An opportunity to get (stay) in rhythm...

Now, I know that a lot of us that aren't Catholic don't take advantage of practicing Lent. I believe that we are missing a real opportunity to get in touch with the Spirit, and center our lives. I know it seems silly to give up TV or beer and eat fish on Fridays. Well, find something to give up that does require sacrifice. Fasting is an important part of bettering your relationship with God. The purpose of Lent is to get you prepared for the Easter season (Maunday Thursday, Good Fiday, and Easter). The more that you can do to incorporate reflecting on God into your daily life, the stronger your walk will become. Please join me in observing Lent this year. Study up on it. There is some ambiguity surrounding the practice, so take advantage of this to create a meaningful period of reflection and meditation for yourself. I plan on eating one meatless meal per day and (fasting from the other meals), completely fasting every Friday and Saturday (as well as Ash Wednesday), and Eating on Sundays to get in rhythm for the Easter feast. I will be diligent in prayer, meditation, and scripture study in the morning, at noon, in the evening, and before bed (which is a good practice everyday, anyway). Please join me. There's a pretty good article below. Feel free to read it and pass it along. Thanks!


BREATHING IN AND BREATHING OUT – 'Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness' (Matthew 4:1).
Jesus was anointed by the Spirit at the time of his baptism and then almost immediately, in Matthew's Gospel, the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. It is a pattern you see frequently in Scripture: exaltation, followed by withdrawal and testing, which in turn equips the Christ for his public work.
It is as rhythmic as breathing in and breathing out and this rhythm has been built into the life of the Church. Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, opens the door on a period of spring cleansing in preparation for Easter. What kind of preparation is appropriate for Lent, or should we just junk it as incompatible with our busy lifestyles?
Just over 100 years ago, the Church Times reported a scandal. The Scarborough Conservative Association had decided to hold its AGM on the evening of Ash Wednesday. Even worse, they planned to conclude the business with a 'smoking concert'. Now this last decision, in view of the judgment against Philip Morris, might be controversial now, but I doubt whether the violation of Ash Wednesday would cause the indignation expressed by the Church Times of a century ago, which thundered in a headline: 'Save us from the Conservatism of Scarborough'.
You and I know that while even President Clinton tiptoes around Muslim sensibilities during Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, the Christian fast of 40 days is hardly visible. Some people embrace minor mortifications and give up chocolate in the run up to Easter, but even they are often apologetic about it.
CARNIVAL WITH NO LENT – When I was a curate in those prehistoric days before overhead projector screens, we used to bring out two cheerful cutout characters on the Sunday before Lent. They were called GUS and TOM. It was a threadbare homiletic device. They stood for the two sides of Lent – Give Up Something and Take On More. We tried, but the tide was against us.
In some ways this is surprising. We live at a time when for many people the spectacle of superabundance for some, of carnival with no ensuing Lent, has become rather nauseating. 'Carnival' literally means 'goodbye meat', and it used to be the festival on the eve of the period of fasting. Now the rhythm has gone and it is carnival all the year round.
At the same time, the destruction of the rhythms of the day, the week and the year in favour of a mere succession of passing moments (hyped, but ultimately deadening), has led to a spiritual exhaustion in which you might think that a little fasting and reduction of stimuli would have a fashionable appeal.
Lent chimes in with another modern movement for re-inventing and improving the self. So many of us are evidently dissatisfied with ourselves as we are. Working under the instruction of some guru, we hope to progress to some better 'me', with a fuller and richer life.
Some of these gurus are genuinely helpful. Many of you will have read or at least have bought the book by Steve Covey called, 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People'. Over 5 million copies have been sold over the past 10 years. The teachings of this Mormon sage have impressed Clinton and Gingrich alike, with useful advice like: 'don't prioritise your schedule, but schedule your priorities'. OK, it is as difficult as the letters of St Paul, but the advice is not without value.
In such circumstances – disgust at over-consumption; the evident effects of the destruction of rhythms in daily life; and dissatisfied people struggling to reinvent themselves – the failure of Christians to market Lent seems strange and incompetent.
EMPTYING TO BE FILLED – Lent is the springtime of the Church year, a period of preparation for Easter. God's gift to us in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the sending of the Spirit is life in all its fullness, but we know that there remains an undertow in daily life which carries us away into negativity and forgetfulness. Our lives become old again. We need an annual review.
Perhaps, however, it is not so strange that Lent has not caught the popular mood. Centre stage for contemporary gurus is the individual consumer of life operating on his own profile and image to produce a trimmer, more effective figure. If a person takes up religion in this mood, then it is because God is an asset in this process.
By contrast, the Christian faith promises new life; life in all its fullness to those who open themselves up to God, emptying themselves so that they can be filled with the life that flows from the Godhead.
The Christian Lent is not a time for reinventing the self by a supreme effort. It is a time for opening up to God and seeing through some of the shadows inside us. Jesus the Anointed One faced a crescendo of temptations from desert, to temple wall, to high mountain. He saw through the daydreams about power and possession and emerged equipped by the Spirit for his work.
HEARING GOD'S DRUMBEAT – The Spirit drove him into the wilderness which is indeed a place for confronting oneself at depth. I went into the Sinai with a group of young East Enders, which included Muslims, a few Christians, mostly don't-knows. The experience had a profound effect on us all. The desert is a great leveller and revealer. When you all have to go behind the shadow of a great rock with your loo roll and a box of Swan Vesta matches (we were ecologically conscientious!) the barriers between people and the protections of status and normal routine fall.
Lent in the desert is not possible for many (but don't dismiss the idea that you could be in need of a pilgrimage). Even at home, Lent can be a time for reducing some of the chronic over-stimulation which is so much a part of modern living; a time when we protect ourselves a little more from the daily bombardment of images and stimuli, the pressures which keep us trapped on the surface.
You will know the pressure points in your own lives, but now is the time for deciding how to use Lent. Perhaps by not reading so many newspapers, hearing so much, watching so much, consuming so much, so that we can be liberated from the sick hurry which dulls our capacity to hear the still small voice.
Perhaps it is the time to live more simply in order to tighten up the drumskin, so that God's drumbeat can be heard more clearly in our lives.
Perhaps it is a time for carving out some solitude so that we can become aware of those senses which are deadened in daily life. The choice is yours. You have to decide what is most relevant. The London Diocesan team, quite apart from what they are doing individually, have decided to fast from routine meetings in order to spend more time to be with other disciples in the parishes of the Diocese on their Lenten journey to Easter.
Just giving up chocolate, which can be resumed in a great binge on Easter Day, does little good and can easily fill us with an unhelpful sense of spiritual achievement. Lent is an opportunity for Springtime cleansing and we can encourage one another in observing it. Why should Weight Watchers have a greater care for one another's progress than followers of Jesus Christ?

