Morning Prayer ~

[My students liked this prayer before class:] 

Father, we thank Thee for the night,
And for the blessed morning light.
For rest and food, and loving care,
And all that makes the world so fair.
Help us to do the things we should,
To be to others, kind and good.
In all we do, in all we say,
To grow more loving every day.

 

The Catholic Church ~

Cardinal Reinhard Marx

Amid all the upheaval in the Catholic Church 

the most important German bishop offers his resignation to the Pope.

Getting Free ~

Learn to follow no one other than your own heart and your own reasoning. 

Truth ~

 Truth has become a radio or a TV station. 

Resilience ~

The little airplanes of the heart
with their brave little propellers
What can they do 

against the winds of darkness,
Even as butterflies are beaten back 

by hurricanes
yet do not die

They lie in wait wherever

they can hide and hang

their fine wings folded

and when the killer-wind dies

they flutter forth again

into the new-blown light

live as leaves

~ Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Auschwitz ~

Spring came.

The ice melted,

Flowers refused to show,

The birds skirted round.

from: The Auschwitz Poetry

The Right to Vote ~

The told us . .  that they were devising laws to deprive certain American citizens of their right to vote. 

When Thinking about God ~

 Our conception of God is most likely connected with architecture, 

that constructs the illusion...

Gethsemani, Kentucky 

1940

Impeachment 2 ~

 Hitler survived impeachment, then committed suicide. 

His Second Impeachment Trial ~

They told us, cowards that they were, that Trump had not incited the Insurrection on Jan. 6.

Aftermath ~

The Ex-President has left too many wounded or dead lying on his battlefield. 

Inauguration ~

He is gone now . . . The nation can return to civility. . . once all the lies and hatred and discord evaporate. 

Looking into the Future ~

The old monk said: Keep going. Let the path find you.

Election Update ~

Looking back, it is amazing how so many intelligent, thinking Americans let themselves be deceived by this President.  

Election Update ~

Mr. President -- you sow discord and hate. May there be an end to it.

Election Update ~

 And now, slowly, the long process of deflation has begun. 

When the Downfall is Imminent ~

When Hitler saw that he was defeated, he expected his nation to go down with him.

Where We Stand ~

It takes a long time and much patience before we can free ourselves from a state of confusion.

Sanitization ~

It takes a killer virus to uncover all the lies and injustice.

Notes of a Young Seminarian ~ 1947

                                    Notre Dame, Indiana     Mark Cashore

I felt comfortable

near pendulums of time

wheezing in clocks,

counting strokes

from the steeple

across the lake,

and would lie there thinking

how tidy days

could pass on wings

through quiet rooms

of scheduled order.

                                           Source

A Change of Mind ~

We have learned what Social Distancing is. Now we should learn to apply it to God. We have to  learn to pull back, give Him room, show Him respect and reverence. There is a danger in being up too close.

Death Toll ~ Covid

100,000 dead. Where are the consoling words, the words that unify the nation?

Reversal ~

We are able to change:
We have learned that keeping our distance from other people helps to save the world.

Notes of a Young Seminarian ~ 1947

They taught us to walk

with our heads down

so as to keep our thoughts

fixed on You,

which we duly practiced;

not because of the rule,

but solely because 

we wanted You.

Notes-Seminarian

A Dying Nation ~

Where is the Commander-in-Chief ?

Covid-19 ~

What a humiliation for those who think they are so powerful.

Easter Sunday ~ 2,000 deaths

Our soothsayers -- how are they reformulating now?

Covid-19 ~

It is quiet in quarantine, but I can hear the birds chirping.

Our Own Fault ~

Many of us make our own idols-- and then, adoringly, bend the knee before them.

Wielding Power ~

Can the Coronavirus be tweeted away?

After Impeachment Failed~

Congratulations America!

Now we have a Dictator. 

His First Impeachment Trial ~

They told us, all 52 of them, that they had refused to consider the facts, and without further ado, proudly acquitted him. 

Casting a spell ~

The majority of Germans fell victim to Adolf Hitler's strong magic spell.

Abrupt Ending ~

On the town square this morning I watched them wrap a chain around the stem of the massive Christmas tree and hitch it to the back of a tractor. They then dragged it away, down along the main street. People stopped along the sidewalks and watched it passing by.

How Trust is Destroyed ~

Since in office Washington Post has listed 15,413 false or misleading statements made by the President.

The Founding Fathers ~

The good Germans didn't have a mechanism like impeachment to oust Adolph Hitler.

Never Trumper Republicans ~

What did he call his political opponents? "Human scum"?

The Greater USA ~

What about the Kurds, the valiant Peshmerga fighters, who fought and died for us? He abandoned them.

Respect for Women ~

How can a man show respect for any woman who does not loathe a President who brags: " Grab ’em by the pussy. You can do anything."

Changes Once Held For Impossible ~

Now they make you go out front of a restaurant if you want to smoke a cigarette. Even in cold weather!

Unmatched ~

Tweet Tweet ~
"If Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey."

Thinking back to Nine-Eleven ~

Nine Eleven

On September eleven
when it happened
while we watched
we could not help thinking about
our own thin brick walls
left standing around us
here, in the heartland.

Walled in between
panic and gratitude
we sat gaping,
not noticing
how our helpless tears
would not stop falling.

The Way Things Go ~

And everywhere, continuously, Positive colliding with Negative.

When Will It Ever Stop? ~

He has divided us. It is pulling us down.

Where is the Anger over the Trump Administration? ~

                                              Hamodia

What we need is the courage of an Alexei Navalny. But our boiling nation is just taking this sitting down.

What is Belief? ~

What we believe is merely that which we hope is true.

Observance ~

Over here in Germany the people would protest if you went out and cut your lawn on a Sunday.

Disillusionment ~

When the end is near, a monk who had really been a monk all his life ends up asking if he had not been deluded the whole time, and if what he believed was all made up.

Seeing ~

Let the birds be your prophets and saints,
Let the clouds be your prophets and saints,
Let the flowers be your prophets and saints.

The Thomas Merton Prayer ~

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am

following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you.

And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.

I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road

though I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and

in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me

to face my perils alone.