Per Mixta

Watching Obama speak to the UN while praying at the computer: the modern equivalent of "Bible in one hand, newspaper in the other."

Here is the Collect for Peace: "Eternal God, in whose perfect Kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace, as children of one Father, to whom be dominion and glory, now and forever."

St. Augustine wrote "The City of God," a big book in which he contrasts the world's kingdom with the Kingdom of God, explaining that we live in "per mixta," an overlap of the two. We here pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done." Now, in Obama's speech, calling for this generation to rise to the big challenges environmental, political, and nuclear, are we seeing the Kingdom trying to break in here?

I hope and pray so. The whole idea got me reading T.S. Eliot, who is blowing me away. "...But to apprehend/ The point of intersection of the timeless/ With time,, is an occupation for the saint--/ No occupation either, but something given/ And taken, in a lifetime's death in love,/ Ardour and selflessness and self-surrender...." ("The Dry Salvages," part V)

Not just to apprehend, but to effectuate, this we all may devoutly hope.