Kyrie eleison!Lord, have mercy upon us!Christe eleison!Christ have mercy upon us!These are the opening words to "Missa Solemnis", Beethoven's Mass in D Minor. In this majestic piece, the choir and soloists seem to nearly burst out of their collective souls in the opening chorus. This is a moment of stunning musical surprise; and it leaves … Continue reading The Abyss, The Decline, and Our Souls

Here is something from, again, the Wall Street Journal, that is very worthy of consideration: http://s.wsj.net/media/swf/main.swf

From Peggy Noonan, in today's Wall Street Journal:Here is the truth, spoken by the increasingly impressive Sen. Tom Coburn: "The root of the problem is political greed in Congress. Members . . . from both parties wanted short-term political credit for promoting homeownership even though they were putting our entire economy at risk by encouraging … Continue reading The Truth about the Decline

I had a good friend call me last week, and leave me a voice mail. His question was "Whats it all worth, man!?"This has been an amazing ride, these past several weeks.World financial markets have been in near complete turmoil, and most experts think the bad news is not completely over. Not even close. The … Continue reading The Grand Decline

Today something remarkable dawned upon me.More than 24 years ago this summer, I spent time in Eastern Europe, on a mission to serve the persecuted church, prior to the downfall of the Iron Curtain. During that time, and for many years prior, from 1967 to the end of communist rule, religious practices were banned, and … Continue reading Darkness, and then Dancing, After 24 years

You know how you are when you are in college; idealistic, hopeful, a dreamer. You actually believe that you can change anything in the world, by yourself. Its wonderful. I remember once in college, a good friend said, "Don't you think that all of life should be put to music?" I thought this was a … Continue reading Put My Life to Music, Please

Can it all really fit into a box?Go ahead, imagine putting your professional life in a box. Over the past several days thousands of faithful workers in New York, London, and other cities around the world have stood in their offices, and tried to understand what in the world is going on in their lives. … Continue reading Lehman, Denial, and The Box

Reflect.Rebuild.

And they say there is no good sacred music anymore.Friends, I give you "Sonseed":My favorite lyrics:"He is like a Mountie, he always gets his man, and he'll zap you anyway he can.....ZAP!""He loves me when I'm right, He loves me when I'm wrong, He loves me when I waste my time by writing silly songs."I … Continue reading Sonseed, Mounties, and Wasting Time

Tomorrow, the worlds largest atom collider powers up for the first time. In the best case the Large Hadron Colliders' ALICE experiment successfully creates quark-gluon plasma, a substance theorized to have existed just milliseconds after the Big Bang. By generating temperatures more than 100,000 times hotter than the sun, scientists hope to watch as this … Continue reading LHC – Kiss Your #@! Goodbye?