What does one do in a poetry workshop? (Updated)

A couple of HancAquam readers have written to ask what does one do in a creative writing workshop. Well, we spend most of our time reading and critiquing student poems. When we aren't doing that, we read and critique published poems. In this summer's workshop, we are focusing on contemporary poetry published in the U.S. and the U.K. We spend one day a week writing in class using exercise I've cobbled together. Here are a few examples:


Epigraph Exercise

Choose one of the quotations below as your epigraph:

“What do you love better: the ruin or its repair?” – Eric Pankey, “Prayer”

“Repetition is the death of art.” – Robin Green

“Painting is silent poetry, and poetry is painting that speaks.” – Plutarch

“Earth, is it not this that you want: to rise/invisibly in us? – Is that not your dream,/to be invisible, one day?” – R.M. Rilke, “Ninth Elegy”
“The woman wants a salad.” --Ange Mlinko, “A Few Leaves of Salted Rocket”

Compose a twelve-line free verse poem that argues against the idea/sentiment presented in the epigraph.

No form of “to be” may be used.

You must include the phrases: “ducks and oranges” and “beats me” in the poem.

Each line MUST be exactly eight syllables.


Junk Drawer Exercise

You are looking for a rubber band.

In your kitchen junk drawer you find the following:

a can opener
a box of staples
a screwdriver
several broken pencils & dried pens
a watch w/o a wrist band
two used tubes of Chapstick
a handful of coins
a bottle of baby aspirin
two Christmas cards from 1983
a plastic spoon
several packets of soy sauce
a couple of crumpled receipts from WalMart
a seed catalog
five keys on New Orleans Saints keyring
a pocket-sized bottle of bug spray

Choose nine of these items and compose a free verse poem consisting of seven couplets.

You need the rubber band to save your life.


Not-guilty Confession Exercise

In a prose poem of no fewer than 75 words, confess to a crime you did not commit. You may not mention your innocence; however, it must be clear that you are innocent.

Give specific details of the crime—details that only the criminal would know.

Include the penalty for the crime and how you intend to deal with it.

You are confessing to your “victim” or the victim's family/friends.



Missing Persons Exercise

Media sources all over the world are reporting that individuals seem to be randomly disappearing.

Not only are these people disappearing physically but memories of them are fading as well.

Choose five of these people and compose a twenty-line elegy for them.

Include enough detail to distinguish them from all the other individuals who have disappeared.


Questions in Heaven Exercise

After a long and happy life as an award-winning poet, you die in your sleep and arrive at the Pearly Gates.

St. Peter greets you with the following request, “You've lived a long and happy life as an award-winning poet. The Angelic Host needs your help. The questionnaire we use for admission into Heaven has become a bit outdated. Would you compose a list of questions for us that tests a soul's grasp of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty?”

St. Peter needs no fewer than eight questions that never mention Truth, Goodness, or Beauty nor do they hint at their true purpose.

The questions may not refer in any way to religious/spiritual concepts or use language that might betray their religious/spiritual nature.

The idea is to ask recently separated souls questions that only indirectly test their humanity.


Antique Store Exercise

While on a road trip to __________ you come across an antique store called Noah's Next Ark.

You stop for a bathroom break and decide to explore the store.

Compose a longish (20+ lines) poem about what you find in the store.

While exploring the store, you discover that you have been killed in an auto accident.

What do the things in the store teach you about the nature of chance?

NB.  My students did not like this last exercise at all.  They said it sounded like the plot of a cheesy movie!

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Albertus, Aristotle,Thomas, Immanuel in one Poem!

Theories of the Soul

By Karen An-hwei Lee
 

 A true friend is one soul in two bodies. 
—Aristotle

 

Kant says, transcendental

 idealism. In Aquinas,

we exist apart from bodies

    but only on Thursdays

when his famous ox

    flies by the window

wiser at Cologne

    where Albertus Magnus,

his real name, appoints

    Aquinas to magister studentium,

master of students. Aquinas

    is petrified but says yes [. . .]

 

 

Click here for the rest of the poem!

Coffee Cup Browsing

The number one killer of black Americans?  Planned Parenthood.

Outrage in the Media!!!  Catholic bishops call on media to give less airtime to Catholic heretics/dissidents.  Well, there would be media outrage about this story if it were about Catholic bishops. 

Lesbian couple sues B&B for refusing them a "wedding" reception.  Well, why not?  SSM is really all about persecuting/prosecuting Christian dissent from the LGBT(XYZ) political agenda.  NB.  the B&B owners are "devout Catholics."

Oakland parish rebels against their new pastor and bishop. . .apparently, the previous pastor was something of a Great Progressive Leader who turned the parish into a personality cult.

Archbishop Chaput:  "In the years ahead, we’re going to see more and more attempts by civil authority to interfere in the life of believing communities."

Pray for the people of Norway. . .

A handy history of the political terms "Left" and "Right."  The US Left is trying to tell us that the whacko in Norway is "a right-wing conservative" or "a fundamentalist Christian."  In fact, he's a nationalist, a Nazi. 

Norway's strict gun control laws didn't help matters:  ". . .the killer had the only gun on the island."
Thus demonstrating that when guns are outlawed, only outlaws have guns.

11 y.o.'s answer some questions about science. . .

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Bruised, Stretched, & Picked Clean

Mary Magdalene

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Albert the Great Priory

If I were to ask you to name the opposite of “being anxious,” you might say “being calm.” Given a little more time to think about it, you might add “peaceful,” “relaxed.” Or you could get theological and say “being faithful,” “trusting.” Mary Magdalene gives us another possibility: being obedient, listening to and acting on the Word of the Lord. Our not-yet-ascended Lord tells Mary to go the disciples and announce that he is going to the Father. In her fervor, she first announces, “I have seen the Lord!” Then, John tells us, she “reported what he told her.” Mary's anxiety over the apparent disappearance of Jesus' body from his tomb is transformed into. . .something else. Is it peace? Relaxation? Trust? How about ecstasy? Mary becomes ecstatic when she reports on her encounter with the Risen Lord. Despite popular images of the ecstatic saint, spiritual union with the divine is not always pleasant. The American poet, Charles Wright, captures both the pain and the purification of ecstasy when he writes: “I want to be bruised by God./I want to be strung up in a strong light and singled out./I want to be stretched, like music wrung from a dropped seed.” Why does he long for this divine interrogation? He says, “I want to be. . .picked clean.” The disciple and the poet both reveal a difficult truth about following Christ: when we announce that we have seen the Lord, when we report on all that he has told us, we will be bruised, stretched, strung up, singled out, and picked clean. 

