the lenten prayer of st. ephraim the syrian

O Lord and Master of My Life!
Take from me the spirit of sloth,
faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience and love to Thy Servant.
Yea, O Lord and King!
Grant me to see my own errors
and not to judge my brother;
For Thou art blessed unto ages of ages.
Amen
Great Lent: Journey to Pascha, Alexander Schmemann

Ash Wednesday

"Memento, homo ... quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris"
"Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return."

i carry your heart with me

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

-e.e.cummings

happy valentine's day

i received this over email this afternoon. isn't this sweet? barack keeping her warm in his jacket.

may all the ladies find a man that loves them so...

cocktail wednesdays at the white house

Politico reports that the obama's will have a standing wednesday night cocktail hour. isn't that just charming? obamatinis, anyone?

wrigley's drops chris brown

apparently, wrigley's wasted no time in "suspending" chris brown's ad campaign for doublemint.

rihanna & chris brown

chris brown has "allegedly" assaulted rihanna to the point she has visible wounds. from all reports, it seems unclear what happened. what is equally disturbing is the notion that she could have somehow provoked him to the point that she "deserved" it. there is absolutely no excuse for domestic violence. none. men should not hit women, period. and vice versa.

i surely hope that they are both ok.
and that our culture can evolve to the point where our conversations about such an incident don't begin with:

"what'd she do?"

for what it's worth, it's never too late..

"For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit... start whenever you want... you can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again."
-Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

I thought this was an absurdly profound movie and any similarities to Forrest Gump superficial at best.