Andy Cirmo, A Letter of Thanks to Our Father . . . You have given us Your priest whom we call "Father" to lead our spiritual families here in Your Church, to whom we look for teaching, guidance, nurturing through the Sacraments. . .to whom we look as Your image with us . . .  Andy Norton, Vigil   . . . A lone, broken soldier Maternal type of Cain Limps defeated from the death On 66th and Main. . . Alan Capasso,  The Pigment Pusher . . .The first thing he does as he enters  his studio is light a small chimneyless oil lamp. The quick snap of the match ignites his first thoughts; the light of its flame fills an intimate space. Its heat rises to his face as the energy lands at the top of the wick.  Yesterday's soot burns off and a finger think line of blue black smoke rises and swirls around his head like a lazy tornado.  The wick is adjusted to a low flame, the heat of which will be used to loosen the stubborn caps of his paint tubes. . .  James Morris, Confession . . . There was something wrong. The curtain was gone. Our heads were too close together. I forgot what I was going to say. I came up with - "I haven't put God at the centre of my life. I've been too pre-occupied." He replied, "Any task you do is like a prayer." "But surely, Father, you have got to make yourself aware?" "I don't know, I just sit here uttering cliches." In this issue, "Confession" appears with James "Mass Haiku", and "Truly a Trendy Priest." Asa Skinner, Koffee Klatch . . .        Petrina, being a very sensible woman, aid, "I should lock him up in a cage and feed him prison gruel for a month. It works for common criminals" . . .he came home last night smelling of dog poop and covered with mud."       Brunhilda replied harshly, "Come woman, that isn't proper evidence. . . " Benjamin Harrison, Marcius Caius Coriolanus and Tulles Aufidius in Shakespeare's Coriolanus . . .          Coriolanus' refusal to bow to the whims of the people and the tribunes lose him the consulship.  His pride is his tragic flaw and his downfall.  He is unwilling to condescend at all to his lessors and is even somewhat proud in  his speech with his equals. . . Angie Ledbetter, Second Collection . . . parched soul left to make do with a single match for one small unlit votive to lift dusty prayers . . . Matthew Mehan, Offertory . . . How absurd! To think that I might Have raised myself the toll at The gate of him whose bells I answered when he rang them.   Benjamin Ludwig, Rosary . . .Once, a long time ago, when the newcomer was a boy, he was at his Dziadzia's house looking around. On Dziadzia's bureau he saw two sets of rosary beads in a small porcelain dish.  One was black, the other was white.  "You sure have a lot of rosaries," the newcomer remembered saying. But he was just a boy when he said it . . . Sharon Mollerus, After Lazarus was Raised. . . The day after the one He loved was raised, the only one He wept over, that moral has a headache from his dizzying fast and his bowels are twisted with disuse . . . The mourners are back to work, the curious come for a look, and the priests have a long talk with him, explaining that he had just taken a long nap and been accidentally left behind a rock . They didn't convince the risen man, who had smelled his foulness as the cerements unfurled . . . Brian Castieu,  The Candle Flame . . . In that fateful, awful darkness I eyed Eve very close, She held me as a torch before her: Fearful, hungry, morose. That night I spied a drop of water; It seemed a puzzling leak - As it fell from her once bright eye And trickled down her cheek . . .  Elizabeth Winder Noyes, Talking Circle: Cedar Branch Song . . . Cedar, you remind me of this song wanting to sing beyond itself to us: of transparent fingers fanning out like winged feathers in flight stroking cedar's soft,  strong green; of transparent words bubbling up from spirit's deep water . . . words carried inside its invisible undying current. . . . Kirk Rasmussen,  Hey Diddle Diddle: A Refutatio. . . "The Cat and the Fiddle" appears to be a tavern, the scene of bawdy merrymaking for a crowd of the author's rowdy drinking companions. The state of the author's mind deteriorates to an ever greater level.  He now describes a ridiculous hallucination: "The cow jumped over the moon." . . . Jennifer Prater, At Subiaco . . . Benedict, take our sons Into your school Of honest labor And fervent prayer At Subiaco. Teach them The now rare art of Brotherhood, and how To re-domesticate the land . . . Andrew Tsui, Wedding Announcement . . . Guess what? Arthur (my identical twin brother) and I are getting "married"! That's right! With the recent decisions in Spain and Canada, we decided to take advantage of the "marriage" tax benefits. Here's our case: We're in a loving and committed relationship; we share the same DNA . . can't get any more committed than that. We've been through difficult situations together. Imagine living in a womb with another person for nine months! . . . Pavel Chichikov,  Dawn . . A troubled night --- but with the dawn The Virgin comes with hands outspread -- She opens up her cloak and lays it down It is the blessed sky of dawn, clear blue The purity of all God's innocence, Which is the garment of her love The light of day is mercy, and the dawn Has nothing to forgive or to regret Although the night was long. In this issue, "Dawn" appears with Pavel's "Black Virgin", "Monster Seriatim", "The Psalms", and "Trinity" as well as one of his photographs.   Maggie Scheck Geene,  Who is My Mother? . . I stand now, outside the temple of my son's adult life, and I ponder where I have been with him, and what twists and turns our journey has taken.  I have done all I can to help him to become the man that God has called him to be.  Now I must stand by and watch and pray as I see him stumble and grope along the pathway of his life. But like Mary, I can be there in the background, not a force to change his direction, but to stand by him no matter what comes and help him to see God's will in his life. With Mary as my model, I have learned that to be a spectator can be as enriching, and heart wrenching, as being directly involved. . . Joseph Pearce,  Good Will for all Men . . . There is the danger, nay the inevitability, that the Shakespearean pearls will be cast before swine.  So be it.  The swine will not be harmed by it.  It might even do them some good!  Even relativists may come through relatively unharmed! They might even find themselves relatively cured of their relativism.  . . Return to Contents Updated1-6-2007, Feast of the Epipany