Here's that follow-up I promised you:
This Is Just to Say
Erica-Lynn Gambino
(for William Carlos Williams)
I have just
asked you to
get out of my apartment
even though
you never
thought
I would
Forgive me
you were
driving
me insane
4.29.2012
4.27.2012
Day in Chattanooga
 |
| View from Father Baker's alma mater, McCallie School |
 |
| Tennessee River, left side of Moccasin Bend from Lookout Mountain |
4.24.2012
4.22.2012
Poem of the Week CXLIV
Read this, and look forward to a follow-up next week...
This Is Just to Say
William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
This Is Just to Say
William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox
and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
4.18.2012
A Great Love Affair
"It is impossible to be just to the Catholic Church. The moment men cease to pull against it they feel a tug towards it. The moment they cease to shout it down they begin to listen to it with pleasure. The moment they try to be fair to it they begin to be fond of it. But when that affection has passed a certain point it begins to take on the tragic and menacing grandeur of a great love affair."
- G.K. Chesterton
4.16.2012
A New(ish) Vocation Question
I just read a very interesting NC Register article by the ever-interesting Jennifer Fulwiler, called "Men's Real Vocations are Not Their Careers".
You ought to read the full article, but here's a short sample:
"It's a tricky situation. For the dad who is the sole source of income for his family, part of being a good father certainly involves bringing home that paycheck. He has to take his job seriously. Unfortunately, though, this idea is too often expanded to mean that men have carte blanche to put their work-related goals at the very top of their life priority lists. Their stay-at-home wives have the 'sacrificing career goals for the family' stuff covered, so they're free to pour themselves into the workplace."
I was pretty impressed, first with the delicate way she talks about a question in the Church, without really offering a condemnation, and then, with the comments people are posting in response to her article. I have read a lot of discussions on controversial blogposts lately, and I'm pretty sick of how heated things get. However, the comments seem to be really fair.
What do you think about this idea?
You ought to read the full article, but here's a short sample:
"It's a tricky situation. For the dad who is the sole source of income for his family, part of being a good father certainly involves bringing home that paycheck. He has to take his job seriously. Unfortunately, though, this idea is too often expanded to mean that men have carte blanche to put their work-related goals at the very top of their life priority lists. Their stay-at-home wives have the 'sacrificing career goals for the family' stuff covered, so they're free to pour themselves into the workplace."
I was pretty impressed, first with the delicate way she talks about a question in the Church, without really offering a condemnation, and then, with the comments people are posting in response to her article. I have read a lot of discussions on controversial blogposts lately, and I'm pretty sick of how heated things get. However, the comments seem to be really fair.
What do you think about this idea?
4.15.2012
Poem of the Week CXLIII
A childhood flashback, we used to love this book...
April
from Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months
Maurice Sendak
In April
I will go away
to far off Spain
or old Bombay
and dream about
hot soup all day.
Oh my oh once
oh my oh twice
oh my oh
chicken soup
with rice.
April
from Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months
Maurice Sendak
In April
I will go away
to far off Spain
or old Bombay
and dream about
hot soup all day.
Oh my oh once
oh my oh twice
oh my oh
chicken soup
with rice.
4.10.2012
Blessed.
Happy Easter!
4.08.2012
Poem of the Week CXLII
Not technically a poem, but does it get any more beautiful than last night's Exsultet? Seriously, the sweet bees...
from The Exsulet
to be sung at the Easter Vigil
The Bride of Christ
It is truly right and just,
with ardent love of mind and heart
and with devoted service of our voice,
to acclaim our God invisible,
the almighty Father,
and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.
Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father,
and, pouring out his own dear Blood,
wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.
These then are the feasts of Passover,
in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,
whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.
This is the night, when once you led our fore-bearers,
Israel's children, from slavery in Egypt
and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.
This is the night that with a pillar of fire
banished the darkness of sin.
This is the night that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart
from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace and joining them to his holy ones.
This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.
Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.
O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!
This is the night of which it is written:
The night shall be as bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.
The sanctifying power of this night
dispels wickedness, washes faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drives out hatred, fosters, concord, and brings down the mighty.
On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants' hands,
and evening sacrifice of praise,
this gift from your most holy Church.
But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God's honor,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees to build a torch so precious.
O truly blessed night,
when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,
and divine to the human.
Therefore, O Lord, we pray you that his candle,
hallowed to the honor of your name,
may persevere undimmed, to overcome the darkness of this night.
Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.
May this flame be found still burning by the Morning Star:
the one Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son, who, coming back from death's domain,
has shed his peaceful light on humanity,
and lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
from The Exsulet
to be sung at the Easter Vigil
The Bride of Christ
It is truly right and just,
with ardent love of mind and heart
and with devoted service of our voice,
to acclaim our God invisible,
the almighty Father,
and Jesus Christ, our Lord, his Son, his Only Begotten.
