forgiveness, of difficult choices .of love and understanding.All of these words are bandied about with such utter contempt that they have lost their flavor,love becomes a greeting card or a movie, instead of,to quote Dostoevsky" a harsh and dreadful thing." harsh and dreadful because we love the difficult, the street person, the drunk, the junkie,the exploited and abused[they run hand in hand] woman,the kid with no adult around,the old person who is as needy and dependent as an infant,and who smiles much less.And to do these things, not for some personal glory,or because there is a reward,simply because our Lord demanded it of us, and gave us this as our calling. To have the son of God strip down to his waist and perform the duties of a servant by washing the feet of his assembled friends is an act of humility and sacredness that is beyond any comprehension.Yet,paradoxically ,that is what we are charged with,to live our lives in emulation of HIS SERVICE.We may need a revolution, the revolution that Jesus calls for is one of love and mercy and service.The world is not yet ready, we,I need to sow those seeds.Today.

brothers

 

getting ready

 

Siobhan and himself

 

Melis and Chris

 

DAD

 

again

 

The greatest love

 

Knock knock

 

three generations

 

himself

 

Grandmas redux

 

Grandmas

 

Liam and Fr. Jim Krisch