Over at Various Stages of Mormondom, where I did a nice long guest stint, this week’s theme is Gifts. As with so many short phrases, the topic brought a song to mind. Even though it invokes harvest images, I think it’s very suitable for this time of year.
The song, “All Good Gifts,” is from the ancient musical “Godspell.”
There are a number of versions on YouTube, but either the video is lousy or the tenor is flat (or both!) so I’ll leave you to seek one out yourself. It’s a beautiful song, based on Episcopal Hymn #138 (or so I read on the Stephen Schwartz music site).
ALL GOOD GIFTS
We plow the fields and scatter the good seed on the land..
But it is fed and watered by God’s almighty hand..
He sends us snow in winter, the warmth to swell the grain…
The breezes and the sunshine, and soft refreshing rain…
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love…
We thank thee then, O Father, for all things bright and good,
The seedtime and the harvest, our life our health our food,
No gifts have we to offer for all thy love imparts
But that which thou desirest, our humble thankful hearts!
All good gifts around us
Are sent from Heaven above..
So thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord for all his love..
Merry Christmas.
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The discussion surrounding the recent conference talk, Mothers Who Know, was fascinating. I read the Feminist Mormon Housewives and Exponent II conversations and other blog and bulletin board discussions, as well as the comments on the articles posted at the Deseret News and the Tribune, and found that I couldn’t help but react, sometimes in agreement, and sometimes in disagreement. Later I read What Women Know, which focuses on a broadened conceptualization of women’s many roles in life, and I found myself thinking again about the women and men in my life who have made a difference. If I have amounted to anything in life, it is largely because of the things I have learned from others. Whether from women or from men, I most value the things I have learned through nurturance and compassion. Hierarchy, commandments, and guilt have proven poor teachers in my case.
Continue reading ‘What I know’
Have all y’all seen Kristine Haglund Harris’s amazing Holy Week series over on BCC?
If not, get thee hence. Here is Kristine’s author page. Scroll down to Palm Sunday and read backwards.
Also, Russell Arben Fox shares the Tale of the Three Trees over on Times and Seasons.
Lynnette writes about the complex power of Good Friday over on Zelophehad’s Daughters.
This is the kind of stuff that makes me glad to be reading here.
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This podcast is literally one of the best I’ve ever heard. It reviews a new documentary (discussed below), and works very hard to say, “You can keep your faith and belief in scripture/revelation, and still embrace your homosexual loved ones .” A true middle way for spiritual folk caught in the crossfire between organized religion and homosexuality. And the interview is set in Utah, so it stands within the Mormon context. Please listen if you can.
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (2007-01-24) If you’ve listened to a debate about homosexuality, chances are you’ve heard the word “abomination” quoted from the Bible. It’s in Leviticus Chapter 20, right after Moses teaches that it’s an abomination to eat shrimp or a rabbit. In the Sundance documentary For the Bible Tells Me So, director Daniel Karslake follows five very normal, very Christian American families who all had to reconcile their religion with learning they had a gay child. Doug talks to Karslake about homosexuality, biology and scripture through the prism of the family.
- You can see Sundance screenings of For the Bible Tells Me So Thursday, January 25th at 2:30 p.m. at the Library Center Theatre or Friday, January 26th at 11:30 p.m. at the Holiday Village Cinema II. For information on tickets, call 435-776-7878 or click here
- For more information on Mary Lou Wallner’s work, visit Teach-Ministries.org
My family of origin doesn’t place a lot of value in “things.” Continue reading ‘Meaning in Objects’
I sat in choir practice this morning pondering how slightly odd it seemed for me to go to the trouble to wake myself and the children up so early, to get to the chapel by 8am, to rehearse for a Christmas choir program–in spite of the fact that I don’t even really consider myself to be a literal believer in the traditional view of the atonement/resurrection, or even in the anthropomorphic nature of God.
Notwithstanding, I was absolutely in love with the experience. Sitting up in the stands w/ fellow ward members. Joking between songs. Singing about God and the Savior’s love. Pondering the teachings of Jesus, and his example/sacrifice for me. Feeling a deep sense of love, peace, and joy.
Continue reading ‘Mary, Did You Know?’
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