“The word worship comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which combines two words meaning “ascribe worth.” The Trinity can be said to be always at worship because the three persons of the Godhead perfectly behold the worth and wonder of one another.

To our imaginations, it’s probably strange (at the least) or gross (at the worst) to envision anyone perpetually exalting himself. We live in a world full of bluster and bragging, where Nicki Minaj boasts “I’m the best,” LeBron James tattoos “Chosen 1” across his shoulders, and everyone from pastors to porn stars are self-celebrating on Twitter and Facebook. The idea that God would be associated with anything like that behavior is disconcerting.

But God’s own self-adoration is nothing like ours. Unlike our own self-congratulatory spirit, God’s view of himself is unmistaken and unexaggerated. As hymn writer Fredrick Lehman said:

Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made,

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade,

To write the love of God above,

Would drain the ocean dry.

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

God’s glory and perfection are inexhaustible. We can’t say enough about how glorious he truly is. The greatest gift he can give us is a revelation of himself. Exalting anything else would be cruel.”

–Mike Cosper, Rhythms of Grace (Wheaton, Ill.: Good News, 2013), p. 27

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among all people.

We praise You, we bless You, we worship You, we glorify You, we give thanks to You for Your great glory.

Lord, King, heavenly God, Father almighty; Lord, only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ, and Holy… pic.twitter.com/FpQqHNUp7N

— Fr. Charbel Abernethy ☦️ (@philokalia_min) September 22, 2024

On the way to Jerusalem he was passing along between Samaaria and Galilee. And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance and lifted up their voices and said, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.” When he saw them he said to them, “Go and show yourselves to the priests.” And as they went they were cleansed. Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus’ feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan. Then said Jesus, “Were not ten cleansed? Where are the nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?” And he said to him, “Rise and go your way; your faith has made you well.”

–Luke 17:11-19

Wednesday 🌅 🍂Good morning 🧣 pic.twitter.com/WYQxAqcsDW

— Sharon Welby📷 (@sharonwelby1) November 20, 2024

A colation of Christian organisations has written an open letter to high-street banks in the UK, calling on them to stop financing new fossil-fuel extraction or risk losing their business.

The letter, published on Tuesday, is signed by the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Williams, the Methodist Church in Britain, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Quakers, and several Roman Catholic religious orders. It opposes the $556 billion that Barclays, HSBC, Santander, NatWest, and Lloyds have reportedly provided to the fossil-fuel industry since the Paris Climate Agreement was signed in 2015.

Lord Williams said: “Banks are very understandably seen as institutions we need to be able to trust. What we are asking is that the main high street banks should show themselves to be fully worthy of that trust by playing their part in creating a future we can trust, a future in which our lethal dependence on fossil fuels will at last be put behind us.”

Read it all.

A coalition of Christian organisations has written an open letter to the UK’s high street banks, calling on them to stop financing new fossil fuels or risk losing their business https://t.co/d8hfnnyPUS

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 19, 2024

Patterson is correct when he says that process set out in Canon B2 provides the opportunity for General Synod to approve liturgical texts after agreeing that they do not depart from the doctrine of the Church of England in any essential matter. This does not mean, however, as Patterson suggests, that the decisions to ordain women as priests and bishops and the decision to permit the re-marriage of divorcees in church did not involve changes in doctrine. They clearly did, in that they involved the Church of England accepting that something was permissible which it had previously said was impermissible. The reordering of the Church of England’s common life that took place was a consequence of this change of doctrine. However, General Synod took the view that this change of doctrine was not in conflict with the doctrine found in the Articles, Prayer Book and Ordinal, and on that basis said that both this change, and the reordering of the Church’s life that flowed from it, were acceptable.

In similar fashion Synod could decide to permit same-sex marriages on the grounds that they were not contrary to what is taught by the Articles, the Prayer Book and the 1662 Ordinal and that therefore changing the Church’s teaching to allow these things to take place would be a legitimate thing to do. However, it would need to show good grounds for making this decision and this would be impossibly difficult to do given that the Prayer Book marriage service is absolutely clear that marriage was ordained by God to be between two people of the opposite sex and that ‘so many as are coupled together otherwise than God’s Word doth allow are not joined together by God; neither is their matrimony lawful.’

