CHRIST IS RISEN!

Using the Eastern calendar, the one my church uses, today is easter! I love easter, and I had to share the easter sermon with you all.

This was written by John Crysostom, an early early christian, and it’s so good that we kept it. Thanks goes to M C Steenburg, who put it on the web for me to grab.

I just want to say, celebrating Christ’s triumph over death, and his forgiveness and acceptance of every human that will have it is more amazing than I can say.

Let us all live fully the gift of life and love God has granted.

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If any man be devout and loveth God,
Let him enjoy this fair and radiant triumphal feast!
If any man be a wise servant,
Let him rejoicing enter into the joy of his Lord.

If any have laboured long in fasting,
Let him how receive his recompense.
If any have wrought from the first hour,
Let him today receive his just reward.
If any have come at the third hour,
Let him with thankfulness keep the feast.
If any have arrived at the sixth hour,
Let him have no misgivings;
Because he shall in nowise be deprived therefore.
If any have delayed until the ninth hour,
Let him draw near, fearing nothing.
And if any have tarried even until the eleventh hour,
Let him, also, be not alarmed at his tardiness.

For the Lord, who is jealous of his honour,
Will accept the last even as the first.
He giveth rest unto him who cometh at the eleventh hour,
Even as unto him who hath wrought from the first hour.
And He showeth mercy upon the last,
And careth for the first;
And to the one He giveth,
And upon the other He bestoweth gifts.
And He both accepteth the deeds,
And welcometh the intention,
And honoureth the acts and praises the offering.

Wherefore, enter ye all into the joy of your Lord;
Receive your reward,
Both the first, and likewise the second.
You rich and poor together, hold high festival!
You sober and you heedless, honour the day!
Rejoice today, both you who have fasted
And you who have disregarded the fast.
The table is full-laden; feast ye all sumptuously.
The calf is fatted; let no one go hungry away.
Enjoy ye all the feast of faith:
Receive ye all the riches of loving-kindness.

Let no one bewail his poverty,
For the universal Kingdom has been revealed.
Let no one weep for his iniquities,
For pardon has shown forth from the grave.
Let no one fear death,
For the Saviour’s death has set us free.
He that was held prisoner of it has annihilated it.

By descending into Hell, He made Hell captive.
He embittered it when it tasted of His flesh.
And Isaiah, foretelling this, did cry:
Hell, said he, was embittered
When it encountered Thee in the lower regions.

It was embittered, for it was abolished.
It was embittered, for it was mocked.
It was embittered, for it was slain.
It was embittered, for it was overthrown.
It was embittered, for it was fettered in chains.
It took a body, and met God face to face.
It took earth, and encountered Heaven.
It took that which was seen, and fell upon the unseen.

O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion
Unto ages of ages.

Amen.

MORE ON MASCULINE AND FEMININE THINKING

I am doing research on an Margaret Fuller, an early american Femininst. She is supposed to have knocked the socks of Emerson and Thoreau for being smart. Here’s how they describe her:

It was what in woman is generally called a masculine mind; that is, its action was determined by ideas rather than by sentiments. And yet, with this masculine trait, she combined a woman’s appreciation of the beautiful in sentiment and the beautiful in action.

That’s pretty clear description of the dichotomy. Granted, it’s from the 1880’s. But the idea didn’t go away, it was just rephrased.

MEN think with ideas and reason.

WOMEN think with feelings or sentiment.

There are underlying assumptions here that bear re-examination.

During my class in literary criticism, we were discussing Feminist criticism of Conrad’s Heart of Darkness.

Feminist criticism is so hard to listen to, because it is so painfully true. I find that I cannot pay attention to what’s being said for very long, because my mind instantly leaps to examples in my own life that uphold the argument made by the feminist.

My girl Kisa and I started writing notes to one another about the situation:

The thing they never seem to understand, is that we know MORE than them–about the world, us, AND them!

Yes, but the WAY we know things doesn’t fit easily in the logical, “reasonable” man-thinking that has become the only acceptable voice of authority. Emotion, compassion, or intuition are excluded.

Word! It’s strange, though. Sometimes I think there’s a sort of (oppressed) power in our secret knowledge. Kind of like the whole of womankind is collectively thinking, ‘OK, we’ll let them think they in charge/know what’s up/understand our “feeble” minds,’ while we know what’s REALLY going on. We can’t come out and SAY it, which is why I say ‘oppressed,’ but still, there’s a strange sense of power in it.

I think women are more concerned about relationships than power. It’s like, we love these men, and they want the power, so we indulge them. It’s more important to us to have love than power. It’s not worth the relationship to destroy their illusion of grandeur. But it comes back on women; we need to own our own power and flex it in ways that will help.

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I fear that this transcription might alienate male readers, but I still feel that the truth deserves to be told. Female ways of talking are often excluded from having the Right to be Right because they come from an unexpected place. A soft voice, a high-pitched voice is heard as less imperative than a forceful. deep MANLY voice.

Or words that are “emotional” are dismissed as irrational. I say, emotionality and rationality are not mutually exclusive.

I know that the world turns on what is already in place. As a teacher and as a Supervisor in the IT field, I have learned to Bark out forcefully what I need to be taken seriously. It’s like a tool in my toolbelt, I can use it when I need to.

Yet, I think it would be better if I did not have to. If women could wield authority based on the merit of what they have to say, the world would be that much better.

