Thank You Gabe and ExRanger!

I wanted to take a moment to thank my associate bloggers who provide a much-needed perspective, texture, depth and balance on this tiny eclectic blog.
Gabe (Stanford Gabriel Espedal) - your theological knowledge and great heart are appreciated all over the world, not least of all by me.
ExRanger (Rod Alton) - your wisdom from your warrior training and your deeper insight from your Taoist peace resonate in this time of trouble for many people. So here's a big old Nebraska THANK YOU!! for you both, and hugs from a very appreciative site-builder who is honored to call you both my friends. Gabe and ExRanger ROCK.

In Christo Rege,
Deb

(((Gabe))) (((ExRanger)))

Weddings and Company and Dinners, Oh My!

Blogging from me will be sparse for a few days, since we have our daughter, son-in-law and granddaughter in town for a family wedding and attendant festivities, side trips, extended large meals and smorgasbords, all lubricated by a lot of coffee and tasty beer and wine. ExRanger and Stanford Gabriel will keep things going in the meantime, so be sure and leave some comments for 'em!
~~~

Music Revealed ~ Take Two ~ Lights, Camera, Action!

Many thanks to Stanford "Gabe" Espedal for his fascinating post on the NPR story on the music of the Bible revealed. I have received some complaints that the viewer was too big and the right side was cut off: Here is a view which should be accessible to all. Let me know if you can't see all of this one either, and I'll try and fix it.

Dance Party Saturday

Hot on the heels of Funny Friday comes Dance Party Saturday. Gabe is under the weather and I am overbooked ~ I guess the more amusing posts at TRT come when we are without health or leisure!

OK all you computer-bound inertia-saddled geeky boys and geeky grrls out here ~ push back from the keyboard, stand up, and get ready to shake that thing!! It's dance party time!!

The Rosemary Tree Ground Rules

It seems to be time to make a little "public service announcement" regarding The Rosemary Tree, what it is and what the ground rules are. If you have looked over the site much at all,you will have found the little "mission statement" paragraph at the very bottom of the page, the one entitled "Welcome to the Rosemary Tree". Here it is for those who are lazy about scrolling to the bottom of the page:

Welcome to The Rosemary Tree
I am hopeful of providing a little respite from the junk-food of politics, finance, doom & gloom, peak oil/climate change and celebrity hoohah. Here we strive for a rest in the shade, some cool water and a little civility, if not chivalry. This blog is dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, Mother Mary, Saint Joseph, Saint Patrick, Saint Deborah and the glorious Bridget of Kildare.

I very much like the line about the ancient knight - "His helmet now shall make a hive for bees;"probably because my name Deborah means "the bee" in Hebrew, so I have always enjoyed references to them. It's also reminiscent of " beating swords into plough shares" a sentiment I also approve of.Thank you for visiting the site, hope you return!
~ Pax Christi, Deborah

You will note that nowhere is mentioned anything about guns, or hatred, or violence, or racism or anything that I have recently had to reject some comments for promoting. This site is about love, and peace, and a truly Catholic worldview which understands that the incarnate God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, loves humanity, that He is a kind and merciful God whose very breath is love.

God Almighty, the Creator of Heaven and Earth and of all that is visible and invisible, isn't concerned with "ethnic groups" and doesn't condone genocide, the stealing of lands from the innocent, and re-instituting human sacrifices (wars)after His Son gave us the ultimate Sacrifice. All are welcome to the Father through the Son -- "red and yellow, black and white" as the song goes, Hebrews or Italians, Arabs or Koreans, Africans or Native Americans.

God loves us all. If you are here to promote something different than this, kindly please leave.

Note: Serious discussion, if conducted in a civil and respectful manner, is always welcome.
~~~

Thanks!

Thank you Gabriel, for filling in so handily while I was preoccupied with an unexpected death in the family. Much appreciated. I think I speak for many others who would delight to see you posting such excellent and educational posts here often.

Y'all come back soon, now.

Like A Fox

I have come to the conclusion that my inner scribe is crazy ~ but with the caveat ~ crazy like a fox. My muse definately knows more about blogging than I do.

I have made peace with being a blogger who has thus far attracted a limited amount of interest from the worldwide scrum of bloggers both large and small, paid and volunteer. I have come to the realization that blogging is itself the reward, not attention, certainly not income and not any sort of warm fuzzies or compliments from the great readership which lurks, like a mother ship in a sci-fi movie, slightly above and out of sight but always there, you just know it is.

Anyhow today's salute to the great hovering scintillating breathing living blogosphere, and to blogging as a spiritual tool for those on a spiritual journey (basically all of us whether we know it or not IMO) is my attempt at freeing my muse, making an end run around my inner censor and my rational mind and just letting it roll. It has been said that blogging as an attempt at both transparency and inclusion, and that it makes the world a more honest and warmer place.

