Epiphany brings with it an annual personal tradition. I leaf through my second copy of an old Longman poetry anthology (the first has been read, loved, and written on into non-portable fragility) and find T.S. Eliot’s “Journey of the Magi,” settle into a quiet corner of the couch with a mug of good strong coffee,…
Untie her and let her go free
I went to Mass yesterday– a good move on my part. I’d been out wandering about without specific aim when I realized it was nearly noon and Xavier was only a block or two away. While sitting in the Mary Chapel, the pastor approached me about how much he enjoyed the Isaiah reading I did…
Boxing Day–Rev Gals
What Five Things did today bring for me? 1. A day long mental hum of Good King Wenceslaus! 2. A poem for an exhausted friend (see below if interested) 3. A walk on the streets of Manhattan where I encountered a mother trying to apply Chapstick to her kid’s lips and who finally had to…
Gift for a Friend
Written this afternoon for an exhausted friend…heard while wandering the streets of Manhattan…no irony lost there. Invitation Come- Center… center down, my friend, to where gravity falls away into my arms; where efforts to be other are gloriously pointless; where stones still spark inside and rain will teach you how to be free. ©MperiodPress La…
Christmas, 2008
Christmas 2008 Hodie! Unfold the seasonal petalsof your snow-dusted bursting bloom! Reveal to the clamoringhungering worldmy warmly fleshlyglory-bright birth! Then ah—listen! Soon follows the clear benedictionof a cold bell chiming. Hodie! Venite adoremus,Christus natus est! ©MperiodPress(with thanks to Gwendolyn Brooks who wrote, “Conduct your blooming in the noise and whip of the whirlwind.”) image- http://k43.pbase.com/o6/58/560858/1/72669842.vaWGJMmn.SnowCoveredRedRoseIMG_2776.jpg
Advent III
Advent III, 2008 Gaudete Despite, or ratherperhaps because of,a weighty preponderanceof wide-spread reasons for acting otherwise,we are called to rejoice. Called to find a crumble,how ever fine,of pungent and potentspice-infused gaudete. (It settles, wanting sifting, I’ve found, in the omnipresent dust of living that tucks in pocket corners.) Denying nothing,I am called to turn outmy…
Free Indulgences
By nature, I am an early person…and I had the most wonderful morning this morning because of it. After several sections of the paper, a large mugful of dark roasted Tanzanian Jubilee coffee, and a bowl of oatmeal, I headed to church for a meeting of liturgical ministers. I arrived an hour ahead of time…
Advent II, 2008
Advent II 2008 Comfort, O Comfort Gather them! With incensed steam—a mug of bone warming hope swizzled with the tingleof a mulling-spiced dream! Feed them! With the marrow of faith—rich from the flavorsof steeping in life; fatwith succulent beauty! Comfort them! With a breadth of love—yeasty, dense, and prone to rising;with a soft and nestling…
Longings
From the RevGals…An Advent Friday Five Five Advent longings time alone gentle, warm company to be carried away by song and Word to be grounded in the need of here and now the adventure of life in fullness
Consider the Lilies 