Fourthly, Patterson declares concerning the Prayers of Love and Faith commended by the House of Bishops in December 2023 for use in regular services:

‘I agree that they are not a change in doctrine, but they are a change. In response to the legalisation of civil partnerships in 2005, the then House of Bishops declared that ‘clergy…should not provide services of blessing for those who register a civil partnership’ and on the introduction of same-sex marriage in 2014, repeated the instruction,  ‘Services of blessing should not be provided.’ Whereas now they have very clearly commended a set of prayers that may be used with those who have formed a civil partnership or same-sex marriage.’

Read it all.

Martin Davie–'The…problem with this statement is that the idea that the Church of England does not have a ‘straightforward statement of doctrine’ is simply untrue. The Church of England does have a straightforward statement of its doctrine, and this is found in the Thirty Nine… pic.twitter.com/8jtUCwrQDb

— Kendall Harmon (@KendallHarmon6) November 21, 2024

The Lord reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad! Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about. His lightnings lighten the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the LORD, before the Lord of all the earth. The heavens proclaim his righteousness; and all the peoples behold his glory.

–Psalm 97:1-6

“There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Laz′arus, full of sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table; moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and Laz′arus in his bosom. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy upon me, and send Laz′arus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Laz′arus in like manner evil things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.’ And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if some one should rise from the dead.’”

–Luke 16:19-31

#Sunrise on Monday at the Tidal Basin in #DC! @capitalweather @GoNatureForward @StormHour pic.twitter.com/IpWyJlx5Ui

— Jeanne Stuart McVey (@RiverGirl707) November 18, 2024

Brethren, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature be thus minded; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brethren, join in imitating me, and mark those who so live as you have an example in us. For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our commonwealth is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will change our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power which enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brethren, whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

–Philippians 3:13-4:1

Icy Lanes. 1°C and blue skies. Pheasants in the fields. pic.twitter.com/WvlXyCuOxY

— Yorkshire Wolds Weather (@WeatherWolds) November 17, 2024

And the Lord roars from Zion,
and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the people of Israel.
“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,
who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy
and strangers shall never again pass through it.

–Joel 3:16-17

Magnifique balade au bord du lac Léman, Vevey 💙😍💙🇨🇭#vaud #suisse #switzerland @MySwitzerland_e pic.twitter.com/gTp1MsbJGL

— Délèze Dominique (@DelezeD) November 16, 2024

One of the survivors of Smyth’s abuse, Mark Stibbe, said in an interview with Channel 4 News on Tuesday evening that “If there are senior clergy who have broken the law then they need to be called to account.”

Later, in a briefing hosted by the Religion Media Centre, Mr Stibbe said that the “quality of leadership” among bishops needed to be a priority, as changes to safeguarding processes were developed.

“I feel that the top echelon of leadership in the Church of England has this disconnect from reality,” he said.

Speaking to the Church Times on Wednesday morning, the Bishop of Dover, the Rt Revd Rose Hudson-Wilkin, said that, when reading the Makin report, she had been “shocked and saddened” by the “extent of the abuse that the survivors suffered”.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

Survivors of John Smyth’s campaign of abuse have called for further resignations, after the Archbishop of Canterbury’s announcement that he would take “personal and institutional responsibility” and resign.https://t.co/gHiKy247qc

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 15, 2024

The sister of a 16-year-old boy who drowned while swimming naked at a Christian holiday camp in Zimbabwe run by child abuser John Smyth blames the Church of England for his death.

“The Church knew about the abuses that John Smyth was doing. They should have stopped him. Had they stopped him, I think my brother [Guide Nyachuru] would still be alive,” Edith Nyachuru told the BBC.

The British barrister had moved to Zimbabwe with his wife and four children from Winchester in England in 1984 to work with an evangelistic organisation.

This was two years after an investigation revealed he had subjected boys in the UK, many of whom he had met at Christian holiday camps run by a charity he chaired that was linked to the Church, to traumatic physical, psychological and sexual abuse.

Read it all.

What was meant to an exciting holiday camp ended in death for one Zimbabwean boy.
Our story about how a failure to act in the UK led to Guide Nyachuru’s death and dozens of cases of abuse of many others in Zimbabwe.

https://t.co/XLpLtHzCYg

— Shingai Nyoka (@shingainyoka) November 14, 2024

Or you may download it there.

To walk in the Spirit is to be filled with the Spirit, and some results of the Spirit’s filling are thankfulness, singing, and joy (Ephesians 5:18–20; Colossians 3:16). Those who walk in the Spirit follow the Spirit’s lead. They “let the word of Christ dwell in [them] richly”

— alicia ortiz (@aliciao777) November 15, 2024

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.

