Reading - The Bible

I was listening to Catholic radio this morning while out doing some errands, and there was discussion of love letters and the Bible.

The speaker noted that if a person gets a love letter from someone that person in turn loves, then the letter receiver likely reads the letter over and over again in its entirety.

The speaker then noted that the Bible is a love letter from God - but that all too often we only read it partly and sporadically.

The speaker then observed that for many years she read the entire Bible annually.  

I thought of my own Bible reading habits. I try to read it daily - in addition to reading the readings for Mass in advance. But there are days when I fail to read it. Over the years, I have read the New Testament several times, and some of those New Testament books multiple times. I have read parts of the Old Testament - some of the books a few times - but I have not read the entire Old Testament.

Now I've set some reading goals for this year. I plan to read at least 80 books/plays, 12 of them mystery books and 12 of them Shakespeare plays. In addition, I'm trying to read Tony Hillerman's Navajo mysteries, and some Dickens, as well as all of Robert Frost's published poetry books, though for none of those have I set a specific number to read this year.

At this point, by the way, I'm up to 34 books, 9 of them mysteries (5 of them Hillerman's), 6 of them Shakespeare plays, and 1 of them a Frost book. And I dug out some of the Dickens books I haven't read yet, but haven't started on them. So I'm well on my way to my various secular reading goals.  

But the Catholic radio program made me realize I do need to read the Bible in a more regular way, and I need to read all of it. 

Nourishment for my soul, and not just my mind. 

Moreover, I was listening to the show after having gone to confession - and one of the things I confessed was wasting my time on frivolous things like watching mindless or political television shows, playing online games, reading (and reacting to) social media posts, and so on. Father mentioned trying to make better use of my time, and he's a big promoter of reading the Bible. In fact, my penance was to read a particular Psalm each day this week leading up to Easter.

Hmmm. A sign?

I have several Bibles - the ones I read the most are the New American Bible, and the Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition. The RSVCE Bible has 1065 pages. If I were trying to read the entire Bible in a year, that would work out to just over 2.9 pages a day. Rounding it up, that's 3 pages a day.

So, that's my new goal. Three pages a day of the Bible, aiming to finish the entire Bible by March 29, 2022. Taking the hint from the Mass readings, I'll read part of the Old Testament and part of the New Testament  each day.  

I'm already reading Mark, so I'll begin there for the New Testament. And start Genesis,with a Psalm mixed in.

After all, it is a love letter. 

Pax et bonum

Hard Times - Hillbilly Thomists

Come, Follow Me // Brother Isaiah

The Daughter of Time (Tey)

I kept seeing references to The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey on a number of best mystery novel lists. The fact that it also dealt with history, and that the author is actually a Scottish writer by the name of Elizabeth MacKintosh, convinced me I had to read it.

I can see why it made those "best of"  lists. 

What a remarkable book. The plot makes sense, the characters are appealing, the writing is excellent, the premise - a modern, bed-ridden police investigator being caught up in and ancient murder case - was clever and skillfully handled.

And it also makes a compelling argument that Richard III was not the horrible, misshapen monster that killed his nephews that the Tudor sycophants and even Shakespeare tried to make him out to be.

I don't know the truth of the Richard case, but I do agree with those who rate this book high. It's one of the best mystery/police investigation books I have ever read. 

I want to read more by Tey.

Pax et bonum

Liberal Nun Claims Holy Spirit Led Her to Promote Joe Biden, Killing Babies in Abortions

Liberal Nun Claims Holy Spirit Led Her to Promote Joe Biden, Killing Babies in Abortions: Sister Simone Campbell, a leftist political activist and Catholic nun, is leaving her position as executive director of the social justice lobbying group Networ

Kamala's Hex

The cackle of Kamala Harris

inspired some actors in Dallas,

but their witch play died when they were hit

with the threatened hex of a tax audit.

Pax et bonum

Dickens (Yes, another reading goal!)