After Mary makes her ecstatic announcement to the other disciples and reports on all that Jesus told her, the Lord's former students huddle together in fear behind locked doors. They are blasphemers and traitors wanted by both the temple and the empire. It's not until the Christ has ascended and the Holy Spirit is sent that they are given a voice to preach. And once that voice is given, they break their fear and anxiety and flood into the streets, preaching and teaching, speaking in the tongues of those who will listen. And as they bear witness to the mercy and love of the Father over the years, they are stretched, bruised, singled out, and eventually picked clean. They are stripped to the bare bones of their trust in God, announcing as they die, “I have seen the Lord!” 

How will we be bruised and stretched? Probably not in the same way that the disciples were. The obstacles we face in preaching the gospel are similar in nature but different in technique; that is, we face the same kind of worldly obstinacy as the disciples did but the stubbornness we face has a new language, a new game-plan; we face the same kind of idolatry of power, wealth, prestige but all these have adopted new guises, new rules. What hasn't changed is the saving message of God's mercy and love, the simple, straightforward declaration of God's forgiveness and His eternal welcome into His family. When Mary Magdalene shouts out, “I have seen the Lord!” she announces to the world the Father's will that all His children return to Him through His risen and ascended Son. When we repeat her apostolic message, we risk the bruises that all prophets and preachers risk when they speak the truth. Maybe not the firing squad or a prison term but we risk surrendering control, anxiety, willfulness. We risk everything when we take on the commission of living the gospel and telling others about the wonders of divine mercy. The purification of ecstasy is worth the pain it inflicts if we can say, in the end, “I have seen the Lord!” 

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Grazie, grazie. . .

Just a quick note to say Mille Grazie for the recent activity on the Wish List!

Every book helps keep me current in all thing philosophical, poetical, and theological. . .

God bless, Fr. Philip Neri, OP

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Commenters at NCR: "joyless people with no hope"?

Methinks that horrible screeching might be the "Spirit of Vatican Two" being exorcised from the Church. . .

IF you have any doubts at all about whether or not the Holy Father's appointment of Archbishop Chaput to Philly is Good Thing. . .read the comments on this article from N.C.R. (Nasty Cynical Rag, as we called it in seminary).  

Here are a few of my favs from the Exemplars of Catholic Tolerance and Diversity:

"The very worst man for the job in Philadelphia. He will bring more of the same, as in cover-ups and evasion. This man has inflicted more damage on priests and lay people in the past decade that we should not be in the least surprised that Ratzinger (Benedict), would select someone such as this to carry on the right wing agenda of the restorationist movement."

"The Vatican and B16 are only carrying out their plan: Wreck the church. Hope any mature Catholic will leave in disgust. Afterwards, hunker down behind the Vatican walls, with all the gold in the coffers, maybe in a century or two everyone will have forgotten what a mess the hierarchs have made of the church."

"The Church just plunges itself deeper and deeper into the abyss. . ."

"The poor people of Philadelphia. They are getting someone with a heart of stone for a leader of their Church. If they're smart, the parishioners will keep their money in their pockets and let that do the talking."

"Heaven help us! Apparently the thinking in Rome was that the problem with Philadelphia was that its bishop wasn't Republican enough."

"He did all the damage he could in Denver. Let him move on to Philadelphia to spread his narrow minded conservatism. And get that red hat ready."

"Now the people of Philadelphia are being punished for the sins, incompetence and arrogance of Rigali.  How long before this archdiocese becomes the home of the ever-diminishing numbers of the "faithful remnant" in a "smaller, purer" church?  Maybe that's what Chaput promised B16 - weed 'em out and gimme a red hat.  Shame, shame, shame."

[NB.  Almost all of these hysterical rants were answered on the site by someone. . .]

Here are a few comments from Archbishop's interview at N.C.R.

"This is just another case of one following another. The entire Church should demand Benedict 16's resignation along with Rigali's.  Not one red penny for the American Church or the Vatican until these bungling autocrats are gone."

"This appointment is such a crass act from a pope who has been a bungler in so many areas of church life. It's another example of what happens when the episcopate becomes little more than a pawn on a papal chessboard and very little more than that."

"An interview chock full of self-serving statements from another papal pet. . .Hats off to the Chinese who are standing up to Rome in much the same way as the English did in the sixteenth century!"

"Benny 16s days should be over too. A nice house in Sardinia, Sicily, or a jail cell at The Hague could be his great opportunity to reflect on the blunders of his papacy (the Unholy Triumvirate of Ratzinger, Sodano, and Bertone) and to do penance for the damage these old autocrats have brought upon the Church."

On the commenters themselves, one brave soul notes, "I'm convinced that the NCR comments section is probably them most negative, unconstructively cynical corner on the whole Internet. Talk about a joyless people with no hope. . ."

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Chaput to Philly!

Just announced on the Vatican's website:

 Il Santo Padre Benedetto XVI ha accettato la rinuncia al governo pastorale dell’arcidiocesi metropolitana di Philadelphia (U.S.A.), presentata dall’Em.mo Card. Justin F. Rigali, in conformità al can. 401 § 1 del Codice di Diritto Canonico.

Il Papa ha nominato Arcivescovo Metropolita di Philadelphia (U.S.A.) S.E. Mons. Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap., finora Arcivescovo di Denver.

+ 

The Holy Father Benedict XVI accepted the resignation from the ministry of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia Metro (USA), presented by His Em. Cardinal Justin F. Rigali, in accordance with can. 401 § 1 of the Code of Canon Law.

The Pope appointed Archbishop of Philadelphia (USA) Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap, currently Archbishop of Denver.

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Bureaucratic leeches:  between 1975 and 2008, the number of faculty in the CA university system rose by 3.5%.  In the same period, the number of university bureaucrats rose by 221%.  That's where your tuition money is going.  

Anti-Palin meme of the day:  "Undefeated" opens in Orange Co. to an empty theater.  What you don't know--unless you read the fine print--is that the reviewer attended an unadvertised midnight showing on a Thursday. Oh, and there were six people in the theater. 

Director of "Captain America" drops anti-American rhetoric when it becomes clear that his politics are hurting the bottom-line.  He must be one of the "Michael Moore Marxists." 