I personally resent having to become “masculine” to be taken seriously in this man’s world.
I know that I, and many of my women friends, have a way of seeing ideas holistically that leaves a lot of my male friends going “huh?”

And yet, we feel merciful towards these poor saps. We don’t want them to feel embarrassed. We’ll slow up and talk in little words so that they can respect themselves.

Okay, I might be overstating the case. But not every case.

I DO know that I, and other women, have purposely held back from attaining their full potential or expressing themselves fully because it would create a rift in their primary relationship. Like, “I could go to work, and be a blazing success. But what would my man do? What would my children do? I should make them a priority.”

Ambition is often quenched by a sense of duty. Thank god, things have changed. A woman’s duty has been redefined so that responsibility for children and the home is becoming shared between the man and the woman.

But the “work” of maintaining an intimate relationship is still often solely the responsibility of the woman, since men are so ill-equipped by the culture to assess the health a relationship.

But women know. We ought to share. But then, others would need to listen.

I’m learning how to add links to my blog. I should know how to do this already, but better late than never.

My boyfriend, Chris Daley, of The Daley Weather is the one who is teaching me.

Here’s a really amazing story.

The Los Altos Hills Church of the Redeemer, which is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church that has a large number middle eastern parishioners was burned to a rubble a few weeks ago. After examining the site, the police determined it was deliberately set. An arsonist had done this.

I have a lot of sympathy for this group, since my church is going through that stage of church growth known as ‘the building fund.’ We’re trying to get enough money to build our own church. I know that the Church of the Redeemer went through the same process, with the members of the church sacrificing and giving their money for the purpose of having a building.

But their building was burned down in one night, from an apparent act of hate. It makes me sad and frightened.

The police still have not captured the arsonist. I’m sure that the parishioners are struggling to come to terms with this tragedy and make sense of what has happened.

Well, my church, St. Innocent’s Orthodox Church of Fremont, took up a collection for that church, and we all signed a card expressing sympathy and solidarity. My godmother took it over to the church, and brings back this report:

“The church was almost totally burnt, of course, especially in the altar
area where one of the fires had been set, but Fr. Samer had managed to
salvage a few items. One was the altar gospel. It’s metal cover was
melted and twisted away, ,many pages had been burnt off, and what was
left was one charred, almost fused, lump. But there were a couple
lines of writing clearly legible on the top page of the Bible. These lines
were from the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-41): You have heard
that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth’. But I
say to you, Do not resist one who is evil. But if any one strikes you
on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would sue
you and take your coat’ let him have your cloak as well; and if any one
forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles…

Of course, the next lines would be about loving you enemy, etc.
The parishioners of Church of the Redeemer consider this a message from
God, telling them how to react to their tragedy, and comforting them.
I’ll tell you, this Bible is really a powerful and shocking sight,
reminding us how powerful, and radical, Jesus’s words were.”

I just got the news yesterday that I won some awards for my writing!

I’m so pleased.

On of said awards is for “Humor and Satire”. I think that little piece is worth passing on, so stay tuned for installments of some funny stuff I have written.

Looks like things are posting okay now. I’m a newbie, it’s taking me some time to figure this out.

I’ve been wokring on a study of Margaret Fuller, an early American feminist. She had a stong focus on CONVERSATION as a learning tool for women. I’m fascinated by this, and everytime i read a particularly fusty article or book I like the idea more.

With all the new technology available for transmitting information, I think that conversations could be easily preserved for use in academic settings.

Wouldn’t it be great to have a FAQ as part of a paper? It’s such a great way of communicaating information.

Perhaps there could be some authorized method of determining which questions really ARE frequently asked.

I love the idea of technology bringing clarity of communications between HUMANS.

I think it would be a great idea to assimilate new technologies to facilitate learning. So much is happening so fast, we need to keep up. And efficiency in learning might be the most important kind of efficiency for bettering society.

[4/25/2002 7:22:46 PM | Wonder Blogger]

Welcome to WonderBlog! I’ve been meaning to start a blog for a long time, but it wasn’t until I thought of this great name that I finally had to seize the day and make it happen.

Isn’t it a great name? It sounds like some kind of hero from “The Tick.” That in and of itself makes me smile.

See? It’s already a good thing.

But even more, I want to express two ideas about “Wonder.” The first is wonder as in wonderful. So many things are wonderful. It’s a wonderful day today. It’s wonderful that blogs exists, and it’s even more wonderful that they are free! Just to name a few topics to explore, concerning the wonderfulness of everything.

Second, the idea of “wonder” as in ” I wonder…” I wonder about a lot of things. I am rabidly and insatiably curious. I wonder why, I wonder how, I wonder if…

For instance, I wonder if anyone wil be reading my blog. Perhaps they will!
Because I think that many people who are interested in computers and blog-type activities also have a strong “wonder” muscle. I know that when I wonder about something, I immediately hit the net and do a google search to find out.

For instance, yesterday I really was wondering how many people in America have graduate degrees. Percentage-wise…Google couldn’t find out…Jeeves was obtuse, as usual (he’s such a pompous ass). So I still don’t know.

BUT! What I’m trying to say is that the curious use the web. Therefore, there is a chance that curious people might find my wonderblog and read it.

Regardless, I will be writing in it, and be pleased with the shape of my own writing. Much the same way as I am pleased with the sound of my voice, when I sing along in a lovely, echoey stair-well. I don’t need anyone else to enjoy it.

Still, I would be thrilled to receive email from anyone that wants to comment on my blog as it progresses. Emails are like a piece of chocolate, I love to get them