A message for the New Year from St. Augustine

Mrs. Miller's jams, jellies and noodles

No, not THAT Mrs. Miller, but the one in Fredericksburg, Ohio.

I can buy this product at Marc's, but it also is on-line and is often sold at Farmers' Markets and food fairs.  This morning I had a bowl of fat free yogurt topped with a few spoonfuls of Mrs. Miller's Apple Butter (which is about half the calories of jam).  There's a wide variety on line for purchase, including many sugarless.  Also noodles, peanut butter spreads, and drink mixes.

In Ohio, just about everyone claims to have Amish roots, but this one really does.

Esther Miller had 13 siblings and learned her techniques and recipes from her mother.  For years the business was in the Miller home, and as of 2013 has a new, modern facility.  Mr. and Mrs. Miller are still involved, but now their children run the business.  http://www.mrsmillersnoodles.com/history/

End of year contributions

Our tithe goes to our local congregation, Upper Arlington Lutheran Church, but there are other groups we like to support through the year and especially in December.  By December, they all come calling.  Increasingly, I get appeals by e-mail--in fact on Dec. 30-31, I must have received at least 10 last minute appeals.  We usually stay with organizations we know, although this year there were some new ones.

A presidential candidate (no comment)
National Parks
Coming Home Network
Lutheran Bible Translators
Black Swamp Bird Observatory
Pregnancy Decision Health Center
Lower Lights
St. Gabriel Radio, Columbus
Mercury One Nazarene Fund (for Syrian Christian refugees)
168 Film Project
Lakeside
COCINA (Haiti school)
EWTN
Pinecrest (in memory of my parents)

Summertime on New Year's Eve

         

When the choral group at last night's jazz/worship service ended their selection with Summertime, I leaned over to my husband and whispered, "That's an odd song for a cold winter's night," not realizing the treat we were about to be served by Eric Waters, one of the pastors at UALC.

Summertime,
And the livin' is easy
Fish are jumpin'
And the cotton is high

Oh, Your daddy's rich
And your mamma's good lookin'
So hush little baby
Don't you cry

One of these mornings
You're going to rise up singing
Then you'll spread your wings
And you'll take to the sky

But until that morning
There's a'nothing can harm you
With your daddy and mammy standing by

Eric preaching at Mill Run

First, he mentioned how he had sung this in high school choir (he has a wonderful voice and is fabulous with the liturgy) and it had been a favorite.  Then he went on to open the song and the scriptures first with our longings to be "rich and good looking" with references from Scripture, and then the story of Jesus from the prophets to the manger to the cross and resurrection, to our own promised resurrection when we'll "spread our wings and take to the sky" when Jesus returns.  It's hard to get a Lutheran audience to shout "Amen" and applaud, but we did. Second, I'll offer this hint, in case you think your preacher could do this, Eric was a theater major at Dartmouth, he usually gives the Scripture readings for the day from memory, and this sermon was so beautifully crafted, that he was speaking poetry.  I hope it was recorded, and I'll add a link if it was.

What a wonderful way to say good-bye to 2015 and to welcome 2016--listening to Eric talk about our hope, and then closing with communion, the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, closing the service.

Old lady learning. . . slowly

             

I am feeling so. . .techie.  Today I unsubscribed to maybe 10 e-mails I never read, and am pretty sure I never signed on to, changed a few passwords, learned to recharge my husband's FitBit and I finally used my MD's message portal so I can look at the results of my exam on Tuesday. But nothing, nothing, feels as nice as a book and a #2 lead automatic pencil.  It seems I'm not going to be able to fix my LiveWriter, a blog publishing application developed by Microsoft which I just love and use for blogging.  It is no longer being supported.

On to the i-pad mini I got for Christmas.

 http://www.hanselman.com/blog/AnnouncingOpenLiveWriterAnOpenSourceForkOfWindowsLiveWriter.aspx

Avoid palm oil if possible

I always buy Krema Peanut Butter, but today picked up a "natural" jar of Jif and read the label. Well, yes, if by natural you mean palm oil and sugar. Krema is just peanuts. Also Krema bought Crazy Richard's and that name now appears on the jar.

