…meaning and truth in Dante’s world reside in the afterlife, where figurae are fulfilled and totalities formed. Mortal existence is, by contrast, incomplete, illusory, secondary. But I think the opposite can be said, with equal accuracy: it’s the afterlife that is a tissue of illusions. Dante’s afterworld may be highly structured, but he invented that […]

Nature’s Grace: Encountering The Tree of Life

“Nature is shot through with grace, such that it is impossible to separate one from the other. Grace is not some alien force that occasionally intrudes into a closed system (“nature”). As G. M. Hopkins declared, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.” It is grace all the way down.” – Stewart Clem […]

The Baker and the Cupbearer

(Rudiments of reading) Simply as a piece of literature, the Holy Bible is a remarkable feat. Many different authors writing many different genres across many different geographical locations and thousands of years anthologized into an unbelievably consistent and unified work of literature. Contained in each smaller narrative are layers that point to a much larger […]

Easter Poem

The Mistaken Gardener by Seth Wieck There was reclamation to be doneThe path being overrun with runnersMy foot having caught in the matrixof vines to skin my palms in the thorns that received me. Read the rest of the poem here.

Ash Wednesday

by T.S. Eliot Because I do not hope to turn again Because I do not hope Because I do not hope to turn Desiring this man’s gift and that man’s scope I no longer strive to strive towards such things (Why should the agèd eagle stretch its wings?) Why should I mourn The vanished power of the usual reign?  Because I do […]

…the epistle endures. This should come as no surprise to Christians. While we are often described as a people of the book, an important chunk of that book is a collection of letters. Indeed, Christianity is unique in ascribing divine authority to human correspondence. While the form may vary, there is genius and power unique […]

Journey of the Magi

By T.S. Eliot (Follow the link and listen to him read it). ‘A cold coming we had of it, Just the worst time of the year For a journey, and such a journey: The ways deep and the weather sharp, The very dead of winter.’ And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory, Lying down in the […]

Remind yourselves of this: We who were slaves to sin; the sin that when fully grown becomes death; that awful separation from God; We who were bound to decay and marked for the grave; we have been buried with Christ. But to this end: that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the […]

I Have Not Hidden Your Deliverance

Then I said, “Behold, I have come;in the scroll of the book it is written of me:I delight to do Your will, O my God;Your law is within my heart.” I have told the glad news of deliverance in the great congregation;behold, I have not restrained my lips,as you know, O Lord.I have not hidden […]

Psalm 37:25-26

I have been young, and now am old,yet I have not seen the righteous forsakenor his children begging for bread. He is ever lending generously,and his children become a blessing.  I usually read this as an encouragement to pursue righteousness because then I won’t be forsaken or have to beg for bread.  I don’t want […]