the intersection of life and grace

The following is from the text of a memo that was attached to the payroll details for  all city employees, from the legal department. 

MEMORANDUM – March 19, 2009

Please be advised that as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 a new tax-withholding table has been released and must be implemented by the City of Albany by April 1, 2009. For most taxpayers the newly released tax-withholding table will result in less money being withheld from your paycheck each week for tax purposes. Thus, most employees will see a slight increase in their paychecks each week.

However, please be further advised that as of today’s date the government has not adjusted the tax brackets which determine the amount of taxes that will be owed by the tax payer each year based on their annual salary.  Therefore, the adjustment of the tax-withholding table may increase your tax liability. This liability can be offset by having additional money withheld from your paycheck each week.

The “tax decrease” stimulus is stunning in it’s deception, isn’t it?  I can’t really say anything else about this.

I wasn’t going to blog about this, but I’m changing my mind under the influence of so very many complaints about the most recent changes on Facebook.  If you aren’t a Facebook user, you’re in a minority of webizens, and I won’t be offended if you skip this post.

Yes, the latest change was a big one.  It took all of the information you and all your connections are producing – all of which was already displayed on the homepage – standardized its appearance and combined it into one stream of information.  All of this information was already public, but placed differently.  Like it, love it, hate it, the responsibility for the now-all-equally-valued information was put into the hands of each individual user.  Previously, I could “vote up” or “vote out” certain types of information.  Now, I have to count on my connected Facebook Friends to control their output.

A few questions to ask yourself, as a Facebook user:

1. Do I want all my friends to see on their home page that I sent an Egg/Plant/Poke to or threw a cyber-sheep (or, my personal fav a barrel full of monkeys) at  [fill in name of other friend here]?
2. Do I want all my friends to see what I wrote on our mutual friend’s wall?
3. Do I want all my friends to see what I wrote on a poll or group discussion?
4. Are there some  people I’m connected with I’d like to check on first, before I scan the whole news feed for the rest of what’s going on?
5. Have I ever reviewed what applications I’ve authorized access to my information?
6. Do I get email from Facebook I don’t want?

Depending upon your answers to the above, you may be thinking you’d like to fix what you’re floating into the Facebook information stream, and take some control over your Facebook life.  Here’s how, from your logged in Facebook account:

Applications

If you want to amuse yourself with myriad apps, sending gifts and so on, that’s great.  You may not want everyone to have to read about it (in fact, most people probably don’t want to know, for the most part).

• On the top of your Facebook, there’s a blue bar.
• Find SETTINGS > APPLICATION SETTINGS which will return a list of your most recently used applications.
• In the menu above the list, select AUTHORIZED to see all the apps you’ve ever given permission to access your profile.
• Next to each there is a link EDIT SETTINGS from which you can select “Never publish any stories from [name of app]” or “Prompt me before publishing any stories from [name of app]“.
• Note, you can also click the X at the end of the line for each app to delete it if you don’t use it.  Think of it as spring cleaning for your Facebook profile.

Wall posts

• From that blue menu bar at the top of the page,
• SETTINGS > PRIVACY SETTINGS
• NEWS FEED & WALL
• Returns a list of check boxes where you can choose which actions you want to appear on your wall, and therefore appear in the global news feed on the homepage.
• This is a great time to check your PROFILE privacy settings, too.

Emails

• SETTINGS > ACCOUNT SETTINGS
• NOTIFICATIONS
• Select which events you want emails about.

Friend Groups

Want to see updates from certain folks sorted out of the general home page stream?  This is the coolest new use of an existing Facebook feature!

• Blue bar again… FRIENDS
• Left side, MAKE A NEW LIST, follow the prompts to create your group.
• You can have as many as you want, and you can put friends in more than one group.

Yes, it will take a little time, but you’ll be so much happier with the results!  Happy Facebooking!

