Oblates of St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, Ill., blog about Benedictine values, prayer and life.
Posted in Psalms on Jun 27th, 2011
“Let the crimes of their ancestors be held against them before God, and their parents’ sins never be erased” (Psalm 109:14). This is a curse – whose vivid vengeful energy is true, even if none of us would wish to bear the guilt of our ancestors’ crimes. It snagged my thoughts a bit during lectio, [...]
Yesterday I found two dead young possums in my yard. Sensing there might be more, I went investigating this morning and found a third. The two I picked up via gloves and a bag yesterday felt warm still (if fly covered), their small bodies flexible. The third I picked up today was stiff. So I [...]
Posted in Psalms on May 30th, 2011
Reading Psalm 3 by my two remaining orange poppies this morning, I noticed a theme that’s caught my eye a great deal in recent years: the holiness of God as something that abides through every betrayal. Psalm 3 is attributed to David when he’s fleeing his son Absalom, who has killed his brother Amnon for [...]
Unexpectedly on Christmas I saw the 1970 movie “Patton,” a nuanced portrayal of General Patton during WWII. Hearing lines from the psalms echo in the background of some solo shots of the General walking across a landscape, it was easy to see his instinctive identification with the ups and downs of David’s own military conquests, [...]