Before the Blessed Sacrament, exposed

I feel like a pagan yet am redeemed

like one not knowing Christ yet holding on

wanting to chuck him yet drawn to his side

desiring to wallow yet aware that I'm washed

the barbaric holding tight while grace whispers thin

I canter the futile tha 's decoding my sins

the "easily got" tantalizing my heart

Looking toward Jesus as at some distant fog

I doubt and un-doubt in cycles spiraling round

down to nature's base, finding rest and escapades 

Yet being here is a statement, a hopeful deed of faith

staring at my savior in his ciborium-cage

*Reflections of Jean Sulivan:

  -Just as in art and literature, the real, or what we call real, is grasped by those who give such unique expression to it that each authentic creator can be immediately recognized in a page, a single phrase, one canvas.  Just as a child recasts the world in his or her uniqueness before being harnessed for useful purposes, each Christian "author" only knows how to speak in his or her own voice.

  -In societies where people exist only in terms of their profitability, the vocation of Christianity is to remind them, against all evidence, of their royalty.

  -Humor should be part of Christian language.

  -Almost no one looks for or listens to a truth that reveals its roots.  People prefer ideas that function apart from themselves, that won't make any trouble.

  -You are lucky not to have to become a celebrity, because nothing makes you grow old before your time so much as fame - you begin to take yourself seriously.

  -Too much reverence kills life.  Too many people become suspicious of a thought when it becomes flesh and blood, word.

  -Formulas are useful, as necessary as the mileage markers along the highways, but they are not the way.