Deus Misereatur

  Alexander the Great accomplished much and accumulated great swathes of lands and peoples. Most of those ventures are well documented and developed, but some corners of his expansive program are clouded with much unknowing. Frank L. Holt, professor of history at the University of Houston, award winning teacher and prolific author, presents some clarity in one corner of Alexander's empire building in the 260-page paperback "Into the Land of Bones". This is an account of Alexander's campaign into Bactria, modern-day Afghanistan. In writing the book in 2005, the American involvement in Afghanistan was in its infancy. Therefore, the author's purpose in writing this volume "is to place our present ordeal into a broader perspective, to provide a useful historical and cultural background for those who ask: Into what long history have we suddenly thrust ourselves and our armed forces" (16)? And though the book is not about the American actions in Afghanistan, h

  O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands (Psalm 63:1-4). It has been good to enter your great assembly; to earnestly seek you; to have our dry and thirsty souls quenched with you, O fountain of living waters. We pray for those who don’t know you and have never known the joy that you are and the life you give (…). May they hear your invitation and come to the festival. Also, Father, we pray for those who may feel themselves to be in a dry and weary land where there is no water. Maybe the parchedness is from their sickness or disease; maybe from depression or mental darkness of some kind; maybe from grief; possibly because of a long period of unsettledness an