forgiven much

"Forgiven Much" by Keith Johnson

[Hat Tip: A Holy Experience]

the real question is...

"Indeed, the most ghettoized people of all, I've come to learn, are those who don't know they grew up in a particular time and place and culture, and who think they can get to universal truths outside of particular realities and commitments. There are ghettos and then there are ghettos. The real question is not whether you grow up in a ghetto, but whether the ideas and customs and rhythms of your particular ghetto prepare you to engage other ideas and customs and life experiences without losing touch with your roots."

[George Weigel]

gets busy on the proof

steering clear of what we'd like to say

Moths by Jennifer O'Grady

Adrift in the liberating, late light
of August, delicate, frivolous,
they make their way to my front porch
and flutter near the glassed-in bulb,
translucent as a thought suddenly
wondered aloud, illumining the air
that's thick with honeysuckle and dusk.
You and I are doing our best
at conversation, keeping it light, steering clear
of what we'd like to say.
You leave, and the night becomes
cluttered with moths, some tattered,
their dumbly curious filaments
startling against my cheek. How quickly,
instinctively, I brush them away.
Dazed, they cling to the outer darkness
like pale reminders of ourselves.
Others seem to want so desperately
to get inside. Months later, I'll find
the woolens, snug in their resting places,
full of missing pieces.

[Hat Tip: The Writer's Almanac]

through other people

You aren’t able to repent properly and to be alone in the heights of the love of God. That is to say, just God and you; just Christ and you. The love of Christ is offered and always passes through other people.

- Elder Porphyrios the Kapsokalyvite (1906-1991)