Facts About Palm Oil (from the Krema site) or why you should read labels:

• All ‘no-stir’ natural peanut butters use palm oil in place of hydrogenated vegetable oil to stop the natural oil separation.
• Palm oil has been referred to as the “cruel oil” for its negative impact on the environment, animals and our health.
• Palm oil is high in saturated fats.
• Palm oil harvesting destroys the rain forest in Indonesia and Malaysia and threatens many endangered animals.
• Palm oil’s major use is in soaps and lotions.
• Research shows that palm oil increases the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Stealing is stealing, no matter which century

Today I was reading an article about how King Henry VIII confiscated (stole) all the monasteries' land and wealth in England, making about 8,000 people in religious orders homeless, plus destroying the culture and economy built up around them, all in the name of redistributing the wealth. Libraries with wonderful manuscripts were destroyed.  Some got very rich, like the King and his buddies, then the small middle class who got some of the land, but the poor got very little, in fact by the King destroying those who had fed, sheltered and nursed the poor, they were worse off. No one says there weren't abuses, or that the original owners weren't misusing their donated wealth (rich living, lots of servants, etc.), but it is always the poor that is worse off in these government grabs of property, whether by kings or presidents, dictators or czars.

http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofEngland/Dissolution-of-the-Monasteries/ 

 http://www.britainexpress.com/History/Dissolution_of_the_Monasteries.htm

Behavior can alter path to dementia

I won't go into detail--if you have a computer you can google it--but I read about 2 exciting advancements for Alzheimer's and dementia yesterday. More and more research points to your behavior assisting your own body systems to fight this scourge. Check out these proteins, BDNF and VEGF. They protect your brain, and are increased with good social support (is this a reason to party?), a lower calorie diet, regular exercise and good heart health. Make 2016 the year you're kind to your brain.

Check the link (partial article)

One of the gifts in this research is donation of brains of nuns and priests. The Religious Orders Study enrolls Catholic nuns, priests and brothers, from more than 40 groups across the United States. Participants are without known dementia and agree to annual clinical evaluation and brain donation (some in the Chicago area also agree to donate, spinal cord, nerve, and muscle). Now that's a way to have both eternal life, and to continue to serve in the temporal life.

On December 26, 2014

I started out to "cycle" to Indianapolis a year ago to visit my sister-in-law Jeanne. That's a stationary bike, of course.  It never left my office. Now I've gone over 1900 miles, so I guess I'll have to go see sisters-in-law Debbie and Kate in California (2,253 miles), and high school friend Tina, and cousin Barry and wife Rose. If Blogger Paula is home, I'll stop for one of her famous cupcakes. I lost 35 pounds by the end of June.  Eat less, move more: that's the name of the plan.

First cousins, twice removed

We have quite a few twins in the family now.



Happy 17th birthday to my first cousins, twice removed, Daniel and Phoebe, my cousin Gayle's beautiful grandchildren. 

Great nephew Caleb has twin daughters Hallie and Kali, two years old, granddaughters of our niece Joan and husband Dan, great granddaughter of Jeanne and Bob.


And niece Kari and husband Greg have twins Breeanne and Brody, also two. Sister Debbie is their grandmother.

St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 1

What, then, are You, O my God-what, I ask, but the Lord God ?
 For who is Lord but the Lord? or who is God save our God (Ps. 17:32) ? Most high,
most excellent,
most powerful,
most omnipotent ;
most piteous and most just;
most hidden and most near;
most beautiful and most strong, stable, yet contained by none;
unchangeable, yet changing all things;
never new, never old;
making all things new,
yet bringing old age upon the proud without their knowing it (Job 9:5);
always working, yet ever at rest;
gathering, yet needing nothing;
sustaining, pervading, and protecting ;
creating, nourishing, and developing;
seeking, and yet possessing all things.
You love, yet do not burn;
are jealous, yet free from care;
You repent, yet do not suffer;
are angry, yet serene;
You change Your ways, leaving Your plans unchanged;
You recover what You find, without ever having lost it;
You are never in want, while You rejoice in gain;
never covetous, though requiring interest.'
That You may owe, more than enough is given to You;
yet who has anything that is not Yours?
You pay debts while owing nothing;
and when You forgive debts,
You lose nothing.
Yet, O my God, my life, my holy joy, what is this that I have said ? And what does anyone say when He speaks of You? Yet woe to them that keep silence, seeing that even they who say most are like the dumb."

Translation 

My own translation (by Edward Bouverie Pusey, public domain) uses the thy and art and shouldest,  which isn't that difficult, but I looked for more current English.  Then I rearranged the spacing; looks like a nice poem or liturgy.

Science in the Bible

Dr. Hugh Ross, an astrophysicist, says there are 25 different creation accounts in the Bible. Job, for instance, has more scientific detail than the Genesis account. Job is likely the oldest book of the Bible and it predates the book of Genesis by 500-600 years. He also says there are 200 accurate scientific theories in the Bible some not developed until the 20th century. The chances of that are ten to the 300th power. I'm listening while riding my exercycIe. I love science.

