2 Videos and a Lenten Prayer

"The thing he's repeated is that I've just got to do it, and just keep doing it. Just get up there and start swinging and then I'll figure it out," said Fallon. "And after the first two test shows, I can tell you that he's right." -- Conan O'Brien's advice to Jimmy Fallon as he prepared to begin his new life as host of NBC's Late Night show

Yesterday around 3 in the afternoon I had hankering for a cup of black tea like nobody's business. Aichihuahua I wanted black tea in my blood. I wanted it bad. I sat at my desk, my head melting into my hands, and thought: "Lent. Deprivation. Mortification of the flesh. Poo."

Phaedra and I are puny, stimulant-less people these days.

Here are two videos I enjoyed watching recently. You may have seen them already. If not, I offer them for your midweek entertainment.

1. Her Morning Elegance. This is the kind of art you watch and you think, dadgummit. Dadgummit, why didn't I think of it first? It's so ridiculously clever. It's also beautiful in a "ah, music makes the world such a lovely place" way. Ahhh.



2. Where the hell is Matt? Remember Matt the dancing the guy, the guy that dances for no reason in every city and remote location of the planet with his arms churning like cylinders? Here's a very funny story he told recently about a hoax that went horribly wrong.



And finally, this link here will take you to the Lenten devotional guide that Phaedra and I prepared for our church, Christ Church Anglican. The material is largely taken from David Adam's Celtic Daily Prayer. The guide is neither for sale nor copyrighted. I wrote the introduction and the devotional for Friday. Phaedra created the art. David Adams did the rest. Otherwise it's a gift to our community to help us pray together.

Father Cliff had desired something that would unite us as individual members scattered across the city. This guide would help us pray the same prayers every day, prayers to remind us that we are not alone, prayers to reinforce our togetherness, prayers to rehabituate our hearts to a Lenten way of life and so help rescue us, even if meagerly, from a self-preoccupied way of life. We were grateful for this chance to serve, especially since we won't be here in Austin much longer. Sigh.

I close here with the text of the phos hilarion which Conspirare sung as part of the Rachmaninov's Vespers concert that we witnessed this past Friday.

Gladsome light of the holy glory of the Immortal One,

The Heavenly Father, holy and blessed, O Jesus Christ.

Now that we have come to the setting of the sun
And behold the light of evening,

We praise the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, God.

Thou art worthy at every moment to be praised
In hymns by reverent voices.

O Son of God, thou art the giver of life,
Therefore all the world glorifies thee.