A Friday End-of-the-Week Though About Whatever Happened To That "Wild Ride" We're Supposed to Get?

 

Now that Friday's arrived, we thought we'd recall that previously referenced a "wild ride" that was to be expected this fall - at least in the markets, if not in our political and social lives. What happened to it? Doesn't it seem relatively calm, even upbeat lately?

Well, for one thing, we did have two assassination attempts on one of the two candidates for President, who happens to also be a former President of the United States. Of course, since he's so disliked - even despised and hated - by a chunk of the major (or as we now call it "legacy") media, reporting on the attempts pop up now and then, but have pretty much been put to bed. No need to stir up sympathy for the Big Orange Man now, is there?

Aside from this, though, and the occasional demonstration against the Israeli government, with accompanying sparks of antisemitism, social disruption hasn't exploded as some had predicted it would. Then again, many such predictions focus on the election and post-election - and we're not there yet.

As for markets - specifically the stock market, that darling of the financial media - we're getting record highs in 2 of the Big Three (Dow, S&P, NASDAQ). Aside from a few days of semi-panic, no crash yet. And with the Fed cutting their Fed Funds rate a hefty 50 basis points - now along with China's firehouse injection into its failing economy - could it be that the powers that be will yet again derail the normal playing out of the economic and market cycles that once managed to unfold on their own, without the help of those whose hubris makes them think they are the true "Guiding Hand" of the economy - and, frankly, the rest of our lives.

Well, September's not over yet. And October may be the hidden trap that awaits the weary hunter as he or she fights through the jungle growth that obscures the vision of the astute financial manager and investor. We'll have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, normal everyday life continues for the rest of us hobbits who inhabit our little shires, the vast majority of regular folks going about their private lives even as business and governments worm their way into those ordinary lives with their intrusive technology. And while such intrusion cannot be fought in any meaningful way, we can so go on with life as if it were not the obnoxious, even threatening nose of a camel under our respective tents.

One way to so go about life is to center it on prayer and work - in latin, "ora et labora." This is the stuff for which the which the Rule of St. Benedict was written as a guide to those who would work and pray in order to eventually grow closer to God and wind up in Heaven at the end of their run in this Vale of Tears. So switching to this arguably MUCH MORE IMPORTANT part of our daily life, we arrive at a prayer that comes up every Friday in the traditional Divine Office.

If "Divine Office" doesn't ring a bell, it's simply the practice of praying throughout the day (and night), typically practiced by monks living with the enclosure of a monastery. Not that all modern monks do so pray, and not that that those who do pray the traditional Office, but that was the practice for centuries before the wise guy modernists began dis-assembling the tradition that guided Christians for almost two millennia. (Don't get me started.)

In any case, in Friday's series of prayers, recited at the hour of Prime (there being seven "hours" plus one during the night at which prayers are chanted in a traditional monastery), we find this from Psalm 21:

 

21:2 O God my God, look upon me: why hast thou forsaken me? * Far from my salvation are the words of my sins.
21:3 O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: * and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
21:4 But thou dwellest in the holy place, * the praise of Israel.
21:5 In thee have our fathers hoped: * they have hoped, and thou hast delivered them.
21:6 They cried to thee, and they were saved: * they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
21:7 But I am a worm, and no man: * the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people.
21:8 All they that saw me have laughed me to scorn: * they have spoken with the lips, and wagged the head.
21:9 He hoped in the Lord, let him deliver him: * let him save him, seeing he delighteth in him.
21:10 For thou art he that hast drawn me out of the womb: * my hope from the breasts of my mother. I was cast upon thee from the womb.
21:11 From my mother’s womb thou art my God, * depart not from me.
21:12 For tribulation is very near: * for there is none to help me.

 

Okay, maybe this was more than you bargained for when you began perusing this post. But really it's an especially appropriate one if: you've had a busy, tiring week of labor; you've had a life that's been less than stellar when it comes to the spiritual side of things. Read again (thoughtfully) and maybe you'll catch the drift here.

On the other hand, this still being a sort of free country, you're welcome to ignore it, ignore any thoughts of impending trouble, and go about living a life bereft of prayer and work offered up for the greater glory of God.

Either way, the last weekend of September looms. Wild ride or not, welcome Mr. Weekend!