The above icon is a representation of the three angels who visited Abraham and Sarah at the oak grove of Mamre; sometimes it is called the "Old Testament Trinity". They aren't named in the Biblical account of Abraham.
Gabriel is named several times in Luke's Gospel. Raphael is named in the book of Tobit. When he finally reveals his true identity, he says he is "one of seven". But so far as I know, we are never told the names of the other four. Michael is named in Revelation. The mysterious Angel of the Agony, who comforts Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, isn't named. Though some traditions say that it was Gabriel.
The guardian angels have their own feast day, and are mentioned by Jesus in Matthew 18:10, "See that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven ever behold the face of my Father."
The little flowers in the photo above are what we used to call Michaelmas Daisies; they always appear about this time of year. They are actually little wild asters, the last wild flowers of the year. My sister snapped this picture out at the home place.
Now that we've learned that the big secret about Trump's taxes is that he doesn't pay any, I have a theory, as follows: his primary motive in not wishing to disclose his tax returns was shame. He isn't a money-making god. He loses money every year. And he can't bear that any of us know that.
USA Today, via Google
In case your subscription to People has lapsed, the NY Times challenges us to a fun interactive quiz today: it shows us the headshots of 52 celebrities, politicians and sports figures, and asks us to name them. It's not multiple choice: it simply shows the photo with a blank line beneath, where you can type their name. If you have time to waste, and can get through their subscriber wall, it may entertain you. To offer one hint: having watched the Democratic primary debates this election cycle definitely will help.
After you've identified everyone (or, if you're like me, you've failed to identify quite a few of them), some results are presented, broken down by age group. The window into what our kids and grandkids spend their time thinking about is worth a look.
This is my homily for today, the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A. The readings for today are here.
Just in time for the peaceful assemblies after the election, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wants to add a cool new way of standing your ground. You do it with your car. You don’t exactly stand, though. You put the pedal to the metal.
You think I jest? Here is how it looks on the governor's Web site .
Prohibition on Obstructing Roadways: 3rd degree felony to obstruct traffic during an unpermitted protest, demonstration or violent or disorderly assembly; driver is NOT liable for injury or death caused if fleeing for safety from a mob.
Notice the capitalized, italic NOT. That is how he wrote it.
This is just one of the obviously or probably unconstitutional new laws he told the Legislature it needs to pass in a special session no later than when The Don decides the election was invalid.
Here are some other new crimes:
Prohibition on Harassment in Public Accommodations: 1st degree misdemeanor for a participant in a violent or disorderly assembly to harass or intimidate a person at a public accommodation, such as a restaurant.
RICO Liability: RICO liability attaches to anyone who organizes or funds a violent or disorderly assembly.
Here are some enhanced penalties:
Mandatory Minimum Jail Sentence: Striking a law enforcement officer (including with a projectile) during a violent or disorderly assembly = 6 months mandatory minimum jail sentence.
Offense Enhancements: Offense and/or sentence enhancements for: (1) throwing an object during a violent or disorderly assembly that strikes a civilian or law enforcement officer; (2) assault/battery of a law enforcement officer during a violent or disorderly assembly; and (3) participation in a violent or disorderly assembly by an individual from another state.
It goes on. It is worth looking at all of his brainstorms to get the full impact of how he has internalized The Don’s version of Black Lives Matter and other protests.
To recall: “Congress shall make no law … (abridging) the right of people to peacefully assemble.” That is part of the First Amendment. Under the DeSantis improvement, if you and six others take signs to the federal courthouse, and an eighth person comes along (say, an undercover cop; it happens) and throws a brick through a window, you can be charged under the RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) act, with enhanced penalties.
Yesterday there was a little dust-up in which police had to intervene. Some Democrats were putting on a Biden demonstration on a corner that Trump capos use ever Friday. The Ds chose a day when the Rs wouldn’t be there, but the Rs showed up and tried to force them off the “sacred ground.”
If Gov. DeSantis had us fully protected now, some folks could be in jail today waiting, with no bond allowed, for a hearing whenevrer.
The New York Times has an interesting article on its website by Elizabeth Bruenig about Catholics and politics. Of course, its point of departure is the still-likely (although perhaps trending somewhat less-still-likely) election of Joe Biden in a couple of months. Bruenig notes something which barely has registered with me: he'd be only the 2nd Catholic president in American history.
A prominent collegiate athletic conference has changed its mind about football and the pandemic.
I have maintained that the election is mostly Trump vs. the Virus, that if the virus is resurging Trump will lose, and if it diminishes then he has a good chance of winning.