When I went to graduate school, one of my goals was to study under one of the leading Charles Dickens scholars in the U.S., George H. Ford. I had read a little of Dickens, and I wanted to read and learn more.

Alas, Ford went of sabbatical the year I entered grad school, and due to life and choices I made, I left after earning a Masters and before he returned.

I did read a little more Dickens, abut not nearly as many books as I should have.

I hope to remedy that as I read - adding Dickens to my goals concerning Shakespeare, mysteries, and Tony Hillerman, who, of course, fits in with my mystery goal.

Dickens wrote the following novels:

The Pickwick Papers 
Oliver Twist 
Nicholas Nickleby
The Old Curiosity Shop 
Barnaby Rudge 

Martin Chuzzlewit 
Dombey and Son 
David Copperfield
Bleak House
Hard Times 
Little Dorrit 
A Tale of Two Cities
Great Expectations 
Our Mutual Friend 
The Mystery of Edwin Drood 

I've already read David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations and the novella A Christmas Carol. David Copperfield, Bleak House, and Great Expectations are generally ranked as his best novels, so I'm in good shape there. 

Oliver Twist, Hard Times, The Old Curiosity Shop, Nicholas Nickleby, Our Mutual Friend, and The Pickwick Papers often rank high. 

I own David Copperfield, Bleak House, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations - all of which, as a I noted, I've already read - and The Pickwick Papers, Hard Times, Dombey and Son, Our Mutual Friend, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Old Curiosity Shop, none of  which I have read. Time to read them - and some of the others.  

Not setting a definite number goal for this year, but I'll try to read at least one of the previously unread ones.   

Pax et bonum

Plates (limerick)

There once was a young man from Gates

whose hobby was juggling plates.

When his mom saw the mess,

he had to confess

he shouldn't have tried it on skates.

Pax et bonum

Sigh.

It a recent debate on Facebook over illegal immigration, one fellow argued:

What if something to hide is you're harvesting most of the food we eat? If our harvest were left solely to the documented, we would have massive food shortages and prices would go up so fast most Americans would be clamoring to reopen the border within a month. The fact is our grocery store industry is just one of many dependent on low cost food, so how exactly are low paid grocery store workers supposed to keep their jobs as well once food chains have to cut labor costs?

The facts cited certainly seem to give weight to an argument about the issue. Of course, that's assuming the facts are accurate, and that this is the actual issue being addressed - but in neither case is this true.

First, the facts..

Harvesting most of the food we eat? Not true. While there are certain crops that rely on hand labor - melons, strawberries, iceberg lettuce, avocados, for example - the majority of our crops - and our most important crops - are harvested mechanically and do not rely on illegal immigrant labor. Those mechanically harvested crops include wheat, and corn - the bases of so many of our foods - soybeans, onions, carrots, potatoes, and so on. The crops that illegal immigrants are involved with harvesting represent a small part of the U.S. farm economy.

Massive food shortages? Hardly. Some foods, yes. But the staples (and most important to our diet) would still be harvested, and while we may not have as many strawberries to put on our breakfast corn flakes  or guacamole in which to dip our chips, we would still have that breakfast cereal and those chips (and bread, cookies, tofu, spaghetti ...) Also note that the crops harvested mechanically include the feed crops for cows and other farm animals, so meat and dairy products would not be affected. 

Plus, the majority of farm workers are here legally; it's estimated that illegal immigrants represent about 25% of the total - and again, they are concentrated in certain states and with certain crops that are not staples. 

Prices going up "so fast"? No, labor costs represent a small part of the overall cost of crops - one study I saw says that for apples - a N.Y. crop that uses farm labor for harvesting - labor costs are about 7% of the price; the rest is due to other expenses for growers, warehousing and shipping fees, and retailer's markup. So we are talking about one fourth of that 7% being affected - that comes to 1.75 percent of the cost - hardly a drastic jacking up of prices. And if this resulted in hiring more workers to offset the loss of the immigrants, the apple growers would likely have to increase wages, which, if passed on to consumers, might result in a 3% increase in price. Not outrageous - look how gas prices go up rapidly on a regular basis - and again, this is only for a crop that is not a staple and does not make up the bulk of what we consume. 

