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This is Sammy Kershaw singing "Better Than I Used to Be," which is sung to a woman but it's really about trying to improve one's life. Just your average guy trying to head in the right direction. It's not technically a Gospel song, but it's got a lot of religious references built into it.

I only just saw this, but so saddened. Seven77 was amazing - prayers

Congrats, Nihil! Kids are always amesome.

Excellent apporach to enforcing pro-life! More of this! Please!

G1.6 Je vous salut Marie, pleine de grâce, le Seigneur est avec vous, vous êtes bénie entres toutes les femmes et Jésus, le fruit de vos entrailles est béni. Sainte Marie, Mère de Dieu, priez pour nous pécheurs, maintenant et a l'heure de notre mort. Amen

I'm still here El Wapo!!! On 5/18/2024 at 11:58 PM, Nihil Obstat said: My third child was born, a daughter Congrats! It's always good to have spares.

clearly you have failed.

How beautiful and wonderful!!

"Jesus Be a Fence Around Me" was recorded by Sam Cooke in 1960, but this is Bobby Womack' 1999 recording of it. Womack was a guitarist for Sam Cooke, and he sings it very much like Cooke did - same key, same tempo, same beat. Cooke started in church and transitioned into pop music, as did Womack, Aretha Franklin, and lots of others. And the concept of "Jesus, be a fence around me" is still popular these 60+ years after the original recording - when the murder rate starts to climb around here, there are always several people on social media praying for Jesus to be a fence around our city, or around the innocent people who live in the high crime areas, and so forth.

Amesome!

I third that emotion!

“That’s the post-Resurrection question Jesus poses to Peter and, most pointedly, to each of you reading this. Have you ever wondered what the “these” are? Is Jesus asking Peter (substitute your name) ‘do you love me more than other people, like more than your best friend, your parents, your work or school colleagues? Or is He asking you whether your attachment to things, like money, fame, or social media trump your love of God? Or, at least, override your attention to God, and to what He is dying to say to you?” https://fscc-calledtobe.org/2024/05/25/do-you-love-me-more-than-these-by-franciscan-sister-renee-mirkes/

"Be Still, My Soul" is a poetic prayer composed in German by Katharina von Schlege in 1752. It was translated into English by Jane Laurie Brothwick in 1855. Here, it is set to "Finlandia," written by Sibelius in 1899 - but I don't know who put these words with this music, or what year that was done. This is an a cappella version by a select few of the Mount Royal Kantorei. Apparently the Mount Royal (University, in Calgary, Canada) Kantorei is a group of 70 singers, so this is only a fraction of them. I'm impressed by their harmony but more so by their perfectly synched articulation. The lyrics are below the video - scroll down to see them. I'm also impressed by the videography and the landscape.

I second that emotion!

On being ordained a priest. You make us proud.

The Texas Monthly article was interesting. https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/the-bishop-who-picked-a-fight-with-the-wrong-nuns/

Damien Rice singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." I don't really like most Leonard Cohen songs because he tends to use Biblical imagery for secular purposes. But I won't go into all that here and now, but this doesn't count as "a Gospel song," although it uses a number of Biblical images. Hundreds of people have recorded this song; I've chosen Damien Rice accompanying himself with a very spare guitar arrangement but with lots of emotion in his voice. And that's the part that will feed your ears.

I have just read about this online. These allegations are pretty shocking if true.

Other documents are available too since this conflict seems to be playing out very publicly on the diocese's and the monastery's websites- and getting news attention. The texts of the four separate letters from the Dicastery are posted on the Fort Worth Diocese website. The first one overturns the bishop's dismissal of the prioress. The bishop's statement presents his own actions and behavior in the best light, glossing over the finding that he failed to follow required procedure in dismissing the prioress. The other three letters uphold the bishop's actions as consonant with his duties and responsibilities and with current legislation for contemplative religious women (Cor Orans and the 1990 Discalced Carmelite Nuns' Constitutions, which Arlington follows). Also posted is a statement written by Mother Marie of the Incarnation, President of the Association of Christ the King. It describes how she was refused admittance to Arlington Carmel when she attempted on two occasions to deliver individual letters from the Dicastery to each of the nuns there, as she was instructed to do by the Dicastery. There is a new statement on the Arlington Carmel webpage as of May 23rd as well. They include justification for their actions based in part on the U.S. Constitution, an odd choice since the Holy See is not bound by that in any way.

Cissy Houston is the mother of Whitney Houston and the aunt of Dionne Warwick. She has been a back-up singer, had a solo pop/soul career, and has been a Gospel singer pretty much through all of it. This is her singing "How Sweet It Is (to Be Loved by You)." This is another example of a pop song (Marvin Gaye had a hit with it) that gets 'baptized.' It really was a two-way street - many soul singers began in church and brought that Gospel feel to popular music, but it also happened that pop songs were altered slightly and brought into church. The music is smooth and polished.

