Shout to the Lord

But Try not to Wake the Baby

O what the Heck. The baby can join in . Here is a Hillsong classic video.



With all respect meant, I like the way that Don Moen sings it better:

Giving From Our Own Poverty

What the Heck is That?

The following meditation arrived in my email box yesterday for today, and is relative to something on my mind, that I will explain in a few moments. It comes from Daily Meditations here.

This poor woman put in more than all the rest. (see Luke 21:3)

Giving from surplus is a good thing. Sharing with all is a good thing. Caring for others from the abundance God has given us is a good thing. But a better thing is to care for others in a way that costs something, that puts us out just a little.

In the passage, Jesus refers specifically to the money that the poor widow donated for the poor. But His statement goes for anything we give out of our poorness. If we are busy executives, parents, spouses, people, and we stop to spend five minutes with a stranger in trouble -- this is a gift beyond measure.

If we are depressed, unhappy, sad, lonely people and we take time to serve those in the same condition or those who can't leave their homes, we are paying out of our poorness. We are always blessed when we do this. Not that we expect blessings, but blessings come because that is the way of the love of God.

Continue to give from your surplus; continue to do all the good things you do. But we would all do well to seek places where we could give more from our poverty, more from the banks that we feel have only two pennies themselves. For by investing those two pennies, God will pay back abundantly. Our God is a God rich in love and full of knowledge of what we need, so when we give out of our neediness, He replenishes with His love.

This is so pertinent to me at this moment because of something we received at Church on Sunday, and some opportunities that my good wife (I don't have a bad wife) and I have been presented with this year and are presented with today.

We were reminded yesterday about the face of Poverty in Ontario. This was in our bulletin:

Some statistics on poverty

Did you know?

* More people are affected by poverty than you may realize. One child in nine - 324,000 children - are growing up poor in Ontario?

* People in poverty are living far below a decent living standard. The average low-income family would need $7,100 more, just to reach the poverty line.

* Hunger is all too common in Ontario, with food banks serving over 318,000 people in Ontario, 39 % of them children. This number is up 14% since 2001.

* Just having a job does not guarantee a livable income. The combination of low wages and high rents means that a growing number of working people must rely on food banks to ward off hunger. For example, 21% of people using the Barrie Food Bank are regular wage-earners.

* The shortage of affordable housing deepens the hardships experienced by low-income people. This shortage affects people all over our diocese, in communities large and small. In Haliburton County, some people are living in trailers or cottages where pipes freeze in the winter, and they cannot afford heat. Meanwhile a low-income family in the Region of Peel would have to wait 21 years for subsidized housing, the longest waiting list in Ontario.

* Poverty costs us all. In fact, it's extremely expensive. Did you know that poverty costs every household in Ontario at least $2,300 a year? The total figure for extra health care costs, social assistance costs, lost tax revenues, crime and other hidden costs, according to a new report by the Ontario Association of Food Banks.

* Other countries have done much better than Canada in reducing poverty. While our rate of poverty is 12%, countries such as Finland and Sweden have less than 5% of their people living in poverty. In our country, Quebec has been able to cut its child poverty rate in half during the past decade.

* Measures that could help uplift families from poverty include: a $10 minimum wage (currently it's $8.75); an enriched Ontario Child Benefit; low-cost child care; higher social assistance rates; and policies to make it easier to move from social assistance to work.

* A growing number of Ontario citizens want action. Anglicans are part of a broad, non-partisan coalition calling for a detailed action plan to reduce poverty by 25% over the next five years, thus uplifting over 300,000 Ontarians from poverty. It's called the 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction (www.25in5.ca).

Seems pretty daunting, doesn't it? So, one thing that happens in our parish is we have the St. George Parish Christmas Charity Project. It's aim is as follows:

This year our Christmas Charity Project will offer a helping hand to the families who are in need this Christmas. We are pleased to tell you that this year in addition to helping those all across London, we are also working with the Christmas Cares Campaign to help the families living in St. Thomas.

There are 4 ways that those interested can help:

1) Food Hamper Sponsorship - Last year the parish sponsored over 70 prepared food hampers. This year the program is expanded to sponsor a complete family for Christmas including food and gifts, though basic food hampers will still be a part of the programme. So, we can have all the necessary details to shop for a family in need, and can make that part of our own Christmas preparation. Call it an Advent reminder of God's goodness if you will.

2) Giving Tree - Our parish has a giving tree with tags for kids with gender and age on them. You then go out and buy a suitable gift for how ever many tags you picked up, and return them to the Church.

3) Financial Gifts - You can write a cheque, but these ones are to buy food vouchers for 100 families or so.

