We who must die demand a miracle.
How could the Eternal do a temporal act,
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible.
We who must die demand a miracle.
W.H. Auden, For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.
We who must die demand a miracle.
How could the Eternal do a temporal act,
The Infinite become a finite fact?
Nothing can save us that is possible.
We who must die demand a miracle.
W.H. Auden, For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio.
I know the title question will produce “Well, duuuuuh!” from some quarters, but I’ve heard it argued on and off for years that Christianity is not a religion. Yesterday, I read something that seems to frame the question differently. I frame the question as I do because what I read so framed it by calling Christianity “the end of religion.” Continue reading “Is Christianity “a Religion”?”
Oops! Somehow I overlooked these three when I posted this morning. Continue reading “More poetry (omitted inadvertently)”
As I grow older, I increasingly appreciate poetry. I’m a rank amateur, no doubt, having been mostly indifferent and tone-deaf when people were trying to teach me about poetry. Now I don’t even qualify as an autodidact, because I don’t study it. I just read it. Some of it I like well enough to pass along. Continue reading “Periodic poetry links (formerly Haikuly yours)”
Cynicism denies God’s goodness. Envy denies that the earth is His, and the fullness thereof. Continue reading “Cynicism, envy and God”
Writer’s Almanac
Had permission to reprint
I don’t have. So here:
And then a few from places other than Writer’s Almanac:
The gallows in my garden, people say,
Is new and neat and adequately tall;
I tie the noose on in a knowing way
As one that knots his necktie for a ball;
But just as all the neighbours – on the wall –
Are drawing a long breath to shout “Hurray!”
The strangest whim has seized me. . . . After all
I think I will not hang myself to-day.To-morrow is the time I get my pay –
My uncle’s sword is hanging in the hall –
I see a little cloud all pink and grey –
Perhaps the rector’s mother will not call – I fancy that I
heard from Mr. Gall
That mushrooms could be cooked another way –
I never read the works of Juvenal –
I think I will not hang myself to-day.The world will have another washing-day;
The decadents decay; the pedants pall;
And H.G. Wells has found that children play,
And Bernard Shaw discovered that they squall,
Rationalists are growing rational –
And through thick woods one finds a stream astray
So secret that the very sky seems small –
I think I will not hang myself to-day.ENVOI
Prince, I can hear the trumpet of Germinal,
The tumbrils toiling up the terrible way;
Even to-day your royal head may fall,
I think I will not hang myself to-day.– by G.K. Chesterton. The glory of the everyday.
(HT: The Pickled Apple blog)
Hear the voice
of those who in all honesty
feel bound to choose
the cold
outside your house.
…
You are goodness
and I find you
in people who do not confess you.
Dom Helder Camara in Dom Helder Camara: Essential Writings, Francis McDonaugh, ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009), p. 115.
(HT: Catholicanarchy.org)
Sorry if these seem a bit top-heavy on death obsession.
Hear the voice
of those who in all honesty
feel bound to choose
the cold
outside your house.
…
You are goodness
and I find you
in people who do not confess you.
Dom Helder Camara in Dom Helder Camara: Essential Writings, Francis McDonaugh, ed. (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2009), p. 115.
I’m going to link to two good blogs today without much comment.
Father Stephen can be amazing at turning reality a few degrees to give new perspective, as when he asks “why is there goodness in the world?” and adds that he wants to be part of the problem (thus, tacitly, not of the solution).
(Time to clean out my queue)
Writer’s Almanac
Had permission to reprint
I don’t have. So here:
A nice essay at the Image Journal blog about the experience of packing everything in a 3 x 3 box (and some luggage) and starting life over again across the continent.
Though we were never quite so destitute, this brings back memories of what it was like to be a newlywed — 38 years ago to the day.