For all of my readers and blogger buddies who are fortunate enough to be able to celebrate the Easter Holiday with family and friends, I hope that you have a fine weekend and plenty of time to thank God for all of the blessings bestowed upon you and others. That goes for all of you who are not around family during these high holy days of the Christian faith as well.
Nowhere in the Christian Bible (or in any religion's Book of Faith) does it say that following the path of rightousness will be an easy sojourn. As a matter of fact I think it says just the opposite. Nonetheless I hope that many of us pray in earnest for guidance, and peace on Earth, and the courage to overcome our many fears so that we may do better to help others in need, no matter their faith or race or nationality or whatever.
Here is a nice little message from the New York Newsday God Squad team, the Rabbi Marc Gellman and Msgr. Thomas Hartman. I also found a nice little explanation of how the Date of Easter has been calculated over the centuries from the U.S. Naval Observatory.
I know that I should just leave it at that, but I cannot resist bringing you up-to-date on the latest "Crusade" by the infidels out in California in the YAHOO! camp. Just when we bloggers thought that we had everything under control concerning our online communication tech toolbox YAHOO! decides to do this and this and this. I hear they are rounding out the assault on Google and MSN (Microsoft) by bumping up the free YAHOO! Mail storage capacity to 1GB next month to boot.
And you thought there was no such thing as a free lunch anymore. Now if we could just get them to drop the (unwanted) advertising stuff we might just be on a roll here.
Update: Ooops! Had to go back and correct the spelling on the word "infidel". Hope that I have it right now. Hat tip to the brave bloggers in Iraq featured in this USA Today article "Iraqis enjoy new freedom of expression on Web journals".
Mandela, Mobutu & Me
5 years ago
2 comments:
Happy Easter to you and your readers too Bill. In response to your post, I thought I would paste here below two posts I blogged yesterday. The first is in response to the last part of your post on Iraqi bloggers. The second for Easter, is a copy of Mahatma Gandhi's poem titled "The Meaning of God" followed by Gandhi's peace prayers. Here is the first:
Democracy in Iraq (is here!) Iraq worth it?
Yesterday, a friend emailed me a copy of an email he'd received from a friend that contained a post by an Iraqi blogger by the name of Husayn with the subject title "Iraq worth it?" The free Blogspot claims to be authored by "an Iraqi on the future of Iraq, an Iraqi who is excited about a new democratic Iraq."
The original email message to my friend said, "Here's a piece by an Iraqi blogger you might be able to use to counter all the negative US coverage of the 2nd anniversary of the war. We certainly won’t see it in the Post or Times."
You can never be sure of who is behind a blog. Predators groom people on the Internet for all sorts of reasons. On visiting the Iraqi blog, it occurred to me that free blogs could be a great propaganda tool with which to draw out people and their views.
Sorry, I do not mean to cast doubt on the Iraqi blogger. Just pointing out that when there is no way to check out anonymous authors, I find that posts and comments lose all credibility.
Note, Iraq worth it? attracted 78 comments and has a Visa Master Card Donate button in the sidebar along with a message saying "support this blog". I would like to think it is genuine, wouldn't you?
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Happy Easter dear blogmates. Here is a Poem by the great Mahatma Gandhi titled The Meaning of God:
There is an indefinable mysterious Power that pervades everything.
I feel It, though I do not see It.
It is this unseen Power which makes Itself felt and yet defies all proof,
because It is so unlike all that I perceive through my senses.
It transcends the senses....
That informing Power or Spirit is God....
For I can see that in the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.
Hence I gather that God is Life, Truth, Light. He is love.
He is supreme good.
But he is no God who merely satisfies the intellect
If He ever does.
God to be God must rule the heart and transform it.
– M. K. Gandhi
(Young India, October 11, 1928)
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Gandhi's Peace Prayers
Hindu Peace Prayer
I desire neither earthly kingdom, nor even freedom from birth and death. I desire only the deliverance from grief of all those afflicted by misery. Oh Lord, lead us from the unreal to the real; from darkness to light; from death to immortality. May there be peace in celestial regions. May there be peace on earth. May the waters be appeasing. May herbs be wholesome and may trees and plants bring peace to all. May all beneficent beings bring peace to us. May thy wisdom spread peace all through the world. May all things be a source of peace to all and to me. Om Shanti, Shanti, Shanti (Peace, Peace, Peace).
Islamic Peace Prayer
We think of Thee, worship Thee, bow toThee as the Creator of this Universe; we seek refuge in Thee, the Truth, our only support. Thou art the Ruler, the barge in this ocean of endless births and deaths.
In the name of Allah, the beneficient, the merciful. Praise be to the Lord of the Universe who has created us and made us into tribes and nations. Give us wisdom that we may know each other and not despise all things. We shall abide by thy Peace. And, we shall remember the servants of God are those who walk on this earth in humility and, when we address them, we shall say Peace Unto Us All.
Christian Peace Prayer
Blessed are the PEACEMAKERS, for they shall be known as The Children of God. But I say to you: love your enemy, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To those who strike you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from those who take away your cloak, do not withhold your coat as well. Give to everyone who begs from you; and, to those who take away your goods, do not ask them again. And as you wish that others would do unto you, do so unto them as well.
Jewish Peace Prayer
Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, that we may walk the paths of the Most High. And we shall beat our swords into ploughshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation - neither shall they learn war any more. And none shall be afraid, for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts has spoken.
Shinto Peace Prayer
Although the people living across the ocean surrounding us are all our brothers and sisters why, Oh Lord, is there trouble in this world? Why do winds and waves rise in the ocean surrounding us? I earnestly wish the wind will soon blow away all the clouds hanging over the tops of the mountains.
Bahá'í Peace Prayer
Be generous in prosperity and thankful in adversity. Be fair in thy judgement and guarded in thy speech. Be a lamp unto those who walk in darkness and a home to the stranger. Be eyes to the blind and a guiding light unto he feet of the erring. Be a breath of life to the body of humankind, a dew to the soil of the human heart and a fruit upon the tree of humility.
Thank you Ingrid for the wonderful prayers from various religions and for the piece on Gandhi "The Meaning of God". I can't think of the last time somebody did something so nice for me at Easter. Far too many high holidays for a stranger in a strange land, you see. Thank you.
By the way, Husayn of the Democracy in Iraq blog is real. Or at least as real as the bloggers mentioned in the USA Today article and the bloggers in Iran, and China, and Zimbabwe and... That is why I included Husayn's blog and the Baghdad Burning blog in my own blogroll, to provide opposing views of the situation on the ground.
Let me know when you post on the economist De Soto so that I may link to it and throw in my 2 cents. I found some new material that would compliment that piece rather nicely.
Have a Happy Easter in the U.K.
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