Found on: UK Times Online – Here.

Ruth Gledhill, Religion Correspondent

The Archbishop of Canterbury issued a “profound apology” to the lesbian and gay Christian community today.

In a powerful address to the General Synod, Dr Rowan Williams warned that any schism within the Church would represent a betrayal of God’s mission.

But he made clear that he regretted recent rhetoric in which he has sought to mollify the fears of the traditionalist wing of the church.

The Archbishop is from the Church’s liberal wing and a man who once espoused equal rights for gays within the Church. More recently he has adopted a conservative line for the sake of Church unity.

Today he said: “There are ways of speaking about the question that seem to ignore these human realities or to undervalue them.

“I have been criticised for doing just this and I am profoundly sorry for the carelessness that could give such an impression.”

Addressing the even more contentious debate over gay ordinations — something which threatens to split the Church farther with the expected consecration in May of Canon Mary Glasspool, a lesbian, as a bishop in Los Angeles — Dr Williams said it had not been helped by those who ignored the fact that many worshippers were gay, as well as many “sacrificial and exemplary priests”.

He made it clear that there was blame on all sides of the argument that has brought the Church to the brink of splitting. He pleaded for Anglicans angry over gays and women bishops to cease fighting, admitting that he and other bishops might have to settle for a two-tier communion.

In his wide-ranging address at Church House Westminster, Dr Williams said that the ordination of women bishops should not go ahead at the expense of the Church’s Anglican Catholic wing, which is currently assessing an offer from the Pope to move over to Rome into a new Anglican Ordinariate.

Dr Williams admitted: “Most hold that the ordination of women as bishops is good, something that will enhance our faithfulness to Christ and our integrity in mission.”

But this good was jeopardised by the potential loss of traditionalists and some evangelicals who oppose women bishops.

Referring to proposals to give women bishops a lesser level of authority, he said the reform should not happen if it is done in such a way that that will “corrupt it or compromise it fatally”.

Dr Williams said that attacks on the Anglican Covenant, a new unity document intended to find a way to keep the 38 provinces under one umbrella, were mistaken.

“There is no supreme court envisaged and the constitutional liberties of each province are explicitly safeguarded,” he said.

Referring to tomorrow’s debate tabled by a lay member from the Chichester diocese calling for the Church of England to recognise the breakaway new traditionalist church in the US, he said: “Certain decisions made by some provinces impact so heavily on the conscience and mission of others that fellowship is strained or shattered and trust destroyed.

“The present effect of this is chaos — local schisms, outside interventions, all the unedifying stuff you will be hearing about, from both sides, in the debate on Lorna Ashworth’s motion.”

My worst day sober was better than my best day drunk…

It was a good day. The weather was good, the sun shined all day but it was a little nippy. Still, no snow … I had to drop by the post office to pick up a parcel, I love parcels. Sometimes the mailman/woman who serves this building gets LAZY and they don’t feel like bringing up packages, nor do they think to leave them in the office downstairs, so they leave a pick up slip and then it takes a further 24 hours for that package to get to the drop spot at the post office, up the road from home. The post office across the street from home is not a pick up site, just a mail drop off and post office boxes.

I set off for the meeting on time. I had to pick up more coffee, we go through a lot of coffee each month, making both decaf and regular coffee along with the fixings, goodies and cookies. We spoil our visitors each week with delectable goodies and lots of chocolate.

We fared well this week being a man down. Rick is still in Kingston taking care of his parents. I don’t know when he will be back so we are flying without our fearless leader, but it’s all good. We had a good group for the early meeting the stock groupies and the same familiar faces. Our nesting technique seems to be working – keeping the newbies involved and loved. One day at a time.

I want to address something that I’ve been seeing by the traffic that comes by the blog. Many of my visitors are non-AA’ers, or they left AA because of their own issues or have really bad things to say about AA. I don’t engage them but I want to talk about that for a moment.

Tradition 11 states that: Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion: we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, tv and film.

Our group DOES NOT shove sobriety down anyone’s throat. We DO NOT force God upon any of our members. We DO NOT throw Big Books at newbies. We DO NOT force doctrine upon anyone. And We DO NOT shove ideology upon anyone who comes to our meeting. We are just a group of sober people.