–James 1:16-20

Butterfield’s architecture looking particularly stunning in the winter sun 🩵 pic.twitter.com/nXQUHqotK8

— Keble College, Oxford (@KebleOxford) November 14, 2024

“Fear not, O land;
    be glad and rejoice,
    for the Lord has done great things!
Fear not, you beasts of the field,
    for the pastures of the wilderness are green;
the tree bears its fruit,
    the fig tree and vine give their full yield.

“Be glad, O sons of Zion,
    and rejoice in the Lord, your God;
for he has given the early rain for your vindication,
    he has poured down for you abundant rain,
    the early and the latter rain, as before.

“The threshing floors shall be full of grain,
    the vats shall overflow with wine and oil.
I will restore to you the years
    which the swarming locust has eaten,
the hopper, the destroyer, and the cutter,
    my great army, which I sent among you.

“You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied,
    and praise the name of the Lord your God,
    who has dealt wondrously with you.
And my people shall never again be put to shame.
You shall know that I am in the midst of Israel,
    and that I, the Lord, am your God and there is none else.
And my people shall never again
    be put to shame.

–Joel 2:21-27

Precies genoeg zonlicht voor een beetje kleur. Fijne donderdag😀 #natuur #landschap #herfst #Rhenen #ElstUt #Elsterbuitenwaard #zonsondergang #mooieluchten pic.twitter.com/weACzJJKTN

— Tjark Dieterman (@DietermanTjark) November 14, 2024

The Heidelberg House
Bonclarken Conference Center
Flat Rock, North Carolina pic.twitter.com/O7r67oJ3ro

— Matt Richardson (@greenkayak73) June 6, 2023

O sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth!

Sing to the Lord, bless his name;
tell of his salvation from day to day.

Declare his glory among the nations,
his marvelous works among all the peoples!

For great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised;
he is to be feared above all gods.

–Psalm 96:1-4

Poppies On The Yorkshire Coast. pic.twitter.com/K7r0SMKhvk

— The Whitby Photographer (@WhitbyPhotos) November 10, 2024

For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up; but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another…

–Psalm 75:6-7

Unlike usual clouds in the troposphere. Nacreous clouds are rare & form in the lower stratosphere over polar regions when the Sun is just below the horizon. The clouds are illuminated from below & often glow in vivid colours

Beautiful, like a painting. 💕#clouds #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/B2wAHaNKaQ

— Zoë Watson (@ZoeWatsonArtist) November 9, 2024

At that very hour some Pharisees came, and said to him, “Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.” And he said to them, “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I finish my course. Nevertheless I must go on my way today and tomorrow and the day following; for it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, killing the prophets and stoning those who are sent to you! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not! Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

–Luke 13:31-35

Finding the path amongst the leaves – happy Friday, friends #ScotlandisNow #StormHour #photography #photooftheday #landscape #OutAndAboutScotland #landscapephotography @VisitScotland @ScotsMagazine #friends #ThePhotoHour #stvsnaps #beautiful pic.twitter.com/nns9aypI50

— Mike Wood (@MikeMikwd) November 8, 2024

The current Archbishop of Canterbury was a dormitory officer at the Iwerne holiday camp in the late 1970s, when Smyth was one of the leaders. He has always maintained that he was unaware of any abuse until 2013 and initially denied that Smyth was Anglican (News, 18 April 2019) — one of a number of inaccuracies in his account which the review corrects.

He told the review that he had been warned in 1981 by the Revd Peter Sertin, the Chaplain at St Michael’s, Paris (where the Archbishop was a worshipper), to “stay away” from Smyth, who was “really not a nice man”. The warning was “vague”, the Archbishop told the review. An exchange of Christmas cards with Smyth and donations that he made to Smyth’s ministry in Zimbabwe were not indicators of closeness, he argued.

The review concludes that, on the balance of probabilities, it is “unlikely that Justin
Welby would have had no knowledge of the concerns regarding John Smyth in
the 1980s in the UK. He may not have known of the extreme seriousness of the
abuse, but it is most probable that he would have had at least a level of
knowledge that John Smyth was of some concern.”