This had better be paranoid neighbors, because if it's not...

HOMELAND INSECURITY- Probe finds terrorists in U.S. 'training for war'Neighbors of Muslim encampment fear retaliation if they report to police


Entrance to Hancock, N.Y., encampment (Courtesy Northeast Intelligence Network)The Pakistani terrorist group Jamaat ul Fuqra is using Islamic schools in the United States as training facilities, confirms a joint investigative report by an intelligence think tank and an independent reporter.
A covert visit to an encampment in the Catskill Mountains near Hancock, N.Y., called "Islamberg" found neighboring residents deeply concerned about military-style training taking place there but frustrated by the lack of attention from federal authorities, said the report by the Northeast Intelligence Network, which worked with an Internet blogger, "CP," to publish an interim report.
The neighbors interviewed, who asked not to be identified, said they feared retaliation if they were to make a report to law enforcement officials.
"We see children – small children run around over there when they should be in school," one neighbor said. "We hear bursts of gunfire all of the time, and we know that there is military-like training going on there. Those people are armed and dangerous."
The resident said his household gets "nothing but menacing looks from the people who go in and out of the camp, and sometimes they yell at us to mind our own business when we are just driving by."
"We don't even dare to slow down when we drive by," the resident said. "They own this mountain and they know it, and there is nothing we can do about it but move, and we can't even do that. Who wants to buy property next to that?"
Jamaat ul-Fuqra, or "community of the impoverished," was formed by Pakistani cleric Sheikh Mubarak Ali Gilani in New York in 1980. Gilani, who refers to himself as "the sixth Sultan Ul Faqr," has stated his objective is to "purify" Islam through violence.
Gilani also is the founder of a village in South Carolina called "Holy Islamville."
The encampment in Hancock, N.Y., is run by a front for Jamaat ul-Fuqra called Muslims of the Americas Inc., which operates a school known as the International Quranic Open University Inc.

