Catholics and Protestants alike are fascinated with the Eucharist, performed in pulpits by laity and clergy alike. Why is it so popular?
The service is divided into several parts: 1) the call to worship, 2) a statement of its avowal of the Christian message, 3) prayer for all who should heed its proclamations and addresses, 4) identification of the community of believers who are participating in the service; 5) gathering of those who are to participate in the ceremony; 6) the supplication of participants for divine intervention in the affairs of mankind, 7) the receiving of the transformed bread and wine into the mind and body of each participant; and 8) the exhortation to Christianize the world around us, ie., to do God's work among us.
What ties each part to the whole is the underlining belief that we Christians will make a mark in the world only with God's help. Our supplication is to invoke God's handiwork upon us so as to accomplish HIS will.
We cannot act on our own and achieve what God has in store for us to do. The communion service with the symbols of God's divine presence in the bread and wine in which we partake is the recognition of our dependence upon God to rise above our self-centered aims and purposes to achieve a universality to our actions--for which at the close of the service we praise God for His faithfulness to us, so as to protect and guide us to do better than we could if just lowly human beings.
Why these noble aims to do God's work on earth? Because, as we announce in 4), we are the people of God, the creatures of Peace, the progenitors of Justice and Righteousness in the universe.
Saturday, September 29, 2018
Wednesday, July 11, 2018
CD with Sara: God's Perspective of an Event
How are we to think about God's perspective of an earthly event? This question was essentially posed in Sara's recent meditation (at Grace Episcopal Church, Wash. DC). Remember the Biblical statement that God's thoughts are not our thoughts neither are His ways our ways?
Then too, the Jews in the Old Testament expressed the thought that God's nature is Justice and Truth: He is a JUST GOD.
Put together what we may draw from these utterances is that HIS PERSPECTIVE is truly universal--looking at an event from any perspective of it, i.e., in which it can be described. I submit that this is the meaning of "a third party" opinion--the point of view that is interest-neutral to sides that could possibly benefit by a judge's ruling that favors one argument in contradistinction to its opposite.
Now in jurisprudence, the only way to achieve that level of what we adjudge is true objectivity is to remove any legitimate claim to bias for any one's claimant position. Justice must be totally impartial, having nothing to gain monetarily or otherwise by a judge's adjudication.
Parenthetically, that's why I have favored in my political career taking no money over and against the accusation of favoring one viewpoint or political philosophy over its counterpart for the sake of personal gain.
Then too, the Jews in the Old Testament expressed the thought that God's nature is Justice and Truth: He is a JUST GOD.
Put together what we may draw from these utterances is that HIS PERSPECTIVE is truly universal--looking at an event from any perspective of it, i.e., in which it can be described. I submit that this is the meaning of "a third party" opinion--the point of view that is interest-neutral to sides that could possibly benefit by a judge's ruling that favors one argument in contradistinction to its opposite.
Now in jurisprudence, the only way to achieve that level of what we adjudge is true objectivity is to remove any legitimate claim to bias for any one's claimant position. Justice must be totally impartial, having nothing to gain monetarily or otherwise by a judge's adjudication.
Parenthetically, that's why I have favored in my political career taking no money over and against the accusation of favoring one viewpoint or political philosophy over its counterpart for the sake of personal gain.
CD with Sara: Jesus' Understanding of the Concept: LOVE
I've been introduced to Sara, who has become our leader of Saturday meditations at Grace Church, Washington, DC. I have found her understanding of the Christian message refreshing and useful as a vehicle for greater depth in what we believe.
So, I'm including discussions at the luncheon she has originated and carried forth, when the points she makes are of value in my spiritual journey.
I start off with the comment she made recently that Jesus' emphasis on the power of love has universal application to our relationships with others and with God Himself--what He referred to a His list of 2 religious commandments. I raised my hand to make the comment that Jesus' understanding as to the universality of love in structuring our daily relationships with one another may indeed signify the Greek philosophical idea of love as an ultimate universal principle of the cosmos. In that vein, what binds physical elements is love as the force of attraction, or as we might infer, as the power of gravity. In this way, truly, LOVE is the bind that unites all peoples and other animate creatures and all inanimate objects throughout the universe.
So, I'm including discussions at the luncheon she has originated and carried forth, when the points she makes are of value in my spiritual journey.
I start off with the comment she made recently that Jesus' emphasis on the power of love has universal application to our relationships with others and with God Himself--what He referred to a His list of 2 religious commandments. I raised my hand to make the comment that Jesus' understanding as to the universality of love in structuring our daily relationships with one another may indeed signify the Greek philosophical idea of love as an ultimate universal principle of the cosmos. In that vein, what binds physical elements is love as the force of attraction, or as we might infer, as the power of gravity. In this way, truly, LOVE is the bind that unites all peoples and other animate creatures and all inanimate objects throughout the universe.
