#chronicle of the council of constance

[cuties-in-codices]

man carrying a ceremonial umbrella

from an illustrated manuscript of the chronicle of the council of constance by ulrich riechental, constance (?), c. 1475

source: Vienna, ÖNB, Cod. 3044, fol. 30v

[furordinaricvs]

Serbian Emperor's coat of arms from Chronicles of Council of Constance, also known as "Triballian boar". A symbol often associated with medieval Serbia in foreign medieval manuscripts. It was used on flag of newly established Kingdom of Serbia during Habsburg-Turkish wars of 1700s and later in Uprising of 1804.

[wishesofeternity]

Constance, daughter of Edmund of Langley (Constance of York), was well-suited for a life with the Despensers. After Thomas's execution in 1400, she received goods and chattels worth £200, plus land worth a thousand marks annually as maintenance. At some point in the next four years Constance had a daughter, Eleanor, by Edmund Holland, earl of Kent, with whom - in Wylie's words - she was 'living in concubinage'. In February 1405 she became entangled in a Ricardian plot to bring down the Lancastrian regime, masterminded by her brother, (Edward) duke of York. Constance abducted the young Mortimer heirs at Windsor - it was they who had greatest claim to Richard II's throne in 1399 - and set out for Wales, presumably intending to link with the boys' father, an ally of the Welsh freedom-fighter Owain Glyn Dwr. However, the plot failed when they were captured at Cheltenham, and Constance was imprisoned in Kenilworth Castle. She appeared before the king's council accused of treason: the Chronicle of London recorded how ‘they seyden that the eldere chyld was trewe kyng.’ The Despenser lands were declared confiscate, although restored the following year. In essence, the plot was a failure, although it provides a fascinating insight into Constance's life after her husband's death. Perhaps most ironic of all was that a Despenser should have been attempting to place a Mortimer on the throne.

- Martyn John Lawrence, “Power, Ambition and Political Rehabilitation - the Despensers”

[dwellordream]

“In March 1152 a council of French prelates and nobles assembled at Beaugency in the county of Blois to declare the marriage of Louis VII and Eleanor invalid on grounds of consanguinity. Although their legal separation is often termed a divorce, in the Middle Ages there was no such thing in the modern sense of the word. When the word divorce was used, it either meant an annulment—a judgment that no true marriage had ever existed—or a concession allowing a couple to separate and live apart, but without the right to remarry. 

Because canon law decreed marriages unlawful if the couple shared a common ancestor within the past seven generations, claiming consanguinity was a common excuse for dissolving aristocratic marriages when the actual reason was incompatibility or childlessness. By the mid-twelfth century, however, the Church was elevating marriage to the status of a sacrament, and it stressed strongly the indissolubility of all marriages. As a result, it was becoming less accommodating in annulling marriages on grounds of consanguinity. 

As we have seen, the pope had refused to sanction the royal couple’s separation in 1149; however, the consanguineous nature of their marriage was no secret, as Bernard of Clairvaux had angrily declared during one of his quarrels with Louis. The couple were related within four degrees on Louis’s side and within five degrees on Eleanor’s. They shared a common ancestor in King Robert II of France, Louis’s great-great-grandfather and Eleanor’s great-great-great-grandfather. Yet in Louis’s urgency to produce a son, he would not hesitate to enter into two more consanguineous marriages, both to brides more closely related to him than Eleanor. 

Within two years, he would wed a second spouse, Constance of Castile, and then in 1160 a third wife, Adele of Champagne, less than six weeks after the death of Constance, who had not given him a son. Despite the pope’s earlier counsel, Louis requested the archbishop of Sens to convene a council to consider the legitimacy of his marriage to Eleanor. In attendance were the archbishops of Reims, Rouen, and Bordeaux as well as a number of bishops and some leading lay nobles. At that time, papal courts staffed by professional canon lawyers had not yet overpowered other ecclesiastical tribunals, and such councils were still a common means of settling powerful persons’ disputes in matters of Church law. 