Last Sunday, we celebrated the sending of the Spirit, which sealed God’s new covenant and made a new creation. In this new creation, we live in the family of God, who has revealed himself as a Trinity of love. We share in his divine nature through his Body and Blood. This is the meaning of the three feasts that cap the Easter season— Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Corpus Christi. These feasts should be intimate reminders of how deeply God loves us, how he chose us, from before the foundation of the world, to be his children. It has been said that it is far easier to preach to hundreds crowded into the church on Christmas or Easter than it is to discuss the doctrine of the Holy Trinity for a handful on a sleepy holiday weekend in late May. Trinity Sunday is the only day of the entire church year that is devoted exclusively to a doctrine—which is never mentioned by name in Scripture. Preachers must use caution and craft careful language to avoid the minefields of heresy, only to utilize the same adjective that St. Athanasius used to describe the Trinity – “incomprehensible” – all while hoping and praying that “incomprehensible” is not the word the faithful few at coffee hour will utilize to describe this morning’s sermon! And yet, while we are right to be chastened by the Trinity’s doctrinal depth and complexity, we must not shy away from it altogether, for it was in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit that the confessors endured persecution and the martyrs were willing to shed their blood. Inspired by this belief in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, missionaries spread the word to innumerable others. Indeed, had someone not shared the Good News with us, none of us would be here today. It is easy to forget that the central tenet of our faith is not just that we are created by God, but that God walks among us, most fully in the person of Jesus, and also in the face of the stranger and the oppressed and the marginalized, and God leads us to new depths of faithfulness in the power of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this isn’t something that has happened in history; no, God is still, even at this very moment and in every moment, creating, walking among us, and leading us. In the same way, viewing the doctrine of the Trinity we see it’s impossible to understand the crucifixion apart from believing that it is God made human flesh in the person of Jesus by the power of the Spirit who dies on the cross and rises from the grave. It’s not God demanding something from someone else and exacting a monstrous punishment; rather, it is God’s selfless giving of God self to die so that death could be defeated once and for all for our sake. In the same way, it is impossible to understand the resurrection of Jesus apart from believing that God made human flesh in the person of Jesus is resurrected through God’s own will and action in the power of the Spirit. God’s life and love are bigger even than the most monstrous and cruel consequences of human sinfulness. And finally, the Doctrine of the Trinity necessitates the conviction that God’s Holy Spirit comes to us and abides with us unto eternity, guiding us and leading us into all truth. The Trinity gives us perhaps the most complete understanding of what God is like: God creates us purely out of God’s love and desire for relationship; pursues us, even stepping in to offer to die so that we might live; and abides with us. The Trinity helps us see God more fully as God is. It is the God we meet in the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who, at every moment, asks, “Whom can I send as a prophet to tell the world about me?” May each of us, strengthened, purified, and nourished by that self-same God who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in humility and boldness, say, “Here am I; send me.” In the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

STATEMENT OF ARLINGTON CARMEL, MAY 23, 2024 On the morning of May 22, 2024, the Diocese of Fort Worth published private decrees from the Holy See dated April 30, 2024, and a statement from the Bishop of Fort Worth on their diocesan website. These decrees from the Holy See include one overturning Bishop Olson’s peremptory and unlawful dismissal of our Mother Prioress from the Carmelite Order last year. It is time for Bishop Olson to apologise publicly, and in person to us, for this abusive act which has now been publicly recognised as such by the Holy See. In respect of the decrees upholding Bishop Olson’s investigation of allegations against our Mother Prioress, we repeat that his investigations were flawed in radice, carried out in an intimidatory manner and violated her ecclesiastical and civil rights. It is reprehensible that medical evidence proving these allegations to be completely unfounded and fabricated has been ignored by the Holy See. In addition, we are surprised that, as we learn from the decrees themselves, these matters were decided by the Holy See on March 12th but were not communicated to us in April together with other documents dated April 18th. We can only speculate that some authorities hoped that they would not have to deal with our recourses and that these issues could be swept under the carpet. We are profoundly disappointed that, in the place of the dialogue about which they speak so much, the relevant persons have once again chosen to resort to unproven narratives and attempted public humiliation to achieve their ends. This includes the fact that the members of the community never obstructed the so-called "investigation" by Bishop Olson. As stated in the Constitution of the U.S. and seconded by Pope Francis himself, every person - including every religious woman - has the right to counsel. For anyone, including a Bishop, to try to stop a person from consulting a lawyer, civil or canonical, is obstruction of justice. On Wednesday May 22, 2024, without any notice or warning, the President of the Carmelite Association of Christ the King, accompanied by another nun, attempted to enter Arlington Carmel in spite of the prohibition on her from so doing made in our statement of April 20, 2024. The next day she violated this prohibition again. We maintain our rejection of any takeover of our community or its assets, as has happened repeatedly to other Monasteries of women in our country and throughout the world. We remain firm in following Our Holy Mother St. Teresa's directive that each monastery remain autonomous in its self-governance and life, including the election of its superiors from among its own members. We are astonished that in our day and age, even some members of the Holy See itself refuse to follow the guidance of our Holy Father, Pope Francis, regarding the dignity of and respect for women. "Let us respect their dignity, their basic rights. And if we don't, our society will not progress. Let us pray that the dignity and worth of women be recognized in every culture, and for an end to the discrimination they face in various parts of the world," Pope Francis says in his video message for April 2024. We thank our faithful friends and supporters and assure them of our continued prayers, just as we continue to pray for the Holy Father and for the Bishop and Diocese of Fort Worth.