Archive for April 2021

The poem “My Silence Is the Lord” by Brother Paul Quenon begins “My silence is the Lord, / I listen, his silence speaks at all times. / When I listen not, my hearing is filled with words/ and my tongue takes to rambling.” We have all experienced the truth of this poem, I’m sure. Take…

Abigail Carroll’s poem “Creed” begins “I believe in the life of the word, / the diplomacy of food.” The power and life in Jesus’ words as he gratefully blessed the five loaves multiplied the bread until thousands had their fill. Did Jesus use the diplomacy of food in the multiplication of the loaves? Jesus was…

Julian of Norwich wrote, “The fulness of joy is to behold God in everything.” The smell of plowed earth, the absoluteness of grace, deer tracks in snowmelt, futures free of the past, twirls of incense, children’s babble, wonder of breathing, contented hugs, contrite sobs. Behold God in everything. As today’s First Reading states, “He does…

The poem “Rosing from the Dead” by Paul J. Willis tells of Hanna commenting, “Sunday Jesus will be rosing from the dead.” The narrator of the poem agrees that resurrection may have been like a red blossom “pulsing from the floor of the tomb.” The soldiers are “overcome with the fragrance, and Mary at sunrise…

The origin of communities of religious men and women lies in today’s First Reading. We read that the community of believers was of “one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common.” Not claiming anything as one’s own provides the factual basis…

In his conversation with Nicodemus Jesus said, “Unless one is born of water and Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.” Billions of years ago the Spirit gave life to creation, giving an unimaginable variety of creatures. And creation hasn’t stopped! The universe’s birth depicted in Genesis’ “Let there be light” and the scientists’…

The earliest depictions of Jesus Christ were those of a shepherd. Pictures of the sufferings and crucifixion of Jesus were too painful and inappropriate. The early followers of Jesus felt the image of Good Shepherd was the heart of the Christian message. “I am the Good Shepherd” is the Risen Lord’s self-portrait. I AM professed…