Excerpts
Easter Post
Richard Yates, The Easter Parade (with a link to Tolstoy’s The Resurrection)
A Better Resurrection by Syliva Plath
I have no wit, I have no words, no tears;
My heart within me like a stone
Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;
Look right, look left, I dwell alone;
A lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief
No everlasting hills I see;
My life is like the falling leaf;
O Jesus, quicken me.
And from The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to St. John, chapter 20, verses 24-31, from the Douay-Rheims New Testament (thanks Barry, for suggesting this version of the New Testament):
Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my fingers into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you.
Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.
Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God.
Jesus saith to him: Because though hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and believed.
Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
But these are written, that you may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing, you may have life in his name.
And lastly, for me, the doubting Thomas, and for all doubters who are thinking about belief and faith during Passover and Easter, here is something from William James’s essay “The Dilemna of Determinism”, via the book Narratives of Human Evolution by Misia Landau (here is a link to an essay of hers), that addresses moral choices more than belief, reinforcing for me the all important Catholic idea of free will:
The great point is that the possibilites are really here. Whether it be we who solve them, or he working through us, at those soul-trying moments when fate’s scale seems to quiver…is of small account, so long as we admit that the issue is decided nowhere else than here and now. That is what gives the palpitating reality to our moral life and makes it tingle…with so strange and elaborate an excitement.
Tags: misia landau, richard yates, tolstoy
i <3 pr
i <3 pr
heart you right back.
i didn’t realize it was easter until i walked out to smoke a cigar and write at the circle today.
i don’t even know what this holiday is about.
i bought some belgian beer and now i am going to glug glug.
hi pr!
i didn’t realize it was easter until i walked out to smoke a cigar and write at the circle today.
i don’t even know what this holiday is about.
i bought some belgian beer and now i am going to glug glug.
hi pr!
Enjoy your beer, you.
Christ has risen- that’s what Easter is.
you mean the mexican guy i just saw in the street? yeah jesus is a cool guy.
you mean the mexican guy i just saw in the street? yeah jesus is a cool guy.
haha. I love that Mexicans name their boys Jesus. I mean, Mary is everywhere, right? My favorite egg sandwich maker at my favorite deli is named Moses. He has more metal in his mouth than anyone I know. I gave him a twenty at xmastime- we like each other.
i knew it was easter because i woke up to take a piss at 7 am and a iittle bunny was hopping around my backyard. i thought it was an easter miracle or omen or something, so i told the kids to look and my oldest girl said… that rabbits always out there dad….
i still thought it was a good sign.
later at dinner, my nephew said thank you jesus, and i said… yeah, jesus can cook one helluva ham.
happy easter ya’ll god bless
i knew it was easter because i woke up to take a piss at 7 am and a iittle bunny was hopping around my backyard. i thought it was an easter miracle or omen or something, so i told the kids to look and my oldest girl said… that rabbits always out there dad….
i still thought it was a good sign.
later at dinner, my nephew said thank you jesus, and i said… yeah, jesus can cook one helluva ham.
happy easter ya’ll god bless
did you see my thank you to you?
Happy Easter.
Happy Easter.
I think this day is about Jewish Zombies, but maybe I’m confused.
I think this day is about Jewish Zombies, but maybe I’m confused.
I do not eat the white man’s pork!
Wait, I am a white man, so…
I do not eat the white man’s pork!
Wait, I am a white man, so…
risen? Like erect? Did he see a hot dude, or what?
risen? Like erect? Did he see a hot dude, or what?
You are the second person to refer to the resurrection as a zombie movie! The other person said so in an email to me.
And to you, too, Brandon.
You are the second person to refer to the resurrection as a zombie movie! The other person said so in an email to me.
And to you, too, Brandon.
An old good friend just sent this to me and I am balling because of it.
Unsent Message to My Brother in His Pain
Please do not die now. Listen.
Yesterday, storm clouds rolled
out of the west like thick muscles.
Lightning bloomed. Such a sideshow
of colors. You should have seen it.
A woman watched with me, then we slept.
Then, when I woke first, I saw
in her face that rest is possible.
The sky, it suddenly seems
important to tell you, the sky
was pink as a shell. Listen
to me. People orbit the moon now.
They must look like flies around
Fatty Arbuckle’s head, that new
and that strange. My fellow American,
I bought a French cookbook. In it
are hundreds and hundreds of recipes.
If you come to see me, I shit you not,
we will cook with wine. Listen
to me. Listen to me, my brother,
please don’t go. Take a later flight,
a later train. Another look around.
-Leon Stokesbury
An old good friend just sent this to me and I am balling because of it.
Unsent Message to My Brother in His Pain
Please do not die now. Listen.
Yesterday, storm clouds rolled
out of the west like thick muscles.
Lightning bloomed. Such a sideshow
of colors. You should have seen it.
A woman watched with me, then we slept.
Then, when I woke first, I saw
in her face that rest is possible.
The sky, it suddenly seems
important to tell you, the sky
was pink as a shell. Listen
to me. People orbit the moon now.
They must look like flies around
Fatty Arbuckle’s head, that new
and that strange. My fellow American,
I bought a French cookbook. In it
are hundreds and hundreds of recipes.
If you come to see me, I shit you not,
we will cook with wine. Listen
to me. Listen to me, my brother,
please don’t go. Take a later flight,
a later train. Another look around.
-Leon Stokesbury
fuckin great. But you, Gian, are not bailing out on me. Please? I need a date for the spotted pig. Be my guest there this week? Let’s make a date?
I have to drive to Florida tomorrow (a sudden unfortunate thing), but we will be having drinks soon and many. I promise!!
I have to drive to Florida tomorrow (a sudden unfortunate thing), but we will be having drinks soon and many. I promise!!
sorry to hear about your unfortunate thing. When you come back? My heart is with you-
What’s special about the Douay-Rheims version?
What’s special about the Douay-Rheims version?
It’s supposedly a purer translation- the “Catholic” bible. I’m fine with King James, but it was fun to read another version.
Oh, I see. Yeah, this is what is says on Amazon: “Regarded from the point of view of scholarship, the Rheims-Douai Bible is seen, despite its stilted prose, as a particularly accurate version of The Bible; which was just what Catholicism preferred in a time of various and specific religious disputes.”
Thanks for your comment. The blog is mostly a collection of things I like.
Oh, I see. Yeah, this is what is says on Amazon: “Regarded from the point of view of scholarship, the Rheims-Douai Bible is seen, despite its stilted prose, as a particularly accurate version of The Bible; which was just what Catholicism preferred in a time of various and specific religious disputes.”
Thanks for your comment. The blog is mostly a collection of things I like.
to who?
to who?