4) Canned Goods Food Drive - Here you can give canned foods at masses in the first two weekends of December, which will go to our Saint Vincent De Paul cupboards for distribution.

There is plenty of opportunity to give from our own poverty in this.

My wife and I decided this year that giving of ourselves even in our own disability, was a far better way to share with our brothers and sisters who have less than we have. So, though we give financially to causes we believe in or who ask us for support, but also, among other things, we have given back packs of school supplies for kids whose parents cannot afford to provide them. Recently we fell into a sale at Staples where we got much of what we want for next year's back to school time, which we have tucked away while we gather it all up and wait for the time. This fall, we made up 10 of them. But, with the sale, we think we can do at least 20 next year. We are excited to know that we are doing something real for someone else with needs more pressing than ours.

Will you please remember those whose needs are greater than yours this Christmas Season, and then all year next year?

God will bless you more than you can imagine.

Healing Rain

Michael W. Smith

Healing Rain is the title track from Michael W. Smith's 2004 album, Healing Rain, his 19th.

This particular track is available here at Youtube, though it cannot be embedded.

Here are the powerful lyrics of this delightful song:

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming nearer to this old town
Rich and poor, weak and strong
It's bringing mercy, it won't be long

Healing rain is coming down
It's coming closer to the lost and found
Tears of joy, and tears of shame
Are washed forever in Jesus' name

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

Lift your heads, let us return
To the mercy seat where time began
And in your eyes, I see the pain
Come soak this dry heart with healing rain

And only You, the Son of man
Can take a leper and let him stand
So lift your hands, they can be held
By someone greater, the great I Am

Healing rain, it comes with fire
So let it fall and take us higher
Healing rain, I'm not afraid
To be washed in Heaven's rain

To be washed in Heaven's rain...

Healing rain is falling down
Healing rain is falling down
I'm not afraid
I'm not afraid...

Walker Morrow Is A Standup Kid/Guy

So Why is Will Not After Him

Quite some time ago, I decided that I would not name He Who Will Not Be Named In My Blog (Will Not - for short) in my blog. I am not interested in giving him publicity, nor of particularly catching his eye, though I imagine that like all free speech advocates in the press and blogosphere I have at some time or another.

But, I do know Walker Morrow quite well. Like many others in the blogosphere, I have come to know him by his writing and also by his direct communication with me, and his republishing of many of my ramblings.

Walker Morrow is a kid chronologically. He is 17 years old. Chronology aside, he is a good young man, with good values developed from a loving home. Besides that, he is an example of how good our kids can be. It's pretty hard to figure that he is young from reading what he writes. Unlike many, he does not write screed. He thinks first, and backs up what he says with truth, you know hard facts. He has opinions, and you are free to disagree with them, but more often than not, he states facts. He researches what he writes. Wow!!

Walker hit a bump in the road. He wrote an article that was published by the Cowichan Valley Citizen on October 8, 2009. Free Dominion is possibly the only place that you can find it at the moment, though I expect it could go viral. I read it, and can't see why anyone in particular would get their knickers in a twist about it, but Will Not did, and threatened to sue over it.

Anyway, it has been a tug of war with Walker Morrow as the rope, and Walker has come out last evening with these thoughts on the bumpiness here and here thus far.

Scary Fundamentalist, in his latest blog posting describes the approach to Libel Chill that someone can take to silence critics, and then gives examples from someone he calls "B" who sure sounds a lot like Will Not to me. Anyway, here is a link to SF Scary Fundamentalist: Writing the Textbook on Libel Chill

It really is time for this kind of nonsense to stop. Take it viral folks.

In His Time

Beautiful Song of Praise and Worship

In the midst of the hustle and bustle of life, it is important to know that God is in charge, and that everything happens according to his Plan and his timing of that Plan. Let these beautiful words, and images wash over you, cleanse you of all your pain and sorrow, and put a smile on your face, because the God who made the universe LOVES YOU, more than anything else that He has created. You are his Beloved.

God Is Good - All The Time

Don Moen

I was weaned in my walk with Christ on music like this piece of Don Moen's. I became familiar with his music in his days singing and writing with Hosanna! Music. This piece has a country feel to it. Yeehaw!!

Our God Is An Awesome God

Michael W. Smith Live Rendition

Rich Mullins wrote this powerful anthem and Michael W. Smith does it justice.

Euthanasia and Assisted Suicide

Why Not? Fr. Tim Moyle Quotes COLF

Below is the post that Fr. Moyle put up on his blog this morning, which came from the Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) site here.

