{"id":1540,"date":"2015-09-28T00:00:50","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T04:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1540"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:16","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:16","slug":"sept-28-days-of-francisdays-of-ordinary-human-beings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/09\/28\/sept-28-days-of-francisdays-of-ordinary-human-beings\/","title":{"rendered":"Sept 28 – Days of Francis,\tdays of ordinary human beings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday, September 28 \u00a0– \u00a0“The works that I have in hand<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>I will finish afterwards.”<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve lost count, \u00a0maybe you have also: \u00a0 \u201cHave you ever been in the presence of someone like Pope Francis?\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m totally worn out watching television these last days, glued to the screen, listening to Francis talk with people in fluent Spanish or halting English.\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cWords fail me, \u00a0he transcends ideology and steps deftly in and out of hard-edged political battles, taking positions but never attacking, never defending either.\u201d<\/p>\n

It happens that I flew into LaGuardia this morning for a one afternoon tv shoot about a pbs film in progress (David Grubin about Nicola Tesla). \u00a0 In my imagination as I looked out the taxi window, Manhattan looks worn out and happy and alive to its common humanity, \u00a0just like Philly and DC. \u00a0 Flying in this morning I caught myself wondering what the Pope\u2019s Philadelphia-to-Rome flight last night was like. \u00a0Was everyone resting from the intensities?<\/p>\n

Some rest for the imagination looks like a good idea today. \u00a0Breathe a little. \u00a0 Rabindranath Tagore might help. \u00a0“Number 5” \u00a0a short poem that might release its annointing language best if it\u2019s read with quite a few pauses. \u00a0Out loud for sure.<\/p>\n

This Monday lots of people seem to be coming to their jobs smiling and a little slap-happy.<\/p>\n

Blessings on your day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john st sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

I ask for a moment’s indulgence to sit by thy side,
\nThe works that I have in hand
\nI will finish afterwards.<\/p>\n

Away from the sight of thy face
\nmy heart knows no rest nor respite,
\nand my work becomes an endless toil
\nin a shoreless sea of toil.<\/p>\n

Now is the time to sit quiet,
\nface to face with thee
\nand to sing dedication of life
\nin this silent and overflowing leisure.<\/p>\n

Tagore 5\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Tagore died in the city of his birth, Calcutta, in 1941. \u00a0He vastly influenced poetry, sacred and secular, not only in India but around the world. \u00a0He is the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913. \u00a0If you buy Gitanjali,<\/u>\u00a0a book of 100 short sacred poems, prepare yourself to only read one poem at a time so you can sit with it. \u00a0 \u00a0These poems have no titles, only numbers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday, September 28 \u00a0– \u00a0“The works that I have in hand\u00a0I will finish afterwards.” I\u2019ve lost count, \u00a0maybe you have also: \u00a0 \u201cHave you ever been in the presence of someone like Pope Francis?\u201d \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m totally worn out … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1540"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1541,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1540\/revisions\/1541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}