felix hominum

lectio divina

Someone asked me if the book list on the side are things I'm actually currently reading.  Well actually, yes.  And the reason they are there is, I suppose, two-fold.  First I'm always amazed at the variety of selections that people have on the go.  I know some folks who get into some serious reading, and it is great to have some recommendations of things to read when I click on the blog of someone I know.  So from time to time I'll throw out some kids' books that the 3 foot high circle of critics has approved.

Secondly, some of the most significant reading I do these days is with my kids.  The list of kids' books (I know I need to update it - you should see the cool gorilla cover on the new Eric Carl stuff) is a reminder to myself that the vocation of parenthood is a sacred trust.   Time spent with wriggling, short bodies and a few good stories and pictures is irreplaceable. 

I cannot come back to this time in their lives later.  I am only there once, and this is it.

There is more than one way to engage in sacred reading.

Advent & pregnancy

So far I'm having a a perfect Advent season.  My name is Joseph, and my wife is pregnant.

It's all about the waiting.  We generally don't like to wait.  This season of the Church year is about learning that we need to wait - there is no instant gratification in the Christian life.  We need to wait.

And pain.  But as a typical husband, the pain of the new birth is not for me, it's for someone else.

talents, treasure & possessive pronouns

When Jesus talks about giving people some of the Master's treasure and then seeing what they do with it, I am more inclined to think he is pointing to the people he places in our lives.  Sure it's a parable about "stewardship" of all the gifts God has given us.  But I see it also as the stewardship of the lives he has placed within our spheres.

The Master leaves.  He says:  here is some of my property - stuff that belongs to me.  You have charge over it for a little while.  What are you going to do with it?  Are you going to increase it or bury it?   Much of this comes out of our recent discussions at sol cafe.    At heart, I think of my marriage as something spoken of by this parable.  The Master has placed something in my hands - what do I do with it while he is gone?  Do I try my best to increase it, to better it, knowing that it does not belong to me, but to him?  Or do I selfishly bury it, put it down, cover it up?   

Who are the Master's treasures that are in my keeping for a short time?  I think of the people in my life as "God's property", so to speak, and that he will come again to ask me what I've done with these treasures.   Jesus wants us to "increase" those around us.    We get fooled by possessive pronouns:  my wife, my kids, my friends. 

They are His, and He will come back to ask for them again.

cheap date night

To be had on Novemeber 28 @ 7:30 pm

Saint John the Evangelist Anglican Church - 11111- 57 Avenue

"Your Word is Truth:  Augustine's Understanding of Scripture in the Confessions"

A public talk/ lecture/ dissing/  by your gracious host, etc. 

Kegger or Anglican Tea to follow.

On Domestic Policy

The pregnant wife is always entitled to "seconds" before the non-pregnant husband has had "firsts".

homesickness

I sometimes wonder if Christians ever get affected by homesickness.  I mean, a longing for the place (or better yet the Person) who is our true home.  Not a sense of "I wish I were in heaven", but a sense that we belong in the Father's House, that God is our true home, and somewhere inside there is a stirring, a stretching, to reach it.

Home.

sex in public

No, not that kind.  More of a follow up of recent class conversations around the issues of family and human sexuality.  We had a bit of a panel this morning (one of several such on various topics) around issues in human sexuality and the church's response.  We had a variety of opinions represented, and myriad directions of discussion.  Let me zoom in on just one aspect of the conversation.

Don't ask me where I'm going with this - I don't even know, myself.

We have all heard PET's famous line that the state has no place in the bedrooms of the nation.  But is the opposite true as well?  What I mean is this:  is human sexuality an entirely private matter, one that has no connection whatsoever to the common and public good?  Or should human sexuality, like other gifts to humanity, find at least part of its reference in the context of the common or public good?

No idea.

Anyhooo... Part of this arises from the radically individualistic vision of our lives.   As Christians, we find our primary identity in and as "church" - a living community connected to Jesus, and through Jesus, to one another.  That is the first and fundamental form of our existence - you know, all that stuff about branches in the vine - cut yourself off and you tend to wither up.  All we are is somehow tied to the church, the body of Christ, to the wider fellowship, and to the rest of creation.

