Archive for August, 2007

Praying to God to make you a good activist

August 31st, 2007 ~ La Vida Iglesia

The Episcopal Church in America (ECUSA) is looking for the next bishop of the Chicago diocese, and their committee has nominated a sexually-active lesbian priest as one of the finalists. Orthodixie has a fine round-up along with excellent comments. One blogger that Fr. Joseph linked to mentioned the ECUSA committee’s “Bishop Search Prayer,” (link HERE) […]

The wisdom of birds

August 30th, 2007 ~ Orthodox perspective

“How artful and watchful a bird is! It does not let itself be caught in God’s wide world, but when it sees anybody approaching and wishing to seize it, it immediately flies up from the earth and thus saves itself. So also, the Christian must be wise and watchful in order that the incorporeal fowler […]

New insights on poverty around the world

August 27th, 2007 ~ Current events

Want to feel good about where the world is headed for once? Greg sent me this link — a 20-minute talk from Hans Rosling, a very entertaining researcher whose data analysis is a little surprising. And the ending of the talk is very unexpected.

Sinking, swimming or somewhere in-between

August 25th, 2007 ~ Orthodox perspective

I got a chance to swim in a private swimming pool recently, which was a real treat. And with the pool all to myself and no way to be seen, I could feel free to see if I even remembered how to do the butterfly. This is a fabulous stroke, and when Olympic swimmers do […]

Doing good worldwide

August 25th, 2007 ~ Potpourri for 100, Alex

Happened across this story via Yahoo news, and I pass it along because it seems like a really good opportunity to use the internet for a godly purpose for once: allowing the citizens of the “wealthy” nations to directly help better the lot of the citizens of “poor” nations. I can’t call it almsgiving exactly: […]

The pain of people who are a pain

August 24th, 2007 ~ Potpourri for 100, Alex

With happiness still on my mind, a line from “My Life in Christ” jumped out at me:
The degrees of beatitude and torment in the next world will be different [for each person]. This is proved by the present state of the souls of different people or of the same man at different times under different […]

Friday tea report

August 24th, 2007 ~ Just a slice of heaven

It’s a rainy morning, thank goodness. And the temperature feels like the high-70’s, a sign that just maybe we’ve turned that corner. The suspense was killing us, but it looks like we might just make it out of the ghastly, muggy dead of summer after all.
The dog didn’t want to go out this morning. Wet […]

What makes kids happy — an afterthought

August 22nd, 2007 ~ Potpourri for 100, Alex

While deleting more of the stupid spam e-mail that I get, it occurred to me that there’s even more reason for people over 25 to feel convicted by this recent study. Remember that when these kids 13-24 were polled and asked what made them happy, they rarely said “money” or “sex.”
But if spam is any […]

Slightly broken

August 22nd, 2007 ~ Potpourri for 100, Alex

Looks like I’ve got some weird issue with the sidebars right now. Well, I won’t be able to get my IT department (my husband) to look at it for a bit, so … hang in there and think good thoughts about the joys of technology. Sorry about the inconvenience.

China cracks down on reincarnation

August 21st, 2007 ~ Current events

It’s now illegal to reincarnate in Tibet without Chinese authorization (Link HERE). I think that’s about as tightly-wound as any government ever needs to get.
China has banned Buddhist monks in Tibet from reincarnating without government permission. According to a statement issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs, the law, which goes into effect next […]


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