                    

https://youtu.be/dsbj7EN1Uzs?list=PLp2gleJsbl1RlxpvUACxB59uxiMrZnFrw

http://www.reasons.org/

http://www.reasons.org/articles/lost-civilization-beneath-the-persian-gulf-confirms-genesis-history-of-humanity

Unfortunately, there's probably no area that causes more dissension among sincere Christians than creation and the Bible. Just scanning the list of articles by old earth and new earth advocates I see there are many who don't like Ross. But nowhere in the Bible do I see that Jesus told us to put our faith in the Bible, but in him. And it looks like all along that range of beliefs they believe in Jesus.

Looking at the older creeds

When a member of our church moved to the west coast a few years ago, she donated a lot of her books to the library, which then put most of them out for “free” to anyone who wanted them. Some were rather difficult or scholarly, but just perfect to sit on my shelves, unread. So I’ve been looking at “Creeds of the Churches; a reader in Christian Doctrine from the Bible to the Present,” ed. John H. Leith, Anchor Books, 1963.

At our Lutheran church, generally we say the Apostle's Creed every Sunday at the liturgical service, and on special times, like Christmas, we brush off the Nicene Creed; and occasionally the Athanasian Creed. The history of the creeds is really fascinating, and so far superior to some of the current, trendy “home made” statements of faith, or mission statements churches sometimes say today. Non-denominational, or "spiritual but not religious" Christians just have no ideas what they owe to these leaders of a thousand years ago who battled heresies, Muslims, and bad Popes.  Particularly impressive is the Fourth Lateran Council. Also it’s interesting that it took 1200 years to sanction the word transubstantiation even though the idea is clearly stated in Jesus’ words in John 6:53-58 and had been the practice for over a century.

“The fourth Lateran Council, the 12th ecumenical council (1215), generally considered the greatest council before Trent, was years in preparation. Pope Innocent III desired the widest possible representation, and more than 400 bishops, 800 abbots and priors, envoys of many European kings, and personal representatives of Frederick II (confirmed by the council as emperor of the West) took part. The purpose of the council was twofold: reform of the church and the recovery of the Holy Land. Many of the conciliar decrees touching on church reform and organization remained in effect for centuries. The council ruled on such vexing problems as the use of church property, tithes, judicial procedures, and patriarchal precedence. It ordered Jews and Saracens to wear distinctive dress and obliged Catholics to make a yearly confession and to receive Communion during the Easter season. The council sanctioned the word transubstantiation as a correct expression of eucharistic doctrine. The teachings of the Cathari and Waldenses were condemned. Innocent also ordered a four-year truce among Christian rulers so that a new crusade could be launched.”

There were some excellent rules for the church/clergy in 1215--could be used today, like providing for the education of the poor, especially future priests, modest dress and behavior for clerics, priests couldn't be judges (separation of church and state), all Christians had to confess their sins at least once a year and take communion at least once, if a priest revealed a confession he would be banished to a monastery,  incompetent people couldn't be appointed, a cathedral or church couldn't be without a pastor for more than 3 months, (compared to a widow and ravenous wolves attacking the people), and for some reason were not to hunt or fowl or keep dogs for that purpose.

Long form journalism and wordy blogs

are a thing of the past.

Now that I've tried blogging and posting to Facebook using my i-pad mini, I can see why people are using shortcuts and no sentence structure.  Today I learned how to turn it on and off and upload a photo to Facebook.  But I'm back at the computer so my fingers can stretch a bit.  Increasingly, the ordinary person is dumping their computers when using social media.
 

This is the photo I posted on FB a few minutes ago.  First I took a photo of myself in the mirror, or maybe it was my finger.  I'm a little awkward at this. I had to delete that one and the 6 "burst" behind it--can't hold the finger down too long.

This is our replacement Lazzy Bear from Christmas 1986.  Our first one was stolen in a home break-in--imagine someone stealing a stuffed bear--but they were very popular that year.  My friend Nancy got me a new one.  We still put him out every Christmas.

First try on my I-pad mini

This is not comfortable. It's creepy, like typing with bandaged fingers.

The church of climate change

Some of my friend, particularly on Facebook, are atheists. I just deleted their names from this post, even though they are proud of it. That's how I am about "human caused climate change." We atheists (on that religion) are called "deniers." Yes, indeed. I live where there used to be a glacier. There are beautiful homes and walls in Ohio built with stones brought here from Canada long before people or equipment burning fossil fuel. I don't know exactly what to call their theology and ecclesiology, or if Algore is still high priest, but politicians have their hands in the collection plates. And they are so phony in their concern.  Hundreds will waste millions of gallons of jet fuel just to get to the communion rail at the same time. Neither party is safe from proselitizing, and they like to sing those happy clappy 7/11 songs and raise their hands and swing and sway for non-existent gods.