Saturday, June 23, 2018
(GL#2) Globalization must take advantage of advances in efficiency
African farming may now be taking advantage of the great revolution occurring in farming in the US and other advanced countries: the use of the great combines in the fields.
This means that the proposal that Africa cultivate the small farm, owned and managed by a single landowner is virtually dead. Companies like the great International Harvester must take its gigantic machines across the African plains! It means that the American know-how must be part of the education of the African farmer, who will likely work for an American company on his own soil.
This means that the proposal that Africa cultivate the small farm, owned and managed by a single landowner is virtually dead. Companies like the great International Harvester must take its gigantic machines across the African plains! It means that the American know-how must be part of the education of the African farmer, who will likely work for an American company on his own soil.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
(GL#1) Trump's Import Duty Tax may further spark a Creative Surge in Manufacturing!
By encouraging companies to "come back home," Donald Trump may inadvertently have increased intra-rivalry among manufacturing profit-centers of one company. Say, some company has taken its manufacture of steel to Sweden. Under Trump's dicta, the company must pay an import tax of 25% or so to sell its Swedish-produced steel here in the States.
But suppose it decides to build a smaller plant to make and sell steel in the US. It still is making steel in Sweden but for the US market, it makes and sells steel for its US market. Two profit centers for the same profit. And, then suddenly, the US plant comes up with some innovation that meets not only the US market but also some other markets in the world and captures a greater share of the production outlay. Then, the same company is reaping greater profit by selling steel in its variants!
In short, competition--even in divisions of the same company--can be a spur to ingenuity and innovation!
But suppose it decides to build a smaller plant to make and sell steel in the US. It still is making steel in Sweden but for the US market, it makes and sells steel for its US market. Two profit centers for the same profit. And, then suddenly, the US plant comes up with some innovation that meets not only the US market but also some other markets in the world and captures a greater share of the production outlay. Then, the same company is reaping greater profit by selling steel in its variants!
In short, competition--even in divisions of the same company--can be a spur to ingenuity and innovation!
Monday, January 22, 2018
CD at St. Stephen's Episcopal: The Cleric as a Religious Confidante
More like an adviser in a major subject at a college or a mentor on the job at a business. The Reverend Martin Smith last Sunday at St. Clement's Church and the Incarnation, Washington, DC in the Columbia Heights area of town spoke on his theology of reconciliation. He thought the one-on-one relationship between a cleric, given confidentiality status in a confessional setting, has advantages that permit the confessor to open up freely without recrimination. After the service ended, the Rev. Susan Walker and I began to muse over the possibilities of promoting a more intimate setting, where parisionher and cleric could discuss issues confronting the former in his religious quest not just for forgiveness, but for spiritual growth and development. We seemed to share the same opinion: we need to promote the mentorship idea in the churches.
I recall growing up from the age of 10 without a father in my life. My mother reached out to her friends to find some minister who could provide me with religious insight and teachings pertinent to my maturity level. She latched on to a cleric she had been introduced to in Buffalo, prior to her divorce from my father and our move to New York City, where my mother received additional training in law at NYU. It was from the time of the move till the time I graduated from graduate school myself at NYU, the spiritual mentorship of the cleric my mother kept in touch with ended, that I benefited from that relationship--including his advice related to my Christian commitment.
Rev. Martin Smith pointed out in his sermon that the fact that a relationship that kept confidential what was said (or, admitted to a minister in the confidence of the 'confessional setting') permitted a frank and open evaluation of how to improve upon and highlight one's religious values is something that is not always available in a group situation.
In any case, I found that Rev. Martin Smith's discussion of the confessional confidentiality of a relationship between the parishioner and a spiritual mentor to be an appropriate description of something I had experienced during the days of my youth with my mother's ministerial friend as my "advisor-spiritual mentor."
I recall growing up from the age of 10 without a father in my life. My mother reached out to her friends to find some minister who could provide me with religious insight and teachings pertinent to my maturity level. She latched on to a cleric she had been introduced to in Buffalo, prior to her divorce from my father and our move to New York City, where my mother received additional training in law at NYU. It was from the time of the move till the time I graduated from graduate school myself at NYU, the spiritual mentorship of the cleric my mother kept in touch with ended, that I benefited from that relationship--including his advice related to my Christian commitment.
Rev. Martin Smith pointed out in his sermon that the fact that a relationship that kept confidential what was said (or, admitted to a minister in the confidence of the 'confessional setting') permitted a frank and open evaluation of how to improve upon and highlight one's religious values is something that is not always available in a group situation.
In any case, I found that Rev. Martin Smith's discussion of the confessional confidentiality of a relationship between the parishioner and a spiritual mentor to be an appropriate description of something I had experienced during the days of my youth with my mother's ministerial friend as my "advisor-spiritual mentor."
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