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Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Meaning ~

The Wise Old Monk said: "He will get at you with things that make you struggle: an insuperable problem, a divorce, cancer, a loss . . . That will make you return to Him, where you belong".

Friday, March 16, 2012

Open Mine Eyes ~







Despite all my neglect, He lets spring come again to greet me at my window.

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

Morning News Report ~

In North Carolina Edward Cantrell, 36, a soldier, wrapped a blanket around himself and ran into the burning house to save his two daughters, 4 and 6.

He and his daughters perished in the flames.

Thursday, March 01, 2012

Earthbound ~

Even when in complete solitude the banal concerns of each passing hour keep me from rising aloft to You.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Thérèse of Lisieux


When she found out about a lady lavishing little attentions on her husband she wrote:

"Let it never be said that a woman in the world did more for her husband than I for my Beloved."

Friday, January 20, 2012

Wannsee Conference ~ January 20, 1942


As if for a routine business meeting 15 high ranking Nazis met in this house to finalize plans for the "Endlösung", the deportation and extermination of all European Jews, the monstrous crime that anticipated the murder of 11 million human beings.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Winter Darkness ~

Jupiter hangs over the neighbor's roof and the oncoming planes on their approach to the Zurich's airport skirt around it like winter fireflies.

Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Thought ~


Arlington National Cemetery

He was born, they fought and died.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Those Who Sacrificed ~

Was I reading correctly, that the remains of hundreds of Air Force personnel had been dumped into a Virginia landfill?

Sunday, December 04, 2011

Remnants of WW II ~




Forty-five thousand people evacuated today in the city of Koblenz on the Rhine.
In the shallow water of the river [no rain in months] bombs have been uncovered from World War II. They are hoping to defuse them today.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

22 November 1963 ~


There were these special few who consoled me that day forty-eight years ago when the President was shot.

Friday, November 18, 2011

Siege of Leningrad ~ 1941 - 1944


When the German Wehrmacht blockaded the city for two and a half years thousands of people starved to death.

Scenerio: I was out on the street today and picked something up that looked like sugar. I sucked on its sweetness the whole way home. On arriving there I took it out and saw it was just a pebble.

Wednesday, November 02, 2011

Grande Chartreuse ~


Possible scenario:

After 45 years in this Carthusian monastery spent in contemplation and loving piety, Alzheimer's disease sets in and he changes. He begins to hate the habit he wears and refuses to don it, he stops singing the office and going to chapter and remains pouting in his cell, and the last thing he wants is to bother himself with the things of God.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Know Thyself ~

Often times I put my head in my hand and ask myself how You could put up with my wavering for all theses years.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Up To Date ~

I try to imagine Jesus jumping into a Toyota van and winging down to the Lake of Genesereth for a happening.

Saturday, October 08, 2011

House of God ~

While visiting a church last week somebody stole our digital camera.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Seen on a Tombstone ~

"You are no longer where you were, but everywhere where we are."

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Now That is Service! ~


Here in Germany they deliver the morning paper right into the mail box.

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Learning Humility ~

How it hurts to think back fifty years and remember clearly all the stupid faux pas one has made.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

De Diligendo Deo ~

It is not hard to side up with God when we get old and infirm.

Sunday, August 28, 2011

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

General Petraeus ~

I liked one of his lines about fighting in asymetrical combat: "a soldier has to be comfortable in chaos".

Friday, August 19, 2011

Time Passing ~

Spotted the red tinge at the top of the maple tree--first saddening signs of autumn.

Thursday, August 04, 2011

Happy Birthday ~

We uncorked a bottle of champagne and lifted our glasses and wished President Obama a Happy 50th Birthday.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Wise Old Monk ~

Understand this, he said: it is not what you do, what you achieve. I is what you are.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Freedom ~

The Wise Old Monk told me that freedom does not consist in ridding myself of pain and suffering but said that I would be free when I learn to accept them and let them give meaning to my life.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Women's World Soccer Tournament ~


Yesterday in Dresden, Germany they made it to the semi-finals winning over strong Brasil. 

Never-give-up spirit.

