An essential step forward is the development of a fitting order of the day: a division of the day that gives a rhythm to the day, with a reasonably fixed pattern of exertion and relaxation, of spiritual breathing in and breathing out, of ordering one’s environment and moments when one is in touch with something […]
The boys couldn’t wait to get downstairs on Easter morning. The Easter Bunny had come, they knew that. And there would be an egg hunt and candy, and the surge of excitement would subside into a languorous morning of playing with the little treats that they found in their baskets. (Until Church, at least.) The years […]
D’s Communion One time when I was a young man I caught the scent of the priest Through the tannins of the communion wine. He smelled like my father On the morning that he buried my mother. I had just married. My new wife Kept two paces behind me In the communion line. Taking the host was […]
On late days one summer, I would walk through the rich heat to the small chapel in the sacristy in the rear of the church, off the corridor that joined the monastery and the church together. Bishop Ansgar would say Mass each afternoon: sepulchral, solemn, devout. What I can remember about those Masses was how […]