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Link courtesy of Aaron Burghardt.

Of the Father’s love begotten,
Ere the worlds began to be,
He is Alpha and Omega,
He the source, the ending He,
Of the things that are, that have been,
And that future years shall see.

Oh, that Birth forever blessed!
When the Virgin, full of grace,
By the Holy Ghost conceiving,
Bare the Saviour of our race,
And the Babe, the world’s Redeemer,
First revealed His sacred Face.

O ye heights of heaven adore Him;
Angel-hosts, His praises sing;
Powers, dominions, bow before Him,
And extol our God and King;
Let no tongue on earth be silent,
Every voice in concert ring.

Aurelius Clemens Prudentius, d. 413
Translated by J. M. Neale, 1854
From the Common Service Book of the Lutheran Church, Philadelphia, 1919,
The Hymnal, No. 20
Chant line of ‘Evermore and evermore’ left off each verse.

“You told me, I remember, glory built
On selfish principles, is shame and guilt;
The deeds that men admire as half divine,
Stark naught, because corrupt in their design.
Strange doctrine this! that without scruple tears
The laurel that the very lightning spares;
Brings down the warrior’s trophy to the dust,
And eats into his bloody sword like rust.”

William Cowper, from Table Talk, in The Poetical Works of William Cowper, (London: Oxford University Press), 40.
written in 1781

The implicit assumptions by which we operate.

Translated from Dies irae, dies illa

The day of wrath, that dreadful day,
Shall the whole world in ashes lay,
As David and the Sibyls say.

What horror will invade the mind,
When the strict Judge, who would be kind,
Shall have few venial faults to find?

The last loud trumpet’s wondrous sound,
Shall through the rending tombs rebound,
And wake the nations underground.

Nature and Death shall, with surprise,
Behold the pale offender rise,
And view the Judge with conscious eyes.

Then shall, with universal dread,
The sacred mystic book be read,
To try the living and the dead.

The Judge ascends his awful throne,
He makes each secret sin be known,
And all with shame confess their own.

O then! what interest shall I make,
To save my last important stake,
When the most just have cause to quake?

Thou mighty formidable King,
Thou mercy’s unexhausted spring,
Some comfortable pity bring!

Forget not what my ransom cost,
Nor let my dear-bought soul be lost,
In storms of guilty terror toss’d.

Thou who for me didst feel such pain,
Whose precious blood the cross did stain,
Let not those agonies be vain.

Thou whom avenging powers obey,
Cancel my debt, too great to pay,
Before the sad accounting day.

Surrounded with amazing fears,
Whose load my soul with anguish bears,
I sigh, I weep; accept my tears.

Thou who wert moved with Mary’s grief,
And, by absolving of the thief,
Hast given me hope, now give relief.

Reject not my unworthy prayer,
Preserve me from that dangerous snare,
Which Death and gaping Hell prepare.

Give my exalted soul a place
Among thy chosen right-hand race,
The sons of God and heirs of grace.

From that insatiable abyss,
Where flames devour and serpents hiss,
Promote me to thy seat of bliss.

Prostrate, my contrite heart I rend,
My God, my Father, and my Friend;
Do not forsake me in my end!

Well may they curse their second breath,
Who rise to a reviving death,
Thou great Creator of mankind,
Let guilty man compassion find.

-Translated by Wentworth Dillon, Earl of Roscommon (1633-1685)
from The Cambridge Book of Lesser Poets, compiled by J. C. Squire (New York: MCMXXVII)

In Dr. Bob Wood’s book, “Business the Bible Way: Christlike Communication Within Corporate Culture” he refers to a UCLA study that concluded “that only 7 percent of the general populace has the natural ability to communicate. Only half of those who have the natural ability to communicate ever develop those skills in their lives. So 3.5 percent of the general population decides what the other 96.5 percent do.” While I suspect that some of us that can’t communicate still control others…I do believe that communicating well is something most of us believe we do better than we do it. I’m just starting into the book, but so far, it’s good stuff!

One of the undeserved benefits of my position is that I got invited by SAP to attend a dinner with Oliver North last week. He spoke until 10pm to about forty of us, spellbound. He is a genuine American hero. Along with the standard photo-op, I got an autographed copy of his book “American Heroes, In the fight against radical Islam”. On the back of the book cover is a photo taken by North, standing in a medical helicopter, of a medical corpsman carrying his third casualty to the ‘copter for treatment and movement to safety away from the fighting. In the background of the photo is Bagdad, smoking. The Republican Guard has launched an attack on the advancing unit. If you look closely, the carried man is not in a US military uniform. A bystanding Reuters newsman yelled at the corpsman, “Can’t you see that’s an Iraqi?” The corpsman responded, “Can’t you see he’s wounded? We’re Americans. That’s what we do!” My eyes moisten with pride in a country that truly is different. I’m glad to have heard the story from one who was there. Here’s my pic if you’re interested. Oh yes, I asked him to ink in the book his favorite verse. He looked at me and said, “I have many, but here’s a good one.” Rom 10:9. Indeed it is.

Oliver North and me

I struggle to find what to say - and this 6 minute video by Alexis Bauer is well worth watching and even a little funny.