As for the threat of low-paid grocery store workers losing their jobs, that is already happening. Wegmans, Tops, and other grocery stores locally, for example, as well as pharmacies and even the state Thruway tollbooths, have already installed some self-check-out aisles. While it likely does have something to do with cutting labor costs, there is nothing to indicate that it has anything to do with the issue of illegal immigrants.

So the facts do not hold up.

Moreover, are you saying we should make moral/ethical decisions based on cost? Yes, some people do, but we view such decision-making in a negative light. And do you really want to accuse us of being among those people? I know I try to buy local rather than from large corporation, even though that might mean a few cents more in cost.

And what of the exploitation of those illegal immigrant  workers? The low pay, the poor - even dangerous - working conditions, the lack of health care and Social Security and other benefits? People don't care? This seems a low opinion of people. I know I try to keep ethical considerations in deciding what to buy and consume.

Plus, this sounds like trying to justify hiring illegal workers to keep costs down to benefit us. That's one of the arguments supporters of slavery used to make to justify slave labor. Not good company.

Moreover, it's estimated that only 2-4% of illegal immigrants are involved in agricultural work - so this food cost argument is really a side issue. It's akin to the argument advanced by those who in support of legal abortion that we have to keep it legal because of instances of pregnancy due to rape and incest. They are using the extreme cases to justify abortion. Also not good company. 

This flawed - and ultimately false - food cost argument simply does not really address the real issue of illegal immigration.

Some of my sources - 

No, America's Farmers Don't Rely On Illegal Immigrants | National Economics Editorial

https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/09/illegal-immigration-american-farming-economic-myths-debunked/. 

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/low-paid-illegal-work-force-has-little-impact-on-prices/

Pax et bonum

Praying Outside Planned Parenthood

Yeah, I'm in there (look for the white beard under the woman's face).

And here's what happened to the Planned Parenthood where we used to pray!

Pax et bonum

Told You: Biden Supports Homosexual Marriages - National Catholic Register

But he's a devout Catholic, right?

After Vatican Says Same-Sex Unions Cannot be Blessed, White House Reaffirms Biden’s Support for Them| National Catholic Register: When asked by a reporter on Monday if the president had a response to the Vatican’s statement, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said he had no “personal...

Juan

The exact date and details are not certain.

As best I know, it happened in May of 1983.

Juan left the apartment he shared with his Aleut girlfriend. He apparently had money with him - thousands of dollars.

He drove away. She never saw him again.

Later, his car was found parked in a University of Alaska parking lot.

It's not known whether he drove it there himself, or it was later moved there. At least not officially known.

Police say the story they got was that he was involved with a drug deal, but that he was doing it with folks who had a grudge against him for turning state's evidence in a case. Or it could have been that the deal had just gone bad.

Whatever the case, his body had been flown and dropped in the back country where hungry nature concealed the evidence.

The police apparently did not view the case as a priority. He'd had a number of run-ins with the law. When our father flew up there to investigate for himself, one officer supposedly told him, "Scum kill scum." 

Father followed up one lead he'd gotten. He approached the address he'd been given, then he had to run when someone shot at him. He came home after arranging for Juan's clothes and remaining possessions to be shipped to our parent's home.

Mother washed, ironed, folded, and stored all of his clothes. I still found them stored when I had to clean out the house after she died in 2005. Dad by then was living in a nursing home. He died in 2010.

Juan was eventually declared legally dead. I gave a DNA sample as his brother, for comparison and identification just in case remains were ever found. 

So far, no remains have been identified.  

I have a few of his pictures, music tapes, and identification papers, what's left of his coin collection after his "friends" had apparently looted much of it, and a Greek fisherman's cap he had given me in 1982 at the last Christmas I had seen him.