Our meeting is very relaxed. With the lighting the way it is at the meeting, it is like walking into your living room with dim light and good coffee and goodies and great conversation makes for a really great atmosphere.

We welcome anyone to our open meetings, both of our meetings are open format. We don’t shove God down people’s throats. Even tonight we had a newbie come in only 4 days sober, and we spoke after the meeting and some people have issues with God, or they can’t find God or they just don’t know God. So you know we say, believe in a power greater than yourself. Believe in the group. Believe in yourself. If you cannot believe in yourself right now, then let us believe in you until you can.

We offer to anyone who comes down our stairs a warm and welcoming meeting to come to where they won’t be judged on AA literature or Big Book knowledge. It is our belief that you should read the book, at some point, but we don’t force it upon anyone. You have to come to sobriety. You have to come to believe. And that may take some time, so when you are ready, there are the books.

And when you are ready to ask someone to work with you, then it will be time, but we don’t force sponsorship on people. We believe that in order to stay sober, you should join a home group, get rooted and eventually find a sponsor. We believe that group membership and group participation in set up, chairing and greeting is very important to staying sober. Finding a routine – having a few hours to ones self to attend a meeting, is good in the beginning.

So tonight we talked about changing our old ideas once we start to get sober. I can identify with that. I had to change old routines. Once I stopped drinking I did not bar hop anymore, I don’t club hop nowadays either. I know once I returned from my slip, I had to relearn all those things that I messed up and did not learn the first time around.

I had to relearn how to stay in my day and live one day at a time. I knew where God was, so I did not have issues with God. I had to deal with the shame I felt coming back from a slip, seeing my friends in the right state I was in when I finally came back. Hindsight is 20/20 and I have enough time behind me that I can tell you that many things changed in my life once I got sober again.

I got rid of my expectations. I stopped demanding things of God. I learned to wait on God instead of demanding, like I said. I learned how to stay in my day. It took me a year to relearn that lesson. Good things happened as well. The promises started to come true as I worked my steps and went to meetings day in and day out. I got citizenship. I met my hubby. I went back to university. I got married. AND I did it all in sobriety… And here I am 8 years and a couple months later … I’ve changed many of my ideas.

I heard a member share tonight that he comes to A.A. because for him he needs a little (A-ttitude A-djustment). This is one of the members who does not come often to our group, but when he does show up, everyone cheers and hoots when he says his name. Everybody knows him. And we all think the world of him.

So that was the day. I hope you will all keep Louise and Rick in your prayers tonight. Thanks for stopping by.

I need to eat dinner, it’s after 11 p.m. and the news is on.

More to come, stay tuned…

Sunny Dhillon, THE CANADIAN PRESS

RICHMOND, B.C. – Canada’s short-track speedskating team might be favoured to claim a handful of medals at the Vancouver Olympics but it’s leaving nothing to chance.

On Sunday, members of the squad, including medal favourites Charles Hamelin and Kalyna Roberge, marched outside the Speed Skating Canada House in Richmond, B.C., and entrusted their Olympic dreams to a towering Inukshuk planted nearby.

“The giant Inukshuk … made the trip here with us and will be keeping an eye on our teams as they compete during the Olympics,” said Jean Dupre, director general of Speed Skating Canada.

“Each and every one of our athletes competing here in Vancouver has put down their Olympic dreams on a piece of paper and we will … entrust those dreams to the Inukshuk, who will be the guardian of them for the duration of the Games.”

Yves Hamelin, the team’s leader, climbed a ladder and lowered a metal canister containing the pieces of paper into the top of the stone structure.

But what exactly was written on those sheets, and what expectations the skaters have of themselves, remained a secret for some.

“Just me and my coach know what is my goal,” Roberge said with a smile.

The expectations from the Canadian public are much more clear.

The 10-member short-track team solidified its standing among the international contingent during two World Cup competitions this season. In one event, they won seven medals while at the other they claimed six.

“We know that six podiums is achievable,” said Yves Hamelin, who is also father of team members Charles and Francois.