B.O. charged with war crimes. . .accused of murdering Osama ben Laden.  NB.  B.O. and his globalist ideologues L.U.V. international law, socialist-Euro-judges, etc.  So, I expect B.O. to submit himself for arrest and prosecution forthwith.

Union bullying manual is made public.  Yes, I mean the actual manual published by SEIU.

Jewish publications lauding efforts of the Holy Father to rescue Jews from the Nazis. . .in 1939.

New book exposing leftist political bias in the media. . .written by a liberal.  Here's the preface to the book.

Jesus and the burglar

Ahhhhh. . .cute pic of the day.

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OP Laity Retreat

Every summer I offer a day-long retreat for the Dallas-area Dominican laity.  And every summer, we have a great time!

This summer, the topic of the retreat will be:  “'Putting Out into the Deep'":  Catholic Laity and the New Evangelization." 

The retreat is open is all. . .come join us!

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Coffee Cup Browsing (Humor Edition)

I'm tired of lying politicians; self-absorbed celebrities; impotent dictators (foreign & domestic); and zombie-idolaters. . .so, I give you COFFEE CUP BROWSING:  THE ALL-HUMOR EDITION!!!

Venn diagram of my sense of humor.  Yes, I am constantly in trouble b/c of my sense of humor. 

Self-appointed Plate Monitor is "concerned" about your weight.  MYODB!

Like the Park Ranger said, "I don't have to outrun the bear. . .I just have to outrun you!"

Organizing for maximum efficiency!

If your fav font were a dog. . .

Creative wedding cakes.  #19 is my fav.

Ahhhh. . .breakfast in bed.

Learning math in Catholic school.

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When "diversity" becomes a religion. . .

This is why you should send your kids to a small, Catholic lib arts college like the University of Dallas:

UC-San Diego is gutting several academic programs b/c of budget shortfalls.  Almost every department in the university is getting some sort of cut.

The only sacrosanct area?  "Diversity" programs/bureaucracies.

While slashing real academic programs and productive faculty, UCSD will add yet another "diversity" wonk to an already massively bloated P.C. bureaucracy:  ". . .the Chancellor’s Diversity Office, the associate vice chancellor for faculty equity, the assistant vice chancellor for diversity, the faculty equity advisors, the graduate diversity coordinators, the staff diversity liaison, the undergraduate student diversity liaison, the graduate student diversity liaison, the chief diversity officer, the director of development for diversity initiatives, the Office of Academic Diversity and Equal Opportunity, the Committee on Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Issues, the Committee on the Status of Women, the Campus Council on Climate, Culture and Inclusion, the Diversity Council, and the directors of the Cross-Cultural Center, the Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center, and the Women’s Center."

It's a religion.  Send your kids to a Catholic university.

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Mercy not sacrifice

St. Bonaventure

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St. Albert the Great Priory

Like the sniping political operatives that they are, the Pharisees attack Jesus and his merry band for violating the Sabbath Law. Their crime? Some of the disciples absentmindedly pick grains of wheat and snack on them during a lesson. When the Pharisees pounce, Jesus—ever the scholar of Jewish history and the scriptures—remind them that David and his friends went into the temple and ate the bread of offering. Then he lowers the boom: “If you knew what this meant, I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned these innocent men.” This is a triple accusation. The Pharisees do not know their own history. They do not understand mercy or sacrifice. And they have condemned innocent men. Of course, their most egregious error is their failure to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah. Had they done so, they would have known that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath, thus making their condemnation of the disciples into a chance to show mercy. So, what does this scene tell us about the relationship btw mercy and sacrifice?

We might be inclined to conclude that the two are opposed. Jesus says that he prefers one to the other, therefore, we can either show mercy or offer sacrifice. The Law requires sacrifice, while Christ requires mercy. The two are incompatible. But this can't be right since Christ is the fulfillment of the Law. In the City of God, Augustine clears it all up for us. When Jesus quotes Hosea, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” Augustine writes, “. . .nothing else is meant than that one sacrifice is preferred to another. . .mercy is the true sacrifice. . .All the divine ordinances. . . concerning the sacrifices in the service of the tabernacle or the temple, we are to refer to the love of God and our neighbor” (X.5). In other words, every act of mercy is a sacrifice, an embodiment of the love God has for us and a demonstration that we love Him in turn. To set aside judgment and condemnation in favor of mercy is the sacrifice God desires from us. 

What might be confusing here is that we seem to be using the term “sacrifice” in two different senses. When Jesus says, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice,” he uses “sacrifice” to mean “the ritualistic slaughter of an animal in the temple by a priest according to the Law.” This is not the sort of sacrifice the Lord desires. Augustine gives the term “sacrifice” its contemporary meaning in the context of Christ's fulfillment of the ritual Law of animal slaughter. That is, he goes to the root of the word and discovers that sacrifice is what we do when we love the sinner and show him/her mercy. For Augustine, following Christ, without love, the sacrificing priest is just a butcher and his sacrifice is just killing. What makes “showing mercy” a sacrifice is our giving up on the prideful need to sit in the Lord's place as judge and executioner of His justice. When we show mercy to a sinner, we first acknowledge our own sinfulness and confess the need to be forgiven. None of this means that we're to be “soft on sin” or make a habit of excusing disobedience! It means just the opposite. Only a sinner needs mercy. Only a sinner can be called to repentance. 

Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are in the presence of something greater than the temple, something more fundamental, more vital than the Law. They are in the presence of Love Himself, mercy-made-flesh. Had they acknowledged this truth, their desire for sacrifice would have turned to pleas for mercy. And their accusations to songs of praise.

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Coffee Cup Browsing

A Pastafarian (follower of the Flying Spaghetti Monster) wins the right to wear "religious headgear" in his DL photo.  The gear?  A colander.   LOL!

Mark Shea:  ". . . gay 'marriage' is prelude to legal persecution of the Church for teaching what it teaches about sexuality."  Yup.  Just a matter of time and right Nanny State judge.

Pop-atheist/Brit Blowhard Dickie Dawkins is rendered of his self-important fat and his bones are ground to dust. . .couldn't have happened to a more deserving fellow.  (NB.  the language of this article isn't "family friendly.")

Tiresome clerical dinosaurs in Austria throw a hissy-fit.  Basically, they are whining that the Church isn't Protestant.  Fortunately for them, there are lots of Prot communities for them to join!

