| ASH WEDNESDAY - GOD IS ALIVE |
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In the ancient Roman Rite, the faithful on Ash Wednesday
approach the Communion rail before Holy Mass to receive ashes (from the blessed palms/foliage of the previous year) on their foreheads in the form of a cross. The priest as he administers the ashes says, “Remember man that thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return” (Meménto, homo, quia pulvis es, et in púlverem revertéris). The custom of distributing the ashes to the faithful arose from a devotional imitation of the practice observed in the case of public penitents. Although it is not a holy day of obligation, receiving the ashes is a worthy manner of beginning the season which liturgically-speaking begins on the First Sunday of Lent. The words of the Introit of Ash Wednesday are a wonderful reminder of what God does during this season of Lent: “Thou hast mercy upon all, O Lord, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made, overlooking the sins of men for the sake of repentance, and sparing them:
because Thou art the Lord our God”.
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From the UNA VOCE CARMEL website
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The Lenten Series
is centered on passages from
THE URANTIA BOOK
that highlight various events leading up
to, and including, the passion and death of
the Master. We do this in the spirit
of trying to heed the advice found
in this most incredible book
of revelation:
The time is ripe to witness the
figurative resurrection of the human Jesus
from his burial tomb amidst the theological traditions
and the religious dogmas of nineteen centuries.
Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed
to even the splendid concept of the glorified Christ.
What a transcendent service if, through this
revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered
from the tomb of traditional theology and be presented
as the living Jesus to the church that bears his name,
and to all other religions! Surely the Christian
fellowship of believers will not hesitate to make
such adjustments of faith and of practices of
living as will enable it to "follow after" the Master
in the demonstration of his real life of religious devotion
to the doing of his Father's will and of consecration
to the unselfish service of man.
Do professed Christians fear the exposure of a
self-sufficient and unconsecrated fellowship of
social respectability and selfish economic maladjustment?
Does institutional Christianity fear the possible
jeopardy, or even the overthrow, of
traditional ecclesiastical authority if the
Jesus of Galilee is reinstated in the minds and souls
of mortal men as the ideal of personal religious living?
Indeed, the social readjustments, the economic
transformations, the moral rejuvenations,
and the religious revisions of Christian civilization
would be drastic and revolutionary if the
living religion of Jesus should suddenly supplant
the theologic religion about Jesus.
THE URANTIA BOOK
Part IV, 196, 1
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"God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot" | |
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This Leonard Cohen song,
originally recorded by Cohen in '66,
is an obvious response to the
"God is Dead" wave of thinking,
that was part of the philosophical/
theological confusion of the 60's era.
Here's it's sung by Native American
Buffy Sainte-Marie, from her
ILLUMINATIONS CD, released
on the Vanguard label in 2000.
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God is alive, magic is afoot
God is alive, magic is afoot
God is afoot, magic is alive
Alive is afoot, magic never died
God never sickened
Many poor men lied
Many sick men lied
Magic never weakened
Magic never hid
Magic always ruled
God is afoot, God never died
God was ruler
Though his funeral lengthened
Though his mourners thickened
Magic never fled
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
Though his words were twisted
The naked magic thrived
Though his death was published
Round and round the world
The heart did not believe
Many hurt men wondered
Many struck men bled
Magic never faltered
Magic always lead
Many stones were rolled
But God would not lie down
Many wild men lied
Many fat men listened
Though they offered stones
Magic still was fed
Though they locked their coffers
God was always served
Magic is afoot, God rules
Alive is afoot
Alive is in command
Many weak men hungered
Many strong men thrived
Though they boast of solitude
God was at their side
Nor the dreamer in his cell
Nor the captain on the hill
Magic is alive
Though his death was pardoned
Round and round the world
The heart would not believe
Though laws were carved in marble
They could not shelter men
Though altars built in parliaments
They could not order men
Police arrested magic and magic went with them
Mmmmm.... for magic loves the hungry
But magic would not tarry
It moves from arm to arm
It would not stay with them
Magic is afoot
It cannot come to harm
It rests in an empty palm
It spawns in an empty mind
But magic is no instrument
Magic is the end
Many men drove magic
But magic stayed behind
Many strong men lied
They only passed through magic
And out the other side
Many weak men lied
They came to God in secret
And though they left Him nourished
They would not tell who healed
Though mountains danced before them
They said that God was dead
Though his shrouds were hoisted
The naked God did live
This I mean to whisper to my mind
This I mean to laugh within my mind
This I mean my mind to serve
Til' service is but magic
Moving through the world
And mind itself is magic
Coursing through the flesh
And flesh itself is magic
Dancing on a clock
And time itself
The magic length of God
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About THE URANTIA BOOK
For those readers who might not
be familiar with THE URANTIA BOOK, let us
just say that this is something that must be
looked at individually by each person.
The book claims to be a revelation,
the most recent major revelation since
the time of Christ.
Is this possible?
What do they say? - "With God, all things are possible" -
or something along those lines?
Certainly it seems reasonable that a new revelation
of some type was due in the 20th century.
Mankind had reached the stage where spiritual
progress couldn't keep up with the many challenges,
unseen consequences, and at times nightmarish realities,
the new world of technology and industrialization had
brought as the unexpected bounty of progress.
But THE URANTIA BOOK gives an insight that offers
hope of eternal survival no matter what bleak realities
of mortal existence we experience and face in our future.
A good part of the book is obviously meant for
later generations - sections regarding the nature of
God and the Trinity read like advanced physics
of another dimension, way too much for
probably even a well-trained Dominican,
and far beyond the capacity of any Jesuit.
But the book isn't this massive over 2,000 page
doorstop that you are bound to read - beginning to end -
like War and Peace. You can browse through the index,
or random parts of the text, and find an unbelievable
number of interesting topics discussed:
survival after death,
who God is,
who Jesus is,
all about angels,
history of the planet,
who were Adam and Eve,
why this planet is so screwed up,
the future of those who reject God,
and lots more.
Part IV of the book, the life of Christ, is certainly the
most understandable part of the text,
and without a doubt the most relevant to modern life.
If you're wondering what others think of all this
just google Urantia (the name of our planet)
and you'll find lots of places with varying
info about the book, including skepticism
over the book's authenticity and
claim to be true revelation.
Decide for yourselves, but be open-minded.
If you're disappointed/disgusted with institutional
religion you should definitely have a look.
The fact that the book definitively states that
there is no such thing as ecclaesiastical authority,
that all such authority belongs to God,
should be enough to pique the interest of any
disillusioned Catholic, jack-Mormon,
lapsed-Lutheran, or pure heathen.
For background information, an online copy
of the book, and more - go to:
http://urantiabook.org/
If you get tired reading off a computer screen,
please get the real thing.
Most public libraries will have a copy; new copies
are available in bookstores everywhere; and
used copies can be found on eBay and Amazon.
Lastly, I should note that we are only using fragments
in most cases of various essays from the book. For more,
buy a book or visit the Urantia site, where you can
see the various posts in their complete context.
The Urantia site copy is simple to access and navigate.
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"The Fifth Lament: Ash Wednesday" |
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"The only way to sum up the style of
Chicago clarinetist and composer James Falzone is to say that it can’t be done. Falzone is an inveterate genre-crosser, and though he squawks and swoops with some of the city’s best free improvisers, it’s his fluency in classical and ethnic European cultures that set him apart. . . . an already important Chicago voice."
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Matthew Lurie, Time Out
The CD came out in 2010 on the Allos Documents label. It's somber, and slightly eerie, jazz.
It's Ash Wednesday, for certain.
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