Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options
Patrick T. ReardonMarch 16, 2022

Let us honeymoon
in the Texas town with the Latin name.
Let us hide out together
under the sacrament’s cipher.

Let us head west into Texas and swing back
to wade in Gulf water, chary of jellyfish,
ugly as the thin plastic Walmart bag
in the branch of today’s winter tree.

Let us jacket up in the early autumn cold,
not hot Florida, not Hawaii bright,
our own clouded place no one else would think of,
medieval as the vestments and the ceremony,
two coals burning incense clouds to the heavens,
abandoned pretty much to the harmony of us,
our transubstantiation of body and body.

Let us foreign ourselves for a week in limbo,
watching TV election returns,
a relative’s midterm victory back home,
as if gazing from a pleasant Mars,
empty of going and doing,
capsuled, cocooned, changed and changing,
our own bread and wine.

Let us emerge today as we have each morning
since that vacant shoreside week,
together, to fresh surprise and communion.

The latest from america

Working for the protection of people by safeguarding against the crime abuse is an integral expression of Christian faith. The successor of Pope Francis has the task of picking up where he left off and continuing resolutely. How can that be done?
Peter BeerMay 02, 2025
Francis always encouraged me in our attempt to move forward as an ecumenical community and in welcoming young people from different churches who come to Taizé from all over the world. He was the pope, but also a father and a brother to me.
Brother AloisMay 02, 2025
Pope Francis welcomed criticism—as long as it was not made behind his back.
Sebastian GomesMay 02, 2025
The cardinals have asked Catholics to pray for them and the conclave. What exactly should we be praying for? And should we be scandalized by the intermingling of politics and spirituality?
JesuiticalMay 02, 2025