“We’ve done that many times in the past three years. This year, particularly, with the same athletes, same format, we’ve made that level of result.”

Hamelin said he expects to see both Roberge and Charles star at this month’s Games.

“Kalyna Roberge for sure will play a big role as a leader and racing the three distances and Kalyna is really ready at the moment,” he said.

Roberge competes in the 500-metre, 1,000-metre, and 1,500-metre events, as well as the relay. She won a silver medal in the relay at the 2006 Games and finished fourth in the 500.

Charles Hamelin, considered one of Canada’s top medal contenders at the Vancouver Games, said he feels no added pressure competing on home soil.

In fact, he pointed to a World Cup competition last fall in Montreal when he took three individual medals, including two golds, and one with the relay team.

“It’s really exciting (to be in Vancouver),” he said. “I’ve been here a couple of times the last two years, but this time I really feel like everyone is behind us.

“I know that I can do good when I’m in front of my crowd. (It gives) me some more energy.”

Hamelin is ranked second in the world. Roberge is ranked fifth.

The last time short-track Olympic events were held on Canadian soil, the country’s speedskaters left their mark.

Short-track was only an exciting demonstration sport at the Calgary 1988 Games but the Canucks managed to claim 10 medals.

Dupre said he fully expects Canadians to own the podium again in 2010.

“Best of luck, and I hope that you will kick ass the next couple of weeks,” he told the team Sunday.

It was a good day overall. I did some things around the house this afternoon before I went to class. I spoke to my friend Louise, she is having a biopsy done next week to see if she has breast cancer. She is taking it one day at a time. We had a short conversation but she was distracted and concerned so I did not press the issue. We should keep her in our prayers … We were not prepared for another bout with cancer…

Rick called from Kingston, it seems that his parents had been airlifted from Florida back to Canada in the past few days. He will be out of pocket until next week. That means that Susie and I have to take care of running the late meeting and closing up shop afterwards. It will be ok…

We are working on the book of Samuel in class. Tonight we looked at 1 Samuel chapters 9 and 10. There is so much we don’t know without looking at the Hebrew translation of the Old Testament. It is all so mind boggling the number of words used and the word play that the writers and redactors added to the stories. I got a reprieve tonight from presenting my short topic paper on my chosen scriptures (Samuel chapters 24 & 26 ) … I don’t have to present my paper until the 15th of March. safe …

I have to get to work on my reworks from last term. We have a week coming for reading week in two weeks, I am hoping to knock off as much work as I can during that time, not to mention my classwork and reading that I have to do for this term as well.

I hope that Wednesday nights class is substantial. People are skeptical about that class because of the whole, throw out the schedule attitude that my prof took with it this term. We are flying by the seat of her pants and at her mercy as well. There isn’t a huge challenge and people are complaining.

One of my boys is on the verge of moving out into the world on his own after years of trauma and drama at the hands of his fucked up parents. We have been waiting for this day to come for a long time. He got a good job with good pay in San Antonio where he will be relocating to in the next week. I will get to see the work I have done with him when I travel there in July for the AA conference.

All is well here … still no snow …

We are 4 days out from the start of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics here in Canada. The weather is not cooperating and Vanoc the Olympic committee is keeping Cypress Mountain under wraps to make sure there is enough snow on the slopes for competition.There is still no snow falling from the sky and all the second chance contingency plans are being done to make sure there is ample snow on the slopes taking it from as far away as three hours on other mountains to groom the slopes for the competitions. The weather looks like rain for the end of the week, so it may be a wet start to the Olympic games.

We have seen the massive communications hub on tv Sunday night, it is incredible. Canadians are setting the bar very high with high high expectations for owning the Podium these Olympics …

I hope that happens because we are setting ourselves up for a big fall if we don’t hit the marks across the board. There is such hype over the Men’s and women’s Canadian hockey team right now that anything less than Gold for both is going to upset the fine balance of hysteria that is overtaking the country when it comes to hockey. The pressure is palpable. I imagine that the athletes are under immense pressure to perform up to spec.

