Discovering My Grandfather’s Daily Devotional

 I’m discovering an insight to my grandfather who died in 1962 at the age of 82.

I recently received his book “Johann Friedrich Starck’s Morgen und Abendandachten”, translated means Morning and Evening Prayer, a 1901 copy of a 18th century theologian’s writing.  Reviewing my grandfather Georg (without “e” pronounced GAY-org) Reiter’s daily devotional book, it is fragile, very worn and obviously much used.  To connect with a particular day’s prayer is to wonder how many times has this person read this particular prayer on this particular day over a lifetime.  And, the wonder is also a warm feeling and thought that this person was a good and righteous person.

 I’m seeing a pattern with each day’s prayer ending with psalms, hymns, carols, and ballads.  Here is the Evening - Prayer (Abend) for 21 February.  I used an internet on-line translator as I wrote from the original German text these sentences, trying to interpret the old Gothic letters, used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 to well into the 17th century, if the letter was a U or A. 

Some words do not exactly fit the logic in this translated prayer, because words in all languages become outdated and not easily translated.  This text is probably translated in the 19th century from the 18th century, which would further outdate todays translation.  

So, here is my translation from page 105 and at the bottom is from Pslam 51:

Evening Prayer for 21 February

Return to me, saith the Lord Almighty, so I will teach you, saith the Lord Almighty   Zech. 1.3

Almighty and gracious God! As night falls, I see all my trust and confidence in you and your merciful side.  I ask you humbly, Lord, to forgive me all my sins and transgressions out of grace. Like a sheep strayed from the herd heading for his shepherd. So I too want to turn to you, faithful Jesus, and hold myself to you, so that I will never leave you again.  Without this inner conversion no one has ever found grace before your eyes. A David, a Peter, a Paul have become completely changed people through your spirit power, so give me such a new meaning, O my merciful.  In grace you will abdicate all uncleanness and all damages from me. Let your holy angels encamp around me so that I may enjoy a good night's sleep under their care.  Ah, Lord, come to me when I pray, and hear me; Comfort me when I am depressed, save me when the floods cross over me. Comfort me when I'm sick and lonely.  Will you, sir, attribute sin, who will prevail? Let my soul, when leaving that mortal coffin, open the entrance into your heaven, where I will be eternally united with you. Amen.

I want from my wrongdoing

to convert me to the Lord;

You want help and advice for yourself

for that, O God, bring

and your spirit's power,

that creates new hearts in us,

grant me with mercy.

And God Made The World

And God Made The World

“Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Pope John Paul II in his Address to young Muslims in Morocco, August 19,1985 said: “Christians and Muslims, we have many things in common, as believers and as human beings. We live in the same world, marked by many signs of hope, but also by multiple signs of anguish. For us, Abraham is a very model of faith in God, of submission to his will and of confidence in his goodness. We believe in the sane (rational, balanced, stable) God, the one God, the living God, the God who created the world and brings his creatures to their perfection.” 

In his acceptance of the Ecumenical Council of 1960-1965, Vatican 2, Pope John Paul II asserted that as a descendent to the throne of St. Peter, the true message of Jesus was all inclusive, that all people of the world were saved.

The religious xenophobia so pervasive in our society today is born out of ignorance. In his tremendously brilliant lectures on comparative religion, Professor Charles Kimball reveals the vast similarities of the 5 basic world religions, all faith based: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. 

I particularly like Dr. Kimball’s example in his lecture to a Muslim audience, and the question put to him was that he must be a Muslim because he preached all of the tenants of Islam and that Muslims believe the all inclusive that if you do no harm that you will be rewarded. Dr. Kimball’s answer was that he was a Christian.

Another example from his lectures came from a Hindu, who stated, to the effect,“the other 4 basic religions are really Hindu, they just don’t realize it!”

And, most people have heard the name Dali Lama. This Buddhist Monk’s world views mirror the other four basic world religions. This beautifully enlightened Buddhist Monk said: “Our prime purpose in this life is to help others. And if you can't help them, at least don't hurt them”. And another famous quote from this brilliant religious leader: “My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.”

The Judaeo-Christian culture is self evident to the Western World with its revelations of hope, kindness, forgiveness, jubilee, and more. Perhaps Judaism, going back to time recorded, is the genesis of the other religions, since Jesus was a rabbi born in the days of Herod the King.