The Catholic Organization for Life and Family (COLF) was co-founded by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) and the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus, of which I am a member. COLF’s mission is to build a culture of life and a civilization of love by promoting respect for human life and dignity and the essential role of the family. Here is the posting:

According to some surveys, three-quarters of Canadians would favour the legalization of euthanasia. Above all, they fear one day becoming a burden and having their lives unduly prolonged in suffering.

Given the immense confusion surrounding euthanasia, it is reasonable to question these statistics and some unreliable surveys. It is more than likely that the majority of citizens would change their minds if they were properly informed.

However, a very effective lobby is manipulating words and emotions in order to promote euthanasia and assisted suicide. For example, some erroneously use the phrase “passive euthanasia” to describe the withdrawal of futile medical treatment.

The need to dispel confusion by returning words to their true meaning has become urgent. It is also important to recognize euphemisms for “euthanasia” and “assisted suicide”: voluntary interruption of life… active aide in dying… hastened death… physician assisted death…

To begin with, it is important to clarify the distinction between euthanasia and the refusal of aggressive treatment (see Quick Answer no. 3). When death is imminent and inevitable, it is perfectly legitimate to refuse medical procedures which are disproportionate to the desired results or too burdensome for the patient and his or her family.

But what is euthanasia? Euthanasia is the intentional killing of someone, with or without his or her consent, either by act or omission. By killing the person, one seeks to eliminate all aspects of that person’s life including the pain, suffering or humiliation of being in need of help. The person who commits euthanasia must intend, for whatever reason, to kill the other and must cause his or her death.

In the case of assisted suicide, a person kills himself or herself with the help of another person who provides him or her with the means to carry out the act.

As we discuss these topics, we cannot limit ourselves to abstract principles and laws. We have to be aware that this is literally a question of life and death. If we are attentive to the natural law – a law embedded in the conscience of every human being, which commands us to protect life and not to kill – we will understand the need to reject euthanasia and assisted suicide as symptoms of the ideology of death. This is the only reasonable choice we can make as a society if we are to build our future on a culture of life and uphold a truly humane civilization in our country.

This shared responsibility requires each of us to present a vision of respect for human life and dignity in a largely secularized public arena. We need to speak up with conviction, founding our reasoning on natural arguments. Together, we must build a social barrier against euthanasia and assisted suicide.

The “quick answers” presented here provide appropriate responses to common arguments put forward by proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide. In conclusion, a Christian perspective on the delicate issues of suffering and death will help those who wish to better understand the unalterable dignity of the human person.

I urge you to get a copy of the PDF that is available on the same COLF web page which is filled with deep answers to your questions about this challenging topic.

Retarded Grandparents

This is kind of like Us When We Get To AZ in the Winter :)

The similarities in this cute story to how we live when we are in Tucson are eerie:

(This was actually reported by a teacher maybe)

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school.

One child wrote the following:
We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa.
They used to live in a big brick house but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona .
Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles and wear name tags because they don't know who they are anymore.
They go to a building called a wreck center, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don't do them very well.
There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on.
At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape.
Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts.
Nobody there cooks, they just eat out.
And, they eat the same thing every night --- early birds.
Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house.
The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked center for pot luck.
My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too..
When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house.
Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.

OK, so we don't have a golf cart, and our tin box has wheels on it and a big Ford V10 engine that gets about 7 miles to the gallon, but it's pretty close.

The Charge of the Light Brigade by Alfred Lord Tennyson

Courage and Honour

My wife and I saw the movie Blind Side yesterday, and loved it and recommend it highly. In the movie, Michael Oher, the hero and now an NFL rookie starter with the Baltimore Ravens had to write an essay on The Charge of the Light Brigade in high school, and wrote about Courage and Honour.

The Tennyson poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade is based on a real battle that occurred during the Crimean War. In reality, and in the poem, over 600 light cavalry attacked a heavily fortified and defended position of the Russian military, in an impossible situation, and suffered the consequences of that action, resulting in casualties numbering approximately 300, of which over 150 were deaths.

Courage, by definition is a quality of spirit that enables one to face danger or pain without showing fear. So, in the case of the incident of the poem, the British soldiers of the Light Brigade showed courage in attacking a force that they could not logically defeat. But courage is not sufficient of itself to undertake the seemingly impossible, particularly when facing the possibility of death or dismemberment.

So, that is where honour comes in. Honour is defined as honesty, fairness, or integrity in one's beliefs and actions. Hence, we have over 600 soldiers riding to possible death over honour. It is honour that kept them together in the charge, when their courage nudged them into it, even though their orders were faulty.

Why do I bring this up? Well, being a member of The Roman Catholic Church is much like being a soldier in the Light Brigade often, or so it may seem. If you will stand for your Catholic Faith, many will try to knock you down, to assail that which you value and to twist it to an evil purpose.

