ON BEING A FATHER

Poem for Today - Father's Day - June 1, 2014

TO MY CHILDREN,

FEARING FOR THEM

Terrors are to come. The earth

is poisoned with narrow lives.

I think of you. What will you

live through, or perish by, eats

at my heart. What have I done?

I need better answers than there are

to the pain of coming to see

what was done in blindness,

loving what I cannot save. Nor,

your eyes turning towards me,

can I wish your lives unmade

though the pain of them is on me.

© Wendell Berry,

Pages 59-60 in

Collected Poems

1957-1982

FLY IN THE SPACE 

YOU'RE IN!

Poem for Today - Saturday  June 14, 2014

EXAMPLE

A butterfly flew between the cars.
Marie Jose said: it must be Chuang Tzu,

on a tour of  New York.

                 But the butterfly

didn’t know it was a butterfly

dreaming it was Chuang Tzu

                 or Chuang Tzu

dreaming he was a butterfly.
The butterfly never wondered:

                                  It flew.

EJEMPLO

La mariposa volaba entre los autos.
Marie Jose me dijo: ha der ser Chuang Tzu,

de paso por Nueva York.

Pero la mariposa

no sabia que era una mariposa

que sonaba ser Chuang Tzu

o Chuang Tzu

que sonaba ser una mariposa.

La mariposa no dudaba:

volaba.

© Octavio Paz,

Page 488-489

In The Collected

Poems of Octavio Paz,

1957-1987

LONG  KNEELING

Poem for Today - Friday -  June 13, 2014

IN A COUNTRY CHURCH

To one kneeling down no word came,
Only the wind’s song, saddening the lips

Of the grave saints, rigid in glass;

Or the dry whisper of unseen winds,

Bats not angels, in  the high roof.

Was he balked by silence? He kneeled long,

And saw love in a dark crown

Of thorns blazing, and a winter tree

Golden with fruit of a man’s body.

© R. S. Thomas
Painting on top:
Christmas Prayers
by Henry Bacon

SPRINGS! 

DISCOVER AND DIG 
AND DRINK DEEP 

OF  THE SPRINGS 

OF LIVING WATER! 

Poem for Today - Thursday -   June 12, 2014

THE SPRINGS

In a country without saints or shrines

I knew one who made his pilgrimage

to springs, where in his life’s dry years

his mind held on. Everylasting,

people called them, and gave  them names.
The water broke into sounds and shinings

at the vein mouth, bearing the taste

of the place, the deep rock, sweetness

out of the dark. He bent and drank

in bondage to the ground.

© Wendell Berry,

Page 106 in

Collected Poems,

1957-1982

RELIGIOUS VOCATION

Poem for Today - Wednesday -  June 11, 2014

TO A FRIEND 

WITH A RELIGIOUS VOCATION 

Thinking of your vocation, I am filled

With thoughts of my own lack of one. I see

Within myself no wish to breed or build

Or take the three vows ringed by poverty.

And yet I have a sense,
Vague and inchoate, with no symmetry,

Of purpose. Is it merely a pretense,

A kind of scaffolding which I erect –

Half out of fear, half out of laziness?
The fitful poems come but can’t protect
The empty areas of loneliness.

You know what you must do,

So that mere breathing is a way to bless.

Dark nights, perhaps, but no grey days ahead for you.

Your vows enfold you. I must make my own;
Now this, now that, each one empirical.
My poems move from feelings not yet known,

And when the poem is written I can feel

A flash, a moment’s peace.
The curtain will be drawn across the grill.

My silences are always enemies.

Yet with the same convictions that you have

(It is but your vocation that I lack),

I must, like you, believe in perfect love.
It is the dark, the dark that draws me back

Into a chaos where

Vocations, visions fail, the will grows slack

And I am stunned by silence everywhere.

© Elizabeth Jennings,

(For C.)
Painting on top: 
Three Nuns by
Dorothy Mary Braund (1926)
Australian, 1965

SEEING  YOUR GOOD DEEDS, THEN 

GLORIFYING 

YOUR HEAVENLY FATHER 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 10th Tuesday in Ordinary Time is, “Seeing Your Good Deeds, Then Glorifying Your Heavenly Father.”

Today’s gospel ends: “Just so, your light must shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your heavenly Father.”

There’s 2 steps there: seeing and then giving God the Glory.

If I had to put these 2 steps into gesture it would be like this: two fingers pointed to the eyes. That symbolizes seeing. Coaches are telling players to be doing this all the time. See. See. See. Look. Look. Look. Be aware. Be aware. Be aware. Watch. Watch. Watch. Secondly, lifting that one hand – one finger pointed up to God – giving God the glory.

I’ve been noticing in sports these past few years that an athlete makes a great play or makes a great shot or what have you and then that athlete raises his one hand and index finger - signifying:  “Give God the Glory.”

TODAY’S 2 READINGS AND PSALM PROVIDE SOME KEY SCENES TO SEE 

First scene to see. There is mention in this first reading –  1 Kings 17: 7-16 - of seeing a dry brook – without rain – and then picturing that same brook – flowing with rain water after the heavens open up and pours down rain.

This is going to happen in the next chapter – 1 Kings 18: 41-46 – when torrential rain falls when Elijah calls on God for rain – and he succeeds whereas the priests of Baal – are weak – when calling upon their fertility gods for water.

I look out my window every morning and I see Spa Creek. Every day  it is still filled with water. It’s  looking good – all year long. Give God the Glory.

When I drive down Rowe Blvd – with the State House  in front of me - heading back to St. Mary’s – I always spot  the spot - there off to my right - where water is down below – under what is  the first of the two flat  bridges. There always seems to be water down there the whole year – even in August. I always look there and wonder, “Has that creek ever dried up?”

Next scene…. The first reading talks about a widow – this woman with one son – how she gets water for this wandering prophet on the run – and then bread and cake as well. The food doesn’t run out.

I think of all the people on the planet who help feed other people on the planet – people who help fill the food banks in local centers for the poor – as well as churches – etc. etc. etc. As well as countries and big organizations like the Red Cross, Catholic Relief Services – helping other countries after national tragedies. See people helping one another. Give God the Glory.

Today’s Psalm response is, “Lord, let your face shine on us.”

See all the people who see God’s smile on the faces of so many other people on the planet – every day. May we be the smile of God. May we be the joy of God. May we be the face of God for another today. Give God the glory. We all remember the comment the little kid made who said, “I want to see a God with skin on.” We are called to be the face of God – the hand of God - the lift of God - the smile of God – for those around us each day.

Today’s gospel – Matthew 5: 13-16 – part of the Sermon on the Mount - tells us that same message with our call to be salt and light to our world.  When we are that – when we are shaking salt, shining light, on others, then we are giving God the glory.  

CONCLUSION

Why do people give up, why do people dry up, why do people not show up – when it comes to being bread and water, cake, a smile, salt and light, for each other.

The answer ought to be: because they haven’t met us yet. Amen.

TO BE 

IS TO BE 

FOREVER 

Poem for Today -Tuesday -  June 10, 2014

I DIED

I died as mineral and became a plant,

I died as plant and rose to animal,

I died as animal and I was man.
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?

Yet once more I shall die as man, to soar

With angels blest; but even from angelhood

I must pass on: all except God doth perish.

When I have sacrificed my angel soul,

I shall become what no mind e’re conceived,
Oh, let me not exist! For Non-existence

Proclaims in organ tones, ‘To Him we shall return.’*

© Jalalu’ddin Rumi

Translated by R.A. Nicholson

*Koran 2:151