Join us as we explore the Corporal Works of Mercy. In these pages you will learn what the Seven Corporal Works of Mercy are, how having an open-door policy effects a family, what it’s like to be in need and overlooked, and what prison looks like from the inside. You will also find non-fiction, poetry, book and media recommendations, and puzzles, as well as our various views on war in Controversy Corner. We can’t wait to hear what you think!
The theme for the Winter 2021 issue is Corporal Works of Mercy. These are to feed the hungry, to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to give shelter to travelers, to visit the sick, to visit the imprisoned, and to bury the dead. We want to know – what do these ideas mean to you personally? How do you see them in your church, in your life and in the lives of others?
As we were finishing our meal and our catching-up, the restaurant manager walked by slowly with an elegant, elderly lady on his arm.
“This is my son,” the elegant lady said to us. “Don’t you think he is handsome?”
Perhaps the duty officer had it in for them:
Some privates, a corporal, maybe a sergeant
Grousing about pulling a night watch
And in a Jewish cemetery – why?
The air is thurified – the incense given
Our Lord upon His birth is fumed at last;
The censer’s chains, clanking like manacles
Offend against the silence at the end of Mass
Churchmen everywhere emptied out from their sermons such abhorrent things as doctrines and definitions, they got rid of “all that ritual nonsense” that the fast-moving modern couldn’t stomach – in short, they tried to bring back the common man by meeting him halfway. What they actually did was to confirm him in his skepticism by offering a second-rate relativism which neither satisfied his taste for fashion nor reignited in him an actual love for truth. Religion, it seemed, capitulated to the fads of the world.
“Another hell-hole opened up on my mail route!” the mailman said excitedly.
“Great. Another one” said Conrad with exasperation. We were all the time having to close them things.
The old man scoffed. Great. The Christians were knocking at his door again. Years and years they had been knocking and he would refuse but he could not shut the door on a kid.
Today’s first lesson is that no such construct as “homeschool” exists, either as a noun or as a verb. When your father taught you hunting safety he did not homeschool you; he taught you. If your sixth-grade teacher taught you not to spit tobacco into the classroom litter basket because your parents failed in their duty of teaching basic hygiene, manners, and dignity, he did not schoolhome you.
“You want me to get your magic ring from one of the most heavily guarded places in the universe?”
“Yes, as a matter of fact, I do.”
The task was a daunting one. Annwyn was a place of powerful, wicked gods, and hideous monsters. It was a place of terror beyond all comprehension.
“What if I told you that you could be one of the greatest magicians in the history of Britain?” queried the madman.
“I’d say you were mad,” said Morgana, chuckled.
“I’ve seen it. You will go down in legend.”
The theme for the Spring 2021 issue is Spiritual Works of Mercy. These are: instruct the ignorant, counsel the doubtful, admonish the sinner, bear wrongs patiently, forgive offenses, comfort the afflicted, and pray for the living and the dead. We want to know – what do these ideas mean to you personally? How do you see them in your church, in your life and in the lives of others?
James Lee mentioned that he really liked Kristin Hannah’s novels, which I pooh-poohed as chick-lit. He assured me that they are really good, and that with my love of Russian literature I would appreciate Winter Garden, parts of which are set in Leningrad…
If your life were a time capsule of sorts
In what cornerstone would you brick in
Against a mysterious opening day
When someone in the future would open you up…
“Who will take us to the City of Pearls?” the little boy asked the little girl. “There is no one out here and we are much too small to defend ourselves.”
“The giant will take us.” The little girl said pointing to him.
Why are there now so many books of lists of ten things we must do before we die? Why not nine, or eleven? And why should pay someone for a list of experiences he says you and I must fulfill before we shuffle off what Shakespeare is pleased to call this mortal coil? Will my life be meaningless if I don’t jump out of an airplane over Scotland, see a famous statue in a Buddhist temple in Bangladesh, eat fried snake in Singapore, bicycle through Kenya, visit some snaky island off Honduras, or flush a certain Czarist toilet in St. Petersburg?
“Coffee with Bob!” I muttered under my breath. “What was I thinking?” Bob isn’t just any guy. His bakery was my biggest competitor in town before I had to take the bakery gluten free, and also a person I’d known since I was five years old.
Where has the love gone, the magic that everyone associated with Christmas? Is it because we insist that the world should be devoid of the love that Jesus Christ brings in the manger, that it should be devoid of the wonder and magic that Santa Claus brings down every chimney?
But first we celebrate the great world’s turning
With Advent and the holy Christmas time
With liturgies followed by the Yule log burning
Through feasting and cheer, and each well-sung rhyme
