The end is near! We’re all gonna die! Life is an exclamation! This urgency has been fully framed by the New York Times reporter whose essay “The Coming Collapse” declared: “It is impossible for any doomed population to grasp how fragile the decayed financial, social and political system is on the eve of implosion.” We […]
The In-Between: Sufjan Stevens and the Anticipation of Holy Saturday
Thankful for this reflection from Kelly Reed. I’m not sure what I expected from turning thirty. (I suspected there would at least be a dog in the picture…alas, no). My other friends in their thirties have moved steadily through the phases of adulthood. They’ve developed careers, gone to grad school, taken managerial roles. Single friends […]
The Imperfect Eye - John L'Heureux
From Picnic in Bablyon, L’Heureux’s journals from 1963-’67.
The Imperfect Eye
I saw tonight that he is on my side,
the lion. For the first time, I saw it.
And by God all the furniture got up
and danced (that hulking desk
a creditable tango) and I, though not much
on my feet, waltzed through Judah
like a Crazy-priest. Sometimes joy
is like that, coming quick as dandelions
springing to attention while the sun
shudders still—a little—from the melting
winter. Anyway here I was with lions
to account for and that desk
and questionable antics all along
(indignities of sun and dandelions
while our bones still creak with Lent)
and I thought God, what now, until
again I heard the music of the dance
again I waltzed through Judah.
“I something fear my father’s wrath” no more.
Another Week Ends: Zen Evangelicalism, Rumors of Narnia, Invisible Forces, Digital Eidolons, Liquid Bread, and Deleting Social Media
1. Say you’re jonesing for a stirring interreligious discourse this weekend — have I got the thing for you! In a great piece for the latest First Things, art historian Matthew Milliner discusses the relationship between Eastern religions and evangelical Christianity. “…it is often thought,” he says, “that evangelical Protestants have little to offer interreligious dialogue.” […]
"Have a Token Lent" and Other Seasonal Suggestions from a Weary Jesuit
John L’Heureux was a Jesuit for 17 years before he quit in ’71 and got married. He’s also written an insane amount of fiction and poetry which I am slowly working through, and loving. I first encountered his work with The Rise and Rise of Annie Clark from last autumn’s New Yorker and am currently flipping […]
Lent Doesn't Make Sense When Incarnation > Salvation
Instinct and revelation do not typically occupy the same space. For a revelation reveals truth that we otherwise would miss. In this regard, religion is most interesting when it offers ideas that are distinct and/or counterintuitive, when it brings something new to bear upon the old. In particular, the idea that God cares for the […]
The Death of Control
My wife has one unrelenting addiction: “Jeopardy!” If there is time, she will watch, and if I am there, I will sit through it. In his 35 years on the syndicated nightly show, Alex Trebek has become an icon. His hushed superiority, muffled humor, and obvious judgments of the players and the game are, now, […]
The Boy Who Lived: A Tribute to My First Reading of the Harry Potter Series
Spoilers! (But I might be last person who would have needed that warning.) I closed Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and sat frozen in place. The weight in my chest slowly subsided as tears continued to stream down my face. I couldn’t quite figure out what to do next. The reality sunk in that […]
The Ash Wednesday Immortality Bus
From our archives, the following piece by Ethan Richardson was originally published in 2017 — but the Immortality Bus is ageless. Buckle up… There was a dark horse in the 2016 presidential campaign that you missed. And what a shame! This gentleman really promised to turn things around, in ways no one else was talking about. […]
On AirPods and Ashes
This past Christmas, Santa gave me a pair of AirPods, the unmistakable wireless headphones from Apple. I was very excited to walk around in my new Silicon-Valley chic, but it turned out that I was not alone. Upon returning to school, it seemed that almost every other pair of anxious college student ears was adorned […]
Liturgical Folk, vol. 4: LENT (Out Now!)
Liturgical Folk’s new album, Lent, is out today, and it’s beautiful. Quiet, contemplative, comforting, these songs are devotional works of art. The album offers ten songs and hymns for the upcoming season, from Ash Wednesday to Holy Saturday. Based on collects from the Book of Common Prayer, these songs are extended prayers, with all the […]
Lessons from the Mid-Lent Slump
This year for Lent, I decided not to get crazy. In the past, especially as a kid, I’d sometimes give up three things at once, candy, my Gameboy, and fun in general. In the absence of those worldly distractions, I’d take up the terribly sanctified tendency of comparing and contrasting my virtue against my brother’s: […]