Both English and French chroniclers relate that Louis’s relatives appeared at Beaugency, swearing with “a contrived oath” or “the oath that they had promised,” bearing witness to the couple’s kinship within the degrees prohibited by the Church. It is clear that however much Eleanor of Aquitaine may have desired a separation, the deciding factor was Louis VII’s conviction that she could not give him a son. He felt strongly the Capetian dynasty’s mission to be a most Christian monarchy, and he knew that his lack of a male heir to succeed him could undermine its stability and even threaten the French kingdom’s security. 

…Louis’s counselors did not hesitate to point out that Eleanor’s conduct arousing periodic scandalous gossip was incompatible with her dignity as queen. A weightier argument for Louis, however, was the fact that the queen had given him no son, and all assumed that the fault lay with her, for both folklore and twelfth-century medical teaching held that a child’s mother determined its sex. Additionally, members of Louis’s clerical entourage encouraged him to view Eleanor’s infertility as a sign of divine disapproval of the marriage. In his youth, the Church Fathers’ rhetoric tending toward denunciation of all sexual activity had turned him toward over-scrupulous religiosity.

Churchmen may have informed Louis of canon lawyers’ finding that sex between spouses who felt no affection for each other must be classed as adultery, convincing him that sexual relations with the unloving Eleanor were sinful. Furthermore, medieval medical faculties followed ancient Greek science in teaching that women only become pregnant if they experience pleasure during sex. Supposedly prostitutes failed to conceive because they took no pleasure in the sex act. Louis could easily be persuaded that if Eleanor no longer loved him, then he could no longer impregnate her since she derived no delight from the conjugal act.

…The council also decreed that since the couple had married in good faith, their two daughters’ legitimacy was not in question. Custom concerning property was followed, and Eleanor’s right to retain her own family lands that she had brought to the marriage was affirmed. Louis did make some effort to preserve their two daughters’ rights as heirs to the duchy of Aquitaine, and it was not until 1154 that he finally gave up all claim and abandoned his title of duke of Aquitaine. After the council at Beaugency annulled Eleanor’s marriage, she wished to return to her own lands in Poitou as soon as possible. 

She had to leave behind her two daughters, Marie, aged seven, and little Adelicia, who was only eighteen months old. No doubt Eleanor felt deep sorrow at parting from her children, but she knew that losing them was inevitable, since law and custom decreed that children were their father’s property. There was no possibility of her having custody of them or visiting them, and after the annulment it is doubtful that she ever saw them again. The girls would have little more contact with their father. 

Soon Louis would affiance them to the two sons of the count of Blois-Champagne (d.1152) to strengthen political alliances essential for countering the growing Angevin threat. A year or two after their mother’s departure, the young girls were sent off to their future husbands whose family would supervise their upbringing. While on crusade, Louis had promised his elder daughter to the heir to the county of Champagne, Henry the Liberal, who had impressed the king in fighting against the Turks in Anatolia. Marie’s betrothed sent her to the abbey of Avenay in Champagne, near Épernay, to be raised by the nuns, and she remained there for eleven years until she reached marriageable age. Her younger sister may have been sent to Avenay as well. In 1154 Louis would give Adelicia to Henry’s brother Theobald V, heir to their father’s county of Blois, and they would be married in the early 1170s.”

- Ralph V. Turner, “A Husband Lost, a Husband Gained, 1149–1154.” in Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England

[minervacasterly]