Catholics Doing Bad Right for Centuries:  "Even our sissypants wonk patsies are hardcore."

"Friend" vs. "Best Friend"

I want this to be the cover art on my first collection of poems. . .

For all my fellow Grammar Nazis out there. . .

Poetries & Poets

This list of poetry types and representative poets is freely adapted from Kathryn VanSpanckeren's article, "Contemporary American Poetry."

Poetry of Self:  Jorie Graham, John Ashbury, W.S. Merwin, Susan Howe.

Poetry of Voice:  Louise Gluck, Brigit Pegeen Kelly, Rita Dove.

Poetry of Place: Charles Wright, Tess Gallagher, Mark Jarman, Yusef Komunyaka, C. D. Wright.

Poetry of Family: Li-Young Lee, Sharon Olds, Stephen Dunn.

Poetry of the Beautiful:  Mark Doty, Eric Pankey, Sandra McPherson, Henri Cole, Robert Hass.

Poetry of Spirit: Jane Hirshfield, Gary Snyder, Arthur Sze, Franz Wright.

Poetry of Nature:  Mary Oliver, A. R. Ammons, Pattiann Rogers, Maxine Kumin, Amy Clampitt.

Poetry of Wit:  Billy Collins, Charles Simic, Mark Strand, Stephen Dobyns, Mark Halliday.

Poetry of History:  Robert Pinsky, Frank Bidart, Gjertrud Schnackenberg, Michael S. Harper.

Poetry of the World:  Yusef Komunyakaa, Richard Hugo, Philip Levine, Ellen Bryant Voigt.

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Pointers on how to read a poem

The creative writing class is going well!  Here's a handout I gave the budding poets this afternoon. . .just a quick & easy list of suggestions and guidelines for reading a poem:

Writing Poetry

Fr. Philip N. Powell, OP, PhD

University of Dallas: Summer Two 2011

On Reading a Poem

Read the poem. . .

. . .silently several times. Look up unfamiliar words. Set aside interpretation for now.

. . .out loud, using different tones/voices (calm, angry, a child, a prophet, etc.).

. . .to someone else and have them read it to you.

. . .and record yourself reading it. Replay the recording and listen w/o the text.

. . .and copy it out by hand. Typing it doesn't have the same effect.

. . .and have it read to you while you transcribe what you hear.

Questions

Does the poem have an overall “feel,” a tone that pervades it? What is it?

Does the poem have a dominant “voice,” a personality speaking it? Who is it?

Does the poem have a “tense,” that is, an overall sense of a place in time? What is it?

Does the poem have a subject, something or someone that it is about? What? Who?

Does the poem have a “setting,” a place from where or to which it speaks? Where?

Does the poem reveal its reason for existence? Why?

What are the images (“word pictures”) in the poem?

What are the allusions in the poem?

What are the figures of the poem, that is, the metaphors, similes, etc.?

Is there something missing in the poem, something “left out”?

Does the poem have a formal structure (sonnet, sestina, etc.)? How does it use this form?

What are the structural characteristics of the poem (other than the formal)? Line breaks, blank spaces, unusual typography, etc.?  What purposes do they serve?

What sort of language is the poet using—haughty, common, upper-class, ethereal? Why?

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Suspect arrested in Fr. Ed's murder

Jeremy Wayne Manieri, 31 has been arrested for the murder of Fr. Ed Everitt, OP.  Manieri was the maintenance man for the property in Waveland and a convicted sex offender.

Please pray for the repose of Fr. Ed's soul and for Mr. Manieri.


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Coffee Cup Browsing

Tolerant, freedom-loving Leftists at Chicago book fair vote to ban conservative books by Beck, Palin, etc. . .but not Adolf's Mein Kampf.

The next slippery step on the SSM slope:  Utah man sues for the "right" to have four wives. 

MD city council bans the Pledge of Allegiance and the Lord's Prayer form council meetings. 

Cultural Marxism and the "long march through the institutions."

What pastors can say to co-habitating couples who want to get married. . .ouch, that's gonna leave a mark!

Ummmm. . .SURPRISE!!!

Lunch!

And one for the guys. . .

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R.I.P. (UPDATED)

The friars of the Southern Dominican Province learned this afternoon that our brother, Fr. Ed Everitt, OP was killed in what appears to be a robbery at one of our properties in Waveland, MS.  Fr. Ed was shot twice and died on the scene.  

Fr. Ed has been pastor at Holy Ghost Parish in Hammond, LA for several years now.  He also served as pastor at St. Peter's in Memphis, TN.

Please pray for the repose of his soul and for the consolation of his family, friends, and brother friars.

Update:  local news report.

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What sort of soil are you?

15th Sunday OT
Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP
Church of the Incarnation/Prince of Peace

Jesus sits in a boat. A crowd gathers on the shore of the lake. He preaches to them in parables. He preaches the parable of the Sower of the Seeds. We know it well. Seeds sown by the Sower fall on all sorts of soil—rocky, thorny, shallow. Birds eat some of the seeds. The sun withers the delicate roots of others. A few of the precious seeds are planted firmly in rich soil and they germinate to produce healthy plants, which, in turn, produce abundant fruit. The people in the crowd must understand the parable. They are farmers. They understand that not all the seeds they plant survive the planting, not all the seeds that survive will sprout healthy plants, and not all those plants will produce good fruit. What they probably don't know is that as he's preaching his parable about the Sower, the seeds, and the soils, Jesus is discerning the hearts and minds of his listeners, delving into their spirits, learning who each of them is and why they are there with him on the shore. He sees a thorny mind and a barren heart over there. There a scorched soul and there a shallow spirit. Two or three rich souls are ready now to bear the burden of growing the seeds of his Word. Four or five are prepared to do the work necessary to become rich souls. To these, to those with hearts and minds poised to receive his Word, to these he says, “Whoever has ears ought to hear.” 

