At Midnight

Sent to Bishop Marc by an unnamed author in prayer as Marc prepares for surgery next week...

Sung by the clergy this night at diocesan clergy conference in night prayers, set to "The Call" by Ralph Vaughan Williams:

At midnight I awake,
and looked up into the sky.
No star from among the stars' multitude
smiled on me at midnight.

At midnight my thoughts went out
into the darkness.
No luminous thought
brought me comfort at midnight.

At midnight I began to heed
the beating of my heart.
A single pulse of pain
was kindled inflamed at midnight.

At midnight I fought the battle
of human sorrows.
I could not win a decision
with all my strength at midnight.

At midnight I put my strength
in your hands:
Lord of death and life,
You keep the watch at midnight.~

A Bit of Tender Grace

Left on my voicemail by my six-year-old son while I was out yesterday evening:

Daddy, please come home very fastly because I'm waiting for you. I want to play a game with you.

God bless.

Bye, bye.

Two Thoughts

...on firsthand experience with the nexus of the financial and housing crises:

1. Truly astonishing is the capacity of big banks to create huge bureaucratic messes with relatively small sums.
2. It is hardest to go toe-to-toe with a bureaucracy where the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing ... and the institution has many more hands and far less grace than a Hindu deity.