THE PHANTOM PRINTER The phantom printer sometimes sneaks in and plops something into the Book of Common Prayer which I’ve never really seen—or at least appreciated— before. At our last baptism, He did it once again. On page 308, part of the post-baptismal prayer reads “give them an inquiring and discerning heart.” Therein lies a huge assumption. I understand these words to mean that they are NOT merely to accept everything read or told to them blindly; they are to THINK, evaluate, and decide, guided by God’s Holy Spirit. To make it personal, we are to use [as Richard Hooker laid out in one of the three legs of the Anglican stool, in addition to the Bible and church tradition], reason. And note that it’s our heart we’re to use, meaning we’re invested in the process, not just analytical. As a practical matter, I gather that we are to use our God-given brains [the original computers!] to figure out how eternal truths apply to us in our lives, in our times. Quite an order—but is there anything more worthwhile?