I wore it regularly for several years, but eventually stopped so that it wouldn't get ruined. 

I put it on the other day.

It still fits.

Thanks Juan.

I miss you.

Pax et bonum

VATICAN SLAMS THE DOOR ON GAY UNIONS

VATICAN SLAMS THE DOOR ON GAY UNIONS

Vatican: No to blessing homosexual unions

https://thedeaconsbench.com/vatican-no-blessing-of-same-sex-unions/ 

Pax et bonum

Vatican's "No"

Seems pretty clear - no blessing of homosexual unions. From the AP - 

The Vatican decreed Monday that the Catholic Church cannot bless 

same-sex unions since God “cannot bless sin.”

The Vatican’s orthodoxy office, the Congregation for the 

Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal response Monday 

to a question about whether Catholic clergy can bless gay unions.

The answer, contained in a two-page explanation 

published in seven languages and approved 

by Pope Francis, was “negative.” ...

https://apnews.com/article/vatican-decree-same-sex-unions-cannot-bless-sin-077944750c975313ad253328e4cf7443

Pax et bonum

Cuomo's "No"

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo

says, "No means no."

Or at least it does when he says it about quitting,

but allegedly not when said by women on whom he's hitting.

Pax et bonum

The Diary of a County Priest (Bernanos)

I just finished The Diary of a Country Priest by Georges Bernanos, one of those Catholic classics constantly touted as one of those books "you have to read."

I think I may have read it before - decades ago. But i'm not certain, Some parts of it seem familiar, but not the book as a whole. It could be I started it - I have an old copy that's been gathering dust on my bookshelf for decades - or it could be I read about it along the way.

If I did try to read it before, I can see why I might have had a hard time with it. I don't think I was ready for it when I was younger. Some of the spiritual reflections by the protagonist were difficult to follow, and, to be honest, hit close to home. His doubts about himself were too uncomfortably familiar, and I can see myself having been afraid of their implications. 

All that bloviating aside, I can see now why it is considered a Catholic classic. I recommend it heartily, though maybe a little nervously. I think you have to be in the right frame of mind - and spiritual life - to fully appreciate it. It challenges one to look at one's own relationship with God.

I know I am glad I finally read - or reread - it.

Pax et bonum

Some photos

Pax et bonum

Henry IV Part II (Shakespeare)

My quest to read all of Shakespeare's plays continued with Henry IV Part II, meaning that there are now 20 of his credited 38 plays under my breeches.

This particular play was part of a group of four, and I'd already read the other three - Richard II, Henry IV Part I, and Henry V.

The play read like a sequel - which it is. Henry (IV) had begun to emerge from his wastrel ways in the previous play, and to begin to escape the negative influence of Falstaff. That is completed in this play, but, to be honest, it's less satisfactory than Part I. And there's too much Falstaff - I guess he appealed to certain members of the audience, so Shakespeare gave them what they wanted.

Ah well.

Not sure which one I'll read next. I'm up to 6 plays this year en route to my mini goal of 12 for the year, I suspect I will surpass that total.

Here's the life-time tally so far:

Henry IV Part II

Antony and Cleopatra

The Life and Death of King John

Twelfth Night

The Tragedy of Richard II

As You Like It

Richard III
The Taming of the Shrew
Romeo and Juliet
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
The Merchant of Venice
Henry IV Part I
Henry V
Julius Caesar
Hamlet
Othello
King Lear
Macbeth
The Winter’s Tale

The Tempest.   

Pax et bonum

The Dove's Serenade

a lone mourning dove

serenades the crescent moon

and one walking here

Pax et bonum

Thanks Bob

An actual quotation turned into a cinquain - 

Just then

I realized

I had gotten so old

that I buy quilts and take pictures

of barns.

