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
Whole Heart
After trying for three months to find a date and time, I had brunch after Mass yesterday with a friend. We spoke of our recent experiences working abroad in Mexico and Myanmar, we spoke of God and choice and light and Advent and the fact that the world is a mess but full of God…
Advent I, 2008
Advent I 2008 Watch Now is the timeof star-crisp invitationto draw in, center down,toward the gathering fireand watch the becoming of silence. This until, when sparks singe the lowingof winter’s wind,there comesthe nascent crackling of joy. poem- ©MperiodPress image-http://galleries.lycos.co.uk/d/15164-2/bonfire-01.jpg
Ginger Naps
I just took a pie out of the oven. A pie and two custards, actually, as I had too much pumpkin filling for the crust. The pie turned out wonderfully–the custards a winning experiment. Best of all, though, was what happened while they were baking. The house was quiet and I was alone in the…
Consider the Lilies 
