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sartorial and theological challenge

Words fail me...

Yet I have to wonder
--whether or not Ms. Pacman is eligible for ordination, or only Pacman himself
--if I should be reflecting theologically on the maze of life, the path of life, on Jesus as the Way through Pacman's Maze
--whether the textile artist that created this prayed through its creation and, if so, what that prayer was like
--if I should be admitting that I actually remember playing Pacman in a video arcade, though I couldn't remember the game itself to save my life.

So, dear friends, a challenge:
If you were going to design a stole with a game as the theme (video, board, or other)*, what would you choose and why?  Chutes and Ladders, perhaps (with angels ascending and descending)?
Extra points for titles and theological reflection.

*No need to explain why you would ever want to do such a thing - although since I can't really imagine why the stole above was created, perhaps there should be points for that, too!

Found at http://badvestments.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-to-future.html via Facebook.
Posted by Sarah SSM at Tuesday, August 31, 2010 2 comments: Links to this post Labels: art, creative challenge, humor, oh my, questions, vestments


Sicut servus desidera

As the deer longs for the water-brooks,

so longs my soul for you, O God.

- Psalm 42:1

(Palestrina: Sicut cervus desidera)
Sharing some end-of-the-evening peace with you. Blessings to all.
Posted by Sarah SSM at Sunday, August 29, 2010 No comments: Links to this post Labels: beauty, music, peace, prayer, scripture, video

wrapped in God's presence

"God is wholly in every place, included in no place; not bound with cords except those of love; not divided into parts, not changeable into several shapes; filling heaven and earth with His present power, and with His never absent nature: so St. Augustine expresses this article. So that we may imagine God to be as the air and the sea, and we all enclosed in His circle, wrapped up in the lap of His infinite nature; or as infants in the wombs of their pregnant mothers: and we can no more be removed from the presence of God than from our own being."

--Jeremy Taylor, classical Anglican theologian, preacher, and pastor. Holy Living (1650).

From Jeremy Taylor: Selected Works. Edited by Thomas K, Carroll. The Classics of Western Spirituality. New York: Paulist Press,1990. Labels: prayer, reflections


feeling catty?

By Rossini's cat, I do believe.
Posted by Sarah SSM at Saturday, August 28, 2010 No comments: Links to this post Labels: humor, music, video


Hail, Holy Queen

In honor of the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin.

Posted by Sarah SSM at Sunday, August 15, 2010 No comments: Links to this post Labels: music, video


ERD at work in Haiti

It sounds as though Episcopal Relief and Development is doing some of its best work in direct help for individuals by providing employment.  I heard that idea even before the earthquake; how much more now must such a thing be essential!

I'm glad to hear that some of this is work being done to clear the rubble.  I heard an estimate recently about the number of years it would take to get it all taken away if there were a thousand trucks working... and while I can't remember the number of years, the fact that there are no where near that number of trucks available, much less money to pay them, tells you that this is no short-term project.  And it is impossible to rebuild when you can't even clear ground on which to put a building.

They are also working alongside families to put up temporary housing solid enough to hold up in storms for a few years.

Here is the latest article on this from the Episcopal News Service (Mary Frances Schjonberg, August 3, 2010):
ERD supports efforts for new houses and cash-for-work programs photo via ENS from the article above
Posted by Sarah SSM at Tuesday, August 10, 2010 No comments: Links to this post Labels: earthquake, Episcopal Relief and Development, Haiti, in the news


President’s Blog » Blog Archive » Five Families Receive Housekeys in St. Mathieu Parish

Episcopal Relief and Development's blog from Haiti has a story about the parish in Mathieu, just around the corner from Darbonne. I remember that church, new and lovely, which I visited on my way to Darbonne with the Sisters when they went to drop me off. In the photo here, you see the students from the school sitting inside the church taking their exams. Of course, as in most every Episcopal parish there, there is a school, too.

I remember, too, being so astonished to see an Obama sticker in the school office, so far away. There was quite some excitement about that, they explained. I'm glad to know some of it is still standing. I met the architect, and I'm sure he was proud of his work - good to know some of it lasted.
Posted by Sarah SSM at Sunday, August 08, 2010 No comments: Links to this post Labels: earthquake, education, Episcopal Relief and Development, Haiti, Mathieu



In honor of the Feast of the Transfiguration, I'd like to share a poem by Madeleine L'Engle with you.  It's from Glimpses of Grace, a book of daily readings with passages taken from a great variety of her writing: poetry to memoir to A Wrinkle in Time.

Suddenly they saw him the way he was,
the way he really was all the time,
although they had never seen it before,
the glory which blinds the everyday eye
and so becomes invisible. This is how
He was, radiant, brilliant, carrying joy
like a flaming sun in his hands.
This is the way he was – is – from the beginning,
and we cannot bear it. So he manned himself,
came manifest to us; and there on the mountain
they saw him, really saw him, saw his light.
We all know that if we really see him we die.
But isn’t that what is required of us
Then, perhaps, we will see each other, too.
I wish I could paint this poem. A different sort of icon: Jesus "carrying joy / like a flaming sun in his hands."

And then, somehow, to paint the hope of learning, all of us, really to see each other. A prayer for today, indeed.
Posted by Sarah SSM at Friday, August 06, 2010 1 comment: Links to this post