Pax et bonum

Our Help Is in the Name of the Lord / The Hillbilly Thomists

Andrew Cuomo Needs Our Prayers

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is facing increasing calls for his resignation in the wake of revelations about his mishandling of the COVID crisis, leading to thousands of deaths, and the multiple inappropriate sexual behavior allegations.

I'm of two minds when it comes to this.

The less Christian part of me wants to celebrate his possible political destruction.

The Christian/Franciscan part of me immediately steps in and says such thoughts and celebration are wrong, and we need to pray for him.

I prayed for him at Mass this morning.

But I have been warning about him for years. I've been concerned about his positions on issues - particularly abortion - his dismissal of Christians, pro-lifers, and conservatives, and his flouting of his Catholic upbringing while openly ignoring that faith's teachings. Below is a sample of some of the things I've posted over the years:

(6/3/20)

(4/21/2020)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
derisively dismisses excommunication's potential blow.
"I stopped being Catholic, after all,
when I embraced Moloch and Ba'al." (1/30/2019)

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo
might now be listening to the winter winds blow.
But I can't help but wonder if when he's dying
the sound that will haunt him will be of aborted babies crying. (1/27/2019)

Sodom on the Hudson (1/26/19) - https://paxchristirochester.blogspot.com/2019/01/sodom-on-hudson.html

Governor Andrew Cuomo,
if he has White House dreams should know,
his liberal New York values are viewed
by most of the nation as skewed. (8/9/2018)

Catholic Voters (11/8/2012) - https://paxchristirochester.blogspot.com/2012/11/catholic-voters-who-betrayed-their-faith.html

"The right to wed," said Andrew Cuomo,
"should be granted to all members of the genus homo.
But I can't be bothered with the right to wed
the woman who shares my bed." (10/6/2010)

We need to keep him in our prayers. 

Pax et bonum

huddled

huddled beneath

blankets while the heater clicks -

listen to the wind

Pax et bonum

Alfred Hitchcock (Clerihew)

Alfred Hitchcock

developed a bad case of writer's block

despite his use of a bran muffin

as the MacGuffin.

Pax et bonum

Save us indeed!

By Phil Lawler  | Mar 03, 2021

Do you wonder why many Catholics have grown cynical about their bishops?

The Pillar news site reports that this year’s budget for the Archdiocese of Washington includes $2 million for the “continuing ministry” of Cardinal Donald Wuerl— who resigned from active ministry nearly two years ago amid what polite people call questions about his role in the McCarrick scandal.

Two million dollars. $2,000,000.00. That comes out to almost $5,500 every day to support the retired cardinal in doing… what? The archdiocesan budget does not specify what the “continuing ministry” involves.

Sadly, the Washington archdiocese was forced to cut its “archdiocesan charitable giving” by 30% this year, Pillar reports. Charitable giving is allocated just a bit over $400,000, or one-fifth of the Wuerl-maintenance allotment. Which, by the way, is up 35% from the previous fiscal year.

Another new Catholic-news source, Exaudi, boasts an exclusive interview with Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, who sounds just a bit defensive about the bishops’ role in the Covid lockdown:

… Pope Francis and the bishops around the world did not close down our churches and schools because the government told us to. We closed our churches out of love for the souls entrusted to our care, especially the elderly and vulnerable.

I see. And it’s pure coincidence, then, that in one jurisdiction after another, the bishops, motivated solely by their concern for souls, closed down their churches immediately after the secular authorities ordered lockdowns. Even at the Vatican— which, bear in mind, is a sovereign state— St. Peter’s basilica barred visitors a few hours after the City of Rome closed off access to St. Peter’s Square.

Archbishop Gomez continues:

As I said, the Catholic Church in California has supported and cooperated with public officials’ efforts to contain the spread of this deadly disease, including closing our schools and suspending public worship. We took these steps, not because the government issued an order, but because our God is love and he calls us to love for our neighbors.

God also calls us to offer public worship, but leave that aside. Isn’t it remarkable that in one diocese after another, the bishop’s concrete expressions of love for his flock dovetailed so neatly with public officials’ edicts?

