Words 1.30

 Words Twice a Week        1.30

If you are more into listening than reading, Words Twice a Week is available, along with other good stuff, as a podcast from St Paul’s Episcopal Church.  Click here.

Some days from the church calendar -

Feb 1  Brigid of Kildare  one of the three national saints of Ireland, along with Patrick and Columba.  If she was a real person, she lived about 451-525 and founded several convents.  She shares a name with a Celtic goddess, and her feast day is also a Celtic holiday – Imbolc – marking the beginning of spring.  Often there was a special meal on St Brigid’s Eve (Jan 31) with stuff like “colcannon” (mashed potatoes with cabbage or kale – num?) and biscuits.  Sometimes people left articles of clothing outside on Jan 31 for St Brigid to bless – which were then thought to have healing properties.   Apparently starting next year St Brigid’s Day will be a national holiday in Ireland – the first one named for a woman.

Here is the herding blessing -

I will place this flock before me

As was ordained by the King of the World

Bride to keep them, to watch them, to tend them,

On ben, on glen, on plain,

Bride to keep them, to watch them, to tend them

On ben, on glen, on plain.

Arise, thou Bride, the gentle, the fair,

Take thou thy lint, thy comb, and thy hair,

Since thou to them madest the noble charm

To keep them from straying, to save them from harm.

Since thou to them madest the noble charm

To keep them from straying, to save them from harm.

From rocks, from drifts, from streams

From crooked passes, from destructive pits

From the straight arrows of the slender banshee

From the heart of envy, from the eye of evil

From the straight arrows of the slender banshee

From the heart of envy, from the eye of evil.

Mary Mother, tend thou the offspring all,

Bride of the fair palms, guard thou my flocks,

Kindly Columba, thou saint of many powers,

Encompass thou the breeding cows, bestow upon me herds.

Kindly Columba, thou saint of many powers,

Encompass thou the breeding cows, bestow upon me herds.

Feb 2   The Presentation of the Lord  a day that brings up two of my favorite lines of Scripture: “I would rather be a doorkeeper (custodian?) in the house of the Lord than dwell in the tents of wickedness”  -the psalmist.  Even though the tents of wickedness look pretty glamorous sometimes!  And “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace…”  Simeon.  I just like the way it rolls off the tongue!  This is also known as Candlemas – last chance to take down Christmas decorations, and a day to bring your candles to the church to have them blessed for the rest of the year.  Ok – we didn’t do that growing up Methodist/United Methodist but I guess I could get into it now.  We don’t really burn much in the way of candles anymore.  And note this – in some places, France, Belgium, parts of Switzerland, it’s a day to have crepes   I can definitely get into that, whether or not all the candles in the house are lit!  And note that this is one of the oldest of the church feasts, dating from the 4th century!

Feb 3  The Dorchester Chaplains   Four military chaplains, a Methodist, a Reformed Rabbi, a Roman Catholic, and a Reformed Church in America, were on The troop transport ship Dorchester when it was sunk on Feb 3, 1943.  It was part of a convoy escorted by Coast Guard Cutters Tampa, Escanaba, and Comanche.  The four helped others into the life boats, gave up their life jackets when the supply ran out, “linked arms, sang hymns, and went down with the ship.”  They were on their way to their first assignments.  Sadly, even though they gave up their life jackets, the water temperature was 34, the water temperature was 36, and most of the men in the water died from hypothermia.  Only 230 the 904 men on board were rescued.

Feb 4  Cornelius the Centurian – he had a vision telling him to send for Peter, who at the same time had that vision of stuff being let down from heaven and the voice saying “Rise, Peter, kill and eat.”  When they come together, the Holy Spirit falls on Cornelius and his household and Peter baptizes them – the first Gentile converts.  Or maybe one of the first, if you count Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8.

Feb 5  Saint Agatha – one of the (particularly grim) virgin martyrs.  Also an American horror movie from 2018.  Ok – I’m not watching it!

Some days from the world/earth calendar

Jan 31

+ it’s the birthday in 1797 of Franz Schubert.  He’s known for a variety of compositions, more than 600, including The Trout, a setting of a poem by some guy named Schubart.   It sounds like it’s about the joy of catching a fish, but the last verse is a warning to young women not to be caught by young men!  Schubert dropped the last verse, making it able to be sung by men or women!

Feb 1

+ Martin Luther King Jr and 200 others were arrested in 1965 in Selma, Alabama, after peacefully protesting against voting restrictions.  In 1960, four Black students start the Greensboro lunch counter sit-ins.

+ and it’s Imbolc – see above!

+ the space shuttle Columbia disintegrated as it re-entered the atmosphere in 2003, due to some of the heat shield being damaged.  Engineers suspected problems but limited the investigation, as there would have been nothing the crew could have done about it anyway.  

Feb 2

+ James Joyce was born in 1882, and he published Ulysses in 1922.  I never got past the first chapter or maybe two.  We could have a contest to see who reads farthest before giving up. Are you in?

Feb 3

+ Woodrow Wilson died in 1924.  He was involved in the negotiations ending WWI and tried to set up a League of Nations, but it did not really succeed.  He encouraged Fourteen Points as principles for peace, but he also supported racial segregation in the federal bureaucracy and military.

+ It’s the birthday of Felix Mendelssohn in 1809.

Feb 4

+ Facebook was founded in 2004.

+ Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906, Rosa Parks in 1913, Alice Cooper in 1948. Bonhoeffer was part of the Confessing Church that opposed the Nazis in Germany, and for a few years went from town to town as a part of “the seminary on the run”!  He wrote about the difference between Cheap Grace and Free Grace; could we say Rosa Parks lived it out? Alice Cooper – the Godfather of Shock Rock – is a hockey fan, a baseball (Tigers)fan, a basketball (Pistons) fan, and an avid golfer.  He coached Little League.  Although he originally did not speak publicly about his religious beliefs, Cooper was later vocal about his faith as a born-again Christian.  Just goes to show – I’m not sure what, but it goes to show.  Here he is doing I Never Cry.  Actually better without the visuals, maybe!  I remember roller-skating to that in the basement of the Episcopal Church in St Ignace – I was doing a youth drop-in center thing as part of the Straits Area Resort Ministry.

+ for Bible geeks, German archaeologist Constantin von Tischendorf discovered the Codex Sinaiticus.

+ in 1861 the Confederate States of America were established at a meeting in Montgomery, Alabama.

Feb 5

+ the world’s largest gold nugget was found in 1869.  It’s named Welcome Stranger.  Found only 3 cm (1.2 in) below the surface, near the base of a tree on a slope leading to what was then known as Bulldog Gully, the nugget had a gross weight of 241 lb 10 oz. Its trimmed weight was 210 lbs, and its net weight was 192 lbs 11.5 oz!  Here’s a link to a BBC story about the celebration of the 150th anniversary.

+ world’s first synthetic plastic – Bakelite – was announced.

Feb 6

+ Elizabeth II becomes Queen of England in 1952.  I suspect we’ll hear about that this week!

+ Gustav Klimt died in 1918.  Here’s a link to The Kiss, from his “golden years”. And here’s more information than we need to know - “As he worked and relaxed in his home, Klimt normally wore sandals and a long robe with no undergarments.”

That’s what I got for now…..

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