Ballad of Catholic Writers

Bernard Basset was from Britain;
William Barry's a Yank:
For what these Jesuits have written,
Them I should like to thank.

I'm curious about Joyce Rupp
And her prolific pen.
You won't get Sister Rupp mixed up
With the nuns on EWTN.

I once read a book about prayer
By David Steindl-Rast.
About sin, he was cavalier,
And left me quite aghast.

Henri Nouwen wasn't sarcastic:
A kind soul, to be certain.
But when my appetite's monastic,
I'll pick up Thomas Merton.

Some theologians have a way
I find less than enchantin':
Bring back the good old days, I say.
Three cheers for Fr Manton!

Carlo Carretto lived in the heat
Of the desert fierce and mean.
He had a peace of soul, so sweet,
Almost like Bishop Sheen!

Reading books from Ignatius Press
Might save your soul from hell,
And no one's likelier to impress
Than Benedict Groeschel.

Thomas Howard and Peter Kreeft
Write prose that fairly sings,
But no lay writer's wit or craft
Surpasses Heather King's!

There are progressive writers, too:
The Chittisters and Rohrs.
They might not be heretical;
They're likely crashing bores.

My library is packed quite full
With spiritual writing.
You might find this stuff rather dull,
But I think it's exciting!

Uses of a magic wand?

flaky snow.

Cooler weather! An end to the current heat-and-humidity wave.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

Prayer is not a stratagem for occasional use, a refuge to resort to now and then. It is rather like an established residence for the innermost self. All things have a home: the bird has a nest, the fox has a hole, the bee has a hive. A soul without prayer is a soul without a home. Weary, sobbing, the soul, after wandering through a world festered with aimlessness, falsehoods and absurdities, seeks a moment in which to gather up its scattered life, in which to divest itself of enforced pretensions and camouflage, in which to simplify complexities, in which to call for help without being a coward. Such [a] home is prayer. Continuity, perseverance, intimacy, authenticity, earnestness are its attributes. For the soul, home is where prayer is.

"On Prayer," from Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity: Essays, ed. Susannah Heschel (Farrar Straus Giroux, 1996), p. 258

A Catholic "Anything Goes"

I have chosen to remove this post, only because I think I was a mite too flippant, and perhaps a bit too judgmental of the celebrities that I mentioned in the little ditty.

With apologies to Cole Porter

A comic lyric, a panegyric, based on his 1934 song "You're the Top." Here.