And what is it that they ought to hear? To Isaiah, the Lord says, “Just as the rain and snow come down from the heavens and do not return until they have watered the earth, so my word will not return to me empty, but it will do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it.” The Lord sends rain and snow, making the earth “fertile and fruitful, giving seed to the one who sows and bread to the one who eats.” His Word is sent as seed to be sown. For those with ears to hear: the Word is sown, the earth watered. Now, what sort of soil are you? Are you shallow like the soil on a well-worn path? Thin, easily blown this way and that? Shallow enough that the birds of every new idea, new trend, new philosophy can come along and eat the seeds you've been given? Perhaps you are rocky soil, hard in places, soft in others. Difficult to till, impossible to tend. Lots of stones, lots of gravel: Regrets, enemies, hatreds, worries. No where for the tender roots of your seeds to sprout? Maybe your soil is choked by thorns. The deadly bush and brambles of habitual sin, cold-heartedness, or a steadfast refusal to find joy? Those thorns will dry up the water of the Lord's grace and starve your seeds. Of course, it is always possible, maybe even probable, that the soil you present for sowing is rich, well-tilled, perfectly watered, and ready for planting! You are ready for conversion, eager even to get down to the risky business of nurturing the seed of God's Word, and verging on impatience to be bear the good fruits of the Holy Spirit! 

So, what sort of soil are you? 

If you're like me, like most of us, I daresay, you are probably thorny on Monday and Tuesday; rocky on Wednesday; shallow on Thursday and Friday; Saturday is a toss up between too hot and too dry; and Sunday is usually just rich enough to receive a few seeds and have them survive past midnight! Even when we have ears to hear the Word, we don't always hear it all nor do we always listen to what we are hearing. If we had been on that beach with the crowd, listening to Jesus, he probably delved into our hearts and minds and found a tangled mess of worries, joys, plans, memories, half-forgotten lessons, and few unpleasant thoughts about our neighbors. Had he lingered for more than a minute, he would have been treated to a rapid-fire montage of resentments, broken promises, gloats, successes, and a lot of static around thoughts of what comes next. Had he stayed with us for a day or two, he would have watched as we flipped from dedicated servants to selfish ingrates to sniveling crybabies to triumphant conquerors, changing almost as fast and as often as we change the stations on our 500 channel cable box. In there somewhere, he would have seen us get a grip on our self-pity and our sense of failure and strangle it with the more powerful conviction that we are masters of our universe. Nothing and no one rules me! And then, later that same day, that megalomaniac would have to be strangled. By what? Humility? Reality? Maybe a little of both? Watching us from the distance of his boat, floating on the sea, our Lord would see us as if we were riding a carousel, flashing by one moment a faithful disciples, the next a desperate child, the next a self-sufficient individual, the next a lonely heart and a cold mind. We are never just one sort of soil.

If it's true that we are never just one sort of soil, then how do we properly receive the seed of God's Word? How do we make sure that we are rich, well-tilled, and perfectly watered when he comes around to sow the seed? One way is quite simple: never be anything but richly nourished, well-tilled, and perfectly watered. But we've covered the improbability of that scenario. It's not impossible, of course. We are finite creatures, prone to the ebb and flow of circumstance, open to injury and insult, given to fits of disobedience, bouts of lacking in trust. All these make being Always Prepared difficult. . .but not impossible. The other option is to be Always Prepared to be Made Ready; that is, since being always prepared seems improbable, always be open to being given everything you need to get ready. At the very least, this means watching for any opportunity to turn yourself around to face God, to repent. Waiting for every chance to forgive and be forgiven, to bless and be blessed, to show mercy, gratitude, trust. It means being eager to step up in the face of gross injustice; to defend the truth of the Good News; to give witness to the goodness that the Lord has shown you; to suffer for another, to love sacrificially. It means remembering, calling to heart and mind, that you are a creature loved by Love Himself, created and re-created to live perfectly in His presence forever. And when you remember this fundamental truth of the faith, when you recall it, you live right then as if you are with Him—face-to-face—at the moment, right that second. Then, you will always be prepared to be made ready to receive the seed of His Word. 

Paul teaches the Romans that “creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God.” Why? “. . .in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.” Our glorious freedom is the freedom from sin's constraint, freedom from sin's limitations. We are never freer, more at liberty than when we are prepared to be made ready to receive God's Word. This is edge of our cooperation with His grace: we do all we can do with His help to be the best possible sort of soil and then we go one step more. We surrender. Just give up. Give up worry, anxiety, control, the need to achieve, and then we are ready. In full surrender to the working of His grace, we are best prepared to bear the best fruits. Sixty, seventy, one-hundred-fold. We are ready.

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New arrival. . .

A Mille Grazie to the anonymous Book Benefactor who sent me Epiphanies of Darkness: Deconstruction in Theology. . .it arrived this afternoon. 

I spent the better part of the morning in the priory's self-storage locker opening boxes that haven't seen the light of day sent June of 2008. Since I was only able to ship a few boxes of books to Rome, most of my library had to be stored. Opening those boxes was like Christmas! 

Two items made me tear up a little. One was the very first poetry anthology I ever purchased. Bought it in 1982 at Oxford Square Books when I was a freshmen. The second was a 1987 letter from my paternal grandmother who died from cancer in 1991. I had to leave that one unopened b/c I would've never finished the job had I opened it. 

Anyway! As always. . .I am very, very grateful to my many Book Benefactors. You guys are always at the top of my daily prayer list b/c you have made my life as a Dominican friar all the more exciting and useful by your generosity!

Enduring Questions, Perfect Answers?

Lovers and Defenders of the western literary/philosophical/theological tradition often point to The Enduring Question of Life as touchstones for all of our humane, liberal studies.  Answering these questions is tantamount to Living Life Well.  I recently ran across an article in a small magazine that attempts to formulate these questions for a postmodern audience; that is, an audience deeply suspicious of Big Narratives like God, Religion, Law, Reason, Purpose, etc., an audience trained in the modernist art of irony, cynicism, and nihilism.  The author's version of the questions precluded answers that Catholics and other Lovers and Defenders would find satisfactory.

Being a Lover and Defender of the Western Tradition and a reader of and thinker about postmodern culture, I thought I'd take a stab at reformulating these same questions w/o the irony, cynicism, etc.

Traditional:  What is man's relationship to God?

PoMo:  What is the relationship between the human person and the divine/transcendent?

Traditional:  What duties are worthy of our commitment to fulfill them?

PoMo:  What are we willing to commit ourselves to wholeheartedly?

Traditional:  What do the lives of heroes teach us about nobility and villainy?

PoMo:  What do the lives of Saints & Sinners teach us about love and mercy?

Traditional:  What does history teach us about liberty and order?

PoMo:  What history teach us about freedom and constraint, responsibility and rights?

