A Franciscan Benediction

     Why exactly this is a Franciscan benediction, I do not know. This prayer has untraceable origins, but it does exude Franciscan themes of social justice and a commitment to progress and peace. It speaks to the hushed aspirations of our generation.

✈

“May God bless us with discomfort at easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships, so that we may live deep within our hearts.

May God bless us with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that we may work for justice, freedom and peace.

May God bless us with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that we may reach out our hands to comfort them and turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless us with enough foolishness to believe that we can make a difference in this world, so that we can do what others claim cannot be done.

Amen.”

On education and seeking the Great Perhaps

"We do not educate our children – at least I don’t – hoping they will grow up to be mild compliant objects of sweet music.
I hope that at least some of them will have the edge that would make them get on a camel and go a thousand miles chasing a dream. And show up and stir the whole city because they're announcing that change is on the horizon. . ."

John McLarty

"Helping Jesus / The Magi"

Obama's Re-election Does Not Mean Jesus is Coming Sooner

To my fellow Adventists and other eschatologically minded Christians:
          The parousia of Christ is not catalyzed by the degradation of morality, and especially not the re-election of President Obama.
          Rather, the eschaton is dependent on our own execution of personal and global evangelism.

          And why is it that we are so concerned with the decline of morality in the world around us, when we actually pay so little attention to the degradation of ethics? Isn't that what Jesus is saying in Matthew 24:12 ("because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold," KJV) and what he says to the Pharisees when they know what is lawful but not what is right?

Ryan

Manila, Philippines

We are the sole survivors of a world no one else has ever seen

            I finished reading Colum McCann's "Let the Great World Spin". I came away thinking it was masterful. Colum is one of us New Yorkers; he captures the city from within the heart of the town, not as an outside observation (ick). In this piece for The New York Times, McCann writes of the dog days of baseball in New York, expressing a very spiritual sentiment for such an Earth-based game.

          To finish a book such as this is to end a poetic journey that makes you want to linger over the last dozen pages longer. You identify with the spirit of the book, with the character, and you wish you could be pals with the author (a la "The Catcher in the Rye") because they are the only connection to this world of which no one else has ever seen. I might mention that moment when you finish a book, look around, and realize everyone is just carrying on with their lives as though you didn't just experience emotional trauma at the hands of a paperback. 

Random House, published 2009

          "Let the Great World Spin" belongs to the newly forming genre of post-9/11 arts, literature, and music. Post-9/11 is a largely retrospective genre. I would define it as an art made as a reaction to or influenced by the events of September 11, directly or indirectly. The films "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", "The Hurt Locker", and to an extent (one of my favorites with George Clooney) "Up in the Air", as well as the books "Three Cups of Tea" and "Someday this Pain Will Be Useful to You", and several pieces by the American composer Rene Clausen are all considered a part of post-9/11 art. So is the children's book and Caldecott Award recipient "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers", which in fact is related to McCann's novel. It is quite amazing to see this timely thematic genre form within the dawn of my lifetime.

          The arts created in response to September 11 I perceive to be usually unafraid to reveal the brokenness of the world. We have become distrustful of each other on the outside as we line up at airport security checks, walk past each other in the city at night, or wear apparel of cultural nature, be it the hijab or a chained cross.  But within ourselves we know we want to trust our neighbor, we want to embrace anyone else who seeks peace.  

On a church spire

"When I look up at the spire, do you know what I see? This is my interpretation: 

The great Adventist Christian posture, my friends, is not kneeling, sitting, or standing. It's looking up.  

And when I look up at that spire, when I walk in front of this church, and I look through it to the very clouds, the skies, and the heavens - I look up to the place where I look forward to the coming of Jesus."

Alex Bryan

"Rock Solid Religion: History. Seriously."