Buddha was a prophet in 600 BCE, and Mohammad, self-proclaimed the last of the prophets, around 600 CE, but Hinduism has no founder and goes back to unrecorded antiquity, to the days of “oral tradition”. Perhaps the questioning Hindu in Dr. Kimball’s audience was correct.

With the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem, 701 BCE, and if the Assyrian army proceeded to destroy Jerusalem, would there be Judaism, Christianity, Muslim religions?  This question reveals the historical, special connectivity of these three religions.

The only differences between the religious communities is diversity and cultural manifestations, but the common thread is, to use Dr. Kimball’s phrase, the “human capacity for self transcendence”. 

The human species has been religious from time recorded, from the Ancient Greek Gods of Poseidon, Zeus, Apollo, Artemis, and more. I think that the human experience is in our DNA to be religious with the brain manifestations of delight in prayer and self reflection. 

Scripture is replete with God’s message of Joy and Salvation for all religious communities of the world. Inherent in a gift is that there is no payment in return.

My prayer is for everyone to know of the vast religious similarities of all religions, instead of hearing the vast reporting of the religious xenophobia promoting the “fear factor” of religious differences.

Gov. Snyder Legacy Luau Limbo - How Low Can You Go?

The conspiratorial capitalism thrust upon us today has morphed into a destructive force entity beyond the poisoning of our economic system, destroying the lives of most Americans, but has literally poisoned the lives of thousands of children in Flint Michigan. Governor Rick Snyder, playing “luau limbo” with the Michigan economy, has sunk to new lows never imagined from not only a political leader but from humanity!

Former Gov. Rick Snyder is now charged with a misdemeanor for the Flint Water Crisis.

We have Reagonomics on steroids with Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder, Michigan’s Republican-controlled Legislature, the corporate press, right-wing judges, ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council) composed of 100-percent Republicans, all in collusion in this “grand rip-off.” Snyder appointed his emergency manager to Flint Michigan using the same bill authorizing the use of an emergency financial manager which the voters rejected in 2011. 

A little more than a month after voters repealed Public Act 4 (PA 4) on Nov. 6, Snyder signed into law Public Act 436 (PA 436), with the help of the Republican legislature.

Here was Gov Snyder’s game plan: give $1.8 billion in tax breaks to the wealthy and corporations at the expense of Michigan cities’ budgets, then ask the individual cities to make up the difference. 

Knowing that this shorting the cities of expected revenue sharing, many cities would have hardships and struggles to make up the difference, especially cities with large black populations like Benton Harbor, who lost a children's lakeside park to a rich private golf park, given in perpetuity by the Klock Family in memory of their lost child to the children of Benton Harbor.

When the individual cities fell behind in their fiscal obligations, Rick Snyder sent in his appointed Czar, an Emergency Manager to sell off the city’s assets, in other words a transfer of wealth upwards.

The Emergency Manger of Flint, Darnell Earley, colluded with the Emergency Manager of Detroit, Keven Orr, to switch the source of Flint’s water supply from Detroit to the Flint River, thus making the Detroit Water Department more profitable and more lucrative for privatizing. 

With the closing of General Motor’s plants and shipping those jobs to China, the resultant hardship placed many Flint residents in default on their water bills, among other bills, leaving the Detroit Water Department to absorb some of Flint’s problems. The solution according to the two Emergency Managers was to let Flint get its water from the Flint River and pay for their own problem.

The switching to the Flint River was a disaster because the poorly treated Flint River water is unsafe and too acid thus corroding and destroying the hundred year old underground pipe infrastructure and allowing the lead seals to leach into the water reaching the residents’ tap. 

Among all of the government agencies condemning the Flint River water, GM on October 13, 2014 announced that it will stop using Flint water because it was too corrosive for building its precision engines. This switch from the Detroit Water Department occurred in April 2014 and switched back in October 2015. 

It comes down to the proverbial question: “what did he know and when did he know it?” It’s obvious that Gov Snyder has his foot prints on this disaster from start to finish! But it’s not over yet; at the heart of this problem is payment, both monetarily and criminally. 

The heart breaking fact is the poor children of Flint who will grow up with lead poisoning, an irreversible tragedy.