Diary

The Principalities and Powers are Legion: William Stringfellow and The Idolatrous Life Taking Things

According to the Bible, the principalities are legion in species, number, variety and name. They are designated by such multifarious titles as powers, virtues, thrones, authorities, dominions, demons, princes, strongholds, lords, angels, gods, elements, spirits… And if some of these seem quaint, transposed into contemporary language they lose quaintness and the principalities become recognizable and…

Read More

What is the real me?

What is the real me? It is certainly more than the matter of my body, because that it changing all the time. The atoms are always changing – but in some sense it is the pattern of how the atoms are formed. That, I think, is what the soul is (agreeing with Thomas Aquinas). It…

Read More

The Blueprint

Jesus is the blueprint, the plan, the pattern revealed in one body and moment of history to reveal the meaning of all of history and each of our lives. The cross is the banner of what we do to one another and to God. The resurrection is the banner of what God does to us…

Read More

Good Friday Poem: Terrible Beyond

Terrible beyond despairing walk, Menacing cold clutches its stalk. Fevering swells its crippling tense, Sickness untold unfathomed suspense. Destruction impending unjust disguise, Terrifying deceit in tearful reprise. Engulfed horror at trauma pursuit, Disease stricken by powers’ salute. Fleshly shudders panicking fright, Nightmares entranced by visible light. Ghastly quakes punish the soul, Spirit painstakingly swallowed in…

Read More

Who is invited to your table this Easter?

At God’s table It would not have been God’s table if they hadn’t all been gathered around it: the betrayer and the friend the power-hungry and the justice seeker the faithful and the fickle. When Jesus poured the wine, and the bread was broken; when everyone could eat – the outcast and the beloved the…

Read More

Robert Henri on Good Composition

Good composition is like a suspension bridge; each line adds strength and takes none away…Making lines run into each other is not composition. There must be motive for the connection. Get the art of controlling the observer – that is composition. Quote and painting above from Robert Henri, prominent founder of the Ashcan School in…

Read More