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LONG TIME It has been a long time since the last newsletter- a whole
year if truth be told. I'm sorry for the delay, most of it caused by my inability to find
art that lives up to the past efforts. I'll try to get it out more often. Its not really
all that much work when I have found the art. CHRISTMAS
COME AND GONE AGAIN!! People
ask me, “Was Jesus a difficult child?” It’s a good question because it
touches on some fascinating issues. Jesus was human in all things, sin alone accepted.
Does a baby sin when he or she cries at night? Does a bay sin when he wants to take a nap?
Does a baby sin when he has a tummy ache? Does
a baby sin when he decides to go for a little crawl outside without telling his parents?
Does a baby do wrong when he tries the patience of his parents? If all these activities
are sins, then Jesus did not do them. If, on the other hand, they are not sins but normal
human behavior, then He did do them. What do you think about these questions? |
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SOCHRA
MARIE
In the last book about Nuala Anne and Dermot and their
family (Irish Stew!) I
introduce a new family member, a certain Sochra Marie. (Sochra is pronounced like Sarah,
except the first syllable is pronounced like it is- “saw.”) She is a neonate
born after twenty-five weeks and weighs about 800 grams. This
brings the story into the neonatal intensive care unit at a hospital, one of the most
remarkable places I have ever visited. Well, after three months, they are able to bring her home amidst much rejoicing in her family and the parents set out to solve the mystery of the legendary Hay Market Riots in Chicago. Two years later in the next story, Irish Cream, all the very considerable energy she has devoted to staying alive, is now devoted to being a two year old, a “tiny terrorist” her father calls her. Meanwhile her parents must cope with a couple of mysteries, including a murder charge against their dog-boy and deaths in Ireland in the years after the Famine. BLACKIE STAYS BUSY! Meanwhile, back at the Cathedral, Blackie stays busy,
chasing poltergeists out of the White House when a man from his home parish on the South
Side of Chicago becomes, through a concatenation of happy circumstances, President of the
United States. The Bishop in the West
Wing is a political parable but also a political comedy. Not satisfied with sending his harmless little
auxiliary to Pennsylvania Avenue, Cardinal Sean Cronin next sends him to The University of
Chicago to solve a locked room mystery that involves (apparently) the death of a Russian
Orthodox monk who may, like Cronin, be a Cardinal Prince of the holy Roman Church. In The
Bishop goes to The University, the little Bishop discovers that the Irish may be
taking it over. In September
Song, Chuck and Rosemarie suffer through the sixties when they both enter
their forties, their children become involved in the war and revolution of that era and
their friends die, it seems, needlessly. However, in the next volume of their chronicles, Second Spring: A Love Story, they encounter a slew
of grandchildren with red hair, and, most importantly, they rediscover one another. |
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THE BOOK OF LOVE This Christmas, my sister Mary Durkin and I are celebrating the publication of a new book, The Book of Love. Unlike poor little Sochra Marie, this volume was not born prematurely. Rather it required five years to come to life. Having noticed that the many Books of Virtue seemed to have left out the virtue that St. Paul says is the greatest of all virtues, and the one which St. John identifies with God, we have collected an anthology of material about Love-all kinds of love in all kinds of forms: stories, poems, words of wisdom, jokes, laments, prayers. We are giving it to a lot of people for Christmas. |
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