The Force

Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is.
Yoda

(the Sheriff tries on part of his Halloween costume/ Julie Cook / 2019)

Master Yoda or is that Master Sheriff?

Master Sheriff notes that the Force is strong in this one, the Mayor…
And he should know…

Here we have the Mayor trying out her Halloween costume…her favorite latest Disney
character…Vamperina.
Vamperina and her family have moved from Transylvania to Pennsylvania.
The Mayor loves to sing along with the Ghoul Girls…
However, the Mayor is not a fan of the bat wing hat.

(The Mayor just wants to be outside)

Master Sheriff is always ready with a smile…

Next Thursday will be the Sheriff’s first time to trick or treat as his sister is one up on him.
The following day, All Saints Day, the Sheriff will have his long-awaited and dreaded surgery.
As any surgery with any child is dreaded.

James will finally be circumcised along with any additional work in order to realign the urethra,
helping to prevent the reoccurring kidney reflux.
He has been on antibiotics since birth.
It is time to be free of medicines, infections, and fevers—
and the added worry for his parents!!!

Our prayers are to the One True Force—the Great Healer, Jehovah-Rapha

Eve’s “No” verses Mary’s “Yes”

“i imagine that yes is the only living thing.”
E.E. Cummings

(Expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden / Masaccio / 1425 / Florence )

(Bicci di Lorenzo / 1433-1434 / The Annunciation panels / private collection)

Please enjoy the Christmas Eve Homily offered by Bishop Gavin Ashenden.
Bishop Ashenden raises an interesting observation…

That in Eve’s having said “no” to God—in her refusal to His obedience,
man then fell victim to the addiction to sin and disobedience.

Mary in turn counters that sinfulness no by offering her simple “yes”….

And in Mary’s yes…she brings us all to God’s saving Grace.
Of which brings to all of humankind, through the birth of her son Yeshua,
the freedom from this never-ending cycle of disobedient addiction…

the sick man and the healer…

The wisdom of God appears in afflictions.
By these He separates the sin which He hates,
from the son whom He loves.
By these thorns He keeps him from breaking over into Satan’s pleasant pastures,
which would fatten him indeed, but only to the slaughter.
James H. Aughey

(the homeless Christ sculpture by Canadian artist Timothy Schmalz outside Christ Church Cathedral / Dublin, Ireland / Julie Cook / 2015)

“This world is a sick man, whom sin has made sick,
for sin is a sickness,
and to scorn sinners is to scorn the sick.

With prayer our healer walks around the grievously sick patient,
with prayer he walks and
with prayer he heals and makes whole.

Do not scorn sinners, but pray for them.

Feel pity and compassion for every creature, but do not condemn.
Expand and deepen your soul with prayer,
and you will begin to cry over the mystery of the world bitterly and vehemently.

Make your heart prayerful, together with your soul and your mind,
and they will become inexhaustible fountainheads of tears for all mankind.

The most reverend man of prayer has made his whole soul prayerful,
together with his spirit and mind:
and he feels the sins of all sinners as though they were his own,
and he repents for all sins as though they were his own,
as he weeps and sighs.”

Saint Nikolai Velimirovich