Entrance to Hancock, N.Y., encampment (Courtesy Northeast Intelligence Network)
The facility is on 70 acres of remote land on the western edge of the Catskill Mountains, about 40 miles southeast of Binghamton, N.Y. A sign at the entrance identifies the place as "Islamberg." The other side of the sign says "International Quranic Open University" and "Muslims of the Americas Inc."
Every one of the neighboring residents interviewed expressed disappointment and additional concern that federal law enforcement is not investigating the activities, the report said.
"These people need to be investigated," a resident said. "They are training for war, either for war here in this country or against our troops. Who in the h--- is allowing this stuff to happen right here in our own backyard, and why?"
Headquarters in the USA
Though primarily based in Lahore, Pakistan, Jamaat ul-Fuqra has operational headquarters in the U.S.
The group seeks to counter "excessive Western influence on Islam" through any means necessary, publicly embracing the ideology that violence is a significant part of its quest to purify Islam. The enemies of Islam, the group says, are all non-Muslims and any Muslim who does not follow the tenets of fundamentalist Islam as detailed in the Quran.
Jamaat ul-Fuqra openly recruits through various social service organizations in the U.S., including the prison system. Members live in compounds where they agree to abide by the laws of Jamaat ul-Fuqra, which are considered to be above local, state and federal authority.
According to the report, there appear to be more than two dozen "Jamaats," or private communities, loosely connected and scattered throughout the U.S. with an estimated 5,000 members.
Guard shack at Hancock, N.Y., encampment (Courtesy Northeast Intelligence Network)
An investigation of the group by the Colorado Attorney General's office in the early 1980s found several of the communities operate covert paramilitary training compounds, including one in a mountainous area near Buena Vista, Colo.
Muslims of the Americas Inc., a tax-exempt organization formed in 1980 by Gilani, has been directly linked by court documents to Jamaat ul-Fuqra. The organization operates communes of primarily black, American-born Muslims throughout the U.S. The investigation confirmed members commonly use aliases and intentional spelling variations of their names and routinely deny the existence of Jamaat ul-Fuqra.
Members have been known to go to Pakistan for paramilitary training, but the investigation found evidence the U.S. encampments offer such training so members don't need to risk traveling abroad amid increased scrutiny following the 9-11 attacks.
The report says Jamaat ul-Fuqra members have "purchased isolated rural properties in North America to live as a community, practice their faith, and insulate themselves from Western culture. The group has established rural encampments that U.S. authorities allege are linked to murder, bombings and other felonies throughout North America."
U.S. authorities have probed the group for charges ranging from links to al-Qaida to laundering and funneling money into Pakistan for terrorist activities. The organization supports various terrorist groups operating in Pakistan and Kashmir, and Gilani himself is linked directly to Hamas and Hezbollah. Throughout the 1980s, JF was responsible for a number of terrorist acts across the United States, including numerous fire-bombings.
Gilani was at one time in Pakistani custody for the abduction of American journalist Daniel Pearl. Intelligence sources have determined Pearl was attempting to meet with Gilani in the days before he disappeared in Karachi. Intelligence sources also suggest a link between Jamaat ul Fuqra and Richard Reid, the infamous "shoe bomber" who attempted to ignite explosives aboard a Paris-to-Miami passenger flight Dec. 22, 2001.
Field investigation
Douglas J. Hagmann, director of the Northeast Intelligence Network and multi-state licensed private investigator, and others conducted their covert field investigation Feb. 8 and 9 at the Hancock encampment connected to the terrorist group.
Primary access to the compound is an unmarked road – labeled on county and state maps as "Moslem Road"
Two structures with capacities of up to 100 each appear to be used for religious training, education and meeting purposes, according to local sources. Investigators found a weapons firing range that is not visible from the road or any other publicly accessible vantage position. It appeared to have been recently used.
Near the eastern perimeter of the property – on a hillside – appears to be a military-style training area, including ropes hung from tree limbs, an obstacle course, wooden fences for scaling and other items and structures one would expect to find in a "boot-camp" setting. The area also appeared to have been used recently.
The report noted the property is near the Cannonsville Reservoir and Watershed Area, one of several water supply sources servicing New York City and adjacent areas.
The investigators noted men appeared to be designated to provide security for the compound, with some posted at guard shacks.
"Although no activity of extreme significance was observed (the presence of armed sentries guarding the perimeter of the compound excluded) during this period of surveillance, it was obvious that measures to insure that the activities taking place at this location were well insulated from public view," the report said.
Investigators interviewed six area residents, who each requested anonymity for the report, and found them to be consistent. The report summarized the information:
The encampment has been in operation for at least 20 years and appears to maintain a steady level of occupancy. Each source confirmed the existence of at least one armed guard at the main entrance, especially during "special events" that result in a significant number of visitors by vehicle. The events appear to be meetings or religious services held within the compound.
Nearly every weekend, sound of gunfire can be heard from the camp. According to one neighbor who stated he's a combat veteran of the Vietnam War, some of the weapons obviously are "automatic" and large-caliber. On at least two occasions last summer, area residents heard small explosions.
The occupants won't allow anyone not affiliated with their organization to enter the encampment. All of the residents stated they've never observed a marked law enforcement vehicle enter the compound at any time.
Visitors to the compound are numerous and frequent. All visitors appear to be black males operating late model vehicles, mostly SUVs, and many possess license plates from Michigan, Ohio, South Carolina and Tennessee.
At least once each week, private deliveries of unknown items are made to the camp by unmarked box-style trucks. The trucks, usually at the compound for two to three hours at a time, are operated by black males or men who appear to be of Middle Eastern origin.
Men of Middle Eastern origin appear to be "frequent guests" of the encampment, many in traditional Islamic attire. Some appear to stay at the encampment for three to four days or longer. During the visits, activity and security at the compound is heightened noticeably.
The report also says it found that a number of the residents of the compound work for the New York State Thruway, as tollbooth operators in the New York City area or are employed at a nearby center that processes credit card transactions and maintains vital confidential financial records.
The report concludes additional investigation by law enforcement authorities is required.
"The appropriate action must be taken now to insure the safety and security of the United States, or it is certain that we will be forced to deal with the consequences. …"