If they fail to attain Gold in the finals of Men’s Hockey, there is going to be a countrywide FUNK !!!! It is all over the news tonight. We still don’t have word on the final torch bearer but speculation is running rampant, maybe we will find out before the games start, but that is a closely guarded secret.  Friday will be a big day for Canada, as we welcome the world to Vancouver…

That’s all for now. More to come stay tuned …

You can’t have a Sunday without some photography. Try a little Alpine Stars Tech 8 photos from one of my fellows. It has been a very quiet weekend. The weather has cooperated. We got spared the brunt of Winter once again. It seemed that all points south of us got slammed. There are flurries in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow.

There are some things stewing in the pot, one of my friends found a lump in her breast and is waiting to see the Doc in the coming days. A biopsy is planned soon. I haven’t talked to her since last week so we will catch up real soon, as it is too late to call her at this hour. On the other hand I don’t know what is going on with our fearless leader and the situation with his parents and the airlift back to Canada. I am waiting on a phone call from him tonight.

We’ve watched a lot of tv this weekend. And we have been piping in Coast to Coast via the internet every night. I am not pleased with this fact, I wish we had radio once again, the running of wires all over the apartment is a headache and it totally disrupts my nightly routine. Dinner is almost ready so I will cut this short for now.

More to come, stay tuned…

“We must first explain the way to discover whether an expression is literal or figurative. Generally speaking, it is this: anything in the divine discourse that cannot be related either to good morals or to the true faith should be taken as figurative. Good morals have to do with our love of God and our neighbour. The hope that each person has within his own conscience is directly related to the progress that he feels himself to be making to the love and understanding of God and neighbour.”

St. Augustine … Christian Theologies of Scripture, pg. 43

Luke 10:25-28

The Parable of the Good Samaritan

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”

He answered: ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

*************************

We’ve been speaking about discourse in Hermeneutics as of late. And this week we had to read from our text about Augustine. One of the great Church fathers who wrote a plethora of commentary on scripture, faith and practice. And since I sit on the far side of the circle in class, I was next to last to share from my journal. As I listened to my fellows each had their ideas and comments on the reading and I appreciate all of them immensely.

When it came my turn to speak I spoke:

I am moved by the humanity – the human approach that Augustine writes about. Inviting his readers to come to God in human terms and to transcend scripture through practice. Again and again the stress is upon transcendence to overcoming our preconceived notions and attitudes. Letting go of our egos and attitudes to approach the scriptures from the “right” direction.

He speaks of the humility of man, and humbleness of person and spirit. All very important aspects to reading, interpreting and the living of scripture. It seems to me that Augustine had a humanly divine experience, one that taught him transcendence of spirit.

I don’t think that one could relate teaching in the way that he has to us, without first experiencing the divine in the way that Augustine had. There could be no witness and or teaching without first visiting that place as teacher, minister and man.

Augustine speaks about Love of God and Love of neighbour. These two things must happen before one can approach scripture. And I muse, if we are Christians do we obey this commandment? Are we half Christians? And if we are half Christians, then we are not Christians, because we do not obey all of the commandment. How can we call ourselves Christians if we cannot follow the most simple of directives from Jesus himself?

In today’s day and age, when it comes to public discourse and also in religious discourse there are men who say they are Christians, yet they disobey the commandment. If we exclude people from community then we are not loving our neighbour. If we are exclusive then we are not inclusive.

I challenge my Christian brothers and sisters with this challenge of obeying the great commandment. If you cannot – then can you call yourself an authentic Christian. Can you honestly say that you cannot obey the words of Jesus in this context? And if you can’t then what are you?

How can Christian community be Christian community if they do not obey the simple words of Jesus Christ? That’s where transformative discourse comes in. Discourse and conversation is pointless unless some form of transformation takes place. Conversation is wasted on people who hear the words and do not obey. Can we allow ourselves to be transformed by the words of scripture?

I wonder …

It is quite late, I’ve been putting off this entry because I wasn’t sure about writing it. The day has come and gone. It is quite cold out tonight. It was my day off and I spent the evening at the meeting as usual. Today I threw a twist into my routine of set up with music. I usually set up in silence so I can think and pray… But I was in the mood for music, and things went rather quickly, I had the room set up in less than 40 minutes.