~MAY DAY - MAY WEDDING: ELIZABETH, WIDOW OF GREY & EDWARD IV (FIRST YORKING KING) TIE THE KNOT~

May 1st, 1464 is the traditional date given to Elizabeth Wydeville and Edward IV's marriage.(Mary's great-grandparents). The day better known as "Love Day" was famous for juxtaposing gender and status roles. It was a day of mayhem and fun that has its roots in pagan religions and pre-Christian traditions. In all honesty though, there is no concrete evidence that the marriage took place that day. What is known is it must have taken place before August of that year when Lord Hastings was given the wardship of Elizabeth's eldest son by her first marriage, Thomas Grey. Several chroniclers that place the marriage on this day are Antonio Cornazzano, an Italian writing four years after the event took place. He writes that Elizabeth threatened Edward with a dagger after he offered her to become his mistress. Angry, Dominic Mancini writing nearly twenty years later adds that Edward attempted to make her submit but "she remained unperturbed and determined to die rather than live unchastely with the king. Whereupon Edward coveted her much the more, and he judged the lady worthy to be a royal spouse". Thomas More writing nearly a century later omits the dagger but the end result is all the same: "She showed him plain that as she wist herself too simple to be his wife, so thought she herself too good to be his concubine. The king much marvelling of her constance ... he set her virtue in the stead of possession and riches". The marriage was kept a secret until Edward was forced to admit to it at the Reading Council in September. The fact that the bride was not royal, noble (her mother was a member of the House of St. Pol of Luxemborg, but that wasn't enough when her father was only a Baron), and brought no foreign alliance to the marriage, shocked and outraged many members of court and his family. As for the common man, they could care less who this woman was and where she came from. Six years later when she was pregnant with their first son she fled into sanctuary in Westminster taking along with her, her daughters. She asked the mayor of London and others to submit to Warwick and the Lancaster Readeption to save themselves. Something they saw as a great contrast to her predecessor who had taken up arms against her enemies. After the Lancastrian forces were defeated the following year, the people were more welcoming to their Queen. She had not brought a foreign alliance, riches, or anything else, but she had lived up to the medieval expectations of women of the day. She had continued her predecessor's work and endowed universities, shown patronage to learned men and artists and shown herself subservient to her husband and to the church. This last one is less remarked in fiction but it should be, because the real Elizabeth was far from being the scheming witch she is shown in portrayals such as in the White Queen or romantic fiction. Queen Elizabeth was a very pious woman who belonged to some of the most famous religious fraternities at the time, her brothers were able soldiers and administrators. Her brother Anthony is perhaps the most famous, but her others brothers also served the Yorkist regime under her husband then under her son-in-law (Henry VII) in every capacity. She was also ambitious. During Richard III's reign, she conspired with Margaret Beaufort to bring about the marriage between her eldest daughter and Henry Tudor (then) Earl of Richmond after the disappearance of her sons. She spent the last days of her life leading an ascetic life. Her last wishes to be buried with little pomp and a few valuables were carried out. Sources: The Woodvilles: The Wars of the Roses and England's Most Infamous Family by Susan Higginbotham, Blood Sisters by Sarah Gristwood, and Cecily Neville: Mother of Kings by Amy Licence. Image: Amanda Ferguson and Max Irons as Elizabeth and Edward IV in "The White Queen".

[limejuicer1862]

May 1

..looks like you are drowning..

part one

looks like you are drowning & hope i am wrong. i can see the struggle the turn about in water.

i have done that too pat says that i have paid the price but i wonder

i hope you survive come clean bare your feathers.

fly high

if not i will lay a petal and think of you

as i think of the others that drowned before you that had no feathers

part two,

it looks like you are drowning again shall I jump in to save you and maybe sink myself or shall I wait to see to lay a flower at our feet

part three

maybe you are not drowning really that I made it up and you are dancing like the others

while people die and we lay flowers in memoriam corona

part four

you are floating maybe; I did that for hours went spongy, now face reality and I still think that you are drowning like the others.

-sonja benskin mesher

concrete reasoning

gray day: i am out for a walk when a sidewalk camellia begs myriad questions:

runaway bride?

garden club mishap? rejected proposal? hothouse runaway? centerpiece rebel?

confronted by the unexplained, the human drive to make order from chaos is relentless.

whatever the story, the end is the same: beauty appears and we can only wonder …

with a schedule to keep and no answers at hand i press onward, feeling the inner bloom of nascent gratitude.

-Rich Follett

MF 1

*

Every time I find clay in the garden, beneath a rosebush, say, I find slate too. This is just something I have noticed over the course of a year. It is not necessary to mention these things, especially now, I suppose. I am not happy unless I’m pouring something – tomato feed. I am Philip Levine’s Burial Rights, I recall Bei Dao. These days, I feel the trick to a good carpark, to feel anything, is my proximity to this flower arrangement.

