A Positively Poetic Priest

"When they had gone ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there, with fish on it, and bread. Jesus said to them, ‘Bring some of the fish that you have just caught.’ So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore, full of large fish, a hundred and fifty-three of them; and though there were so many, the net was not torn. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.’ Now none of the disciples dared to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ because they knew it was the Lord. Jesus came and took the bread and gave it to them, and did the same with the fish. This was now the third time that Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from the dead." John 21:9-14 Jesus' disciples had a hard time believing that Jesus really was alive again. Partly this seems to be because Jesus looks different than he had before. We never find out how, except that Jesus is not always recognized at first. In this story from John, there seems to be some question as to who Jesus was, and this was n...

A walled enclosure marking space apart Us versus them in concrete form Hiding all those things we are hoping to forget Yet when we come up barren,  lacking fruit, leaves, or berries, nothing to lend us praise We come to sorrow we tear our wounds And grieve in loud estate Giving up on the weeds is the biggest mistake Time heals all wounds... when they are tended Cared for, cleaned, and bandaged against the rot Ever creeping closer to becoming a person We grasp waiting but waiting needs to be let go For that joy-filled love-steeped quiet moment When waiting is overcome I was thinking about the story of the fig tree in Luke 13 and the different ways we can put ourselves in that parable. If we think of ourselves as the tree, we can see that others can get frustrated that gifts we have are not bearing fruit (parent/teacher-child relationships). If Jesus is then the gardener that wants to give more tending, then  it seems to say that sometimes we need tending with manure in order to...