As you know, I like to make projections of the virus new cases based on previous data. When it became evident that cases were beginning to diminish in August, I calculated a rate of a 1.5% decrease per day beginning with a daily average of 67567 cases on July 25th.. Up until the last week that has resulted in very good predictions.
The Table after the break gives the new cases per day from the Times database in the first column, the average of the last seven days in the second column, and the predicted number of cases beginning on July 25th as a recent high average.in the third column. The fourth column shows whether the predicted number was lower ( minus) or higher (plus) than the average number.
As you can see prediction has sometimes been lower and sometimes higher. Last Friday the prediction was 911 cases higher than the seven day average but then on Saturday the prediction came in 934 cases lower then the average. In other words for over a month the decrease per day has been remarkably close to 1.5%. If this continues, it says that during most of October cases will be below 25000 and will reach about 15000 by election day. If this becomes true, then the virus will diminish as a present issue and real future issue in the minds of voters. I think this will greatly enhance Trump's chances of winning.
On the other hand since last Friday, there has been a steady increase of cases at the rate of 3% per day. This might be a temporary increase due to the Labor Day weekend, or the beginning of another wave triggered by the return to school, and more indoor activities as sunlight diminishes. If this continues then cases will again be at the 60,000 plus level during the time when ballots will begin being cast and could be double that by election day (and/or with the likelihood of lockdown type situations to prevent further escalation) I think this will greatly decrease Trumps chances of winning.
(The NY Times has attempted to monitor the rate of decrease by comparing the average of new cases for this week with the average for last week. This tends to obscure the long period of steady decrease that has occurred. If the second scenario obtains, in the next few days or weeks we will see the Times decreasing percentages change to increasing percentages.)
I agree with Jim and others that the local viewpoint is very important. We here in Ohio are very fortunate that the Governor gives regular press conferences on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons at 2pm.
These are very well produced. I think as well as much of daytime television. DeWine has a nice folksy matter. Always starts with a "school tie" promoting various educational institutions. A lot of personal acknowledgements. He usually does an interview or two with college presidents, or high school superintendents or various medical personnel or first responders to give a good sense as to what is happening on the ground. In the last few weeks he has been doing the shows from his home in Cedarville, complete with dog. He even had his personal physician do a house call to give him and his wife a flue shot as part of his promotion of flue shots.
On Thursdays he always has an updated map of Ohio with a color system by county to review the status. He notes the changes (good and bad) and goes into detail about the most as risk counties. He usually tells a story to illustrate how it is not simply a bunch of bad apples but good people making bad judgments that put others at risk.
I think it is worth the watch. What has been going on here in Ohio is very similar to the national data.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine - COVID-19 Update | September 17, 2020
"Disturbing Allegations at ICE Center", that's not news, right? It's sort of the definition of ICE centers. Some of the allegations, particularly the ones about hysterectomies being performed without informed consent, started appearing on social media sites a few days ago. That seemed a bit over the top, and I was going to wait until it appeared on a reputable news site before commenting on it.
Well, how about BBC? https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54160638
Or USA Today: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/09/15/ice-jail-georgia-nurse-questions-medical-care-detainees/5801521002/
An interesting article on the NCR site by Joshua McElwee on the recent controversy surrounding the wording used in Baptism: https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/i-or-we-vatican-sparks-baptism-controversy-isnt-so-controversial:
I snapped the above photo during my shopping trip this morning. As of today, a quarter of a year after the product announcement, it appears to be very much business as usual for the syrup brand. So I popped over to the website of Quaker Oats, the company which owns the brand. I found this FAQ statement:
Are you discontinuing Aunt Jemima Products?
We can assure you that we are not discontinuing our products. We are committed to making meaningful changes to the Aunt Jemima brand, starting by removing the image from the packaging and changing the name of the brand. What will not change is the delicious taste, and great value of our products
Hmm - not quite what we read about last spring, but better than nothing. But as of this morning's trip to the store, no sign of any change to the image or the brand name so far. If that progress, or lack thereof, makes you reconsider buying oatmeal, or Pepsi (apparently PepsiCo owns Quaker Oats), I certainly won't tell you you're wrong.
Btw, as the photo above indicates, Mrs. Butterworth still is clinging pretty tenaciously to shelf space, too. The Smithsonian article from June to which I linked above includes this passage:
...Conagra, the corporation that makes Mrs. Butterworth’s syrups, is launching a “complete brand and packing review,” reports Emily Heil for the Washington Post.
As any corporate type knows, "reviews" can take a very long time - sometimes until everyone forgets.
