Archive for 2015

Robert Browning (1812-1889) is the second in our installment of Christmas poems or poems about the Incarnation.[1]  Browning is famous for his very romantic marriage in which he secretly wed the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) and carried her off to Italy far away from her domineering father,  As a poet, he is especially admired for his dramatic monologues in which a person who is not the poet speaks about a vitally important moment in their life.

“The Strange Medical Experience of Karshish,” is one of Browning’s dramatic monologues.[2]   Read the rest of this entry »

One of the richest treasures of the Christian church and actually for Western civilization is the poetry written about the birth of Christ and the doctrine of the Incarnation it points to.  I thought that it would be interesting and, I hope, inspiring to share some of these poems during the upcoming days. Read the rest of this entry »

Friday my good friend Rodrigo Chavarría died.  A pleasant day out with my wife was suddenly changed as I checked our telephone messages.  Rodrigo was dead a friend’s recorded voice told us.  My wife wept, indeed howled, with grief.  I remained silent.  Later I wept, but the feeling throughout the day, and still this morning, is one of weight and numbness. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently someone commented that just like other people she respects some police and doesn’t respect others.  The statement errs because it fails to distinguish between respect for a person and respect for an office. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the pleasures of teaching at Cair Paravel Latin School, a classical Christian school, is that an old Ph.D. in theology with years of teaching experience far too numerous even to mention decently can learn new things in the most unexpected and unlikely places.  That serendipitous experience happened Thursday. As a relief from a faculty meeting’s business as usual, our two excellent art teachers gave us a brief lesson in still life drawing.  I not only learned a very practical lesson in drawing but also had a wide vista opened up to me of possible connections with geometry, philosophy, theology, history and other subjects. Read the rest of this entry »