Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Alma Mater

Preparing for my exams has brought me back to my alma mater, the University of Toronto.... During a really useless gastroenterology lecture I decided to take a break and walk around campus. The old spirit of academe is still present, exactly as I remember. But today, you can appreciate numerous examples where the old architecture has been juxtaposed to newer more modern additions. In many cases the new has actually been incorporated into the old, without destroying the integrity of the original building. The ambience is definitely still conducive to the pursuit of higher learning.

Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Toronto's Poet Laureate

I came upon an article in a magazine while sitting in class....I know, I know, I should've been listening to the lecture instead of reading a magazine, but I digress....the article was about the new Poet Laureate for the city of Toronto; Fr. Giorgio Di Cicco....the funny thing was, the poem quoted in the article was about the priest's take from the other side of the confessional grill....funny because I had just gone to confession last week, and because I never really thought about what goes through the mind of the priest:

In the Confessional

do you want to know?
dark, how dark it is?
it is the lightest place I know. There is no light,
no darkness;
a lot of mumbling, foreign accents, weeping;
you hear the heart; the words drone, halt, put on hats,
it is the heart you want.
it is always the same human heart.
that is why personality bores me. it is the same heart
over and over, it is not sexy or stupid or bright.
it is the same song. love me, love me, tell
me i am loved. it is the same sin over and over.
and it goes like this; i am the worst sinner in the world,
what I am can never be forgiven. it is worn like skin,
to be raked off again and again with a hand in the dark
making the sign of the cross. it is my hand, raised wearily,
tired of the human creature worthless to itself.
i know God is not tired. i am just there,
i do not know what goes on between them, the grace that
shoots through me, what He does with them before and after.
i am just there to hear the heart, and say words that make
it beat. it is the same heart in the dark that is not
dark, i make a field for us to run in. i listen and take them
out of their skin, these bodies,
i take the skin from around the heart, the skin so tight around them,
i see nothing, i know nothing but the same old heart,
the young in it; and i grow old, child afer child and the
shucked bodies taken down the river like pelts,
with the sound of children behind me,
the nakedness of God and the deserving.
Pier Giorgio Di Cicco, Living in Paradise: New and Selected Poems
"Part of why I became a priest was to help people finish the poem of their lives and to help write it with them or they write mine"

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Haiku to Gas
















You make my car go
Now you are so expensive
Shall I take the bus?

Make money at work
Just so I can drive TO work?
That is very sad

When will you come down?
I have plantar fasciitis
Zoom-zoom is thirsty

Spiritual Laundry Day

I finally made time to go to confession today. I hadn't gone in a long while and I felt I needed to reconcile myself. For several months I've felt disconnected and somewhat lost, my direction was all off, I was spread thinly over a crumbling cracker. Things may have been getting better somewhat, but something was missing....I needed to start over....What surprised me was the long line of people actually waiting to admit all the bad things they've done. I thought everybody stayed away from confession.....I know that when I was younger, I was traumatized as an old priest grilled me on exactly how many times I committed each sin I confessed, and came out more embarassed than renewed......well I still get palpitations waiting in line to the confessional, but thank God the confessors I encounter today have been fellow human beings who understand what it's like to be imperfect and constantly falling of the wagon....needless to say I came out today feeling renewed, Jesus refreshed and ready to get back on that wagon again. PEACE OUT!

fix your eyes on Him for a just a minute, even when your eyes are closed His image will be within you

Monday, August 15, 2005

Turning over to the Blogger side

Lately I've been hearing a lot of people complaining that their blogs are being erased on Friendster! I can't imagine all the time I've wasted blogging there just go down the drain in an impending Friendster meltdown, so I decided to transfer my blog here. Blogger seems to be a more vibrant blogging community anyway. Thank Jinx peace out.

Tuesday, August 09, 2005

Busy_working01 ....too busy for blog entries....





arrrgggh...