It takes courage to stand against adversity, to remain at one with the Church, to fight the good fight. But courage without honour is in fact, not very courageous.

Recently, some who claim to be good Catholics, have chosen to take aim at a number of Catholic institutions. In particular I am referring to attack pieces written in two blogs about St. Joseph's Hospital and the work of ethicist Fr. Michael Prieur, and as recently as yesterday a further attack in one blog against Save a Family Plan, and members of its board of directors, including Bishop elect Fr.McGrattan. St. Joseph's Hospital is a highly regarded teaching hospital in London, Ontario and Save A Family Plan is a charity that brings aid to people in need, primarily in India, and is run from offices provided to it by St. Peter's Seminary, also in London.

These attacks were launched on the basis of a series of articles that appeared in another Catholic news site, at the beginning of 2009. Both Father Tim Moyle of Where the Rubber Hits the Road and I have significant knowledge of the persons involved at St. Joseph's Hospital and also at Save a Family Plan, and hold them in high regard, not because we like them, but largely out of honour; honour for the positions of authority that they hold, and honour for the trustworthiness that they have displayed in their ministries over many, many years.

It takes courage to see something wrong, either in the Church or outside it and to speak up. It takes greater courage to then dig for the truth. But, it takes honour to follow the biblical admonition of 1 Timothy 2:1-2 "¹I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone— ²for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

When courage gives way to assumption, so that being right is more important than finding out the truth, it is no longer courage, but arrogance, masked in self righteousness. I have personally been guilty of this so often myself, that I know it well, and detest it in myself.

After Vatican II, the Catholic Church stopped being so much like an army, which is both good news and bad news. We, its adherents, have been called to form and use our consciences to do good, and avoid evil, in pursuance of natural law, the law of nature as God defined it for us. Though we are the members of God's flock, we are not to behave as sheep, but as friends of He who bled and died for us, and then was raised up.

But, though we are less rigid in our outlook, we must even more develop Courage and Honour as spiritual gifts, and use them in conjunction with each other for the betterment of the kingdom. As the epistle of James says in Chapter 2:17 "In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead," we are called to action by our faith, and part of the action in us is to challenge things that appear to us to be wrong, seeking out the truth, which takes courage. But courage without honour is like faith without works, valueless.

God has given us every leader that we have in our society, whether we like them or their principles and policies or not. We are called to lift them up to God in prayer, giving thanks for them, and praying that they will do God's will in their charge.

Who of us truly knows the mind of another? Who of us can honestly say that we know what has gone through a person's mind in 20, 30, 40 years of priestly ministry? In courts of criminal law, those responsible generally follow chains of evidence and rules that are meant to provide for a proper trial of those charged with an offence. In the court of public opinion, particularly with the speed of movement of the information highway, those norms all too often fall by the wayside. Bloggers and those who seek out information, and then disseminate it, have a duty to present truth, for they will be held accountable in a higher court than any in the land for how they have done so.

So, I call us all to Honour in our efforts. Let us honour those in authority, not by failing to challenge them, but by following the words of Ephesians 4:29 - 32 where it says:

²⁹Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
³¹Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
³²Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

I urge you brothers and sisters, as I urge myself to heed these words, and to bring peace within the Church, not by ignoring what we think is wrong, but by using this gift of the internet that we have to really find out the whole truth, and then to present it in love, not in anger and condemnation, for those latter two are tools of the enemy. Let us not serve the enemy, but our Saviour.

I leave you with the original Tennyson poem that was the inspiration for this article:

The Charge of the Light Brigade

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"Forward the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Forward, the Light Brigade!"
Was there a man dismay'd?
Not tho' the soldier knew
Some one had blunder'd.
Theirs not to make reply,
Theirs not to reason why,
Theirs but to do and die.
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon in front of them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
Boldly they rode and well,
Into the jaws of Death,
Into the mouth of hell
Rode the six hundred.

Flash'd all their sabres bare,
Flash'd as they turn'd in air
Sabring the gunners there,
Charging an army,
while All the world wonder'd.
Plunged in the battery-smoke
Right thro' the line they broke;
Cossack and Russian
Reel'd from the sabre-stroke
Shatter'd and sunder'd.
Then they rode back, but not,
Not the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them,
Cannon to left of them,
Cannon behind them
Volley'd and thunder'd;
Storm'd at with shot and shell,
While horse and hero fell,
They that had fought so well
Came thro' the jaws of Death,
Back from the mouth of hell,
All that was left of them,
Left of six hundred.

When can their glory fade?
O the wild charge they made!
All the world wonder'd.
Honor the charge they made!
Honor the Light Brigade,
Noble six hundred!

Alfred Lord Tennyson