A former Bishop of Chelmsford, John Trillo, who died in 1992, was informed of the abuse in 1983 while chairing a selection conference at which Smyth was assessed. The review also reports that the former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey was informed of the abuse while Principal of Trinity College, Bristol, and was sent a copy of the outline of the Ruston report, which he denies seeing.

Read it all (registration or subscription).

The “prolific, brutal and horrific” abuse perpetrated by John Smyth, a Reader in the Church of England, was covered up by “powerful evangelical clergy”, the long-awaited Makin review has concluded.https://t.co/67tmeMGVVS

— Church Times (@ChurchTimes) November 7, 2024

But I will hope continually,
and will praise thee yet more and more.
My mouth will tell of thy righteous acts,
of thy deeds of salvation all the day,
for their number is past my knowledge.
With the mighty deeds of the Lord God I will come,
I will praise thy righteousness, thine alone.

–Psalm 71:14-16

Autumn pic.twitter.com/UUvsIoKMCT

— Roger Wellens (@WellensRog) November 7, 2024

[Bill] Pannell loved Jesus and his church. As a preacher, his heart beat for the gospel and its biblically rooted values of evangelism, discipleship, and justice. His teaching was grounded in a strikingly honest understanding of how Christianity and the church really operate in the world. He was frank about how they are often accessories to the sins of racism and social injustice rather than proponents of reconciliation. 

A lack of real discipleship was at the core of our troubles, Pannell believed. “Christ’s parting command was that we go and make disciples of the nations,” he wrote in his last book, an expanded edition of his 1993 release, The Coming Race Wars? “It wasn’t build more churches; it was make disciples. It seems fairly clear today that we have far more churches and Christians than we have disciples.”

Before going into hospice care earlier this month, Pannell more or less worked until his 95-year-old frame could go no further. He preached via Zoom, finished a memoir, and conducted interviews for two documentaries, including one about his life and ministry. Throughout our three decades of acquaintance, he and I would periodically call or send a text to check in on one another. I never took the gift of his friendship for granted, but now that he’s gone, I’m appreciating those exchanges even more. 

Read it all.

Remembering my friend Dr. William Pannell: https://t.co/61QiwrIzWw

— Edward Gilbreath (@EdGilbreath) October 14, 2024

‘Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things.
Blessed be his glorious name for ever; may his glory fill the whole earth!
Amen and Amen!’

–Psalm 72:18-19

"Autumn Beauty by the Riverside"#AlmostHeaven #WestVirginia #Highlands #FallColors #ThePhotoHour pic.twitter.com/57fUAwS7Tp

— Thomas R Fletcher (@ThomasRFletcher) November 6, 2024

The biggest single crisis facing the United States on the eve of the election does not come from Kamala Harris or Donald Trump. It does not come from our enemies abroad. It does not come from our dissensions at home. It does not come from unfunded entitlement commitments. It does not come from climate change. Our greatest and most dangerous crisis is the decay of effective leadership at all levels of our national life, something that makes both our foreign and domestic problems, serious as they are, significantly more daunting than they should be.

Average confidence in institutions ranging from higher education to organized religion rests at historic lows, with fewer than 30% of respondents telling Gallup pollsters that they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in major American institutions. Only small business, the military, and the police inspire majorities of the public with a high degree of confidence; less than a fifth of Americans express “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers, big business, television news, and Congress. 

Much of the country’s political and intellectual establishment responds defensively to numbers like this, blaming falling confidence on the corrosive effects of social media or the general backwardness and racism of the American public. The East German communist hacks Bertolt Brecht satirized also blamed their failings on the shortcomings of the masses: “The people have lost the confidence of the government and can only regain it through redoubled work.”

While social media is problematic, and not every citizen of the United States is a model of enlightened cosmopolitanism, America’s core problem today is not that the nation is unworthy of the elites who struggle to lead it. That superficial and dismissive response is itself a symptom of elite failure and an obstacle to the deep reform that the American leadership classes badly need.

Read it all.

America’s Crisis of Leadership: How Teddy Roosevelt can help save us from our Marie Antoinette problem: https://t.co/whepP7cGgG

— Tablet Magazine (@tabletmag) November 4, 2024

Trust in him at all times, O people;
    pour out your heart before him;
    God is a refuge for us

–Psalm 62:8

🦢 Morning serenity

📍 Bushy Park

📸 @LesleyAM13 pic.twitter.com/FuLJ3qJzuT

— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) November 5, 2024

In principle, Ukraine could liberate its lost territory if the United States and its European partners intervened with forces of their own. But this would require jettisoning the indirect strategy they chose in 2022. It would come at great human, military, and economic cost. And it would introduce far greater risk, as it would mean war between NATO and nuclear-armed Russia. For this reason, such a policy will not be adopted.