It's a good day to die... or maybe not.

Can I see a show of hands? How many of you would like to die at work, sitting in a cube, processing paperwork or answering phones? No takers? Are you sure? Well, I heard of someone that passed away today at work. It's a sobering thought. You're sitting there and BAM! You check out and that's that. Your life is summarized in that moment. Whatever you accomplished or stood for is written in stone at that moment. You cannot add to or take away from anything you did or neglected to do during your life. I couldn't imagine putting years and years into doing paperwork or answering phones, and go out doing it. Not to diminish this person's existence, because everyone has infinite worth and family members will be mourning for her, (I'm going to seperate the situation from the person here) but what a waste! If my headstone says, "He worked in a cube for 25 years, doing someone else's work, and died there too", I will roll over in my grave. Me, I want to go down in a blaze of glory. I want my guns drawn, and charging the gates of the enemy. I don't want to fade away into oblivion. My guess, is that if this person was living for something real (whether somewhere else or with her work as her missions field) she would still be alive and kicking. Of course I don't know that, but having seen corporate culture, a lot of people lose hope for anything better in their life. The corporate life can breed depression. But for those that are obedient to God's call, and working hard to see God's kingdom come on this earth, Jesus promised, "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and all over the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you". For those that are doing His work, why would He allow them to be overcome, lest it should prove to a greater glory? That could be the case here. I hope so. But to sit and watch days, weeks, months, and years roll by in front of our eyes and to do nothing about it? No thank you. My guns are out, and I'm looking for that fight, that when I go down (whether today or in 70 years) I will know that I completed my task here on earth. May you come to that same place, for the harvest is many, but the workers are few. It's time to roll.