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Loreena McKennitt - NIGHTS from the ALHAMBRA Full

Loreena McKennitt - The Mummer's Dance

Senate Chaplain Barry Black delivers inaugural luncheon invocation

A Thing Of Beauty ~

 A Thing of Beauty (Endymion)

By John Keats
A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:
Its lovliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing
A flowery band to bind us to the earth,
Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth
Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,
Of all the unhealthy and o’er-darkn’d ways
Made for our searching: yes, in spite of all,
Some shape of beauty moves away the pall
From our dark spirits. Such the sun, the moon,
Trees old and young, sprouting a shady boon
For simple sheep; and such are daffodils
With the green world they live in; and clear rills
That for themselves a cooling covert make
‘Gainst the hot season; the mid-forest brake,
Rich with a sprinkling of fair musk-rose blooms:
And such too is the grandeur of the dooms
We have imagined for the mighty dead;
An endless fountain of immortal drink,
Pouring unto us from the heaven’s brink.

We Must Remember ~

In 2017, we must remember the Holocaust
Because anti-Semitism is on the rise again…
Because the survivors among us are dwindling… 
Because Holocaust deniers are relentless.… 
Because genocides still occur…
And because it’s critical that we educate the next generations

Rabbi Rami Levy & 15 year Old Natan English Subtitles - Testimony About ...

Psalm

The psalmist sings to the Lord at night, pleading for his life. Psalm 42:8 says, “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” This is not a song of jubilant hope. He doesn’t feel jubilant hope. He is seeking jubilant hope. This is a prayer song and pleading song — a song “to the God of my life”; that is, a song pleading for his life.

But isn’t it amazing that he is singing his prayer! My guess is that this is where Psalm 42 came from. This very psalm may be that nighttime prayer-song. Not many of us can compose songs when we are discouraged and weeping day and night. That’s why a singable psalm  is good to keep around — or a hymnbook with the whole array of emotions. For example, Isaac Watts wrote these verses to be sung:

    How long wilt Thou conceal Thy face?
        My God, how long delay?
    When shall I feel those heav’nly rays
        That chase my fears away?
    How long shall my poor laboring soul
        Wrestle and toil in vain?
    Thy word can all my foes control
        And ease my raging pain.

The Psalter of 1912 contains these verses to be sung the way the psalmist of Psalm 42 sang at night:

    How long wilt Thou forget me,
        O Lord, Thou God of grace?
    How long shall fears beset me
        While darkness hides Thy face?
    How long shall griefs distress me
        And turn my day to night?
    How long shall foes oppress me
        And triumph in their might?
    O Lord my God, behold me
        And hear mine earnest cries;
        Lest sleep of death enfold me,
        Enlighten Thou mine eyes;
        Lest now my foe insulting
        Should boast of his success,
        And enemies exulting
        Rejoice in my distress.

These are not jubilant songs. But they are songs of faith. And they are shaped by thinking and feeling with God in the Psalms.

Preach

Next, the psalmist preaches to his own soul. Verse 5: “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.” Oh, how crucial this is in the fight of faith. We must learn to preach the truth to ourselves. Listen to Lloyd-Jones take hold of this verse:

Have you realized that most of your unhappiness in life is due to the fact that you are listening to yourself instead of talking to yourself? Take those thoughts that come to you the moment you wake up in the morning. You have not originated them, but they are talking to you. They bring back the problems of yesterday, etc. Somebody is talking. Who is talking to you? Your self is talking to you. Now this man’s treatment [in Psalm 42] was this: Instead of allowing this self to talk to him, he starts talking to himself. “Why art thou cast down, O my soul?” he asks. His soul had been depressing him, crushing him. So he stands up and says, “Self, listen for a moment. I will speak to you.” 

On this side of the cross, we know the greatest ground for our hope: Jesus Christ crucified for our sins and triumphant over death. So the main thing we must learn is to preach the gospel to ourselves:Listen, self: If God is for you, who can be against you? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for you, how will he not also with him graciously give you all things? Who shall bring any charge against you as God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died — more than that, who was raised — who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for you. Who shall separate you from the love of Christ?
Learn to preach the gospel to yourself. If this psalmist were living after Christ, that is what he would have done.

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Dearest

“Dearest, I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible times. And I shan't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate. So I am doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness. You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that – everybody knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't think two people could have been happier than we have been. V.”
― Virginia Woolf

It Is Deeper

Upon reflection
The only way
To pay tribute
To this woman
Pirjo
Would be to perform
An autopsy of my own heart
Publically

There is a reason they
Only do that after you are dead
Besides, it would spoil the food
The safest thing
I can find to say
At this moment
Is that she really liked pink
And promise not to cry
Her legacy
Lives on in her children
Of which I was one
Because God is merciful
And He has gifted me
With the son of Pirjo
Eugene
Which means “Well Born”
To love all my days
For her sake as well as my own
With all my heart
As she loved
That is what she would ask from me
Not flowery speeches
And to step up to the plate
As she charged me to do in this life.
“One day, Anne
It will be your turn
To stand in the place I now stand
And pray for the family
When I am gone”
I tried to picture her, a frail old woman (impossible thought)
Our hearts were entwined
By Design
By Covenant
By Experience
That bond has not been broken
Part of me has gone behind the veil with her
There are no pictures
Of what we shared
Anne she said
Our relationship has always been a spiritual one
Tightly knit together by Him
For Him
With Him
I have lost nothing of her substance
She flows through my veins
Our DNA forever linked
In the flesh
In the spirit
By God
Who chooses well
I am grateful
I am undone
He is working in me
Even now
Through all these days
To reveal something new
Birthed
As she lay dying
There are not words…
I cannot express
What I feel
What I know to be true
Everything has changed
Everything is different
Now
It is deeper
It is richer
It is more
And I realize
The time is short
It won’t be long
Before I see her again
She is watching
She is praying
She is cheering me on
One of the great cloud of witnesses
I want to run well
For her sake now,
As well as for the Lord’s sake
To continue the race
We were running together
She has passed the baton
I am not quite ready to run
I just need a moment
To pause
To reflect
To adjust
To breathe
For my heart to beat again
But I will run
She won’t leave me alone unless I do
Seated with Christ in Heavenly places
At the right hand of the Father
One with the great intercessor
She will give Him no peace
No rest
She will hold on to the hem of His garment
She will not let Him go
Until he shows forth His
Salvation
Unless, that is, he needs her hands
To hold
To dance

My Heart ~

Goals ~

“Make New Year's goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living life in the year to come.

Goals give us direction. They put a powerful force into play on a universal, conscious, and subconscious level. Goals give our life direction.

What would you like to have happen in your life this year? What would you like to do, to accomplish? What good would you like to attract into your life? What particular areas of growth would you like to have happen to you? What blocks, or character defects, would you like to have removed?

What would you like to attain? Little things and big things? Where would you like to go? What would you like to have happen in friendship and love? What would you like to have happen in your family life?

What problems would you like to see solved? What decisions would you like to make? What would you like to happen in your career?

Write it down. Take a piece of paper, a few hours of your time, and write it all down - as an affirmation of you, your life, and your ability to choose. Then let it go.

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.”