Clyde N. Wilson: A Great Southern Patriot

What a blessing it has been to discover the books and articles of this great and good South Carolinian and defender of all that is best in Southern culture.  Clyde Wilson is a patriot who understands that a culture's true greatness lies not in the material, but in the permanent things; intangibles like truth, honor, courtesy, loyalty, faith and sacrifice.  May he long continue to point to the better path and the broad, sunlit uplands of freedom.

Three Score and Ten: A Meditation

From Chronicles

By Clyde N. Wilson

Well, Old Man, 70 today. Who’d have thought? And still in pretty good condition, considering how little care I have taken of the old carcass. I understand now how the accumulation of minor miseries in aging is mercifully designed to let us down slow and easy till we are ready.

The children are OK. I still haven’t accepted that they are grown and responsible for themselves. However much I long to protect and help them, there is not much I can do now.

And that grandboy is something! Smart, fearless, and a winning personality. Lord, for this blessing I am truly grateful. But Lord, please don’t let that winning personality make him grow up to be a politician. Give him a useful, hands-on vocation. No need to worry. Son-in-law is a good man, another blessing, and will see the boy right.

And my other children OK, too. The young men who, to my surprise, came to study history with me—honest, courageous, Christian, and with a true vocation every one. A completely unexpected and undeserved blessing that has enriched and cheered me beyond measure. Now middle-aged, some of them, believe it or not. Not much more I can do for them either, but will do what I can. Ripples in the water.

The world seems an entirely different place now than when I was a child. Once ubiquitous, there is not a mule, a cotton field, a spittoon, or a lady’s fan left in Carolina. But it is more than that—the slow Southern contentment shared by black and white is gone. The world now is always promiscuously fast and noisy and full of strangers.

Trooping the Colour 2011

The annual Trooping the Colour took place yesterday in London and marks the official celebration of Her Majesty the Queen's 85th birthday.  

In the video above there is a small bit of German commentary, but it is the most complete,  high quality video currently available.  After the video begins, you may wish to click the lower right corner for a full screen view.

Pentecost Sunday

"And when the days of Pentecost were drawing to a close, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a violent wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them parted tongues as of fire, which settled upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in foreign tongues, even as the Holy Spirit prompted them to speak"  (Acts 2, 1-4).

  Choir of King's College, Cambridge - "Come Down, O Love Divine"

Come down, O love divine, seek Thou this soul of mine,

And visit it with Thine own ardor glowing.

O Comforter, draw near, within my heart appear,

And kindle it, Thy holy flame bestowing.

O let it freely burn, til earthly passions turn

To dust and ashes in its heat consuming;

And let Thy glorious light shine ever on my sight,

And clothe me round, the while my path illuming.

Let holy charity mine outward vesture be,
And lowliness become mine inner clothing;
True lowliness of heart, which takes the humbler part,
And o’er its own shortcomings weeps with loathing.

And so the yearning strong, with which the soul will long,
Shall far outpass the power of human telling;
For none can guess its grace, till he become the place
Wherein the Holy Spirit makes His dwelling.

From the Pastor - Pentecost

A weekly column by Father George Rutler.

T oday all that our Lord had planned by his Incarnation, Death, Resurrection and Ascension is fulfilled when He fills the Church with the Holy Spirit. Life cannot be seen, and it is known only by being lived. Thus, the life of the Church, lived through our own lives, makes Pentecost an ageless presence. We do not look back on the day when the Holy Spirit was given, for that day is an “endless now.” The Church enables us to enter eternity in time, most immediately in the Holy Eucharist, for eternity is not so much "timelessness" – which term we use in time to define what is beyond time – as it is awareness of God. “Now this is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3).

 

Last Sunday the largest number of children in the history of our parish made their First Communion with Our Lord. They are very young, but in that moment they became 2,000 years old and, more accurately, they entered heaven on earth. Today, one of our liveliest parishioners, Margaret Bradshaw, celebrates her 106th birthday, with vivid memories of her First Communion nearly a century ago as one of the first beneficiaries of the decision of Pope St. Pius X to extend Communion to children. She gets younger with each Communion.

All this is the measureless gift that Christ gives us by letting us share in the bond of love between Him and His Father. "Pour out your Spirit" we pray on Pentecost, but only because the Holy Spirit has already moved us to want Him. A fourth-century inscription on the gravestone of a Christian in Asia Minor expresses the hope of all who have received the Holy Spirit: “Here sleeps the blessed Chione who has found Jerusalem, for she prayed much.”

Pope Benedict XVI is the ninth pope in the lifetime of Margaret Bradshaw. Remembering his own First Communion in 1936, the Pope recently told a child: “I understood that Jesus had entered my heart, He had actually visited me. And with Jesus, God Himself was with me. And I realized that this is a gift of love that is truly worth more than all the other things that life can give.”

May the Holy Spirit on Pentecost enliven us to pray as John Donne did:

“Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening into the house and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music; no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession; no ends nor beginnings but one equal eternity; in the habitations of thy glory and dominion, world without end. Amen.”

Father George W. Rutler is the pastor of the Church of our Saviour in New York City. His latest book, Cloud of Witnesses: Dead People I Knew When They Were Alive, is available from Crossroads Publishing.

The Ronald Reagan Centennial Gala

"... as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. And something else we learned: Once you begin a great movement, there’s no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world."

Ronald Reagan

In honor of President Reagan's Centennial Celebration, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation hosted a Centennial Gala in Washington, D.C. on May 24, 2011. During the program, former President of Poland Lech Walesa was awarded the Ronald Reagan Centennial Freedom Award. The keynote address was made by U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and Secretary of State for Defense (U.K.) Liam Fox, MP.

Sunlit Uplands is pleased to share this and all the major events commemorating the centenary of President Reagan's birth.

Queen Makes Duke of Edinburgh Head of the Navy as 90th Birthday Gift

The Queen sprang a 90th birthday surprise on the Duke of Edinburgh yesterday by making him Lord High Admiral, the titular head of the Royal Navy. 

Duke of Edinburgh salutes young officers at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth

Her Majesty has held the title herself since a re-organisation of the Navy in 1964, but decided to bestow it on her husband as a gift to mark his landmark birthday and to show her gratitude for his unstinting support during 59 years as her consort. 

A royal insider said the Duke was “really, really touched” by the honour, which the Queen told him about during a private birthday lunch for two at Buckingham Palace. 

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Panetta Hearing for SecDef on Thursday: Obama’s CIA Director Linked to Spies Through Communist Party Figure

Comrades Panetta and Obama

New research from writers and researchers Trevor Loudon and Cliff Kincaid shows that Leon Panetta, the CIA director being considered on Thursday for the position of Secretary of Defense, had a previously undisclosed personal and friendly relationship with Hugh DeLacy, a prominent member of the Communist Party USA. DeLacy visited such countries as China and Nicaragua and was himself a personal contact of identified Soviet spies Solomon Adler and Frank Coe and accused spy John Stewart Service. Panetta spoke at DeLacy’s memorial service, directed a series of letters to him personally as “Dear Hugh,” and placed a tribute to him in the Congressional Record.

Former Washington State Rep. DeLacy, named by Communist Party lawyer John Abt as a fellow member of the party, remained a communist operative until his death in 1986.

One “Dear Hugh” letter from then-Rep. Panetta to DeLacy offered a summary of a report on U.S. military operations that Panetta said was “unavailable for distribution.” Panetta concludes the March 24, 1977, letter, “If there is anything I can do for you in the future, Hugh, please feel free to call on me.” 

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