Traditional:  What does history teach us about civilization and its decline?

PoMo:  What does history teach us about culture and barbarism, about progress and regress?

My versions aren't all that different from the traditional versions, but I think they open the questions up a bit more and allow a little more room for broader answers.  

Of course, as a Lover and Defender of the Western Tradition, my inclination is to believe that we will find the best answers to these questions in the literature of our ancestors.  Not dogma or formula but rather narratives of how honest men and women dealt with the problems of being human in a world that constantly challenges our innate need for growth toward perfection. 

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Wolves, sheep, doves, & snakes

N.B.  OK.  Here's my excuse for this homily.  Unbeknownst to me. . .my little 10 y.o. travel hardened alarm clock died in the night.  I came-to around 6am!!!  That's TWO hrs later than I usually wake up.  Lauds/Mass begin at 7.45am.  So, by the time the 'puter booted up and the coffee booted me up. . .well, there just wasn't much time.  Therefore:

14 Week OT (F)

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Albert the Great Priory

Wolves. Sheep. Serpents. And doves. That's quite a zoo living in Jesus' imagination this morning! In the wolf, we see a predator's singular focus on his prey and the cold cruelty of instinct. In the sheep, we have docility, innocence, and the need to be protected. Serpents are cunning, calculating, and dangerously patient. And doves are gentle and pure. Jesus says that he is sending us as prey among the predators, so we must learn to be both shrewd and gentle, both cunning and pure. How do we manage that? Our Lord assures us that when we are handed over to be prosecuted for treason or heresy, we need not worry about what we will say in our defense, “You will be given at that moment what you are to say. For it will not be you who speak but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” But if we will be given what to say in our own defense at the moment of greatest need, then what is the purpose of learning to be both a serpent and a dove while living as sheep among the wolves? Before we can speak, we must listen.

Sheep are stupid animals. Too stupid to learn much of anything. Wolves are much, much more intelligent but they are largely driven by predatory instinct and not very obedient. So, Jesus is sending us to live as stupid animals among intelligent predators. But we are to be shrewd and gentle. OK. Serpents have a rep for being sly, patient, manipulative, so they would probably make good students but dangerous friends. Doves don't exactly inspire wonder with their smarts, but they are beautiful and they have a history of showing up at just the right time. Since the Spirit of the Father will be given to us when we need Him, our serpentine cunning and dove-like gentleness aren't really meant to be primary defenses against the wolves. Our primary defense is the Holy Spirit! Shrewdness and gentleness prepare us to receive the Spirit of the Father and to speak His Word. To receive His Spirit requires docility, and to speak His Word in the Spirit requires ingenuity. To receive His Spirit requires the peace of obedience, and to speak His Word in the Spirit requires the determination of a predator hunting his prey. 

Wolves will never fear sheep. Nor stop hunting them. And sheep will always need a shepherd to protect them. The Holy Spirit is our protector, and if we will hear Him speak to us, we will grow in obedience, docility, and trust. We will also strengthen our resolve to be preachers of the truth; to be wily promoters of God's justice and glowing examples of His mercy.  The Spirit of the Father will not speak with the voice of a hungry wolf or a sneaky snake. He chooses His sheep—sheep who are prepared (with His abundant help) to speak His Word and see It done. That is how we will endure.

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Father, where are you preaching. . .?

Mass/Preaching schedule this weekend:

Sat., July 9:  Church of the Incarnation (U.D., Irving)  5.00pm

Sun., July 10:  Church of the Incarnation (U.D., Irving)  9.00am

Sun., July 10:  Prince of Peace (Plano)  5.00pm

This schedule will be updated.

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What young men considering the priesthood want. . .

Fr. Z. has a post up listing 10 things that young men considering the priesthood are looking for in their future vocation (red).  Since I can't resist a list, my (cranky) comments follow:

1. Prospective priests (Religious or Diocesan) are not looking primarily for community life, as we live it. They are looking for a Church-related mission that they believe in.

Not entirely sure what this means.  If "as we live it" means "not living it," then I understand.  Community life is extraordinarily difficult and living community life with a group of priests who are working in full-time ministry is nearly impossible.  In every situation where I've lived in a community attached to a parish, the parish schedule rules the priory schedule and we risk becoming diocesan priests living in the same building.

2. Prospective priests want to know what the Pope teaches, not what the U.N. teaches.

Nor do they care a fig for what the "social justice" bureaucrats of the order/diocese say they ought to be worried about.  Most are fine with recycling, just immigration laws, ending human trafficking, etc. but they also want to hear about justice issues from perspectives other than just the Religious Left.

3. Prospective priests do not want to sit around with older “veterans” and listen to the latter whine about the Pope, Rome and the bishops.

Nor do they want to listen to these same vets applaud pro-abortion, pro-SSM, etc. politicians during recreation time in front of the TV or at table.  

4. Prospective priests are not in favor of women’s ordination. Period.

A view they had best keep quiet about until after ordination!  The "Spirit of Vatican Two" cadre of theological revolutionaries will not go out w/o a fight.  Smile.  Tell them what they want to hear.  Get through.  I know, I know. . .hardly seems honest.  Think of it as "learning stress-coping skills" for your future ministry. 

5. Prospective priests do not want to attend Masses that resemble hootenannies, Quaker meetings, or Presbyterian services.

Nor--I hope--are they inordinately focused/obsessed with prissy liturgical ornamentation, mechanized rubrical obedience, and clerical fashion.  The habit/collar does not make the friar/priest.  Never has, never will. 

6. Prospective priests are not ashamed of the Pro-life movement, they’re for it.

And they are just as ready and willing to help women who have had abortions recover from their mistake.

7. Prospective priests do not want to hear their brothers mock the Pope and gripe about liturgical norms.

Nor do they want--I hope--tedious lectures on the liturgical arcana of the Extraordinary Form as it was celebrated in 16th century Italy. 

8. Prospective priests do not want to study at theological unions/seminaries that are embarrassed by Catholic teaching.

And they are tired of the feminist identity politics, the hermeneutics of suspicion, the historical-critical method, "the pastoral solution," inculturation of the liturgy, pantheistic spirituality, and the bullying that comes with the triumphalist lay-empowerment movement (i.e., Lay = Good, Clergy = Bad).

9. Prospective priests know that Vatican II was not the only, or even the most important, Ecumenical Council.

And they also know to ask their professors, "Dr. Jones, where is that in the documents of the council, please?"  Oh, they have a copy of the documents in Latin so they can check the (often dubious) English translation.

