{"id":1598,"date":"2015-11-02T00:00:21","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T05:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=1598"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:49:07","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:49:07","slug":"nov-2-the-day-of-all-the-saints","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2015\/11\/02\/nov-2-the-day-of-all-the-saints\/","title":{"rendered":"Nov 2 – The day of all the saints"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday November 2 – a saint who lived with us, \u00a0Art McGovern, sj<\/strong><\/p>\n

This time of year Art McGovern seems to come and find me. \u00a0Yesterday was, in the R Catholic calendar, the feast of all the saints. \u00a0At the opening of the Sunday 12:30 mass, I invited the congregation to think of some one person who had touched their life and pay attention to her\/him as we worshipped. \u00a0I hadn\u2019t chosen my own person yet but as we listened to the readings, I settled on Art, who died at 70 in 2000. \u00a0Art lived close to the ground — at home with play (\u201chealth food is the kind you like so much you feel good while eating it: \u00a0my 3 are pretzels, ice cream, and bacon.\u201d) and grief, at home with losses and wins, at home \u00a0leading difficult committees, at home with impeccably prepared classes laced with kind teasing and learning (\u201cFr. McGovern is like feathers; he makes you laugh while \u00a0you think hard.\u201d said a student one time). \u00a0If someone can be a world class scholar, a beloved teacher, a rabid Ohio State football fan and a kinsman day in and day out . . . . \u00a0 \u00a0No surprise he came to mind yesterday.<\/p>\n

Last year on October 27, I wrote about the tree we planted for Art while he was living toward his death. \u00a0In lieu of a poem, here\u2019s what that tree said to me one year ago.<\/p>\n

Have a good week.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post
\n<\/strong>Monday \u00a0October 27, 2014\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

After\u00a0\u00a0yesterday\u2019s Sunday noon mass in the Ignatius\/McAuley C&F chapel, walking home past the energy of parking lots packed in for the Detroit high school cheerleading competitions, \u00a0I stopped in my tracks in front of the tree we dedicated in 1999 for Art McGovern, sj. \u00a0It\u2019s leaves were still solid green, contrasting with the yellows of older trees around it. \u00a0 Sheer beauty surprised me into seeing it fresh. \u00a0\u00a0I went to my room, got my digital camera, and came back to contemplate Art\u2019s tree with the help of a pretty good lens.<\/p>\n

For those of you who never knew him, Art was a soul friend for my first twenty years here at Six Mile and Livernois. \u00a0He was soul friend for many people, \u00a0more beloved, perhaps, than any person who taught and worked here until he died too young of bone cancer at age 70. \u00a0 In his last months at the Jesuit Colombiere Center in Clarkston, \u00a0the staff told us \u00a0he set records for the astonishing number of people who came to tell him goodbye.<\/p>\n

We planted a tree for him before he died. \u00a0 \u00a0Most days I just walk by and \u00a0I doubt that bothers Art at all. \u00a0 Yesterday the tree found me. \u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s gotten so big!\u201d I whispered.<\/p>\n

Stillness and beauty, the blessings of autumn.<\/p>\n

\"Autumn-tree1\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Autumn-tree2\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday November 2 – a saint who lived with us, \u00a0Art McGovern, sj This time of year Art McGovern seems to come and find me. \u00a0Yesterday was, in the R Catholic calendar, the feast of all the saints. \u00a0At the … 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\/1598"}],"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=1598"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1609,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1598\/revisions\/1609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}