L'arche celebrations

There are a few celebrations coming up in the local L'arche community.   L'arche is an international community founded on the principles of the Beatitudes;  it is a home for adults with mental and often physical disabilities.

If you want to see a Christmas pageant with a difference, I really recommend the one put on by L'arche.

ps.  If you are still wondering what to do after graduation, L'arche Edmonton is looking for assistants:  persons who can spend a year living as part of the L'arche community in one of their local homes.   You may not get to bum around Europe for a year, but you'll see a world you never dreamed of.  Trust me on this one.

Our 33rd Anniversary Celebration
Friday, November 25, 2005 @ 7 PM
St. Thomas Aquinas Hall
8410 89 street

AND

Our Annual Christmas Pageant
Friday, December 16, 2005 @ 7 PM
St. Thomas Aquinas Church
8410 89 street

refreshments will follow both events

dirt, water & neighbourhood outreach

We have a big vegetable garden.  Or more correctly, we have a big vegetable garden during the late spring, summer and into the fall.  So what are we going to do with it during the winter?

Neighbourhood backyard hockey rink.   I started working on it a few days ago, and got back to it again this evening.   We are going to put in a 45X20 foot skating rink this winter, and open it up for neighbourhood skating for all the local kids.   We have a fairly big corner lot, with a rather small house in the middle, and the vegetable garden takes up a whole side of our yard.  So we are going to try to use it over the winter for a pretty simple thing:  invite the local kids (& parents) over for some friendly, made-in-Canada fun. 

Outreach & evangelism doesn't have to be complicated.  God just wants us to use our ordinary lives for extraordinary purposes.

off for a few days

About 30 of us are on a retreat this weekend;  keep us in your prayers.

BELIEVE

Tuesday, November 15
Jubilee Auditorium
7:00 pm

A night of worship on the U of A campus.

Safeway and Joshua 24

I love going down the aisles of the neighbourhood Safeway grocery store.  They recently changed their instore signage.  I used to look up and see just bland descriptions of the contents of each section of the store.  But not anymore.

A short while ago they started putting up new signs, all ending with the word “Choices”.  So now I meander down an aisle marked “Dinner Choices”, and then another one marked “Lunch Choices”.  I could hardly contain my excitement when I turned a corner a saw a large new sign that read “Dairy Choices”.  Suddenly images of yak milk and llama cheese came to my mind – before me were sure to be “Choices”  in all of their italicized wonder.

Alas, I was sorely disappointed.  Although I know realize the sheer genius behind their new marketing campaign.  We love to choose.  Every time I go in to the store, I am reminded that I am making choices.  (note: despite this promised freedom, our household diet has remained somewhat inert.)   We love the feeling, or even the illusion, that we have choices before us.

“Choose you this day whom you will serve.”   

There seem to be at least two kinds of choices in the Christian life.  There is the choosing of conversion – it seems to be a once-for-all-time kind of choice.  But then there are the many ordinary choices I make each day, which really determine who or what I am serving.   Choose you this day, and the next day, and the day after that.  Those are the choices that are the substance of the ordinary Christian life – get up in the morning, and choose for this day whom I will serve…

nothing deep...

Just a reminder to myself that I need other Christians to help me along the way.  I tend to think of it as the difference between structural and organic unity.

Bill C-407 & dying with dignity

We currently have a bill before parliament dealing with euthanasia.  Bill C-407 contains the following central phrase:

(iv) ...has, while appearing to be lucid, designated in writing, before two witnesses with no personal interest in the death of the person, another person to act in his or her name with respect to the person who aids him or her to die, and with respect to any medical practitioner, while the person does not appear to be lucid...

Now what on earth does that mean?  I judge that you do not "appear to be lucid", or perhaps I judge that you do appear to be lucid.  It seems a rather ill conceived criterion for ending someone's life.

The text of the private member's bill is here.

An interesting perspective, from an award winning palliative care practicioner, is over here.

ps.  Nov 1-7 is national Down Syndrome Awareness Week in Canada.