The life of St. Patrick, known as the apostle of Ireland, bears no resemblance to the festivities most of us in America associate with the day. As with many holidays, St. Patrick’s day has become a celebration of Irish heritage through traditions that have nothing to do with Patrick himself, and often have little even to do with Ireland. More so, the parades, green beer/rivers/food/clothing are uniquely American.

Patrick was a witness to the Gospel among the people of Ireland – at that time, a people unreached for Christ. Patrick was born in Scotland, the son of Roman nobles. At age 16 he was kidnapped and forced into slavery in Ireland, during which time he grew in his devotion and faith in spite of his circumstances. God used this time of slavery to give Patrick understanding of the native language, the druid religion, and the culture – all of which would become essential to his service to God as a missionary to Ireland later in his life.  Read more about Patrick here and here.

In the prayer of St. Patrick, said to have been composed as he faced fierce opposition from the Druids, shows his dedication to Christ alone, the source of his faith and strength.  This version is a more literal translation from the Irish language:

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of the Invocation of the Trinity:
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the Incarnation of Christ with His Baptism,
The virtue of His crucifixion with His burial,
The virtue of His Resurrection with His Ascension,
The virtue of His coming on the Judgement Day.

I bind to myself today
The virtue of the love of seraphim,
In the obedience of angels,
In the hope of resurrection unto reward,
In prayers of Patriarchs,
In predictions of Prophets,
In preaching of Apostles,
In faith of Confessors,
In purity of holy Virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I bind to myself today
The power of Heaven,
The light of the sun,
The brightness of the moon,
The splendour of fire,
The flashing of lightning,
The swiftness of wind,
The depth of sea,
The stability of earth,
The compactness of rocks.

I bind to myself today
God’s Power to guide me,
God’s Might to uphold me,
God’s Wisdom to teach me,
God’s Eye to watch over me,
God’s Ear to hear me,
God’s Word to give me speech,
God’s Hand to guide me,
God’s Way to lie before me,
God’s Shield to shelter me,
God’s Host to secure me,
Against the snares of demons,
Against the seductions of vices,
Against the lusts of nature,
Against everyone who meditates injury to me,
Whether far or near,
Whether few or with many.

I invoke today all these virtues
Against every hostile merciless power
Which may assail my body and my soul,
Against the incantations of false prophets,
Against the black laws of heathenism,
Against the false laws of heresy,
Against the deceits of idolatry,
Against the spells of women, and smiths, and druids,
Against every knowledge that binds the soul of man.

Christ, protect me today
Against every poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against death-wound,
That I may receive abundant reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me,
Christ behind me, Christ within me,
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ at my right, Christ at my left,
Christ in the fort,
Christ in the chariot seat,
Christ in the poop [deck],
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks to me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I bind to myself today
The strong virtue of an invocation of the Trinity,
I believe the Trinity in the Unity
The Creator of the Universe.

Today, I’m praying for God to use the circumstances of the lives of those who love him to teach us to reach whole cultures for him, in the way of Patrick. Rath Dé ort! (May the grace of God be with you!)

Since their songs first came to the US on import vinyl, were only played in clubs and college radio, I have loved the artistry of U2.  The aching faith, the drive to make the world better that comes through on this new album, No Line on the Horizon, reminds me of The Joshua Tree, How to Dismantle the Atomic Bomb, and even Boy and October.  In fact, there is a musical place on No Line that will take you musically to every part of U2′s discography.  That body of work having been the soundtrack of my life from college to now, I find this album as comfortable as sitting down for a chat with an old friend and challenging at once.

Though I’ve only listened through the songs a few times since they were released for play on U2′s MySpace last week, I think this is a brilliant effort (and may be some of the best work by guitarist The Edge).  The track “Magnificent” has me captivated as it draws me into worship of God, while the single “Get On Your Boots” reminds that ‘laughter is eternity/if joy is real’ and “Stand Up Comedy” demands we ‘stand up for hope, faith, love, while I’m getting over certainty/stop helping God across the road like a little old lady’ .  If you want to give it a listen, you can download the complete album from amazon mp3 for $3.99 for a limited time by clicking the album cover image or this link.