A quick blog post today in order to give myself time to do some reading and practicing before martini time.

I have returned to my Greek text studies. I have worked my way through a bit of Homer’s Odyssey. I am finding that working on the Greek of Homer is not the same as reading and thinking about Homer. i have returned to reading him in translation. I am having fun working through different sections and different translations (Pope, Fagles, and others).

I was satisfied to resume my Greek study where I left off in my text. One thing I have changed is that I’m approaching it the way I have been approaching Homer in Greek. I am working my way through the readings, slowly. I am identifying the grammatical functions of most every word. This leads me back to the Grammar of the chapter.  I have found that I’m rubbish at memorizing charts of grammar information. Easier to use it and check it. This is satisfying.

My copy of Shakespeare and the Bible by Steven Marx came in the mail today. It arrived all the way from a German bookseller. I think I mentioned receiving Naseeb Shaheen’s hefty Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays. Between the two of them I think I’m set to learn more about this topic which interests me greatly.

Finally, I received a nice note from my boss telling me how much she liked my Music Note I wrote for this upcoming Sunday. I end with it. Check after it for a link to recent article.

Music note for Easter 5A

In today’s gospel, when Thomas says, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How shall we know the way?” Jesus replies, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” George Herbert’s classic hymn, “Come my Way, my Truth, my Life” (Hymnal 182 #487) echoes Jesus’s assurance. With characteristic craft and clarity, Herbert builds on the three images:

Come my Way, my Truth, my life:
such a way as gives us breath;
such a truth as ends all strife;
such a life as killeth death. 

The Hymnal 1982 Companion says that “Like springs compressed into a box, paradoxes are packed into ordered lines that belie their complexity.” The “way” instead of tiring of challenging us, gives “breath” and  refreshes us.  The “truth” is not some forbidding doctrinal concept but unexpectedly brings peace, an end to “all strife.” And in an Easter moment, life “killeth death” through Christ’s resurrection which draws us all into eternal life. 

The tune name, THE CALL, was Herbert’s original title for his poem. It was originally set to music not as a hymn but as part of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Five Mystical Songs for baritone, chorus, and orchestra (1911). All five movements use Herbert’s poetry. Vaughan Williams’ melody for The Call combines the simplicity and noble beauty of the original poem. 

‘This is a Time for Survival’ – POLITICO

Absence by Mark Jenkins

My brother’s latest online piece.