10. Prospective priests are not embarrassed by Marian devotion, and are seen praying the Rosary.

But they are not so enamored by Marian devotion that they forget our Blessed Mother's proper place in salvation history as the human vehicle for bring forth the Word Made Flesh, i.e. she's not the fourth member of the Trinity.

Missing from the list is:  "Prospective priests want instruction on how to preach courageously to a contemporary congregation w/o offending or alienating half their people or pandering to the lowest common denominator."

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Coffee Cup Browsing

Gaza Flotilla (a.k.a. "Ridiculous Leftist P.R. Stunt of the Week") is stopped by the Greek gov't.  Who knew the Greek gov't had that much sense?

B.O.'s own economics team reports that the "stimulus" costs $278,000/job "created or saved." 

Are we becoming an "atheocracy"?  [Fixed Link]

Christian preacher battered and abused by a largely Muslim crowd. . .in Iran?  Yemen?  No.  Dearborn, MI. 

Episcopal parish comes home to Rome.  Watch for more of this as the E.C. continues its slow suicide.

Like ancient Rome, the postmodern West is increasingly "polytheistic, proud, anti-Christian, sexually confused, with rampant infanticide, frequent wars, incivility and cruelty, and a general breakdown of family loyalties."  Are we prepared for martyrdom? 

Three ways to declare your independence from the federal/state Nannies. . .

Big brothers are the same across species.


Oh, that explains it. . .

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Ambushed in the Bookstore

Went to Half-Priced Books this afternoon to browse the philosophy and poetry selections.

While looking through the poetry anthologies, a young man walked behind and said something I didn't quite catch.   

--Sorry.  I didn't hear you.

--What church do you go to?

I thought he must recognize me from Mass, or maybe from U.D.  He seemed harmless, if a little addled.

--What church do I go to?

--Yes.  

--Well, I go to the priory.

--OK.  Do you family and friends go to church?

By this time I've figured out that this is a Religious Ambush, and I ain't playin'.

--Yes.  They all do.

--Good.  What's the priory?

--It's where I live.  I'm a Catholic priest and a Dominican friar.

--Oh. . .(long pause with an anxious look). . .have you read Revelations 17 lately?

--Lately?  No, can't say I have.

--Do you know the name of the city in that chapter?

--Let me guess:  Rome?

--Yes.  Now that you are old enough to make your own choice, you should re-read that chapter.

My brain is whirling now.  I'm trying to decide if I really wanna do this.  Do I want to confront this guy with his historically illiterate fundamentalism and challenge him on his anti-Catholic bigotry?  He doesn't strike me as being very open to discussion and the last thing I want is a public shouting match. 

I chicken out. . .

--OK.  I will.

He nods and walks off.

What would you have done?

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Love is a person

Most Sacred Heart

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Albert the Great Priory

John uses the word “love” eighteen times in this morning's selection from his first letter. We might conclude from the frequency of its occurrence and the confidence John shows in its use, that love is a word that picks out a clearly formed idea, a concept sharply distinguished from similar but imprecise notions. This means that we should be able to read John's letter and answer with a great deal of confidence the question, “What is love?” But this is exactly the wrong question to ask. Asked this way, the question leads us to a woefully impoverished answer. The better answer comes with the question, “Who is love?” And to this question, John answers, “God is love.” Lest we think that this too is an imprecise definition, hear what our Holy Father, Pope Benedict, has to say about what it means to acknowledge and accept this fundamental truth, “Being Christian is not the result of an ethical choice or a lofty idea, but the encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” Love is an event, a person. Still too sterile, maybe too abstract? I believe Yeats can help us here. Following the Magi in his imagination, Yeats goes to Bethlehem and finds “the uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor.” In the flesh and bone of a child, the uncontrollable mystery of love wiggles and cries. Meeting this child, loving this child is to know, to love God.

When did we start to think of love as a concept rather than a person? When did we start to define love in terms of pure emotion, or describe it with the language of biology? When did love become a game piece in the battles of politics and economics? Love has become a libertine passion, a criminal excuse, a political talking-point, an ideological hot-button. It's a reason to demolish, to fight, to build, to save, to heal. In the name of love, we feed thousands and slaughter just as many; for love, we marry and destroy marriage; we rescue and condemn. Is this what Yeats means when he describes the child Jesus as an “uncontrollable mystery”? Released into the world, divine love is untamed and untamable—a mystery to be met, to be accepted or rejected but never properly trained. If God is love, then Love is uncontrollable; at the very least, Love is uncontrollable by those who claim to love.

We do not tame divine love. Rather we are tamed by Him who is Love. Jesus tells us to take on his yoke and take direction. Put on his harness and be driven. The “uncontrollable mystery on the bestial floor” dares us to risk life and limb in his care, to place ourselves ahead of him in the field but yoked to a task—the work of giving his Father's love hands and feet, minds and voices. This is not only what he dares us to do, it is what we have vowed to do. If love has become so plastic, so malleable as to mean anything, to be anything, then those of us who claim to love must demonstrate—unambiguously demonstrate—that Love is a person, and that He abides with those who abide with Him. His yoke is our witness. And the work we do in his name must bear the fruit of His love for all.

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Coffee Cup Browsing

TIME editor gets the Constitution wrong. . .fourteen times!  Fortunately, no one reads TIME anymore.

Five Easy Steps to Cultural Destruction

"Infamous liberal outpost". . .Washington Theological Union to close in 2013.  The "Spirit of Vatican Two" has left the building!

Every rapist in Norway in 2010 was a Muslim??? 

More hilarity at the U.N.:  North Korea put in charge of nuclear disarmament. 

On the effects of WI's budget repair. . .

Fishing with Moses


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Update

Yes!  I'm still out here. . .

Reading/preparing for the two classes I'm teaching this summer is keeping me unusually busy.

The 20th Century Literature course is particularly time-consuming given that we've been reading several large modernist novels.  Now that we've moved into modernist poetry difficulty has replaced length as the principal challenge. . .though the novels pose their own difficulties.

I'm celebrating/preaching the Friday Mass at the priory.  So far, no invitations to celebrate a Sunday Mass have arrived.  

Next term will be much less hectic. . .at the very least, Coffee Bowl Browsing will return as a regular feature.