Instead of clinging to an infeasible definition of victory, Washington must grapple with the grim reality of the war and come to terms with a more plausible outcome. It should still define victory as Kyiv remaining sovereign and independent, free to join whatever alliances and associations it wants. But it should jettison the idea that, to win, Kyiv needs to liberate all its land. So as the United States and its allies continue to arm Ukraine, they must take the uncomfortable step of pushing Kyiv to negotiate with the Kremlin—and laying out a clear sense of how it should do so.

Such a pivot may be unpopular. It will take political courage to make, and it will require care to implement. But it is the only way to end the hostilities, preserve Ukraine as a truly independent country, enable it to rebuild, and avoid a dire outcome for both Ukraine and the world.

Read it all.

The Perfect Has Become the Enemy of the Good in Ukraine | Foreign Affairs https://t.co/YQorbrdOWe

— Richard N. Haass (@RichardHaass) November 4, 2024

“I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled! I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished! Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division; for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.”

He also said to the multitudes, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, ‘A shower is coming’; and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat’; and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?

“And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right? As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper.”

–Luke 12:49-59

Silver-Breasted Broadbill.

Photographer: Allan Seah ©️#birds #nature #wildlife #photography pic.twitter.com/blr9owIbFI

— Liberta Cherguia 🇪🇺 (@MbarkCherguia) November 4, 2024

The voice of the Lord is upon the waters;
    the God of glory thunders,
    the Lord, upon many waters.
The voice of the Lord is powerful,
    the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars,
    the Lord breaks the cedars of Lebanon.
He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf,
    and Sir′ion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord flashes forth flames of fire.
The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness,
    the Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.

–Psalm 29:3-8

frost in the shadows#hiking #river pic.twitter.com/tadRuQZwDB

— Portmann Carrick (@PortmannCarrick) November 3, 2024

“Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. “Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour.” Peter said, “Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?” And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful. And that servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating. But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.

–Luke 12:32-48

As Meagan Gillmore reported for CT earlier this month, one Canadian pastor said, “I think one of the strongest reasons why MAID has a lot of traction generally in our society is that nobody wants to talk about death.”

For years, I’d wondered how we could change the conversation and equip our patients to walk toward the inevitable. Then one day, in my reading of various books on the subject, I came across a concept known as the ars moriendi, which is Latin for “art of dying.”

I discovered an entire genre of literature—500-years’ worth of ars moriendi handbooks—on how to die well. The earliest version developed in the early 1400s after the bubonic plague, or Black Death, swept through Western Europe, leaving half the population dead.

The central theme of this genre was that dying well is very much wrapped up in how we live. If we want to die well, we have to live well. That includes cultivating a life of virtue, nurturing our communities, and attending to questions of salvific and eternal importance.

Read it all.

On Nov. 1, mourning and celebrating All Saints Day https://t.co/ToVrRcVCtn

— Marvin Olasky (@MarvinOlasky) November 1, 2024

He called himself a simple onion farmer, a Mayan Indian with four kids and a fourth-grade education.

U.S. prosecutors knew better.

By his late 30s, Felipe Diego Alonzo had built a crime route stretching from Central America to Texas, allegedly paying off Mexican drug cartels along the way. He tooled around Guatemala’s western highlands in a loaded silver Ford Ranger pickup. When the police finally raided his ranch, they found a study in rural narco-chic: wooden chalets, a swimming pool, a show horse valued at $100,000.

What they didn’t find was a narco. Alonzo’s business “was more profitable than drug trafficking,” said one of the Guatemalan officials who detained him.

Alonzo was moving people.

Read it all.

As smuggling rings made billions from migrants, the U.S. was sidelined https://t.co/QKiCwSIpZx

— Mary Beth Sheridan (@marybsheridan) November 1, 2024

One of the multitude said to him, “Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?” And he said to them, “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.” And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.”

And he said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing. Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life? If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith! And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind. For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.

–Luke 12:13-31

🌄 Hello November

📍 Richmond Park

📸 James Kliffen pic.twitter.com/7QBePkjUVq

— The Royal Parks (@theroyalparks) November 1, 2024