To be fair, in recent weeks a number of bishops have protested the continued tight restrictions on public worship. There have also been a few bishops insisting that they will keep restrictions in place even after government regulations are lifted. There is no longer the same tight symmetry between the bishops’ orders and those issued by civic officials that we saw last year.

Still, even after the Brooklyn diocese won a clear-as-day Supreme Court ruling that the Covid epidemic has not erased the First Amendment, American bishops have been notably reluctant to challenge intrusive government restrictions— to announce that they will set their own standards for public worship, thank you very much, and if the governor wants tighter restrictions, we’ll see you in court.

You might, by force of habit, look to Rome for inspirational leadership. Alas you might be disappointed. In the Catholic Herald, Christopher Altieri takes a careful look at the current Vatican trial of two clerics charged with sexual abuse of seminarians inside the Vatican’s own walls. The case presented by prosecutors raised some obvious concerns about how Cardinal Angelo Comastri responded when the abuse was first reported. The cardinal himself is not a defendant in this case, however. And that is the point.

Cardinal Comastri could have been investigated, Altieri observes, under the sweeping terms of Vos Estis, the 2019 document in which Pope Francis provided for disciplinary action against negligent bishops. But apparently no such investigation has been launched. Because, you see, Vos Estis makes it possible for the Vatican to investigate a bishop, but does not make the investigation mandatory. Altieri sums things up:

Lots of people can order or request a Vos estis investigation, but nobody must order or request its activation. In other words: if the law has a trigger, lots of fingers may be on it but none of them have to pull it.

So if you’re wondering when Catholic bishops will be held to account for their leadership and stewardship, short of the Pearly Gates… keep wondering.

https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/from-feckless-episcopal-leadership-lord-save-us/

Pax et bonum

Eucharistic Coherence? Maybe ...

https://osvnews.com/2021/03/02/gomez-u-s-bishops-working-group-set-up-last-november-completes-work/

Pax et bonum

Some cinquains

While researching a possible article about Adelaide Crapsey, the originator of the cinquain, I tried to compile the cinquains that I've written. I'm not sure if this is all of them, but it's a start.
 
The pope’s
infallible
when it comes to matters
of faith and morals, but not the
weather. 
 
G. K.
Chesterton stood
before the throne of God
telling a rollicking tale, and
God laughed.
 
 
The stars
in their beauty
provide proof God exists.
Skeptic crumples an argument
that failed.
 
With each
beer I savor,
I think of the monks who
brewed such fine brews, bow my head, and
thank God.
 
Death claims
Stephen Hawking.
Now he finally knows
just Who really was behind the
Big Bang.

 
As I
walk I see so
many abandoned shrines, 
but then spot one with fresh flowers -
faith lives.
 
Behold,
Brother Death comes
to help celebrate not
our end, but our transition to
Heaven.
 
A priest
silently prays
in the back of the church,
and just then, somewhere, someone's soul
is stirred.
 
 
Adam,
along with Eve,
chose to disobey God
closing Eden’s gates for both them
and us.
 
Her child,
conceived in an
unplanned moment, now waits
helplessly, innocently, for
her choice.
 
The moon,
hidden tonight,
like all the secrets kept
carefully concealed behind clouds
of words.
 
 
My love,
haloed by sun
during our honeymoon.
Leafing through our album before
night falls.
 
Your smile,
so radiant,
overwhelms the darkness
in my heart and replaces it
with light.

 

Matthew

left his table

to respond to the call

to share with all the Lord’s message

of love

He learned
nothing he said
was free of consequence,
so he chose to retreat into

silence.

 
Walking
the dog shrouded
in the predawn darkness,
and then … then … suddenly, Easter
sunrise.

 If all
you focus on
is the darkness, then all
you'll know is darkness. Choose instead
the light.

Blessed
now Solanus
Casey, holy doorman,
may you inspire us always to
give thanks.


