AKMA’s Random Thoughts

Yesterday’s baptism was lovely; the Book of Common Prayer punches the rite out (heavy on gender-exclusive language, alas, but gets to the heart of renouncing Satan ande uniting oneself with Christ). I was baking, or perhaps better ‘melting’, by the time of the Mass for the Assumption in the evening, but it was sweet to deacon for Fr Paul.

Nate arrived late last night — the theme of this short visit is ‘just hanging out, passing time with us as we spend our time’, so it’s not clear just what will happen.

My morning run was very average, which was better than I expected after a busy day and short night (and actually lowered my average by a second because today displaced a slightly slower Monday time). Fruit and coffee, and about to shower and get ready for a day of undefined [in]activity. Sermon is mostly done. Essay and presentation… a different story.

I keep deciding to allow myself to take a day off running, and I keep going ahead to run. Sometimes it’s just force of habit, which is fine with me; sometimes it’s because I don’t want to lose momentum toward fitness; sometimes I start out expecting to settle down into a walk, but get home without actually having slowed down (not that I’m going fast in the first instance). Today’s run turns out exactly to have matched the time it displaced from five days ago, so it didn’t affect my rolling average at all. It continued a plateau pace slightly better than ten minutes for each mile — no great shakes, but nice and steady.

Coffee, fruit, clean up, Morning Prayer, home for a bit, then back to St Helen’s for a baptism (‘of Such as are of Riper Years’), then home, then over to St Michael’s to deacon the Mass for the Assumption for Fr Paul.

Yesterday’s research/writing (about extramarital sexual activity in first-century Palestine) kept turning up angles and subtleties that would require another whole research programme to explore. I hate to leave stones unturned, but in order to get this presentation done I will — frustratingly — have to leave most of them unexamined. Plus, Sunday’s sermon, my Anglican essay, and I didn’t mention, but Nate will spend the weekend here on his way back home from Marseille. Yes, I am looking forward to retiring.

My run this morning felt good — steady, comfortable (I mean, granted that I was running), and at the better end of the spectrum of average runs. Nothing remarkable, but good.

Margaret will spend today in Headington; I’ll stay around Abingdon to oversee the ladies (Minke and Flora). More time to read and write, and to mull over Sunday’s sermon.

My morning run was a bit slower than average (not surprising, in the recent heat wave), then hot breakfast, cleaned up, Morning Prayer, then to public office hours at Throwing Buns, then to a staff meeting (would have been at the parish centre but we decided to enjoy coffee at Throwing Buns, so I stayed put), picked up some hoummus on the way home, ate lunch, then more of the same reading and writing.

Not my colleague the Hebrew Bible scholar, but the day I will be devoting time to my conference paper on ‘John, Jesus, and Jolene’ for this year’s BNTS conference in Manchester. I woke up and ran, another average day. Fruit and coffee, shower, Morning Prayer, coffee and toast, then research and write on the problem of the Samaritan woman of John 4.

Satisfactory run this morning, still improving my rolling average (though that’ll end next time, since this morning’s average run displaced a slow morning five runs ago); coffee and fruit, showered and dressed, Morning Prayer, public office hours at R&R in the market square, morning email and digital paperwork. Nothing timetabled for the afternoon, so I’ll see about knocking out some more words for my essay (presentation is doing well enough pro tem.

Good morning run, better time than average for the second day in a row (dragging my rolling average to a faster time), fruit and coffee, shower and dress, coffee and toast, once-over for the sermon, and off to church for the 10:30 service.

Beginning this afternoon, I have no extra ecclesiastical responsibilities till Friday, when I deacon for Friday Paul at the Mass for the Assumption at St Michael’s. This past week, four sermons in eight days with a funeral and wedding; this coming week, smoother sailing.

My run went all right, anyway. I have a wedding this afternoon, and before then I will burnish the homily for the wedding, and (and I hope not also ‘after the wedding’) prepare tomorrow’s sermon. I think that will be enough.

Having been offline for most of the summer, I wasn’t able to post here my acknowledgements of Jim Parkinson, one of the great men of letters of our time, and Bishop Peter Elliott, a great Catholic liturgical teacher.

And today is St Dominic’s Day, and as well as honouring the spiritual figure whom I so admire for catalysing a unity of scholarship and proclamation I try to uphold, the day reminds me of the last Van Morrison album that really comprehensively sank into my spirit (Moondance, His Band and the Street Choir, and St Dominic’s Preview; Tupelo Honey just didn’t register with me…).

Very good run this morning, well faster than average without pushing. Fruit and coffee, clean up, Morning Prayer, check messages at the parish centre, work on homilies, wedding rehearsal… I think that’s my Friday.

This is, what, five six big days in a row online? The battle-hardened heroes at Exact have identified an Albanian IP address that seems to want to shut me down. You may ask yourself, Why bother? What on earth would motivate anyone to block a site that gets about twenty-five hits a day (maybe more, I haven’t been checking) (Ouch, I just checked, and it’s closer to just twenty hits a day.)? Such is the nature of human perversity.

Yesterday’s funeral went smoothly. The contingent of bikers probably raised some eyebrows on Park Road, but friends show up to honour their friends, and I think we can safely predict that our deceased brother will not make a habit of drawing his colleagues to more funerals.

Now, to settle a wedding sermon for Saturday and a regular Sunday sermon for the Transfiguration (transferred) at St Helen’s. I’m hav ing a greeat time working on my academic essays; retirement beckons, when I can spend as much time reading and writing as I want, on my own timetable. More than a year away, but glimmering on the horizon!

I did time myself this morning, for another very average run. My legs were stiff, but not unwilling. I’m cooling down with fruit and coffee, then will clean up and go to Morning Prayer. Time will tell whether we go to R&R this morning; the suspense is unbearable.