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I thought a lot about this Scripture, proclaimed at Mass yesterday:

Brothers and sisters:
I declare and testify in the Lord
that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do,
in the futility of their minds;
that is not how you learned Christ,
assuming that you have heard of him and were taught in him,
as truth is in Jesus,
that you should put away the old self of your former way of life,
corrupted through deceitful desires,
and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
and put on the new self,
created in God's way in righteousness and holiness of truth.

The Universalis site uses the Jerusalem Bible translation:

I want to urge you in the name of the Lord, not to go on living the aimless kind of life that pagans live. Now that is hardly the way you have learnt from Christ, unless you failed to hear him properly when you were taught what the truth is in Jesus. You must give up your old way of life; you must put aside your old self, which gets corrupted by following illusory desires. Your mind must be renewed by a spiritual revolution so that you can put on the new self that has been created in God's way, in the goodness and holiness of the truth.

It struck me, and has anchored me the past day and through today. It has been busy with entertaining things, business-type things - a bit of writing, Katie's school registration, which is always an ordeal. And through it all, I think, "Six months ago today. Haven't seen him in six months."

And many thoughts have come to me which are not ready for this spot and are probably better suited for something longer and more substantial. But I keep coming back to one point, one that is not specific to Michael's death and my response to it, so it is probably the one most worth sharing.

What has been revealed to me, in a really profound way, is the inadequacy of language and intellectual constructs. I could sit down with you for a day, solid, and try to talk about this. I could write a book. We could maybe even talk for a week about our respective experiences, and still, words would not be enough to convey the mystery of it, which is not just the mystery of death, but the mystery of life, too, of course.

I always said that this was true - that words are inadequate - but the understanding of it has burrowed deep inside over the past six months, not in a mournful, despairing way, but in a way that is puzzling, intriguing and even though it is  frustrating, it is also...how shall I say it...inviting.

It just seems to me that while other areas of knowledge are necessary and helpful, the only areas of life which could even begin to say or express anything meaningful about all of this, that even begin to get close to the layers, the questions, the moments of clarity, the doubts, the assurances, the light and darkness, the gratitude and the mystery are two: art and faith.

And so we walk on, renewed, no longer in the futility of our minds, no longer aimless. As the man says.

With apologies to the original.

(Location: Birmingham Zoo)

There are many good comments on the Padre Pio post below - Fr. John just wrote one that I think sums everything up very nicely:

In addition to all the things noted above, I think that Padre Pio had three characteristics that made him attractive while he was alive, and even more so after his death. First, he was on the side of the poor and suffering. The establishment of the hospital, and his compassion and concern for the social welfare of people was legendary. Second, he was accessible (even despite the will of his order and Vatican officials). Pio listened. He put himself in the position of encountering people. His time spent in correspondence, in the confessional, in talking to people, made an impression. Third, Pio connected people to the mystery of the holy. There was no watering down of beliefs and practices, and no attempt to over-rationalize them. To encounter Pio in the flesh or by reputation was to touch a man who was absolutely convinced that God is mystery, and who was caught up in that mystery. In an age where the poor are downtrodden and unsightly, in an age where ordinary people wonder if anyone cares or truly hears them, and in an age where God and worship have been rationalized to the point of near extinction, Pio appeals to hope, to faith, and to the sense of the ineffible.

Nice article in the WaPo today about Franciscan friars walking on pilgrimage from Roanoke, VA to DC:

She pressed $3.52 into his hand, which he accepted reluctantly.

"I realized she wasn't giving this to us or to me," Goodin said. "I think she heard us talk about trusting in God and she wanted to try to trust in the same way. She was giving that money to God."

He and the other friars have thought about the woman a lot. Last week, they thought about her as they walked along Lee Highway in Fairfax, where Mary Williams and her three kids pulled over in their minivan and offered to take the brothers to a Chik-fil-A.

"It was the oddest experience sitting there at Chik-fil-A with everyone staring at us," said Williams, 45. "The high point was when the guy dressed up like a cow came out and gave us all high fives. He was in costume. They were in robes. A lot of people were wondering what was going on."

People had much the same reaction Tuesday as the friars crossed the Memorial Bridge and wandered past the Lincoln Memorial. In an instant, tourists went from posing in front of Lincoln's statue to posing with the Franciscans.

Their plan was to spend one last night wherever God provided and then arrive this morning at the monastery near Catholic University. They hope to spend the day there, telling the story of their journey and the goodness they encountered to anyone who wanted to listen.

Their message will be simple: "Anything can happen when you live in the moment, one step at a time," said Mark Soehner, 51, one of the mentors to the young friars. "But to find that out, you have to be willing to take that one step."

From today's (Monday's)  Office of Readings, St. Caesarius of Arles:

I ask you, brethren: when you come to church, what do you want?

Well?

What are you looking for?

What is it?

Is it anything other than mercy?

Well, then..

Then give earthly mercy and you will receive the heavenly kind. The poor man asks of you, and you ask of God: the poor man for food, you for eternal life. Give to the beggar what you want to deserve from Christ. Hear Christ saying Give and it will be given to you. I do not know how you can have the effrontery to want to receive what you do not want to give.

.....

(going backwards in the reading)

  What sort of people are we if we want to receive, when God offers, but when God asks, we refuse to give? For when a poor man hungers, it is Christ who suffers want, as he himself has said: I was hungry and you gave me no food. Do not despise the misery of the poor if you want a sure hope of forgiveness for your sins. Christ is hungry now, brethren, in all the poor. He consents to suffer hunger and thirst - and whatever he receives on earth he will give back in heaven.

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