Veterans/Remembrance Day and Martinmas

It is apropos that the feast for one of the Patron Saints for Soldiers falls on 11 November, better know to those as Remembrance Day or as Veterans Day. That saint is Martin of Tours who was a Roman soldier who as the famed story goes cut his cloak in two and gave it to a beggar in the middle of winter, here the story diverges as in one account Martin had a dream that night of Jesus wearing the half cloak and another has the cloak being miraculously restored. After he was a solider Martin became a monk and eventually became the Bishop of Tours. The feast of St. Martin is bigger in Europe than in America. This is also the day that at the eleventh hour of the eleventh day in the eleventh month of the year 1918, an armistice was signed which ended the “war to end all wars.” (WWI).  Let us all keep in our mind this week all those who served and all those that have fallen.

We Shall Keep the Faith by Moina Michael

Oh! you who sleep in Flanders Fields,
Sleep sweet – to rise anew!
We caught the torch you threw
And holding high, we keep the Faith
With All who died.

We cherish, too, the poppy red
That grows on fields where valor led;
It seems to signal to the skies
That blood of heroes never dies,
But lends a lustre to the red
Of the flower that blooms above the dead
In Flanders Fields.

And now the Torch and Poppy Red
We wear in honor of our dead.
Fear not that ye have died for naught;
We’ll teach the lesson that ye wrought
In Flanders Fields.

Veterans/Remembrance Day

It slipped my mind last week but Remembrance Day was last Friday so I forgot to honor all those who served by sharing a poem as I have done in year past. This year it is Wilfred Owen’s poem Dulce et Decorum Est, the title come from the Roman poet Horace and translates to “It is sweet and honorable”. The full quote comes in at the end of the poem and translates to “It is sweet and honorable to die for one’s country”

Dulce et Decorum Est

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,

Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,

Till on the haunting flares we turned our backs,

And towards our distant rest began to trudge.

Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,

But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame; all blind;

Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots

Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!—An ecstasy of fumbling

Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,

But someone still was yelling out and stumbling

And flound’ring like a man in fire or lime.—

Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,

As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight,

He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace

Behind the wagon that we flung him in,

And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,

His hanging face, like a devil’s sick of sin;

If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood

Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,

Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud

Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,—

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest

To children ardent for some desperate glory,

The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est

Pro patria mori.

Memorial Day 2016

Today in the United States it is Memorial Day/Decoration Day. This is a day in which we remember those who died in Military Service. It began after the Civil War as a day for the nation to decorate the graves of the Union and/or Confederate war dead with flower, it began as two separate days and were subsequently merged and the honor of decorating was brought to the other wars dead as well.  It often is confused with Veterans day or just though about as a three day weekend to mark the beginning of Summer. Both of these are serious problems we have with this Holiday. It’s the American equivalent of Remembrance Day. Here’s a poem from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow about Memorial Day it was published in 1882 in The Atlantic magazine.

Decoration Day

Sleep, comrades, sleep and rest

On this Field of the Grounded Arms,

Where foes no more molest,

Nor sentry’s shot alarms!

Ye have slept on the ground before,

And started to your feet

At the cannon’s sudden roar,

Or the drum’s redoubling beat.

But in this camp of Death

No sound your slumber breaks;

Here is no fevered breath,

No wound that bleeds and aches.

All is repose and peace,

Untrampled lies the sod;

The shouts of battle cease,

It is the Truce of God!

Rest, comrades, rest and sleep!

The thoughts of men shall be

As sentinels to keep

Your rest from danger free.

Your silent tents of green

We deck with fragrant flowers

Yours has the suffering been,

The memory shall be ours.

Veterans and Remembrance Day

Over the past couple of year I’ve had some post about Veterans Day also know around the world as Remembrance Day and Armistice Day.  Mostly these were about how the United States needs to make a bigger deal about this day, it should be something akin to Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Since we are celebrating all Veterans on this day or maybe we should switch the two holidays Memorial Day and Veterans Day and join basically the rest of the world in celebrating Remembrance Day on the Feast of Martin of Tours. If you run into a Veteran today thank them for their service  and perhaps say a prayer or two for all those currently deployed across the globe.

In Flanders Fields by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, MD who served with the Canadian Army is perhaps the most well know poem from the First World War.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

This week we are back in Ordinary Time and continue our tour in the Old Testament, our first reading comes from the first Book of Kings. In the Hebrew Bible it is a part of the Neviim (prophets) and is a single book. The book covers about 500 years in the history of Israel/Judah from the death of David to the Babylonian captivity. We hear today about the prophet Elijah. He was entering a city and encountered a widow collecting sticks. He asked for a small cup of water, when she left he called for a bit of bread as well. The widow called told Elijah that she didn’t have any bread baked and only a handful of flour in a jar and a little bit of oil in a jug, she was collecting the stick to make a small fire so that she could make a little something for herself and son, saying that after they eat it they will die. Elijah tells her to make a little cake for him before making something for herself. For the Lord had said that her jar and jug would not go empty until the Lord send rain upon the earth. So the widow did this and her flour and oil supply lasted for a full year. This is a story about putting our trust in the Lord who will provide for us and also in the giving to other will do amazing things as the widow make Elijah’s cake before her own, and her flour and oil remained full for a year.

In the second reading we hear from the letter to the Hebrews again it about Jesus being the High Priest and how he takes away the sins of the World. Finally we reach the Gospel where we hear from Mark, this is an interesting story this week as Jesus talks money and the “fakeness” of some scribes. Jesus begins by berating the scribes who act holier than thou, since they are simply putting on an act and “they will receive very severe condemnation.” The subject then turn to money and Jesus notices a rich man and a poor widow both going to the treasury and giving some money. The rich man put in lots of money but the poor widow can only put in a couple cents. Jesus gathers the disciples together and says that it was the widow who has put more money in because the money that she gave was from her livelihood rather than that of the rich who gave from their surplus. Who are we more like the rich man or the poor widow? That’s a big question for the week. The general idea with the readings this week was giving and how to do it. It is apropos that as we are nearing two special days that celebrate giving, Veterans/Remembrance Day and Thanksgiving. On Veterans Day we celebrate those who have gone the extra mile and served the nation in most of the rest of the world November 11 is Remembrance Day where we remember the live of those who gave it all for us to live in the world that we live in today. On Thanksgiving we gather together and celebrate family and give thanks for all that we have.

Remembrance Day, Armistice Day and Veterans Day

Today is Remembrance Day, Armistice Day or Veterans Day depending where you are located. There is a special emphasis with this years Remembrance Day as we have begun the centenary of the Great War and we will most likely see added significance up until 2019, when Remembrance Day turns 100 itself. In the United States the day started as Armistice Day and honored those who died in WWI, but after WWII it was expand to celebrate all Veterans.

Although all of these three day are very similar there is a big difference between them in what they are honoring. In the US Veterans Day honors all the those who have served in the armed forces, with Memorial Day being a day to honor those who died serving the nation. This is opposite of how it is in most of the rest of the world. If you know someone who was in the military today is a great day to thank them for their service in keeping us safe. We also need to keep those who have died in service to our nations in our minds as well, some people head to cemeteries today and visit the graves of servicemen and women. Sure this holiday isn’t really observed like other holidays in the United States and this is a big problem as the Veterans are an important part of who we are as a nation but most of the time we forget about them.