Ash Wednesday 2010

"Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shalt return."

The imposition of ashes upon the forehead of Christians as a symbol of our mortality and our repentance during Lent.

Na Zdrowie! The Kloska Family Blog: I need to see stuff like this periodically...

Na Zdrowie! The Kloska Family Blog: I need to see stuff like this periodically...

The Narrative...

http://www.pjtv.com/v/2343

Sacred Music: It Is Well With My Soul

When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou has taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain

It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,
Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

Refrain

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Refrain

For me, be it Christ, be it Christ hence to live:
If Jordan above me shall roll,
No pang shall be mine, for in death as in life
Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my soul.

Refrain

But, Lord, ‘tis for Thee, for Thy coming we wait,
The sky, not the grave, is our goal;
Oh trump of the angel! Oh voice of the Lord!
Blessèd hope, blessèd rest of my soul!

Refrain

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

Horatio Spafford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCCLTm1TMeQ

Sacred Music: Be Still My Soul

"Be Still, My Soul"

by Catharina von Schlegel

Be still, my soul; the Lord is on thy side;
Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain;
Leave to thy God to order and provide;
In every change He faithful will remain.
Be still, my soul; thy best, thy heavenly, Friend
Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.

Be still, my soul; thy God doth undertake
To guide the future as He has the past.
Thy hope, thy confidence, let nothing shake;
All now mysterious shall be bright at last.
Be still, my soul; the waves and winds still know
His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below.

Be still, my soul, though dearest friends depart
And all is darkened in the vale of tears;
Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart,
Who comes to soothe thy sorrows and thy fears.
Be still, my soul; thy Jesus can repay
From His own fulness all He takes away.

Be still, my soul; the hour is hastening on
When we shall be forever with the Lord,
When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone,
Sorrow forgot, love's purest joys restored.
Be still, my soul; when change and tears are past,
All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E226NpTWTOk

hmmmm

To be or not to be?

I did not come to Christ as a child; I was saved as an adult. I grew up in a household that was not atheistic, per se---no one denied the presence of a God and no one, that I remember, denounced religion. But my parents were certainly agnostic at best, and there was absolutely no religious teaching or discussion in our childhood. As kids, the few times we attended church were courtesy of an elderly neighbor.

I can remember when abortion became legal in 1973. I turned 14 that year and was very concerned with several issues, including women’s rights. So of course I thought that the Roe v Wade ruling was a step forward for women. Since the ruling had no direct bearing on me or my experiences, it was easy for me to declare it a positive step. Like I said, I was 14...

Ok, fast forward several years. I am married and pregnant with my first child. The pregnancy was not planned ("A" was a “Navy brat” in the most essential sense of the term---he can thank the Navy that they screwed up on my birth control prescription so I went to Italy without any—har) For the first time I realize the actual consequence of abortion and the mindset that supported it. It was patently obvious to me, even early in pregnancy, that what I was carrying was a CHILD, not a ‘pregnancy’ or ‘tissue’ or any of the euphemisms used to describe the unborn. Logically, the entity inside of me had to be ‘either/or’: either a non- human or a human. It could not be both human and non-human.

If the child was human, and biologically that was the only thing it could be, then how could one woman decide to keep a ‘baby’ while another woman could decide to abort ‘the pregnancy’? Or, turned around, if all pregnancies were somehow less than human, then why did the medical community fight to save risky pregnancies, or any pregnancies for that matter? If the outcome of pregnancy was human only after the process of pregnancy was over, then what difference did it make if the process was interrupted, either naturally or through abortion? How could two women in the same month of pregnancy walk into a doctor’s office and woman A say, “Doctor, save my BABY!” while woman B says “Doctor, end my PREGNANCY!” The “thing”, for lack of a better word, being talked about is the same, so it can’t be human or non-human based on the whim of the mother. It either is or it isn’t. If it isn’t, then it should be afforded no protection under the law, including the ‘right’ to prenatal care. If it is, then it should be protected under the law, just as every human is supposed to be.

I wrote the above to make the point that even as a non-believer, with a scientific background and with no religious background, I understood there was a flaw in the whole abortion rationale. I understood that either it didn’t matter at all or it did matter enormously. Even from a scientific/biological point of view, there wasn’t a whole lot of wiggle room. You could possibly make the case that a blastocyst and the early embryo were the makings of a human, not a human entity in itself, and therefore could be disposed of, but what did one make of a living organism that had a heartbeat, movement, and other signposts of sentient life? Did you just arbitrarily assign a point at which this living thing became a human living thing? These were powerful arguments alone, without any religious underpinnings.