Who for our sake paid Adam's debt to the eternal Father,
and, pouring out his own dear Blood,
wiped clean the record of our ancient sinfulness.
These then are the feasts of Passover,
in which is slain the Lamb, the one true Lamb,
whose Blood anoints the doorposts of believers.
This is the night, when once you led our fore-bearers,
Israel's children, from slavery in Egypt
and made them pass dry-shod through the Red Sea.
This is the night that with a pillar of fire
banished the darkness of sin.
This is the night that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart
from worldly vices and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace and joining them to his holy ones.
This is the night, when Christ broke the prison-bars of death
and rose victorious from the underworld.
Our birth would have been no gain,
had we not been redeemed.
O wonder of your humble care for us!
O love, O charity beyond telling,
to ransom a slave you gave away your Son!
O truly necessary sin of Adam,
destroyed completely by the Death of Christ!
O happy fault that earned so great, so glorious a Redeemer!
O truly blessed night, worthy alone to know the time and hour
when Christ rose from the underworld!
This is the night of which it is written:
The night shall be as bright as day,
dazzling is the night for me, and full of gladness.
The sanctifying power of this night
dispels wickedness, washes faults away,
restores innocence to the fallen, and joy to mourners,
drives out hatred, fosters, concord, and brings down the mighty.
On this, your night of grace, O holy Father,
accept this candle, a solemn offering,
the work of bees and of your servants' hands,
and evening sacrifice of praise,
this gift from your most holy Church.
But now we know the praises of this pillar,
which glowing fire ignites for God's honor,
a fire into many flames divided,
yet never dimmed by sharing of its light,
for it is fed by melting wax,
drawn out by mother bees to build a torch so precious.
O truly blessed night,
when things of heaven are wed to those of earth,
and divine to the human.
Therefore, O Lord, we pray you that his candle,
hallowed to the honor of your name,
may persevere undimmed, to overcome the darkness of this night.
Receive it as a pleasing fragrance,
and let it mingle with the lights of heaven.
May this flame be found still burning by the Morning Star:
the one Morning Star who never sets,
Christ your Son, who, coming back from death's domain,
has shed his peaceful light on humanity,
and lives and reigns forever and ever. Amen.
4.07.2012
Rise, let us leave this place
"Rise, let us leave this place. The enemy led you out of the earthly paradise. I will not restore you to that paradise, but I will enthrone you in heaven. I forbade you the tree that was only a symbol of life, but see, I who am life itself am now one with you."
"I appointed cherubim to guard you as slaves are guarded, but now I make them worship you as God. The throne formed by cherubim awaits you, its bearers swift and eager."
"The bridal chamber is adorned, the banquet is ready, the eternal dwelling places are prepared, the treasure houses of all good things lie open."
"The kingdom of heaven has been prepared for you from all eternity."
4.04.2012
Closest to the Cross
"Great men we need like Paul with a two-edged sword to cut away the bonds that tie down the energies of the world, and men like Peter who will let the broad stroke of their challenge ring out on the shield of the world's hypocrisy, and great men like John who with a loud voice will arouse men from the sleek dream of unheroic repose. But we need woman still more; women like Mary of Cleophas who will raise sons to lift up white hosts to a Heavenly Father; women like Magdalen who will take hold of the tangled skeins of a seemingly wrecked and ruined life and weave out of them the beautiful tapestry of saintliness and holiness; and women, above all, like Mary, the Lady of Equity, who will leave the lights and glamours of the world for the shades and shadows of the Cross where saints are made. When women of this kind return to save a world with equity, then we shall toast them, we shall salute them not as the modern woman, once our superior now our equal, but as the Christian woman — closest to the Cross on Good Friday, and first at the tomb on Easter Morn." Communism and Woman, Fulton Sheen
Not so far from Judas
Today, I am realizing that I am not so far from Judas.
What about you? I recommend this article as a part of your Holy Week meditations.
What about you? I recommend this article as a part of your Holy Week meditations.
4.02.2012
Quotable Chaplain
"Vanderbilt will be in ruins long before such faith wavers."
-Father John Sims Baker
source: Finer Than a Frog's Hair
-Father John Sims Baker
source: Finer Than a Frog's Hair
4.01.2012
Poem of the Week CXLI
Marriage
Dan Gerber
When you are angry it’s your gentle self
I love until that’s who you are.
In any case, I can’t love this anger any more
than I can warm my heart with ice.
I go on loving your smile
till it finds its way back to your face.
Dan Gerber
When you are angry it’s your gentle self
I love until that’s who you are.
In any case, I can’t love this anger any more
than I can warm my heart with ice.
I go on loving your smile
till it finds its way back to your face.
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