JK 1

*

A story of three fish might be fish bones in a field for birds. Koi feeding, koi feed in a garden centre, at the next junction. Fish bent back over backwards, in blue paint. Scattered to the water’s edge a handful of dirt, to a handful of colour, blue scales at the centre of the field, a water mark, a stone left unturned.

-Alex Mazey

The Life of Petals

We use flowers to mark occasions– Weddings and funerals. The petals linger only briefly, But the sentiment still hangs Heavy in the air, years after Like pollen That settled over and over again On our patio table and chairs, All those long Midwestern summers When heat robbed our lungs of breath. And Wildflowers, not cut-storebought ones, marked a different time, Of an everyday type. Now, cut flowers feel gluttonous to me. And petals bless us with The gentleness of how life ought to be.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/05/petals.m4a

-st

Utopia Burning

Warnings ignored from many a social self appointed warlord Echoes of dissident discord striking a high-pitched off key note As hungry flames lick and lash causing an apocalyptic molten urban and suburban foretold mess Whispered by familiar oracles their verbal miracles documenting their fiery cautionary chronicles Of systems slowly imploding temperaments exploding fake veneers and smiles exfoliating as ignorant masses squawk for a helping hand from those witnessing their demise and burning squirming shedding acid tears for Utopia burning…

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/utopia-burning-mp3.mp3

© Don Beukes

Still Silent

No sound, water jelly flat, so still it hurts my ears. Even sun slides silently into autumn’s metal light.

All jamboree, clang and din now far away in time. Even breath is offensive here, in case of ripple and slapping rocks.

I cannot read or turn a page lest a mumble or paper scrape, escape and shatter the loch. Like a breaking glass to a rousing cheer, as all that knowledge gets out.

So I stare at reflections in late day waters reliable quiet, but maybe their heat is not that hot.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/still-silent.m4a

©️ Dai Fry 30th April 2020.

The sweet flower’s heart Wilting on the cold, hard slab My love’s final gift

-Carrie Ann Golden

Camellia

You lay beautiful and gasping alone on Tithonian stone. A sudden fall from grace, petal broken angel: forage for sweeper winds.

Transient as summer days. Temperate these forevers soon fade to winter grey. Dog-day memories cannot abide short-day cold.

What are you, I wonder? A love certified in Bacchus’s dance or a loved one certified and boxed in tears and brown ale.

https://thewombwellrainbow.files.wordpress.com/2020/04/camellia.m4a

©️ Dai Fry 30th March 2020.

The giant fish takes back the myth

The morning before she was to become a story the sea was baited quiet, the kind that silks

all desire down to swish. To decide to leap from one cool world to another just for breakfast

is to bare your colours to the scaling knife of the wind, and she did – her fireback beacon launched

for the brief protein of flying legs. How often we fail to see that dark hull waiting, we beasts so full up

with the rush of living for our risks. And the shape of the poised hero held no meaning, to a fish

but oh the shimmerhook, like all the moons her eye’s nightcoin had ever purchased

from deep beneath the water, and there is the lust, the swish- -and want. The glowworm crescent to silver her belly.

We all want to shine in fullness. Only heroes are given names in these stories.

For her need she was translated into an island, and I am running the delicate gasp of her jaws

in the shape of this coast, forever straining for the hook and still called only fish

even with all we have made of her. Every time I desire to transcend my quiet water, I forget the heroes

and leap from her skin, and hope that landing empty

but with one eye fixed on the moon every night after this will be enough.

-Ankh Spice

Beheaded Camelia’s

delicate red petals last longer on the less travelled path. Flash of disappearing red lace, paper thin survival. Unbroken in bright sunlight, bright on grey stone. Destruction stays at home to avoid destruction.

The red wing is allowed space to revolve reflect in water. “Temporary” like the word “soon”, a duration undecided.