Our topic was “Act as if …” Not a very solid topic for sure. It kind of goes on the line of “if you don’t know what to do, follow the leader.” If you want to get sober then come to meetings, get into the flow of the program and settle into the routine. Let the room be your guide and let others who have walked the road for a bit show you how to do it. I guess that’s what I think about it.

I likened this topic to my story about staying in my day and how it took me a year to learn how to do that. Gutting my list of expectations for God and just showing up, one day at a time.

It was a sparse first meeting, the regulars showed up and a few newbies. Our chair did some really good work before the meeting talking to the newbies. We have a wide assortment of literature, books and magazines that are helpful. We spent another $100.00 on literature because it doesn’t stay on the table very long. People have been waiting for new books to come from intergroup.

The second meeting was well attended. I did not get into the speaker although I sat through his message. I guess it was the way he held himself and the way he talked. I was missing a little spirituality in his step. Some people don’t have it, others want it, but very few remember it. He had a message and he spoke well and it went well. I just did not get into it …

Tomorrow I have class, YAY !!! The Olympics are just a few days away now and the airwaves are starting to crackle with excitement. There might not be enough snow in Vancouver – but people, nonetheless are getting amped.

The city is battling on every front to show a good face. And there are groups who want to showcase the bad side of the city (read: the lower east side). The Olympic committee is trying very hard to keep the international press occupied and away from the sore spots of the city. Every city has an underbelly of homelessness, drug addiction and scandal. And lately that has popped up on international radar. We shall see what comes of it.

We will have extensive Olympic coverage here so stay tuned…

I am off to bed now.
More to come, stay tuned…

I turned in my bibliography for my final paper tonight. I am writing on 1 Samuel Chapters 24 and 26. The stories of the two times David and Saul meet and David spares the life of Saul. Hopefully the paper I turned in is acceptable to my prof. I am on track to completing this project, and I feel confident that I can write an acceptable paper. We have been parsing Samuel chapters 1 through 11 in class. It is very interesting looking at the Hebrew translations of the Old Testament and reading from our own texts to see how words and phrases are translated.

Just a short note for now, I will write more tomorrow. My day off… We will talk sobriety and recovery… until then … toodles…

1 Samuel 24 -

David Spares Saul’s Life

After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” So Saul took three thousand chosen men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave.  The men said, “This is the day the LORD spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe.  He said to his men, “The LORD forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the LORD’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the LORD.”  With these words David rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.  He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’?  This day you have seen with your own eyes how the LORD delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the LORD’s anointed.’  See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. Now understand and recognize that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.  May the LORD judge between you and me. And may the LORD avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.  As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you.

“Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea?  May the LORD be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.”

When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud.  “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly.  You have just now told me of the good you did to me; the LORD delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me.  When a man finds his enemy, does he let him get away unharmed? May the LORD reward you well for the way you treated me today. I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands. Now swear to me by the LORD that you will not cut off my descendants or wipe out my name from my father’s family.”

So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

I really should be getting to bed at this hour… But I’m not. It has been a quiet weekend. I seem to be getting a lot of traffic from alcoholics – or – those people who call themselves alcoholics and are averse to AA. I am not going to entertain them, that would be like entertaining an Evangelical Christian and you know where that leads … *TO HELL*

Whatever works people. Some come, Some go, Some stay – and SOME even get sober, in spite of themselves… I don’t push the program on anyone, I am who I am take it or leave it. I have my journey, and like I tell people, it’s my journey not yours. You don’t have to follow me – make your own journey.

The weather has been all over the place this weekend. It snows, it stops, the clouds disperse, a little while later, it snows again, and it stops. Now the clouds have gone again. Although we did get a nice dusting we haven’t had significant snowfall in a while.

The first assignments for this term are due this week. Needless to say I am really self conscious about what I am turning in seeing that I am doing double the work this term. I am rereading “What is Gnosticism” again to rewrite that god damned book review paper. I HATE GNOSTICISM…

I HATE, HATE, HATE, IT !!!!