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The best Catholic Books

Brandon Vogt provides the Catholic cyberworld with an invaluable service!  

Best Catholic Books

More of the Best Catholic Books

I'm just a little embarrassed by how few of these books I've read. . .too many years studying modernist literature. . .hmmmmm. . .

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On books rec'd and not. . .(Updated)

Time for a few Mille Grazie's to my kind and generous Book Benefactors. . .

. . .to Robert B. for The Road to Serfdom. . .

. . .to Fr. Matthew G. for Theology Remixed. . .

. . .to C.J. & Kitty D. for Recent Catholic Philosophy, vol 2. . .

. . .to Blaine H. for Recent Catholic Philosophy, vol. 1. . .

and Anon for Bright of the Sky. . .this is the one I thought has been purchased as a Kindle Book.

Though they were purchased back in March, I haven't yet received:

Opening Up the Scriptures or Rediscovering Aquinas and the Sacraments. . .maybe they went to Rome ahead of me.  

Mille grazie!  Book Benefactors are always in my daily prayers!

P.S.  How could I forget!?  Thanks to Jeff M. for the Kindle Book, The Gypsy Morph.

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What?! What!? I can't hear you!

Last week I noticed a significant decline in the acuity of the hearing in my right ear.  If I closed my left ear, I was completely deaf.   Beginning Thursday, the hearing started to improve a bit.

So, this morning I went to the ENT doc and he told me--after several tests, etc.--that I have Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss. . .to the tune of a 20% loss in my right ear.  The most likely cause is inflammation around the cochlear nerve (I think that's what he called it, anyway), so he's giving me a month's course of steroids.  

I asked him, "Doc, you're telling me that my ear nerve isn't working b/c my brain is swelling?"  He said, "Well, that's a rough summary."  I said, "Brain swelling.  I blame philosophy."

Please pray for my Ear Nerve!  Who's the patron saint of hearing???

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Two classes for 2nd summer term at U.D.

I will be teaching two classes at the Univ of Dallas second summer term: American literature and a poetry writing workshop. 

The workshop will focus on critical reading and the creative process in writing poetry.  We will be reading L.O.T.S. of contemporary poetry!

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Will you lose your head for Jesus?

Nativity of John the Baptist

Fr. Philip Neri Powell, OP

St Albert the Great Priory

When the angel Gabriel announces to Zechariah that his wife Elizabeth will give birth to a son, a son who will go one to announce the coming of the long-promised Messiah, Zechariah gives voice to the doubts of his heart and asks, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." A perfectly reasonable question, one anyone of us might ask! Zechariah's question earns a stern rebuke and a punishment. He's struck speechless and will remain so until his son is born. Once John is born and Zechariah confirms in writing the infant's non-traditional name, his tongue is loosed and he sings a hymn of praise to God. The unusual events surrounding the conception and birth of John lead the people to ask, “What, then, will this child be?” This child will grow into a herald of the Lord, not only announcing the arrival of the Messiah but baptizing him as well, standing in witness at the Jordan when the Holy Spirit descends to confirm the Sonship of Jesus. John the Baptizer runs before the Christ, proclaiming the imminent fulfillment of God's promise to send among His people one who will restore all of creation to righteousness. For Christ, John is a forerunner, a harbinger; for us, he is an example, a model of joyful obedience to the Word once and always spoken. 

John baptizes Jesus and hears the voice of the Father speak, “This is my son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.” John's ministry for all the years leading up to this moment has been a ministry of obedience, of listening to the Word being spoken. Conceived for a single purpose and born to give voice to God's promise of a Messiah, John roams as a prophet among the people, baptizing them with water, preparing them in repentance for the arrival of the Christ. Determined, maybe a little obstinate, certainly faithful, John's obedience to God's Word costs him his freedom on more than one occasion and eventually head—a price he no doubt willing paid. As our example of faithfulness, we have to ask: are we prepared to follow John into prison, all the way to the executioner's block? To answer this question, we have to answer another one first: what is our purpose as followers of the Christ?

Daily we called upon to distinguish between the means and the end of our baptismal vows; that is, we are called upon to remember the difference between what we have vowed to be and do and how we have vowed to accomplished these goals. Being baptized into the death and resurrection of Christ makes us imperfect Christs and sets us on the way to becoming holy as God Himself is holy. To become Christs for others. That's our end as followers of Christ. The means we use to reach this perfected end flow out of our cooperation with God's gifts to each of us: we feed the hungry, visit the imprisoned, heal the sick, clothe the naked, bury the dead, announce mercy to the sinner, and love our enemies in the face of their hatred for us. Each of these can be a means to our end; they are not the end itself. If our end is to become Christ, then we can say with certainty –even if tinged with a little trepidation—that Yes we will follow John to prison and on to the executioner's block if necessary. Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, etc. does not require the kind of obedience to God's Word that John exemplified. However, becoming Christ requires just such obedience and more. Becoming Christ requires the clear, unambiguous commitment of the heart and mind, our whole person, to the single clarion truth that there is nothing more important, nothing more vital to our lives as creatures of a loving God than our undivided love for Him. Listening to His Word, His Word made flesh, and acting accordingly is the very center of our lives. Though this truth costs us nothing to acquire, it might cost us our lives to share. If so, we remember what the people said of John, “For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.” And He is with us as well.

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Coffee Bowl Browsing

On the failure of liberal Catholicism:  Part One and Part Two

100 Words and Phrases Banned from use on blogs

Passive-aggressive, manipulative, self-aggrandizing?  Fr. Corapi's adieu to his priesthood.

Evangelists for the Church of Global Warming caught fudging the data. . .again.  You're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

In 2009, ten companies a week on average left CA for more business-friendly states.  Today, that number is fifty-four. [Link Fixed]

Does your desk tell you anything about your mind?  In this case, yes.

B.O.'s USDA wants "heterosexism" (i.e. support for traditional marriage) equated with racism.  Let the re-education regime commence!

Just say NO!!!! to sudsy water.

Southwest Airlines implements a new and more humiliating seating procedure.

"This ole thing?  Just something I saw in the window and had to have." 

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OP Novices approved for vows

Just received word that our Southern Province novices have been approved for Simple Vows!

Congrats, brothers!!

Brs. Juan and Thomas More, first and second from the left.

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Two for the Three-in-One

Two homilies for Trinity Sunday:

O Lord, do come along (2008)

Suffering for mystery (2009)

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