Joanna Benskin

The classic post from @jaredcwilson: the two kinds of Pauline epistles are 1) We are heirs through unfathomable grace to unimaginable glory 2) I am as a personal favor begging you sick little freaks to act normal for five minutes

A classic

(And frequently you get the two back to back in successive verses)

The most helpful any everyday technology has ever been is GMail's "You wrote 'Attached is' but no files are attached." reminder and I don't need any tech to be more intelligent than that.

Freezer soup is the best! It's so good for tired days and also great community care cause you can honestly say it's no trouble.

YOUR ENEMIES LAMENT YOUR VERY EXISTENCE. DO YOU NEED TO CLEAN YOUR GLASSES?

GM: Charisma check.

Mamdani: [rolls natural 20]

GM: that’s a d6 how did you

Mamdani: [direct to camera] Did you know you can check out board games at your local public library? 😊

This is one of the times when the lectionary is quite helpful.
The prophets: Take care of people, dangit!
Jesus: I came not to abolish the prophets but fulfill them.
Me: 👀
#sermonwriting

Judge Biery signed the order with a photo of Liam and two bible verses: The first is "But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven." The second is simply "Jesus wept."

Astonishing thing for a judge to do.

Adding the first woman’s name to a list that starts at 597 AD. Does that matter? Yeah, it does.

This inspired me to revisit one of my favorite folk songs, "Julian of Norwich" (by Sydney Carter, here performed by David Coffin). More academics should know about this song!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE9V...

Fellow Americans, Things are impossibly hard in [MN] right now. We are a state that feels under siege, and the people of this place are doing everything possible to resist. The campaign of reckless brutality being waged by the federal goverment has been well documented, including today's killing of a citizen who was restrained and immobilized. The clear evidence of what's happening exposes cartoonish lies from federal agencies that echo the most cynical propaganda machines in human history. The images are clear, and we are told, don't believe what you see. But there is also something much more powerful, and not as widely reported, happening. We are mobilizing for revolutionary love. Vast networks of care, compassion, and solidarity, organized by churches to deliver food and supplies to those who cannot leave their homes. People are documenting the violence being used against us in a way that puts their own lives at risk. People are standing guard outside schools and daycares, and at bus stops to protect our children from real risks of harm. Others are taking turns watching each others' kids stuck in online learning because some schools aren't safe. Health care workers are bravely caring for people in hospitals that also are no longer safe, and risking being targets of arrest and detention for protecting the patients. A rich web of underground care and hidden love is taking deep root, and it's amazing to think what fruit that might bear when this occupation ends. Minnesotans cannot do more than we are doing. Here are a few ways you can help. 1) Please flood your US senators with appeals to not to further fund ICE, by rejecting a bill the US House has already passed. Please flood all your members of congress with calls for deescalation in [MN]; for ICE, [CBP], and other federal agents to leave [MN] now; and to write and pass legislation that requires proper and extensive training for all those working for the federal government in our states and local communities.

2) Organize peaceful demonstrations in your cities and communities. We live in a very big country, and it's possible what's happening in Minnesota feels removed. What is happening to us here is happening to all of America, and it is eroding the last remaining threads of our democracy. Minneapolis and Minnesota have been a model for the entire country over these past two weeks, with tens of thousands standing together in deep cold to peacefully protest the violence being used against us. 3) You can help nurture the Diocese of Minnesota's primary engine of underground care and subversive love by donating to Casa Maria, which is providing much-needed food, supplies, and community to those rightfully afraid to go about their daily lives amidst the violence. Some of Casa Maria's leaders are also working with a diocesan team to help families locate and access members who have been taken by ICE. Donations do real and immediate work to help people in Minnesota that are in real need of help. The greatest danger we face right now is not the very real threat to our safety. It's not even the erosion of democracy. The greatest threat we face as a nation is the assault being waged on hope. We must not give in to despair. We must not be consumed by the very justified anger we feel. The only way hatred can be effectively resisted is doubling down on love. The only way darkness can be defeated is light. The only way the forces of death can be overcome is by embracing, every moment of every day, God's unstoppable life.

Important words from the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Minnesota, where I served as a priest before moving to Texas. ⚓️

James and John the sons of Zebedee said unto Jesus: Grant us that we may be thy right shark and thy left shark in thy glory.

OF THE EMPIRE We will be known as a culture that feared death and adored power, that tried to vanquish insecurity for the few and cared little for the penury of the many. We will be known as a culture that taught and rewarded the amassing of things, that spoke little if at all about the quality of life for people (other people), for dogs, for rivers. All the world, in our eyes, they will say, was a commodity. And they will say that this structure was held together politically, which it was, and they will say also that our politics was no more than an apparatus to accommodate the feelings of the heart, and that the heart, in those days, was small, and hard, and full of meanness.

Ever relevant, this poem by Mary Oliver, especially today.

butter has the calcium I need for strong buttery bones

A thread of how to say “nobody asked you” from around the world, starting with this one…

A Lithuanian way of telling someone to mind their own business is ne tavo kiaulės, ne tavo pupos. It means “not your pigs, not your beans.”

Priest in a broad to low church Episcopal parish here. Folks have the option to stand or kneel at the altar rail and most kneel.

Watercolor. Partial circle of little paving stones, mosaic-like. Blues and greens. Growing out of one of the green blocks is a little blue-pink flower. Words by Julian Aguon: No offering is too small. No stone unneeded. All of us, without exception, are qualified to participate in the rescue of the world.

Comrade card for 6/17/2025.

Do not be misled into passivity either by a false security (they don't mean me) or by despair (there's nothing we can do). Each of us must find our work and do it. —Audre Lorde

8 hrs of sleep for everybody in the zohran for nyc font

The mighty are being cast down from their thrones and generals full of masculine virtue are being decapitated in their beds because of the woke.

😂

This will be our third year offering potatoes, to the glee of local goblin children. We ran out of potatoes both times so far and keep buying more.

A basket containing an inviting array of treats: full-sized Butterfinger, Twix, Skittles, and Airheads candies; a cup full of glow sticks; a bowl of tumbled quartz crystals marked NOT CANDY! SHINY ROCKS!; and several potatoes.

Come on over! We're living in abundance and holy chaos. (And living for the goblin children who choose potatoes.)

This is a story about how
my visage flipped with sneering frown
and I'd like to take a minute, just sit right there
and I'll tell you how to look on my works and despair.

Good morning.

after many days, rain. the river down below the bridge a dark slate blue. above still overcast and still spitting, but away to the north a break in the clouds, and the sun streams down on the mountains. on the radio linda ronstadt sings poor, poor pitiful me. blow your wounded heart wide open.

My body: *keeps the score*
Me: Could you not?

pumpkin spice raktajino

Really worth the read.