Ordinary Time Shrove Tuesday The Edge of Elfland Manchester, NH Dearest Readers, As you know, tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Today, on the whole, I hope you are glutting yourselves with pancakes and meat, reminding yourself one last time that Christianity, at its core, is a festal religion. But I also hope you’re preparing yourselves for the Great Fast and thus for the resurrection of Christ. One of the things I am doing to help me... Read more
Ordinary Time 27 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Concord, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, Today we commemorate the life and death George Herbert. Herbert was born in Wales (a fact I find interesting as my name day, St. David’s Day, is on Friday) and lived to become a celebrated Anglican priest and poet. I was first introduced to Herbert when I picked up a small volume of his poetry from charity shop in the UK. Thus it seems only fitting... Read more
Ordinary Time 26 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Concord, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, For fans of Malcolm Guite, Marty O’Donnell (composer for Halo and Destiny), or the Medieval Cosmos some beautiful new music and poetry have been released. According to Malcolm, some years back O’Donnell approached him to write some poetry reflecting on the seven heavens of medieval cosmology for a game. Malcolm wrote the poetry, O’Donnell wrote the music, but none of it was ever used. Now, thanks... Read more
Ordinary Time 25 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Concord, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, Recently I came across a Ranker “article” concerning the real unicorn. The article (CNN actually has one just like it) was concerned with two issues: first, to disabuse modern readers of misconceptions concerning unicorns, primarily their existence or non-existence; second, to show readers the “real unicorn,” a creature whose bones we have found and who, according to the articles, is the source of all our modern... Read more
Ordinary Time 22 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Concord, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, Even as I write this, it is snowing outside. Yet my mind has, of late, been wandering to old walks and wilds and woods. Thus, in my first official, or first full, poetry letter, I am thinking about William Wordsworth’s lovely, “I wandered lonely as a cloud”. The poem is written about a region of England known as the Lake District. I am told that the... Read more
Ordinary Time 21 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Manchester, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, Lately, I’ve been seeing theologian, Dr. John Milbank (mentioned many times in previous letters) singing the praises of a Full English Breakfast. Seeing his tweets on this divine subject, I thought I would add my own words. For the uninitiated, a Full English Breakfast––something now chiefly relegated to holiday spots and the occasional pub––consists of the following: eggs (nearly always 2) cooked to order (but fried... Read more
Ordinary Time 18 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Concord, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, I miss walking. When my wife and lived in England we had to walk everywhere. We didn’t own a car. We didn’t even take advantage of being able to drive for the first six months without a UK license. We were just too scared to drive on the “wrong side of the road.” Really, my wife was concerned about me driving (and so was I). So... Read more
Ordinary Time 15 February 2019 The Edge of Elfland Concord, New Hampshire Dearest Readers, This is by no means the first time the Rev. Dr. Malcolm Guite’s name has graced my letters. But today, I want to sing his praises for his most recent book, In Every Corner Sing. This is fitting as I have decided to begin a weekly series on poetry. While this particular book by Guite is not a work of poetry, Guite is a poet and... Read more
Ordinary Time Feast of Sts. Cyril and Methodius The Edge of Elfland Concord, NH Dearest Readers, Last Christmas, I received one Ancestry.com’s DNA kits as a present. Recently, the analysis was updated making me now 68% Welsh/English/Northwestern Europe and 20% Irish/Scottish. Reflecting on my biological ethnicity has led me to think on my spiritual ethnicity. Many traditions have formed my spiritual make-up. And this is good, I think. I know that to some of my fellow Catholics, these categories may... Read more
Ordinary Time 29 January 2018 The Edge of Elfland Concord, NH Dearest Readers, The Catholic Church is currently going through a dark time, of this there can be no doubt. But in the midst of this darkness, I don’t want to forget the things that drew me to the Catholic Church in the first place. Over my next few letters, I’ll be writing about what drew me to the Church which hasn’t changed despite the mess we have found,... Read more
Letters from the Edge of Elfland
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