Blog
Prince of Peace
Octavian Augustus, first emperor of Rome, was known by many titles, including Divi Filius (Son of God), and Princeps Pacis (Prince of Peace). An inscription in Asia Minor states that Augustus's birth "... has been for the whole world the beginning of the gospel...
A World Transfigured
A fragment of an unpublished poem on the Solemnity of the Transfiguration: Wholly Mystery, whom I dare approach,and in nearing nearly apprehendnot you so much as the gulf between,suffer these, my poor petitions,my tepid desires, as a motherabides her child’s tedious...
Indelibly Marked
In which I review three poets writing in the Catholic vein. Photo Credit: Luis Sánchez Saturno, The New Mexican
Science, Poetry, and the Imagination
In light of necessary COVID restrictions, the Glen Workshop, an annual gathering of writers, visual artists, musicians, and anyone interested in what happens at the intersection of art, faith, and mystery, will be held online this year (July 27-31) rather than on the...
Reflections on the Pandemic
I have two thematically-related, Wendell Berry-inflected essays on living through the COVID-19 pandemic that were posted today. Fill out your reading list here or ponder what limits mean for health in community here. Image of Wendell Berry from Center for Interfaith...
What Hasn’t Changed
Last month, in a post on gun violence and the growing understanding of Robert Kennedy, I mentioned the 1963 meeting between Kennedy, James Baldwin, and other civil rights leaders that went disastrously awry. The consequences of that gathering proved varied and...
The Curse of Interesting Times
What historians of the future will make of this week’s events on Capitol Hill is more than any of us can know. It may seem the United States can hardly grow more divided and angry, but that, I fear, is wishful thinking, an understandable attempt to deny the ongoing...
Why?
There was nearly a murder a day in my adopted city of Baltimore in 2019; the official total being 348. The casualties in this ongoing, undeclared, and pointless war fell once again most heavily on African-American families. We are a very long way from “the dream” well...
The Journey of the Magi
It’s the Feast of the Epiphany in the West and of the Theophany in the East, and though T S Eliot’s Ariel Poem, “The Journey of the Magi,” gets trotted rather often this time of year, there’s still something in the words that makes me shiver. From the slightly...
Christmas Eve
Cum ortus fúerit sol de cælo, vidébitis Regem regum procedéntem a Patre, tamquam sponsum de thálamo suo. When the sun rises in the heavens you will see the king of kings. He comes forth from the Father like a bridegroom coming in splendor from his wedding chamber. For...
