apples and oranges

this is kinda weird. i'll always eat an apple over an orange, but i'll always drink orange juice over apple juice.

St. Ignatius' style

i'm reading Red Moon Rising by Pete Greig and Dave Roberts right now. very cool. very good. it's an excellent read. it's the story of 24-7 prayer and how people are rocking it and lovin' it. one thing that really spoke to me and is cool to do is "examen", which is an approach to prayer that comes from the prayer traditions of St. Ignatius of Loyola. Examen prayer has people look at the last 24 hours and do three things: first, express gratitude. second, reflect on how God's presence might have been made tangible in that time, and third, confess failure. try it out. Richard Peace, in Meditative Prayer, wrote this on examen: "In the end the prayer of examen is about noticing: noticing the good gifts God gives us, noticing the prescence of God in our lives, and noticing the ways we fail God. When we notice, we become more concious, when we become more concious we grow."

check out www.redmoonrisingbook.com for more

the departed or Martin Scorsese vs. Oscar the Academy Award

do you know how many Academy Awards Martin Scorsese has been nominated for? i think 7. do you know how many he's won? i know 0. i lose faith in an Academy that awards the song "It's Hard Out Here For A Pimp" an Oscar, and a filmmaker with Scorsese's talent has none. hard to comprehend. anyway, with the release of Scorsese's The Departed comes one of the few movies so far this year to start whispering Oscar about. the only thing is, you don't have to whisper, you can scream it. The Departed is the best movie i have ever seen. it is my new favorite movie of all time. the cast alone is out of control. Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Mark Wahlberg, Martin Sheen, Alec Baldwin, Ray Winstone, not a huge name but a great actor, see Sexy Beast, and others. the love interest is Vera Farmiga and she's awesome as well. Scorsese and William Monahan, screenwriter, tell a story that rocks the screen and the audience watching it. the acting, writing, sets, shots, and directing add up to a perfect movie. it's heavy on the cursing and the gunplay, so leave the kids at home. besides that GO SEE THIS MOVIE! Oscar predictions: Scorsese for Best Director, Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and anyone on the cast for Actor/Actress categories.

the basin and the towel

...is a song by Michael Card. as an introduction to the song in the CD jacket he writes: "John records none of Jesus' parables because for him Jesus' life was a parable. The footwashing was just such a moment of meaning." for us, something to note is that John 13 is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus is so intentional as to say "For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you" (John 13:15 NRSV, emphasis mine). everything Jesus said and did is an example for Christians, but He is so explicit in John 13. as Card sings: "...the call is to community." Jesus wants us to serve each other, and our communities. how do we translate that in 2006? next time i'm eating supper, i'm going to get up from the table, clear the dishes, and put them in the dishwasher. doesn't sound like a lot. but it's helping out around the house, it's serving in my own little way.