Sunday, July 03, 2011

A Perfect Sunday Morning ~


. . . and a lark is flittering over the field.

click on picture to enlarge

Saturday, June 25, 2011

What Others Think ~

What must a Muslim think when he walks into a church and sees a cross above the altar with a naked man hanging on it?

Saturday, June 11, 2011

Perspective ~



What does the farmer think when he drives out to inspect the harvest? Does he think it is his achievement?


Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Wise Old Monk ~ When Calamity Strikes

We were talking about Japan and Alabama and I asked where God was. He said something like true, deep faith is arrived at by way of doubt.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Rebellion ~

How can you do the same job constantly, year after year, without at some point rebelling?

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Municipality ~ Easy Money

They have come up with a clever new tax scheme:

1. Take aerial photos of our roof.

2. Calculate the size of its surface.

3. Levy a tax on the amount of water that flows off it into the municipal drain.

Saturday, May 07, 2011

Destroying Beauty ~

Aren't there enough high tension masts streaking through the beautiful German landscape? No, they are planning 3,000 kilometers of new high tension wire masts as a result of the planned shutting down of nuclear power plants. No one mentions that we should cut back our usage.

Friday, April 22, 2011

De Diligendo Deo ~

The Wise Old Monk told me: "Don't rely on the community in your search for God. You must learn to search alone."

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Reaching for Perfection ~


In the local competition they gave her the first prize but they didn't make much of a fuss about her in the local newspaper, as if this were nothing remarkable.

Friday, April 01, 2011

Wise Old Monk ~

During a conversation I asked him where he found all the wisdom he imparts to others. He was embarrassed but said: maybe one has to suffer.

Monday, March 21, 2011

The Now ~

Earth -- Europe -- Germany -- State: Baden Württemberg -- County: Waldshut -- Town: Höchenschwand -- Waldshuter Strasse 6 -- in my study -- at the window -- Saturday -- 4:38 p.m. -- I look out -- snow on the ground -- the sky is gray -- I hear a car passing -- then silence. . .

Tuesday, March 08, 2011

Active Passivity ~

All the nicks and scratches on my hands heal in time without my doing.

Saturday, February 26, 2011

German Defence Minister ~ Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg

They are at him for plagerizing on his Ph.D. dissertation. The Opposition is calling for his resignation, but the ruling CDU is out to keep him in office despite the heated fray he has caused here in Germany. Behold -- according to the latest public opinion polls he has risen to the top of the list of most admired German politicians.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Mysteries of Love ~

Maybe God loves us so much because we are always hurting Him and because of that He can't get us off His mind.

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Evasion ~

We talk about everything else but leave the most improtant thing unsaid.

Saturday, January 08, 2011

De Diligendo Deo ~

I was a young seminarian who asked the Wise Old Monk how I could best learn to love God. He said: first learn to love a girl. I looked at him and creased my brow.

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Christmas 2010 ~

I am a Jew at the time of Christ's coming. I am steeped in the Bible that has given me detailed information about the God of Abraham and Moses, images of the Messiah I am waiting for. If someone had told me about Jesus of Nazareth being the Messiah and I would have looked the other way.

Friday, December 03, 2010

Lost Key ~


After 15 years I have found it, but now something is missing:

It was fascinating to be constantly on the look-out for it. Now I have nothing to search for.

Now I have been robbed of the hope of finding it,

and, . . . the prospect of that joyous moment-of-finding is gone.


Saturday, November 20, 2010

Accepting ~

I will not be mad at You if there is no life after death.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

Praying ~


As an altarboy -- I was nine or ten -- I said these words at the foot of the altar every day an didn't have the slightest idea what I was saying: . . .

". . . quia tu es Deus, fortitudo mea, quare me repulisti . . ."

[". . . for You are God, my strength, why do you keep putting me off . . ."]

Now sixty years later these same words keep returning. I have finally come to understand them.


Friday, October 22, 2010

The Wise Old Monk ~

I told him it has become hard to pray. He said the slightest calling to mind to pray is a prayer in itself.

Friday, October 08, 2010