-Paul Brookes

Bios and Links

-Alex Mazey

(b.1991) received his MA (distinction) from Keele University in 2017. He later won The Roy Fisher Prize for Poetry with his debut pamphlet, ‘Bread and Salt’ (Flarestack, TBA). He was also the recipient of a Creative Future Writers’ Award in 2019. His poetry has featured regularly in anthologies and literary press magazines, most notably in The London Magazine. His collection of essays, ‘Living in Disneyland’, will be available from Broken Sleep Books in October 2020. Alex spent 2018 as a resident of The People’s Republic of China, where he taught the English Language in a school run by the Ministry of Education. His writing has been described as ‘wry and knowing,’ with ‘an edge that tears rather than cuts or deals blows.’

Twitter: @AlexzanderMazey

Instagram: alexmazey

Here is my interview of Alex:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/12/18/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-alex-mazey/

-Rich Follett

is a High School English and Creative Writing teacher who has been writing poems and songs for more than forty years. His poems have been featured in numerous online and print journals, including BlazeVox, The Montucky Review, Paraphilia, Leaf Garden Press and the late Felino Soriano’s CounterExample Poetics, for which he was a featured artist. Three volumes of poetry, Responsorials (with Constance Stadler), Silence, Inhabited, and Human &c. are available through NeoPoiesis Press (www.neopoiesispress.com.)

As a singer-songwriter, Rich has released five albums of independent contemporary folk music. His latest. Somewhere in the Stars, is available at http://www.richfollett.com. He lives with his wife Mary Ruth Alred Follett in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, where he also pursues his interests as a professional actor, playwright, and director.

-Ankh Spice

is a sea-obsessed poet from Aotearoa (NZ). His poetry has appeared in a wide range of international publications and has twice been nominated for the Pushcart Prize. He truly believes that words have the power to change the place we’re in, and you’ll find him doing his best to prove it on

Twitter: @SeaGoatScreams or on Facebook: @AnkhSpiceSeaGoatScreamsPoetry

-Carrie Ann Golden

is a deafblind writer from the mystical Adirondack Mountains now living on a farmstead in northeastern North Dakota. She writes dark fiction and poetry. Her work has been published in places like Piker Press, Edify Fiction, Doll Hospital Journal, The Hungry Chimera, GFT Press, Asylum Ink, and Visual Verse.

-Anjum Wasir Dar

Born in Srinagar (Indian occupied Kashmir) in 1949. My family opted for and migrated to Pakistan after the (1947)Partition of India. Educated in St Anne’s Presentation Convent Rawalpindi.Graduated with Distinction in English Lang. & Literature in 1968 from the Punjab University. Won the All Round Best Student Cup.1968. Obtained a Masters Degree in English Literature/American Studies Punjab University P.G. Diploma in TEFL from Allama Iqbal Open University Islamabad and a CPE from Cambridge University UK (LSE British Council)1991 Developing Educators in Pakistan Training Course sponsored by IFC & Bradford University 1999.Bronze Medal Poet of Merit Award by International Society of Poets & http://Poetry.com USA 2000 7 Times Winner NANOWRIMO, (National Novel Writing Month) Adventure Novel ‘ The Adventures of the Multi Colored Lead People’ in the printing process. Educator Writer since 1990 Editor College Magazine Creative Writer English at Channel 7 Pvt Ltd Islamabad.National Education Award Winner 1998 for Research & Publications.

-sonja benskin mesher

born , Bournemouth.

now

lives and works in North Wales as an independent artist

‘i am a multidisciplinary artist, crafting paint, charcoal, words and whatever comes to hand, to explain ideas and issues

words have not come easily. I draw on experience, remember and write. speak of a small life’.

Elected as a member of the Royal Cambrian Academy and the United Artists Society The work has been in solo exhibitions through Wales and England, and in selected and solo worldwide. Much of the work is now in both private, and public collections, and has been featured in several television documentaries, radio programmes and magazines.

