A blog!

My wife, Phoebe has been posting on her blog for some time - it seemed like time for me to catch up. I envision this blog mostly as a repository for recordings and, perhaps, videos of homilies that I have delivered here and there. From time to time, other reflections may join them

The title - "Surprised by Joy" - comes from a Wordsworth poem (although many of us associate it with C.S. Lewis, who borrowed it for an autobiography). It speaks deeply to love, loss, and faith:

Surprised by joy — impatient as the Wind

I turned to share the transport — Oh! with whom

But Thee, deep buried in the silent tomb,

That spot which no vicissitude can find?

Love, faithful love, recalled thee to my mind —

But how could I forget thee? Through what power,

Even for the least division of an hour,

Have I been so beguiled as to be blind

To my most grievous loss?--That thought's return

Was the worst pang that sorrow ever bore,

Save one, one only, when I stood forlorn,

Knowing my heart's best treasure was no more;

That neither present time, nor years unborn

Could to my sight that heavenly face restore.