Unfettered Nature
2On the second day, as they were drinking
wine, the king again said to Esther,
"What
is your petition, Queen Esther? It shall be granted you.
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10;
9:20-22
Queen Esther
*
ANDREA DEL
CASTAGNO, 1450
There
is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains
of nature -
the assurance that dawn comes after night, and
spring after the
winter.
~ Rachel Carson
The Sense of
Wonder
Never
lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful.
It is
God's handwriting - a wayside sacrament.
Welcome it in every fair face, every fair sky, every fair
flower.
~ Ralph Waldo
Emerson
We do
not see nature with our eyes, but with our
understandings and our
hearts.
~ William
Hazlitt
WOW!!!
Arches National
Park
Moab,
Utah
September 25 - 28, 2006
A few of the arches we saw amid pretty purple flowers
and lots of sunflowers.
I
think it annoys God if you walk by the color purple
in a
field and don't notice.
~ Alice
Walker
From "The Color Purple"
October 1,
2006 Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary
Time
Previous OPQs may be found
at:
* Esther told the king of Haman's plot against
her people. The Jewish people were saved, and Haman was hanged on the gallows
that had been prepared for Mordecai. To
commemorate this miraculous turn of events, Jews celebrate Purim on the 14th of Adar by reading the Megillah (the
story of Purim), enjoying a Purim Feast, sending gifts of food to our friends
and the needy, and having great fun. (This past year it was celebrated
from the 14th of March, 2006, to 16th of March,
2006.)
Graggers are the noisemakers used during the reading of the Meglliah.
Every time the name of Haman is mentioned, everyone boos, hisses, stamps their
feet and twirls their graggers.
If your hand causes
you to sin, cut it off ... If your foot causes you to sin, cut if off ... If
your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out ...
Mark 9:38-50
Agnus Day, by James Wetzstein
Esther 7:1-6, 9-10;
9:20-22
Psalm 124:1-8
James 5:13-20
Mark 9:38-50
