Welcome to the Friday Random 10, StreetProphet's weekly music discussion group. Grab a beverage of your choice from today's Happy Hour, pull up a comfy chair, and start thumbing through the records, 8-tracks, tapes, CD's and mp3's lying around. Go ahead and hum, sing, or tap your fingers on your knees... you know you want to. If you're not into music, here's some noise-canceling earplugs- they'll filter out our music while you stay and chat with us about other topics that interest you.

Oh dear, I almost forgot that I was on duty tonight - good thing I was thinking about downloading some new music and was gonna check some old diaries here for ideas and BOOM...it hit me that I was supposed to be providing music for the evening. Yikes!!!!!

I completely missed the FOLK focus and went with stuff I belt out...  but everybody come sing anyway - simplexity

Welcome to the Friday Random 10, StreetProphet's weekly music discussion group. Grab a beverage of your choice from today's Happy Hour, pull up a comfy chair, and start thumbing through the records, 8-tracks, tapes, CD's and mp3's lying around. Go ahead and hum, sing, or tap your fingers on your knees... you know you want to. If you're not into music, here's some noise-canceling earplugs- they'll filter out our music while you stay and chat with us about other topics that interest you.

Well, I went back and forth many times on my theme for tonight - leap year, action songs, a "teach your children well" tribute to my parents - but I decided after the week I had that what I needed was a good old-fashioned sing-a-long. Since y'all know I love folk music, a good hootenanny is just what the doctor ordered.

So, gather round, pick up a spare guitar or tambourine and join in a Friday celebration of the joy of folk music!

I heard REM's "Losing My Religion" on the way home from the gym this morning and, though I have always liked it, it hit a new chord for me given the thoughts I've been thinking lately. It resonated in a new way as a struggle against dogmatic faith - losing "religion" to find out what one really believes in.

The song provides a good jumping off point for the reflections that have been brewing in my head lately and some questions I have. While all this stuff has been percolating for a while, it was this post and the comments over at Father Jake's place that really stirred it all up. I'm not sure it's going to make sense and because it is deeply personal (and being such inherently subjective) it may be offensive to some - for that I apologize, but the point of this is to share my own experience, for what that's worth...

I guess you could call this diary a bit of self-promotion, but I wanted to share with you all an article that I wrote for the organization I interned with...FIVE years ago, yikes! It was just published in their bimonthly magazine, Connection (Sept/Oct issue - not yet available online), and I'm assuming it's okay for me to go ahead and post it here. I've had to take out names and I put in a few links, but even though I wrote it pretty quickly, on a second reading it's not too shabby.

Follow me below the fold for a few thoughts on hospitality....

This diary won't be too long, but just an open forum for any questions that y'all might have about Congress (though I'm not an expert like, say, Kargo X over at the Big Orange), DC, or the whole lobbying schtick. Bear in mind through all of this, however, that I wasn't one of THOSE kinds of lobbyists and certainly wasn't paid THAT kind of money.

Follow me below the fold for a bit more background...

Grace Episcopal Church; Keswick, VA

My Song Is Love Unknown
Words: Samuel Crossman (1624-1683), 1664
Music: Love Unknown (John Ireland, 1879-1962)

My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then "Crucify!" is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

In life, no house, no home
My Lord on earth might have;
In death no friendly tomb
But what a stranger gave.
What may I say? Heav’n was His home;
But mine the tomb wherein He lay.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine;
Never was love, dear King!
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend, in Whose sweet praise
I all my days could gladly spend.

[Bumped by Mahanoy.  This is an excellent summary of the immigration bill currently before the Senate.  Be sure to check out the links, too.]

PD's post earlier today on family values in the immigration debate reminded me that I hadn't followed through on a promise to do a write-up of the Senate's immigration bill and what's at stake. Since members of Congress were slacking off on foreign junkets dutifully participating in community town hall meetings and listening sessions last week for the Memorial Day recess, I finally had some time to catch up on my reading and get a little summary ready for y'all.

Caveats: 1) I'm not an immigration expert (this is one of TOO MANY issues that I work on), so I may not be able to answer everything; 2) I do have my own biases which will likely show through in the diary; and 3) The Senators start bloviating ppntificating debating and voting again tomorrow, things could change pretty quickly, so this info could become quickly outdated, but I think it will cover most points.

Follow me below the fold for the gory details, a little analysis, and a few linkies for good measure (and to prove I'm not pulling all of this out of my...ok, you get the point).

I have struggled to come up with something for tonight's meditation because of my own spiritual struggles of late. I am finding that I don't have a lot of words of my own right now, so I'm going to borrow from others tonight and work more with images.  Maybe it's hard to write about because it's a difficult state to BE in, but this is my best effort at honoring the darkness, the shadows, the dryness that sometimes comes in the spiritual life and learning to embrace those parts as much as the light, hope, and joy so often associated with faith.

Follow me below the fold for a few images, poems, and thoughts.

Promoted by Rain

With rhetoric continuing to heat up in the immmigration debate, with ICE raids having a devastating impact on communities and families, with the Administration completely abandoning "family values" in its latest immigration proposal(PDF), and with the Senate expected to begin debate on immigration legislation next week...the Interfaith Immigration Coalition is calling on all people of a faith and all those who truly value families to join in a Interfaith Prayer Vigil for Immigrant Families on Mother's Day, May 13th from 7-8pm in DC at Lafeyette Park behind the White House.

Follow me below the fold for more info:

Be still, and know that I am God - Psalm 46.10

We are surrounded by words, by images, by noise of all kinds pulling us in different directions, promising us different things, claiming to speak the one final Truth that will solve all problems.  Life is constantly throwing questions at us and we want answers, particularly answers that we can pin down and control, so that we can domesticate the great Unknown that surrounds us, so that we can fill the empty places in our lives, so that we can make sense of a world in which the Divine so often seems absent. Yet, our hunger for something more is never quite sated and we are often left with broken words that create more longing and more distance from that which we seek.

This is the diagnosis that comes from Barabara Brown Taylor's book, When God is Silent, which has provided the inspiration for tonight's meditation. I hope it provides some "food for thought" for us all. Follow me below the fold for a few thoughts (okay, more than a FEW) on language and silence and maybe a bit of a challenge for us all...

I've wanted to contribute something to this for a while, but wasn't sure what would be best. Well, since the Big Orange already has its resident procedural folks who keep the community informed on the intricacies of the legislative processes, I thought I would make my services available here, such as they are, to answer any questions that folks may have.

I'll say a little bit more below the fold and then stick around to answer questions (and maybe work on that other diary).

Br. M. McGrath ©Bee Still Studio

Opening Sentence
O God, make speed to save us.
 O Lord, make haste to help us.

Blessed are you, O God, the giver of the Word,
which your beloved apostle John
proclaimed to the world
through his words and actions.
Just as John was transformed
from fisherman to disciple
may be we be transformed
through the grace of your Word
to proclaim in all that we do and say.
For these and all your mercies, we praise you,
Father, Son and Holy Spirit:
Blessed be God forever!