Here is my interview of sonja benskin mesher:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2018/10/16/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-sonja-benskin-mesher/

-Samantha Terrell

is an American poet whose work emphasizes emotional integrity and social justice. She is the author of several eBooks including, Learning from Pompeii, Coffee for Neanderthals, Disgracing Lady Justice and others, available on smashwords.com and its affiliates.Chapbook: Ebola (West Chester University Poetry Center, 2014)

Website: poetrybysamantha.weebly.com Twitter: @honestypoetry

Here is my 2020 interview of her:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2020/04/08/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-samantha-terrell/

-Don Beukes

is a South African and British writer. He is the author of ‘The Salamander Chronicles’ (CTU) and ‘Icarus Rising-Volume 1’ (ABP), an ekphrastic collection. He taught English and Geography in both South Africa and the UK. His poetry has been anthologized in numerous collections and translated into Afrikaans, Persian, French and Albanian. He was nominated by Roxana Nastase, editor of Scarlet Leaf Review for the ‘Best of the Net’ in 2017 as well as the Pushcart Poetry Prize (USA) in 2016. He was published in his first SA Anthology ‘In Pursuit of Poetic Perfection’ in 2018 (Libbo Publishers) and his second ‘Cape Sounds’ in 2019 (Gavin Joachims Publishing). He is also an amateur photographer and his debut Photographic publication appeared in Spirit Fire Review in June 2019. His new book, ‘Sic Transit Gloria Mundi’/Thus Passes the Glory of this World’ is due to be published by Concrete Mist Press.

Here is my interview of Don Beukes:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/11/02/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-don-beukes/

-Dai-Fry

is an x social worker and a present poet. Image is all but flow is good too. So many interesting things… Published in Black bough Poetry, Re-Side, The Hellebore, The Pangolin Review. He will not stop.

Twitter                  @thnargg

Web.                       seekingthedarklight.co.uk

Audio/Visual.       @IntPoetryCircle #InternationalPoetryCircle Twitter #TopTweetTuesday

-Paul Brookes

is a shop asst. Lives in a cat house full of teddy bears. His chapbooks include The Fabulous Invention Of Barnsley, (Dearne Community Arts, 1993). The Headpoke and Firewedding (Alien Buddha Press, 2017), A World Where and She Needs That Edge (Nixes Mate Press, 2017, 2018) The Spermbot Blues (OpPRESS, 2017), Port Of Souls (Alien Buddha Press, 2018), Please Take Change (Cyberwit.net, 2018), Stubborn Sod, with Marcel Herms (artist) (Alien Buddha Press, 2019), As Folk Over Yonder ( Afterworld Books, 2019). Forthcoming Khoshhali with Hiva Moazed (artist), Our Ghost’s Holiday (Final book of threesome “A Pagan’s Year”) . He is a contributing writer of Literati Magazine and Editor of Wombwell Rainbow Interviews.

-Mary Frances

is an artist and writer based in the UK. She takes a few photos every day, for inspiration and to use in her work. The images for this project were all taken in the last two years on walks during in the month of May. Her words and images have been published by Penteract Press, Metambesen, Ice Floe Press, Burning House Press, Inside the Outside, Luvina Rivista Literaria, and Lone Women in Flashes of Wilderness. Twitter: @maryfrancesness

-James Knight

is an experimental poet and digital artist. His books include Void Voices (Hesterglock Press) and Self Portrait by Night (Sampson Low). His visual poems have been published in several places, including the Penteract Press anthology Reflections and Temporary Spaces (Pamenar Press). Chimera, a book of visual poems, is due from Penteract Press in July 2020.

Website: thebirdking.com.

Twitter: @badbadpoet

Here is my interview of James Knight:

https://thewombwellrainbow.com/2019/01/06/wombwell-rainbow-interviews-james-knight/

Welcome to a special ekphrastic challenge for May. Artworks from Mary Frances, James Knight and Sue Harpham will be the inspiration for writers, Alex Mazey, Ankh Spice, Anjum Wasim Dar, James Knight, Samantha Terrell, Dai Fry, Carrie Ann Golden, sonja menskin mesher, Rich Follett, Don Beukes and myself. May 1st. May 1 ..looks like you are drowning.. part one looks like you are drowning & hope i am wrong.

[simplemoneyman-blog]

Are Colleges Teaching Personal Finance?

