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Saturday, July 17, 2021

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.

 

Monday, June 07, 2021

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.

Wednesday, May 05, 2021

Getting Free ~

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


Wednesday, April 28, 2021

Sunday, March 14, 2021

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


Monday, March 08, 2021

Auschwitz ~

Spring came.

The ice melted,

Flowers refused to show,

The birds skirted round.


from: The Auschwitz Poetry

Monday, March 01, 2021

The Right to Vote ~

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


Thursday, February 25, 2021

When Thinking about God ~


 Our conception of God is most likely connected with architecture, 
that constructs the illusion...
Gethsemani, Kentucky 
1940

Saturday, February 13, 2021

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.


Friday, January 29, 2021

Aftermath ~

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

Wednesday, January 20, 2021

Inauguration ~

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


Thursday, December 03, 2020

Thursday, November 26, 2020

Election Update ~

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

Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Election Update ~

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

Saturday, October 24, 2020

Election Update ~

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

Sunday, August 30, 2020

When the Downfall is Imminent ~

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

Friday, August 07, 2020

Where We Stand ~

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

Saturday, July 18, 2020

Sanitization ~

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

Monday, July 13, 2020

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



Friday, June 26, 2020

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.

Friday, May 29, 2020

Death Toll ~

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

Sunday, May 24, 2020

Reversal ~

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

Thursday, May 14, 2020

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.


Thursday, April 30, 2020

Covid-19 ~

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

Sunday, April 12, 2020

Tuesday, March 31, 2020

Covid-19 ~

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

Sunday, March 08, 2020

Our Own Fault ~

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

Wednesday, February 05, 2020

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. 

Monday, January 13, 2020

Casting a spell ~

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

Saturday, January 11, 2020

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.

Saturday, December 07, 2019

How Trust is Destroyed ~

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

Friday, December 06, 2019

The Founding Fathers ~

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

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Saturday, November 16, 2019

The Greater USA ~

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

Thursday, October 31, 2019

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."

Sunday, October 27, 2019

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!

Monday, October 07, 2019

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."

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

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.

Monday, August 26, 2019

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

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.

Thursday, June 27, 2019

Monday, June 24, 2019

Observance ~

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

Wednesday, June 05, 2019

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.


Wednesday, May 15, 2019

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.

Friday, May 03, 2019

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.