Two hearts
once out of sync,
now beat in harmony
and will until that day both fall
silent.


Heart-felt
mea culpas
are sometimes not enough
to soothe the hearts of those who felt
betrayed.
 
Austen’s
novels are full
of satire and romance;
it's sadly ironic she died
alone.
 
Giving
morality
the cold shoulder might just,
in the end, lead you to a place
that's hot.
 
All those
old photographs
of Adelaide Crapsey
fail to reveal the depths that birthed
cinquains.
 
 
Moments
of pain confirm
'that, despite his cold stare,
that pale, black-hooded one has not
won yet.
 
A vase,
perfect in form,
leaps from its niche convinced
its Creator erred, and ends up
shattered.
 
A cat
snares a robin
just beneath a nest where
three eggs will now likely remain
unhatched.
 
 
As I
walk I see so
many abandoned shrines, 
but then spot one with fresh flowers -
faith lives.
 
If you
see Godzilla,
remember that he is
another one of God's creatures,
then run.
 
Clumsy
astronaut steps
on insect-like creature
and is held on Planet X for
murder.
 
Star ship,
boldly going
where no man or woman
has gone before, brought down by poor
ratings.
 
Life form,
so alien
people run from it in
terror, is itself so aghast
it flees.
 
two moons
rise above the
lunatic asylum
inspiring the Martian inmates
to howl
 
 
He longed
to kiss her lips
but was uncertain which
pair of her lips it would be safe
to kiss.
 
This world,
silent except
for the rattling of
the colony ship’s wreckage in
the wind.

Some find

a crow's cawing

ugly and tinged with death,

but I hear hints of loneliness

and love.

What if

we discover

that for Planet Earth we're

basically an invasive

species?

The moon
behind the clouds
watching the world like a
shy girl seeking shelter behind
curtains.

Weather Forecast

Watching
the clouds racing
across the sky like wild
stallions fleeing what they know is
coming

Even

then, I knew when

my father said the carp

flopping on the fire felt no pain,

he lied.

Edgar
Allan Poe seemed
a very troubled soul.
But the tales he left us trouble
our dreams.

Peter

and Judas both
regretted betraying
Jesus, but Peter trusted God's

mercy.

Full moon,

obscured tonight

by the clouds and my grief,

in spite of those clouds and that grief

still shines

After
years of delving
into the mysteries
of nature he humbly knelt and

thanked God 

If a
silvery full
moon will inspire true love,
will a hazy half moon inspire
just lust?

The world's

agog over

today's World Cup final.

But for this game and sport I just

feel nil.

The moon

tonight, observed

through freshly-leaved branches,

shares just enough light to taunt the .

shadows.

When he

awoke, he sighed,

“It was just a bad dream.”

Then he saw on his body, the

scratches.

After

death, the skeptic

discovered while he’d been

focused on his doubts he’d missed

the point.

Pax et bonum

Faith & Witness

I had a good conversations with the editor of Faith & Witness, a publication of St. Irenaeus Ministries here in Rochester. He had heard that I wrote poetry, and that prompted our conversation.

Faith & Witness had not been published in print since 2016, and there have only been sporadic articles online since that time. The editor wants to resurrect the publication developing it online and with a goal of perhaps publishing a quarterly with the best of the online material. 

He mentioned that in addition to the kinds of essays and reviews they've run in the past he's interested in making it more literary in nature, with short stories, plays, novels in installments, and children's stories - in addition to the poetry. The focus will still be keeping the material classical and/or Catholic in nature.

He was hoping that I would be interested in contributing.

I sent him some of my poems to start - clerihews, haiku, and cinquains. I have some other things in mind that I've already written.

But I'm also thinking about new material.

One idea hit me earlier today. I'm currently reading a collection of Peter Maurin's Easy Essays. They are catechetical pieces about theology, politics, philosophy and more in a free verse poetic style - almost as if Walt Whitman had found faith!

Could I do some of those?

Much to think about. 

Pax et bonum