Well, they weren’t teaching Personal Finance when I was in college, which was…umm…let’s just say a couple of Presidential terms have passed since I graduated :-).   Who knows maybe I would have made my coffee at home instead of stopping at Starbucks 2-3 times a week before going to the library for a late night studying session. Since I went to school in the evening and worked during the day, maybe I and many others would have started investing in my late teens and early 20s.   Phyllis M. Wise, Chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a vice president of the University of Illinois was asked in the Chronicle for Higher Education should we be preparing students for the workforce, or should we be preparing them for lifelong learning? She said the answer is, "Yes." In addition, Carolyn A. (Biddy) Martin President of Amherst College says that College is for the development of intelligence in its multiple forms. So why doesn’t it include Personal Finance…..managing your own money that you’ll have to do for the rest of your life no matter what profession you choose anyway?  

Ted Talk Re: Personal Finance

For those who don’t know about these, Ted Talks are highly informative, brief and strong messages from accomplished people. They can be found on YouTube for all types of topics and industries, are succinct, and given by subject-matter experts. Recently, I came across one related to the lack of Personal Finance taught in colleges and the effects. Alexa Von Tobel, Founder, and CEO of LearnVest begins to talk about The Biggest Loser and how there should be a similar show related to Personal Finance. She says that “Personal Finance is not taught in high schools, colleges, or graduate programs across the United States….and taught through trial and error.”  Some of the statistics she mentions are alarming. Americans are making up to 10 PF decisions per day! 3 out of 4 people feel like their finances are out of control 61% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. Then she talks about the root cause being something that was never learned. She presents an example of a person who earns $35,000, paying $1,200 per month for rent or over half of her bi-weekly paycheck, paying the minimum payment on her debt, not starting emergency savings, and not starting a retirement plan. The full Ted Talk can be found here:   Please check it out as I KNOW I’ve missed a bunch of other important information from this 11 ½ minute video. The point of Alexa’s talk is to implement a simple solution for college seniors to teach them 5 principles. She says these are: (1) Follow a budget, (2) Be debt free, (3) Establish an emergency account, (4) Negotiate your salary, and (5) Start saving for retirement now. This is huge because it applies to all students no matter what have majored in. Maybe it can be sort of like an exit interview before you officially graduate from college.  

Where We Rank in Personal Finance Education

The Wall Street Journal published a study performed by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Group where the US is ranked 14 in the top 20 countries in basic financial literacy (click chart below to expand).

  Annamaria Lusardi, Denit Trust chair of economics and accountancy at the George Washington University School of Business believes that Personal Finance education can help and should be taught at Colleges and Universities. She compares financial literacy to driving in obeying speed limits, signs, rules, and making sure drivers understand those rules and how this thinking should be applied to Personal Finance education: “…people—especially young people—to survive and thrive in today’s financial environment, knowledge of personal finance is a necessity”. The full article is here: WSJ Article Re: Personal Finance Education.   

Personal Finance is Practical And Can be Applied Instantly

Activities like paying our bills, saving, checking our credit, are things we do on a regular ongoing basis. That’s why they're so important because most of us are going to have to do these routine things for most of our adult lives. Slipping up on these definitely has the potential for consequences. According to Constance Brinkley-Badgett from Credit.com, “a recent study by the National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) found that 28.8% of Americans aged 65 or older said their personal lack of knowledge about personal finances caused them to lose $30,000 or more in their lifetimes”.   Unlike other prerequisite courses we have to take before we start taking electives, information from Personal Finance courses could be used the same day. You’re a college kid commuting working part-time. You don’t live on campus and don’t have a meal plan. How about setting up a monthly budget to eat out twice a week instead of every day? How about setting some money aside, maybe even $15-$20 to earmark for paying your loan once you graduate? How about signing up for a credit card for those meals, but making sure you are disciplined and use it in a manner so that you’ll know you’ll be able to pay it off in full each month and at the same time build your credit?   So when did you learn about Personal Finance (college, before, after)? How important do you think it is to teach it in college?     Main pic credit: Press Information Bureau  ______________________________________________________________________

