Breezily, a few good prayer intentions: first a prayer for togetherness, centering. I believe there is a certain power of sympathy that shared breathing deeply in and out within the presence of others. I also know that touch is so often fleeting and that something very engrained, reactive, can be soothed, if lingering in an embrace. A hug that holds with trust may even tap a deep brain, soothing our keyed up alert systems, and in the calm with our inner electric pulse syncopating beta waves are transmitted. At least it's true that heartbeats can align with others metaphorically: What if we might all sync, in breath, ah, sweet, clapping hearts, beating wings! Trumpet blasts loud?  I won't add further expository introduction to each prayer, but there are so many wonderful ways to practice the art of expectation. One of them comes to us from ancient tradition. I once watched a wonderful film about an orthodox Jew who woke and immediately began his daily practices. He wrapped his...

  If the detention of students condemning genocide is not a station of the cross I don’t know what is. Thousands of us assembled in Somerville near Tufts University in solidarity with Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts graduate student, who we must remember aside many other detained by ICE including asylum seekers unable or intimidated to play the role of a prisoner of conscience. My family, residents of Somerville have typically experienced the corner of Tufts Triangle as a place to play soccer, afterwards walked around Powderhouse Square in some kind of exercise and play, but that evening, as a family living in the midst of tyranny,  we were engaged in a civic belonging, grateful for community . Many of us activated to the emergency protest had heard about the detention of Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Kahlil whose wife Noor Abdulla, certainly comes today before our confessing hearts. Noor, which means “light” in Arabic, attests to the strength of the mourning women. In Luke’s Gosp...

  Finally a date with my wife! But just to make it happen, both she and I wrestled with our demons and angels. In my case, Yesterday Thursday 7pm, mourning Somervillians for Palestine (S4P) were in my heart. Mourning--The immolation of Matt Nelson at the Israeli consulate in Boston. Mourning-- The shooting of Caleb Gannon, a pro-Palestinian Jewish lifelong Newton resident--allegedly by a man who had repeatedly harrassed S4P--including the daughter of a colleague of the Human Rights Commission on her way into Somerville High School. Mourning the failure of our Mayor to address the need of a plan for protest protection. All this heaviness as we proceeded to our date. We read James this coming Sunday at Mass--easily distorted into an abstraction on wisdom that begins and ends with purity. But today, our spaces map across and through global mess, and we are called into conversions of hope, daily persistant practices of love, solidarity, shouldering the reality of the oppressed. In her ...

 Carrie Schuchardt of House of Peace, Ipswich, holding a symbolic baby, in solidarity with Gaza mothers mourning the lost lives of their infants. Banner "We Repent the Sin of Violence" held by John Schuchardt and Emily Hankle with daughters at the Good Friday Stations of the Cross gathering organized by Agape in front of the Massachusetts State House. Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley attending the Interfaith Ceasefire event at Faneuil Hall, Boston. Professors Neto Valiente and Catherine Mooney (center) of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. CR Spicer (MTS '15) with Professors Mary Jo Iozzio and Neto Valiente of Boston College School of Theology and Ministry in front of the Federal Building. Committing to endurance, the assembly charged Senators Warren and Markey with complicity in war crimes (or should have).

"I'll step down from the Council," I announced last night at the Pastoral Council meeting.  This move to allow freedom for activism comes upon the completion of my first term, not until September, but in order to give ample time for elections.  "I know you've given it great prayer and discernment," Amy Logan, our Council Chair said.  One of the treasured experiences was my role offering the following at one of the first lay-led prayer evenings held over zoom, New Year's Eve 2020. ~~   I love icons. Icons are everywhere. They literally crowd ever inch of wall space. The moment I entered the threshold of this oxymoron of a man, a hairy bald man, this stranger’s house, he is a priest of the Russian Orthodox giving a few of us a tour inside his home. What I see is not a story, not a hobby or collector’s passion. Thousands of small painted icons hung on the wall, and between gilded frames is plush red padding, the icons are pillow quilted into the fabric of t...

 Good Friday--I made a solitary walk for War Tax Resistance, Somerville-Walden Pond, seventeen miles.  First Entry-- Here I am this morning 15 of April 2022 Taking a walk with my self. My faith has been drawing me, over the years, to reconcile bodily, enactment of God’s cross, but today this is a morning walk, we’re walking the path along the minute man trail, I’ve love to add history I’m downloading this app as I pass the community gardens talking now  on my way to Davis Square Turning now to the gospel the readings of the day for the triduum, just want to remark that I’m beginning this with the desire to create looking at the hyacinth and the daffodil as I diary with the spirit of Thoreau with his impulse toward creativity and simplicity walking this l-shaped route this morning out to Concord and turning toward Walden pond where I’ll meet Emily where she’ll be with friends this afternoon, it’s a gorgeous moon, sitting low in the sky, a giant globe.  2nd Entry-...

Hunger Walk organizers encouraged walkers to make their own route. Inspired, I walked to Walden Pond  twice! I walked each time for about seven hours (April 15, 17 miles; April 29, 21 miles). The two jaunts were prayerful mornings of solitude as the photos below show. The Hunger Walk has very close ties to our home church. Originating from members of our very own Paulist Center, we proudly support Emily's ministry organizing chefs of the Supper Club. For more about our family involvement, see my video story on our fundraising page:  2022 Walk for Hunger  Update, together we've raised $1337 dollars. Thanks to everyone's support!  Spy Pond Arlington Meadow 4.15 Trail bordering Arlington Meadows 4.29 Hancock-Clarke House, Lexington 4.29 Bedford Depot Me on the Old Reformatory Trail 4.29 Toni Morrison Society's "Bench at the Side of the Road" in Walden Wood Brister Freeman's Hill 4.29 Walden Pond grounding walk 4.15

  The Mass will also be livestreamed at  http:// saintpatrickscathedral.org/ live Starting on Monday, November 29 (the anniversary of Dorothy Day's death), please join us in praying a  Novena in Gratitude  which will culminate on December 8. Each day's meditation will be posted on the Guild's website ( www.dorothydayguild.org ) and FB.