He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands

He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands Kadir Nelson Dial Books, 2005 Today I’m serving myself a nice, big helping of humble pie because He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands is exactly the kind of book that I tell myself I don’t like.  But I love it. It’s one of the books [...]

Ikon: The Harrowing of Hell

Ikon: The Harrowing of Hell, Denise Levertov Down through the tomb’s inward arch He has shouldered out into Limbo to gather them, dazed, from dreamless slumber: the merciful dead, the prophets, the innocents just His own age and those unnumbered others waiting here unaware, in an endless void He is ending now, stooping to tug [...]

Friday’s Child

Friday’s Child, WH Auden (In memory of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, martyred at Flossenburg, April 9th, 1945) He told us we were free to choose But, children as we were, we thought– “Paternal Love with only use Force in the last resort On those too bumptious to repent”– Accustomed to religious dread, It never crossed our minds [...]

Looking at Stars

Looking at Stars, Jane Kenyon The God of curved space, the dry God, is not going to help us, but the son whose blood spattered the hem of his mother’s robe. excerpted from Collected Poems, Graywolf, 2005

Hot Cross Buns

I know I’m jumping ahead a few days here, but I wanted to tell you about my favorite Easter morning breakfast food: hot cross buns.  Many people eat them on Good Friday; either way they’re a great tradition.  I particularly love this recipe from the deliciously talented people at King Arthur Flour.  If you don’t [...]

Salvator Mundi: Via Crucis

Salvator Mundi: Via Crucis, Denise Levertov Maybe he looked indeed much as Rembrandt envisioned Him in those small heads that seem in fact portraits of more than a model. A dark, still young, very intelligent face, a soul-mirror gaze of deep understanding, unjudging. That face, in extremis, would have clenched its teeth in a grimace [...]

A Poem A Day for Holy Week: East Coker

As I’ve mentioned before, I love Holy Week. It’s quite possibly my favorite week of the whole year. And yet, this year, my Holy Week is burgeoning with obligations and responsibilities and I’m feeling their pull away from quiet, from meditation, from preparation. So this week, in place of posting a review, I’m going to [...]

Our Greatest Celebration

So, how can we learn to live as wide-awake people, as Easter people?… We ought to shout Alleluias instead of murmuring them; we should light every candle in the building instead of some… [Easter week] ought to be an eight-day festival, with champagne served after morning prayer… We should be taking steps to celebrate Easter [...]

At Jerusalem’s Gate: Poems of Easter

At Jerusalem’s Gate: Poems of Easter Nikki Grimes and David Frampton Eerdmans, 2005 One of the things I love most about literature is its ability to precisely name things we are otherwise familiar with, and to help us to see them anew. Poetry, in particular, is the art of naming with precision and care. And [...]

Exodus

Exodus Brian Wildsmith Eerdmans, 1998 I think the story of the Exodus is, hands down, one of the most exciting in the Bible. Unfortunately, it’s also one of the most familiar – so much so, that we often lose sight of the drama when we come back to it. But there’s a reason it is [...]