Maybe this web log will get more interesting, I think it shall. Oh, and btw, and fellow-blogger, Gabriel: Gabriel, where art thou, my friend? Come out and play on The Rosemary Tree.

art credit: Juliett5548

~~~

A Very Happy New Year To You & Yours

In 2008 The Rosemary Tree has gone from being a one-person blog with a readership of, say, three or so (yep, basically my hubby and some guys in Mongolia and Ireland) to a two-writer blog with a few hundred hits from across the big blue marble. The knowledgeable and talented Stanford Espedal joined the tiny crew, providing authoritative spritual knowledge. My attempts to provide a bit of income from TRT to justify the time spent here have thus far proven unfruitful (please buy your coffee and garden stuff through the ads!)

Anyhow, our main mission being not be be gainfully employed so much as to minister to the online flock of Our Lord Jesus Christ, lost sheep or found ones, we wish you a blessed and wonderful New Year. May you and yours fulfill your destiny, grow in peace joy and love, and draw closer to the numinous mystery of the Incarnate Word.



St. John 1:1-14
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light, that all men might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light. 9 That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, he gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. 13 Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we saw his glory, the glory as it were of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

~ Deborah Yost
Gabriel Stanford Espedal
The Rosemary Tree

Introducing Gabriel Stanford Espedal

Getting ready for Christmas has us all busy, so I am tardy in posting our new blogger's biography, my apologies. Introducing my friend Stanford, in his own words:

QUOTE I am from Honolulu, Hawaii (born November 1, 1951). I grew up in a non-churchgoing family. My parents were of protestant background but did not practice.

I began exploring the mysteries of life as a hippie in late 1966. LSD became my sacrament and marijuana my food for meditation. Thinking myself on the fast track to Buddhahood, I realized this path led to the deadest of dead ends. I quit drugs and was initiated into Transcendental Meditation. From TM I graduated to Zen Buddhism and became a member of the Diamond Sangha of Hawaii.
I first became a Christian on June 3, 1972. I met an evangelist named Cleo at a Jesus People coffeehouse in Waikiki, and after a four-hour conversation decided to receive Christ and be baptized. The baptism took place in the Pacific Ocean.After a study of different churches and their doctrines I decided to become a Lutheran. I also decided to study for the ministry (I was then 21). After finishing a pre-theology course at Bethany Lutheran College in Mankato, Minnesota, I went to Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary in Mequon, Wisconsin, graduating with a Masters in Divinity in 1982.

In July of that year I was ordained a pastor in Wichita Falls, Texas, and served as a Circuit Rider for two missions and several preaching stations.I met my wife Dawn after graduation from seminary; I was home for a month and she was on vacation in Hawaii, and we met in church. We were married on May 11, 1983, and have six children.

I was a Lutheran pastor for nine years. Six of those years were spent in an independent mission in El Cajon, California. But as I continued to study theology and church history from outside of a Lutheran confessional perspective it became clear that there was a major discontinuity between ancient Christianity and the Reformation.

I had long been interested in Eastern Orthodoxy. After several years of reading and discussion with an Orthodox priest friend, I was ready to convert. I was chrismated in the Orthodox Church in July 1991.In 1997 I came to see that the full reality of apostolic Christianity could only be where PETER is, and became a Catholic of the Byzantine Rite.

I expect that some of my writing on the Rosemary Tree will be on the relations of the Orthodox Churches and the Catholic Church. UNQUOTE
~~~~

Sunday Morning Ramble

Happy Sunday! We (my Dear Husband and I) watched the "Get Smart" re-make on DVD last night after our cozy supper date and really enjoyed it. Steve Carrell did a fantastic Maxwell Smart. I also spoke briefly with our new author on TRT and complimented him on a great first post ~ Mr. Espedal, we're so glad to have you aboard!

Our little Melkite Mission of Lincoln has its monthly Divine Liturgy this morning, followed by a meeting of Red State Eclectic's Dr. Laura Ebke's Campaign For Liberty group, which I have not yet visited since it changed from the Ron Paul for President group to a CFL group. I want to see what they are about, even though I don't put much stock in politics any more. Then its a family supper with our son Dan coming over for some family time (he's 24, a professional cook who lives here in town).

Some of you have asked me what sources news I like and read often, so here you go- it's a pretty eclectic group - ;D

The Distributist Review

Peak Oil-Life After the Oil Crash especially the breaking news section

Jim Kunstler's blog

AntiWar.com

RedStateEclectic

Spirit Daily

Have a wonderful day.

Deborah Yost

~~~

New Blogger Coming To The Rosemary Tree

Dear Readers,

Please join me in welcoming new blogger Gabriel Stanford Espedal to The Rosemary Tree. Hooray! In adding a new voice I hope to deepen the content here and provide materials to support fellow truth-seekers, both Catholic and otherwise, in their walk through these troubled times. We are here in service to Our Lord and Lady, and our fellow man.

Please comment and add your ideas and suggestions to our posts.

Gabriel is someone I've "known" online on several traditional Catholic forums over the past two years. He is a fine writer, a devout and articulate fellow Melkite, and a family man with a wife and six children. He will start his blogging tomorrow, on the Feast of Saint Nicholas, Wonderworker of Myra.

Welcome to The Rosemary Tree, Gabriel!