Happy Independence Day!

It's been an unusually hectic couple of weeks, what with worship,

teaching the faithful,

shooting,

training the horse (huge thanks to VS for training me...), working to some kind of deadline for the religious press, and reading Owen Chadwick's outstanding book, 'Spirit of the Oxford Movement.' Here's an excerpt, on Keble, who famously stated:

'If the Church of England were to fail, it should be found in my parish.'

And Chadwick's commentary:

'The stance is so squared and so real that it takes a moment to see how cloud-capped are the towers he defended.'

I fear LSPland isn't so very far from the same battlements; with that in mind, have a blessed Independence Day and stand vigilant for freedom.

Off to clean guns now.

Cheers,

LSP

Spurious Slice of Country Life

Managed to persuade one of the sisters to get on a horse. She had a good time.

I galloped about on Be-Bop,

and had a shoot.

Total enjoyment! At Camp Crucis now, teaching the St. Michael's Conference along with Apostolicity and Texanglican. Good result.

God bless,

LSP

Man at Prayer?

Tiger Valley

Or just another shooter? Perhaps both, who knows, but one thing's for certain - I want to go to the Tiger Valley ranges outside of Waco for a shoot (thanks for the tip Tom).

This week's out though because I'm on staff at the St. Michael Conference (SMC) for young people, I enjoy it a lot and get to teach a class called "Beginning to Pray." The students are pretty keen; one youngster chimed in nervously this morning:

"Father, I have a question. Is it O.K. to pray when you're hunting?" I was pleased and a little surprised because I'd never been asked before, so I asked him what for. "Deer, sir," came the reply. I said it was definitely right to pray for a good shot because God wouldn't want a maimed animal to suffer needlessly. And as for hunting per se - why not pray for a good hunt if you're going to eat what you kill, and/or the action's beneficial to the countryside?

Not the deepest of arguments, perhaps, but it set the kid's mind at rest. I wish him the best of luck when he next goes out with his family to hunt deer. In the meanwhile, I still have a comittment to help with the hogs on my parishioner's land. More on that after SMC...

Archangel Michael - Defende Nos.

LSP