Tag: catholic

What Makes Kids Behave in Church.

What Makes Kids Behave in Church.

“Why is it your children behave well in church
They sit quietly on that wooden pew perch
As if their stone statues, the saints of today,
Why won’t my kids start behaving that way?”

Taken aback by the question at hand,
I answered her question so she’d understand
Why my children will listen all throughout mass
With only a question or two that they pass

From their sweet little lips to fatherly ear,
And with whispers I answer each question I hear.
In fact as a father I relish the task
Growing fearful myself with each question they ask.

“Dad, how do they make the stained glass?”
“Good Question son, I don’t mean to be crass,
But they find little boys who won’t sit and behave,
Find their bright colored toys and give them a shave.

They take these toy shavings from primary toys,
Melt them down into windows, so stop making noise.”
I’m never real sure of the questions he brings
But I’ve gotten quite good at explaining these things.

“Why do those singers keep singing so bad?”
“‘Cause God took the beautiful voices they had.
They were talking to loud during church one day,
when they should have been kneeling to quietly pray.”

“How come the other kids are eating cheerios?”
“They get one meal a week and that’s it I suppose.”
“What’s with people passing a basket full of money,
is it to take a rainy day and make it sunny?”

“You have to give up your allowance if you don’t eat all your veggies
Or they’ll hang you on the wall and you’ll have eternal wedgies
Like those statues of the saints that are wedged up on the wall
All because they didn’t eat when vegetables would call.”

The one that takes the cake though is the shark tank that they’ll fill
If they find out there’s a little boy in church that can’t sit still.
Don’t make me take you back there or the sharks might be released.
They’ll smell out misbehavior and have a cry-room feast.

Choking on the Eucharist

I don’t plan on dying anytime soon, but if I were to go, I can’t imagine a better way to go.  -Andy

Choking on the Eucharist

There might be some theology I’ve missed
But if I find my life has to be done
I hope that I choke on the Eucharist

If I’m to end this life without a list
Complete, or even one that has begun,
There might be some theology I’ve missed,

But I’d still welcome a death that was kissed
By the Real Presence of Jesus the Son.
I hope that I choke on the Eucharist.

I wonder if it’s a sin to insist
To die with Jesus and rise with the Sun.
There might be some theology I’ve missed,

If Hell tried to take me, I’d raise my fist
Victorious at the devil who thought he had won.
I hope that I choke on the Eucharist.

I smile at the thought of Satan pissed
If I died at the instant his work was undone.
There might be some theology I’ve missed.
I hope that I choke on the Eucharist.

http://www.bonjourpoetry.com

Friday

Friday

Weeping, hear me, as I do relay,
The incidents my mind keeps out of sight,
I clenched my fist as I killed Christ today.

I assure you of the truth in what I say,
I chose to do what I knew wasn’t right
Weeping hear me as I do relay

I took a nail and let His flesh give way
My sin driving in absence of His light.
I clenched my fist as I killed Christ today.

The image of it in my mind will play,
Tomorrow’s sins forecast by today’s fight
Weeping hear me as I do relay,

Alone I rest, I’m crying out Yaweh!
My Christ I need you, shed on me Your might.
I clenched my fist as I killed Christ today.

“Innocent” society would say
But I cry out in light as in the night
Weeping, hear me, as I do relay
I clenched my fist as I killed Christ today.

Revelation Tool

Revelation Tool

Why is rain a revelation tool
That’s used in movies
To groove these
Characters into Someone
When there is no sun.

With their contemplation and rain thinking
Watching the rain sinking
Into sewers
As viewers
Understand
The rain planned

To give him another chance
To review his stance
And know he’s alive
As we strive
For something
The rain may bring.

A Broken Lamp Unto My Feet

A Broken Lamp Unto My Feet

I’ve dropped the lamp and broken the glass
Letting the fire come to mass
Leaving the past to be
Etched memory.

Purifying tongues acquire
Jesus Christ. Our Lord’s desire
Brings us more than we require
From the Holy Spirit’s fire.

Walking With the Potter

Walking With the Potter

My friend stands on water
And waves at the waves
Watching water weave with me
Which wetly behaves
As it should in this instance
With fluid resistance
I cry out and call out
And ask for assistance.

His hand clenched my wrist
As my face hit the water
I toss and I twist
but the hands of the potter
have pulled me from slip and surround me.
The world is still turning around me,
Unfocussed until I stop spinning
To stand and embrace this beginning.

http://www.bonjourpoetry.com

A Quick Clothing Check as We Sit, Stand, and Kneel

A Quick Clothing Check as We Sit, Stand, and Kneel.

Like a good catholic, I sit in the back with
My eyes on the whole congregation.
We modesty check for an odd to see speck
Of skin that distracts concentration.

As sure as I am there’s the sign of the cross,
There are rows of people that check for the loss
Of backsided coverage from clothing scrunched up
Or a skirt that gets straightened from being bunched up.

There’s that guy with his pants that he lifts past his belly
By ringing his thumb round his belt, you can tell he
Has done this for ages, this unsubtle move.
I call it a prayer, this pantaloon groove.

Some may pick wedgies out from their behind,
While I sit behind out of sight out of mind
Some do a shirt-flap and let their shirt hover
Before landing in for a straightened, butt cover.

Sometimes it is simply the swipe of the hand
A motion that all of us now understand
Results from the praise that our bodies reveal,
A quick clothing check as we sit, stand and kneel.

http://www.bonjourpoetry.com

Confession

Confession

On a walking pilgrimage, we washed our clothes by hand
I hurried through the process, but I came to understand
I was cleaning all my clothes so that they didn’t smell,
But I should have cleaned for purity as well.

I wanted to get out the dirt and the grime
Scrubbing away as quickly as I could,
But there was a woman there who would take her time
To clean her clothes the way I knew I should.

Undoubtedly I needed to get the stains out.
That wasn’t questioned in my mind,
The question came when I began to doubt
The cleanliness of clean parts I would find.

The woman cleaned her clothes like I should clean my soul
Letting purity and cleanliness replace
An apathetic nature that spins out of control
choosing “good enough,” instead of gifted grace.

http://www.bonjourpoetry.com

I based this poem on a story Fr. Dave Pivonka told during an episode of Franciscan University Presents.  He writes more on his pilgrimage experience in his book, Hiking the Camino.