I use because (1) it’s free, (2) it tracks all of my accounts and overall net worth, (3) my account balances automatically update, (4) it shows how my investments are diversified and allocated in various sectors, and (5) can use built-in tools like “Investment Checkup” to get….wait for it…free personalized advice! Read the full article

[dailybiblelessons]

Friday: Preparation for the Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Friday: Preparation for the Thirty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Revised Common Lectionary Proper 29 Roman Catholic Proper 34

Complementary Hebrew Scripture: 1 Chronicles 17:1-15

Now when David settled in his house, David said to the prophet Nathan, “I am living in a house of cedar, but the ark of the covenant of the Lord is under a tent.” Nathan said to David, “Do all that you have in mind, for God is with you.” But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying: Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the Lord: You shall not build me a house to live in. For I have not lived in a house since the day I brought out Israel to this very day, but I have lived in a tent and a tabernacle. Wherever I have moved about among all Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people, saying, Why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord of hosts: I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel; and I have been with you wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies before you; and I will make for you a name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall wear them down no more, as they did formerly, from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel; and I will subdue all your enemies.

Moreover I declare to you that the Lord will build you a house. When your days are fulfilled to go to be with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words and all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.

Semi-continuous Hebrew Scripture: Isaiah 40:1-11

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.

Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,  and cry to her that she has served her term,  that her penalty is paid,  that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord,  make straight in the desert a highway for our God.

“Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;  the uneven ground shall become level,  and the rough places a plain.

“Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,  and all people shall see it together,  for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”

A voice says, “Cry out!”  And I said, “What shall I cry?” All people are grass,  their constancy is like the flower of the field. The grass withers,  the flower fades,  when the breath of the Lord blows upon it;  surely the people are grass. The grass withers,  the flower fades;  but the word of our God will stand forever. Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion,  herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem,  herald of good tidings,  lift it up, do not fear;  say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

See, the Lord God comes with might,  and his arm rules for him;  his reward is with him,  and his recompense before him. He will feed his flock like a shepherd;  he will gather the lambs in his arms,  and carry them in his bosom,  and gently lead the mother sheep.

Complementary Psalm 95:1-7a

O come, let us sing to the Lord;  let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation! Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;  let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise! For the Lord is a great God,  and a great King above all gods. In his hand are the depths of the earth;  the heights of the mountains are his also. The sea is his, for he made it,  and the dry land, which his hands have formed.

O come, let us worship and bow down,  let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! For he is our God,  and we are the people of his pasture,  and the sheep of his hand.

Semi-continuous Psalm 100

<A Psalm of thanksgiving.> Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness;  come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God. It is he that made us, and we are his;  we are his people,  and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,  and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.

For the Lord is good;  his steadfast love endures forever,  and his faithfulness to all generations.

New Testament Lesson: Revelation 22:1-9

Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb through the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month; and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Nothing accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him; they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. And there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.

And he said to me, “These words are trustworthy and true, for the Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, has sent his angel to show his servants what must soon take place.”

“See, I am coming soon! Blessed is the one who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book.”

I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me; but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your comrades the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book. Worship God!”

Year A Ordinary 34, RCL Proper 29, Catholic Proper 34 Friday

 Bible verses from The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All right reserved. Selections from Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings, copyright 1985 by the Consultation on Common Texts. Image Credit: The Lamb on His Throne, image by Father Lawrence Lew, O.P., of a detail from the triumphal arch mosaic of Santa Prassede in Rome, via Flickr. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons 2.0 Attribution, No Derivatives, No Commercial Use license.

[ntprasetyo-blog]

His bones (of John Wycliffe of Oxford, England, ca. 1330-1384), however, were exhumed as a result of the condemnation of the Council of Constance. A contemporary chronicles wrote: "They burnt his bones to ashes and cast them into Swift, a neighboring brook running hard by. Thus the brook hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas; and they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrine which now is dispersed the world over".

Philip Schaff, The History of The Christian Church (New York: Scribner's, 1910), 5.2:325 in Peter A. Lillback, "The Forerunners of The Reformation," Unio Cum Christo: International Journal of Reformed Theology and Life (Vol.1, No.1-2/Fall 2015): 89.