The other day Montreal was informed on the news that two radio stations were going off the air, one of those stations, AM 940 was our overnight feeder of Coast to Coast AM. So we scrambled through all the stations that our radio could possibly pull in on its own, and that was a disaster. We can pull in a station out of Rochester NY, but it isn’t clear enough to sit and listen to. I did it for one night and said NO. Then I went to the mall and scoured the electronics departments trying to find an AM booster antenna. Let me tell you that the sales people that I spoke to thought I was crazy, “AM radio, who listens to AM radio???” We could get one from C Crane, but it runs $70.00 …

Hubby went on his own foray and came home with a 20 foot extension cord for the speakers to the computer so now we are streaming radio right from the internet. I don’t like this set up because once he goes to bed, the computer is locked on a station and if he doesn’t get his way he can get quite pissy…

I hope that one day Coast to Coast finds a new affiliate here and we can once again move back to the radio. But shit in one hand and wish in the other and see which one fills faster…

Oh well, I guess I am gonna go…

More to come, stay tuned…

Everybody who has been following along the blog for the last little while will know that I have been conflicted with where I am in my university career and that I have been pondering leaving the program, but I have been waiting for a sign from God to tell me what to do next.

So I prayed, and I prayed…

And I have been seeking the advice of the spiritual people in my sacred circle and they all have given me good advice, I have shared that advice here. I have been taking this term one day at a time following the syllabi for my classes like I should be. I have an annotated bibliography due on Monday and reading to do for next week. All along waiting for the voice to come, because like I told the Rev. the other day that I have been following this path all along by the grace of God, picking up the puzzle pieces as they came to me, and knowing when to wait for them to appear along my path.

A long time ago when I moved to Montreal, it was because of family and faith. It began with a visit to Notre Dame Cathedral in Old Montreal and the happened upon visit to the Grey Nuns mother house that I was reunited with my great aunt who was still alive and living at the Grey Nun Mansion on Guy.

I met a priest who told me that “Montreal was where it all starts…” He gave me my first puzzle piece to put into a greater picture which is still not complete. Over these many years I have been following this path looking for puzzle pieces and they have come – on God’s time, and not on my time. That should tell you that I have learned a great deal about patience over the years.

God doesn’t speak in loud voices and it usually comes in a whisper or from a source that I never thought of it coming from. Listening for God is a fine art. Knowing what the message is when it comes is another fine art. Parsing the words, letting them come like fresh fruit.

I heard his voice tonight in class… From a woman.

We were talking about discourse. The discussion went around the room about this topic before coming to her about the topic of transformative discourse and if it was possible to have transformative discourse and if we would be open to that transformation and this was her answer:

My prof asked one of the women in the class a question and for a brief few minutes I was transfixed. She said that she wasn’t here for a degree, or a piece of paper, that she was following in the program to learn more about herself, about others and the human condition. She was here to transform. It wasn’t about papers or letters or something that would spruce up a CV…

It was about humanity…

That answer has stuck with me – I know that’s the answer to my prayers. I know what I have to do now. I know what I want to do. Spinning the topic of my prayer and looking at it from a different perspective is what I needed to do. We entertained a little Thomas Aquinas and his refutations which was fun. We will be reading Thomas Aquinas in the coming weeks.

For now, I think I know what I need to do, and how I need to approach my academic work. It isn’t about the paper, it’s about learning something about me and others. To engage in the human condition. Our prof has the hope that if we came to that class with a perspective that by the end of term we would come out of this class with new vision. Brilliant …

If you are praying to God for something make sure you ask the right question. And then be prepared to wait for the answer. Sometimes we don’t get an answer, and sometimes the answer comes …

NO, NOT YET, DEFINITELY NOT.

And then in some cases the answer is a yes… Or the answer might come right out of left field and knock you flat on your ass… Whatever the answer be prepared, because it might not be what you expected, and with God No means No – it is best not to ask why, when God says no, it’s no, for his reasons. And sometimes that reason is not for us to know right now, and maybe not ever.

That’s the mystery of God.

Good night from Montreal…