Experience of life: its routines; the workaday world; home leisure, reassuring in their way, buttress our sense of life’s rational elements, its continuity upholding our need for a beginning, a middle, and an end, and awareness of place along the line, holding off conflicts that bear no resolution: the creep of illness and indifference; the […]
That I did always love I bring thee Proof That till I loved I never lived—Enough— That I shall love alway— I argue thee That love is life— And life hath Immortality— This—dost thou doubt—Sweet— Then have I Nothing to show But Calvary— — Emily Dickinson (Poem 549)
It doesn’t seem to me that this fantastically marvelous universe, this tremendous range of time and space and different kinds of animals, and all the different planets, and all these atoms with all their motions, and so on, all this complicated thing can merely be a stage so that God can watch human beings struggle […]
Say “death” and the whole room freezes— even the couches stop moving, even the lamps. Like a squirrel suddenly aware it is being looked at. Say the word continuously, and things begin to go forward. Your life takes on the jerky texture of an old film strip. Continue saying it, hold it moment after moment […]
You have to wonder what kind of reflection it is on a man’s life if on the way to the cemetery his hearse gets a flat tire? Coincidence? Maybe. Perhaps we should focus not on the incident itself, but on how his family and friends react? That is where the choice is, where grace happens, […]
I heard this excerpt quoted from Fr. Richard John Neuhaus (who passed away earlier this month) on the radio. It is from his closing address to the annual convention of the National Right to Life Committee held last July. (Read the whole talk). The culture of death is an idea before it is a deed. […]
It doesn’t interest me if there is one God or many gods. I want to know if you belong or feel abandoned. If you know despair or can see it in others. I want to know if you are prepared to live in the world […]
O ME! O life!… of the questions of these recurring; Of the endless trains of the faithless— of cities fill’d with the foolish; Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?) Of eyes that vainly crave the light— […]
Old bumper sticker read, “Shit Happens”. To be more positive, I wanted one to say, “Life Happens”. Now I think it should say, “Grace Happens”.
You will walk toward the mirror, closer and closer, then flow into the glass. You will disappear some day like that, being more real, more true, at the last. You learn what you are, but slowly, a baby, a boy, a man, a self often shattered, and pieces put together again till the end: you […]
The song “Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel is a catchy little song played over the closing credits at the end of the movie, WALL•E. The song fits perfectly with the ending of the movie and with its hopeful allusion to the future. After further listening, I noticed that the song is dripping with great […]
Near the end of the film Into Great Silence (technically it is a film, but it is something more), there is an interview with an old, blind monk. The years of solitude do not wear heavy on him. He is truly happy, and peace envelopes him, coming to you even through the camera lens. His […]
From Br. Joseph — We are called to help each other to heaven. The last paragraph to C.S. Lewis’ sermon, “The Weight of Glory”, is extraordinary writing. Lewis, contrary to the times, is not afraid to talk about heaven. He reminds us, whether we acknowledge it aloud to ourselves or not, that heaven is our […]
As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves—goes itself; myself it […]
Part of me feels heavy with anticipation of Good Friday. The Passion always makes me hang my spiritual head low. All is His pain and suffering and loneliness. Part of me feels light and giddy with anticipation for Easter. The Easter Vigil Mass is my favorite Mass of the whole year. The joy is hard […]
Romano Guardini, in his book The Lord, describes how it was supposed to be: God has shaped human life mysteriously indeed. Man’s essence is meant to leap up to its God and return with the life it has [received] from him. Man should live in a downward-sweeping movement that begins in heaven, not from earth […]
In one day, yesterday, I noticed the hint of green among the barren trees along the road sides. The blossoms on the Bradford pear trees are beginning to open, preparing to share their white bouques with the world. The pair of swallows returned to their mud nest over the porch. A bull frog could be […]
I have had several people at different times tell me in counsel to “live my faith.” I was usually struggling through something at the time, a bit lost and confused about certain things, and my initial response every time was, “How? What does it mean to live out your faith?” They did their best to […]
Life is like a pearl: it needs a grain of sand at its center—death—as the irritant, the enemy, to stimulate the production of the mother-of-pearl of life around it. But death remains at its center. At the heart of life there is death. Death is our being. Man is mortal. — Peter Kreeft, Love is […]
The song “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence as been playing on popular radio stations lately. It has an edgy rock sound, and the lead singer has an incredible voice. But when I read the lyrics (after my previous entry), it gave me goose bumps…
Over this past weekend, I felt compelled to get involved in an ethical debate on abortion in the comment section of Gil Milbauer’s weblog A Reasonable Man. The discussion has been mostly cool-headed with a couple stimulating comments from others. For me, I knew before hand that I was not going to change anybody’s opinion. […]
Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint on it you can. — Danny Kaye