Who can has Cheezburger?

Kitty decided that we were overdue for some quality time around 8 this morning, so he parked himself outside my door and started caterwauling.

The other Kyle commented yesterday, "I'll never have a pet again."

I like Kitty. Even if he does chirp, meow and purr at us continually.

Doing My Part in Parish Life

Some of my fellow parishioners have commented at various times that they become confused in the course of the Divine Liturgy, not knowing quite when to bow or kneel. I've volunteered to step up and explain it to people, taking them aside to let them know what's up - when in doubt, it's never wrong, after all, to lie prostrate before the altar of God - as kind of a "liturgical acclimation" ministry.

Father Matthews says my "not acting like a jerk" ministry is more important, though.

Oh, well.

"I carry you, living God, who is incarnate in the bread, and I embrace you in my palms, Lord of the worlds whom no world has contained. You have circumscribed yourself in a fiery coal within a fleshly palm - you Lord, who with your palm measured out the dust of the earth. You are holy, God incarnate in my hands in a fiery coal which is a body.... As you have made me worthy to approach you and receive you - and see, my hands embrace you confidently - make me worthy, Lord, to eat you in a holy manner and to taste the food of your body as a taste of your life."

Cited in Aelred Cody, "An Instruction of Philoxenus of Mabbug on Gestures and Prayer When One Receives Communion in the Hand, with a History of the Manner of Receiving the Eucharistic Bread in the West Syrian Church," in Rule of Prayer, Rule of Faith, ed. Nathan Mitchell and John F. Baldovin (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 1996), 63. Cited in turn by Rev. Alvin F. Kimel, Jr, "Eating Christ: Recovering the Language of Real Identification," Pro Ecclesia XIII (Winter 2004): 82-100.

What now?

I've joked to my friends that I hardly know what to do with myself, because I've not thought about my life beyond finishing the dissertation. After sending the documents to the printer in Oxford, I've spent the week getting caught up on some basic things around the house, like cleaning it.

I got to spend a little time with med school buddies for the first time in several weeks, and I've still not seen my sister in awhile; she's been working on the CPA exam. I'm traveling today to visit a friend in Northern Kentucky who's been injured; we'll swap broken back anecdotes. (He's going to be fine, but the recovery time is pretty difficult.) I'm printing up copies of the dissertation to share with some friends who will be helping me criticize it in anticipation of my viva voce exam. I'll be returning to Oxford in two months to defend my work in person (to the death!) and to vacation a little and spend time with the folks of the hOME Community.

In the meantime, I'm balancing the checkbook, paying bills, sorting and filing, selling books I want rid of, getting some auto maintenance, keeping an eye on what I hope will prove to be the resurgence of North American Anglicanism, and probably taking the cat to the vet to make sure his ear infection is all better.

Oh yeah, I'm going back to selling book really soon, as well.