On Sunday, a big woodpecker was enthusiastically hammering at the tree in my 1/2 acre of front yard. That tree was planted shortly after I bought the house in 1983. I watched it grow from a five foot sapling to a fine example of treehood providing shade and wind resistance. I grew to take for granted its always thereness. But no more. The woodpecker was a symptom of sickness. The tree is a white ash and the plague of emerald ash borers is killing it. I ordered belatedly a batch of injectable insecticide, which can be added to the list of things I SHOULD have already done. I doubt if it will work but what the heck. Amazing what can happen in a couple months to something that took 37 years to grow to magnificence. Another occurrence suitable to a year that started afresh with the death of my mother then turned into a plague year for people and plants alike. During a hike up Mount Minsi at the Delaware Water Gap, I spotted the first of another gift of globalization, the Spotted Lantirn Fly. I guess it's here to eat what the borers don't get. I really need for Trump to lose. SOMETHING has to go right this year, if only by accident.
If anyone is worried about my state of mind after all the above, I'm actually not that bad. I've been doing some vigorous hiking. I hiked up 1000 feet to the top of Mount Minsi in about 75 minutes without feeling bad at all. I bought one of those fancy smartwatches to monitor my signs and not go too far outside my specs. I've been physically active and I'm starting to get things done again around here. All in all, I think I'm getting in pretty good shape for the Apocalypse. There's certainly enough time left in glorious 2020 for one or two of those.
As part of our recent conversation about reconciliation, Anne pointed us to a post by Richard Rohr, which looked at reconciliation from a broader and more scholarly angle. Plunging into some waters in which I had only dipped a toe in my post, Rohr concluded:
We all need to apologize, and we all need to forgive, for humanity to have a sustainable future. Otherwise, we are controlled by the past, individually and corporately. History easily devolves into taking sides, bitterness, holding grudges, and the violence that inevitably follows. No wonder that almost two-thirds of Jesus’ teaching is directly or indirectly about forgiveness. As others have said, “Forgiveness is to let go of our hope for a different past.” Reality is what it is, and such acceptance leads to great freedom, and the possibility of healing forgiveness.
By now we have all heard of Jessica Krug https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/05/jessica-krug-george-washington-university-cancels-classes-white-black?ocid=uxbndlbing "... a professor who claimed to be Black when in fact she was a white Jewish woman from suburban Kansas City."
Her story is reminiscent of that of Rachel Dolezal, now known as Nkechi Amare Diallo, which came out a few years ago: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Dolezal.
Our parish bulletin has a weekly column, the authorship of which rotates around among the priests, the parish staff, the deacons and deacon wives. My turn happened to come up for this coming weekend. I've pasted that short piece below the break. Here, I'd like to expand just a little bit on what I've written.
The sacrament of reconciliation is a wonderful thing, but as realized in the Catholic church, it is an individual thing. We confess personal sins, pursuant to reconciling with God. This week's Gospel reading, in which Jesus urges us to go find the brother with whom we have a beef, with a view to reconciling with him, takes it a step further: we also need to reconcile with one another. In my view, we should expand that idea even farther, and seek to foster reconciliation across the chasms which divide our society: race, educational attainment, urban vs rural.
Our president owes his electoral success to these divisions, and seemingly delights in deepening them. He visited Kenosha earlier this week, apparently without even bothering to reach out to the victim of the police shooting which triggered the civil unrest in that city. Joe Biden is going to take his turn at a Kenosha visit. Let's hope he comes in the role of peacemaker rather than fomenter of division.
Here is the article:
What we call the Byzantine Calendar was actually called the
and was the calendar used by the Eastern Orthodox Church from c. 691 to 1728 in the Ecumenical Patriarchate. It was also the official calendar of the Byzantine Empire from 988 to 1453 and of Kievan Rus' and Russia from c. 988 to 1700.
The calendar was based on the Julian calendar, except that the year started on 1 September which was the beginning of the civil year in Constantinople.
They had used the Septuagint version of the Bible to calculate the age of the world Its Year One, marking the supposed date of creation, was September 1, 5509 BC, to August 31, 5508 BC.
This would make the current year (AD 2020) 7529 (before September 1). Therefore today is the beginning of the Byzantine (Roman) Year 7530 since the creation of the world.
Of course if we were still using the Julian Calendar instead of the Gregorian Calendar we would have to wait until September 14th on our calendar to observe September 1st of the Julian Calendar.
Not much is made of the this date any more.
Except that the Orthodox Patriarchs of Constantinople have made it a day of the celebration of the environment in recent years. Pope Francis has actually endorsed this too.
However as far as I can see not too many people are making much of it as a day for celebrating the environment either.
