Reflections
- Bluebelle, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Prayers, Reflections
The Third Sunday of Advent
I travel these days between the bumpers that make a loud noise and then send me hurtling back across the board to slam into a wall or another bumper, lights flashing and the tote board rolling the digits higher, and I try so hard to keep moving so as not to drop between the flippers, and I know how to bump just enough, how to catch myself in the crook of the flipper and then slap that button and relaunch up to the top of the board. But sometimes I misjudge and I drop through that too-wide space and disappear, and then I have to use up one more of…
-
The Second Sunday Of Advent
“Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for him at all, Christ has come uninvited. But because he cannot be at home in it, because he is out of place in it, and yet he must be in it, his place is with those others for whom there is no room. His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of persons, tortured, exterminated. With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in this world.” — Thomas Merton This is the…
-
Patience And Mercy
Nature teaches beasts to know their friends. – William Shakespeare Coriolanus, Act II, Scene 1 It was nearing the noon hour when one of my coworkers — we’ll call her Alice — asked me if I wanted to see her dogs. “Bub’s outside with them. He came to pick me up and brought them along.,” she said. I’ve seen photos and heard many lively tales of Alice’s dogs but have never met them in the flesh, so I quickly said, “Sure!” and followed her out the back entrance to the parking lot. Walking behind her, I was thinking of her boyfriend, Bub. Alice is several years younger than me and…
- Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Movies, Photographs, Reflections
The First Sunday of Advent
It’s been cold in a raw, bone-grinding way the past week, and we’ve burned a lot of wood in the evenings to keep things cozy. These days, the hostility of the petty and screeching world outside contrasts so dramatically with the peace found within the family walls, and I spend much of my time maintaining the chasm that separates the two Almost a year ago, Mrs. Orr and I watched Terence Malick’s haunting film A Hidden Life, and I was so moved that I wrote a blog post about it. I re-watched the movie yesterday and was affected even more forcefully by the similarity to what happened to the quiet…
-
Happy Thanksgiving
From the Orrs….Happy Thanksgiving to you all. Consider your blessings, and gird yourselves for the days ahead. ~ S.K. Orr
-
Gratitude
I want to express my thanks to all of you who have reached out to me after my request. Though no clear path has yet been revealed to me, I am strengthened by the show of friendship and concern. Most of all, I am grateful for the prayers. This is no trite statement; my belief in the power and efficacy of prayer is central to all that I am and all that I do, even when I am unfaithful and inconstant. *** Last Sunday was the last Sunday of the Church year, and this coming Sunday, the first Sunday of Advent, marks the beginning of the Church year for Anno…
- Bluebelle, Church Life, Daily Life, Holy Days, I Never Thought I'd Be In This Situation, Jinx, Movies, Photographs, Prayers, Reflections
Last Sunday After Pentecost
A week from today marks the beginning of Advent. The church calendar once provided the cadence for the march of everyday life, granting to Christians the sense of timing of season, of the low ebb of the Lenten times to the high tide of Easter. Just as farmers and cattlemen feel in their very bones the motion of the earth around the sun, and of this solar system’s wide circle around the universe, watching the changing natures scenes and the predictable habits of animals, so too the average Western man once felt the revolving year in his bones as he observed the Church’s feasts and solemn days. But now nature…
-
Sorrows Of The Day
“Each present joy or sorrow seems the chief.” William Shakespeare I hadn’t seen them in months, and today when we met, I was so unsettled at their appearance, I had to force myself to maintain a benign smile. He is about my age, and his wife just a few years younger. They were once an outgoing and pleasant couple, ready with smiles and laughter and jests. But first he, then she, fell into the maw of modern medicine, and now farther down that road, they have both endured debilitating strokes and other ravages that have left them quiet and staring. They both stared into my face today, watching me with…
-
Down to the Page, Up to the Heavens
I spent much of this past weekend thinking over the state of my soul. Friday night, we watched a DVD, featuring the talented LeeLee Sobieski in her role as Saint Joan of Arc. And my wife presented me with a gift of books, one of which had been a wish-list item for some time now: The Little Office of Baltimore. I set about praying the offices in the book and am profiting from this spiritual exercise very much. I only wish TLOoB had the office in Latin on facing pages, like the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary does. I am comforted by my stumbling, halting tongue as I…
-
What Matters As Advent Approaches
It felt so cold this morning that I could feel it working in my bones, as if little ice crystals were forming in the synovial fluid of my knuckles and knees and ankles. The world outside was a frosted sheet of patched russet, an expanse of the leaves weighed down by the same sort of tiny ice crystals. While Jinx and I were walking (Bluebelle sticking close to my wife in the warm house), I saw a large red oak leaf detach from the tree over near the cemetery and glide like a paper airplane down, then over, then back this way, then down a little more, then that way,…