I was tempted to entitle this piece, ‘I’m A Failure!’ It is just over one week into Lent and I’ve broken half of the things I’d promised God to give up, already! Then The Lord gently reminded me that He was in charge…he reminded me that I had been sick with a cold virus all… Continue reading Tone It Down
I spend my nights down on the wharf in unlit alleywaysNext to the church downtown where Sally praysCome down sometime, we’ll eat a rusty can of corn, yeahAnd listen to the radio, I love you, I love you, it says Where did your heart go?Did you put it on a train?Did you leave it in… Continue reading Worthy (not Worthy)
I overheard a conversation recently on the appropriate way to refer to something we watch on the screen as being either a “movie” or a “film” (or as we say in Co. Kerry, a “fillum”). I had never really considered this before and felt that the two terms were interchangeable. For serious partakers of the… Continue reading It Moved Me
The character Amos Hart, from the musical ‘Chicago’, made an appearance in my last blog on God as our advocate. Being instantly forgettable as he is, he remained a brief and passing comment, until now. It got me thinking, always a dangerous thing to do, about the nature of our humanity rightly ordered to God,… Continue reading Cellophane
And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brethren, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien that is with him. You shall not be partial in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike; you shall not be afraid of the face of… Continue reading The Eternal Courtroom Drama
The day before yesterday, as I was walking the round of the cloister of the monastery, the brethren were sitting around forming as it were a most loving crown. In the midst, as it were, of the delights of paradise with the leaves, flowers, and fruits of each single tree, I marveled. In that multitude… Continue reading Get Thee to the Garth
I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day, just as the Scriptures said. He was seen by Peter and then by… Continue reading Prove It!
And you, O desolate one,what do you mean that you dress in scarlet,that you deck yourself with ornaments of gold,that you enlarge your eyes with paint?In vain you beautify yourself.Your lovers despise you;they seek your life. Jeremiah 4:30 In the early 1980’s the band Bow Wow Wow wrote a song where the lyrics went, “go… Continue reading Blood Suckers!
This simple truth, that the sole purpose of man’s life on earth is to do the will of God, contains in it riches and resources enough for a lifetime. Once you have learned to live with it uppermost in mind, to see each day and each day’s activities in its light, it becomes more than… Continue reading The “I” Litany
You cry out in your sleep,All my failings exposed.And there’s a taste in my mouth,As desperation takes hold.Just that something so goodJust can’t function no more It is well known that music can touch our deepest parts and lift us up to encounter the divine in ways outside of our normal experiences. It is also… Continue reading Thank You Disillusionment
Brother Alberic 