The media are the holy scribes. 

They will demonize you as heretics.

Don't expect a debate, you're a non-persons.

And boy, can they whine!

The Ferguson effect--violence is on the increase

Murders and shootings have spiked in many American cities—and so have efforts to ignore or deny the crime increase.

The Brennan Center’s report, “Crime in 2015: A Preliminary Analysis” confirms the Ferguson effect, while also showing how clueless the media are about crime and policing.

"St. Louis Alderman Jeffrey Boyd, at a news conference in July after his nephew was slain, made a poignant plea: “We march every time the police shoot and kill somebody. But we’re not marching when we’re killing each other in the streets. Let’s march for that.”

Trying to hide the rise of crime

Holly she bears a berry

          

Someone asked me about the pre-Christian images in many of our Christmas traditions--holly, mistletoe, trees, the timing with the Winter Solstice.  To simplify, I said the early church used them as evangelism tools to explain the birth, death, and resurrection of our Lord, and the people instead of having their heads chopped off the way the Muslims evangelized Africa, the Middle East and southern Europe as warnings for infidels, got to keep their favorite traditions and their heads.  Don't fear them, embrace.

The voice squad

Now the holly bears a berry as white as the milk,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who was wrapped up in silk:

And Mary she bore Jesus our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly! Holly!
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly!

Now the holly bears a berry as green as the grass,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died on the cross:

And Mary she bore Jesus our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly! Holly!
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly!

Now the holly bears a berry as black as the coal,
And Mary she bore Jesus, who died for us all:

And Mary she bore Jesus our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly! Holly!
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly!

Now the holly bears a berry, as blood is it red,
Then trust we our Saviour, who rose from the dead:

And Mary she bore Jesus our Saviour for to be,
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly.
Holly! Holly! Holly!
And the first tree that’s in the greenwood, it was the holly!

Humility is the queen of virtues

“. . . no one seems to know what just happened [decision of Supreme Court on same sex marriage in June 2015]. This wasn’t the legalization of a behavior—for the legal barriers to homosexual conduct were torn down decades ago. The rights to cohabitate, to share insurance benefits, tax status, and even call each other spouse—without discrimination—are hard fought gains that were achieved before last Friday. A new right has not been created, rather the Constitutional right for the rest of us to think and speak our minds, and to hold our own counsel has been severely curtailed. The right to do something impossible can’t be achieved, not by any court, only the right to demand everyone else be supportive of this masked ball, with legal penalties for refusing to join the dance. We’ve only lost the right to object.”

“. . . Christians shouting the word “sin” at something out there have failed to use this most powerful weapon we have by the Holy Spirit to counter forces beyond our human skill or strength. When an obstacle is too high, too strong, too wide for you to go over it, it is best to adopt humility and go under it. If language against a sin that’s been called a blessing can only draw fire and fill you full of verbal bullet holes, then use the stance that saints have long used in more trying circumstances and under worse governments: the language of humility. When saying, “You are sinners!” just won’t do—and I think this is one of those times—then freely speak the truth and say, “We are sinners and have failed God, but we’ve been found by Him and are happy to be new creatures in Christ.”
Humility: Queen of  Virtues

It's possible I'll still be here for the next full moon on Christmas Day--2034

"The Metonic cycle is the lunar cycle in question. After 19 years, the lunar phases are repeated on nearly the same calendar dates. It was discovered around 432 B.C. by the Greek astronomer Meton (although some believe that the Babylonians knew about it before he did). After 19 years, the lunar phases are usually repeated on the same calendar dates. 

According to the cycle, a Christmas Day full moon should have happened 19 years ago, in 1996, but it didn't because the Metonic cycle is only approximate and the number of leap days (four or five) in a period of 19 years can give rise to a discrepancy of one day.

In 1996, the full moon fell not on Christmas Day, but Christmas Eve. And in this particular case, adding 19 years to 1996 saw a jump of one day, moving the full moon to Christmas Day in 2015.

Interestingly, if we use the Metonic cycle going backward from 1996, we also jump forward one day to Christmas Day in 1977, which was the last time we had a full moon on Christmas Day.

Now, if we add 19 years to 2015, we find that the Metonic cycle will work perfectly with no one-day jumps — so the next time a full moon will occur on Christmas Day will be in 2034. But that will work only for the 48 contiguous states, because for those living in Alaska and Hawaii, the moon will officially turn full before the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve.
 http://www.space.com/31471-rare-christmas-full-moon-guide.html



Unfortunately, although I saw the moon last night, it's either too cloudy or too early to see it now.
Update:  We went out later, saw the moon, and took a few photos. See you in 2034!