Author: Mark J. Chmiel

Praying

When you say prayers, say: Father, may your kingdom be ours. Give us bread for today.  Overlook our indebtedness to others, as we overlook theirs to us. Give us the strength to resist temptations.  –Guy…

Today’s One-Liner (#157)

You can get Ovid, or rather Ovid’s stories in Golding’s Metamorphoses, which is the most beautiful book in the language (my opinion and I suspect it was Shakespeare’s). –Ezra Pound, The ABC of Reading

Keeping It Simple

Shortly after publishing his novel Helena, in which he retold the story of the emperor Constantine’s mother and her quest for the true cross, Evelyn Waugh received a congratulatory note from a friend, the poet…

Today’s One-Liner (#156)

Someone who knows Aristotle, Plato, Cicero, Augustine, or Aquinas will never be too far from the truth, never out-of-date. –James V. Schall, S.J., A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning 

Writing Daily

Often quoting Stendhal to the effect that one should “write every day, whether inspired or not,” Alain encouraged his students to sit down at a desk and write prolifically, as he did, at least two…

Today’s One-Liner (#155)

When our relationships become strained we can ask ourselves what Jesus would have done—or, when that seems too lofty, what Saint Teresa or Saint Francis wold have done.  —Eknath Easwaran, Original Goodness, 166

Helen …

Is one of the best students I’ve had in 28 years. In the classroom, serene, kind and wise. On the field, like a force of nature.

Words Matter: A Summer Writing and Speaking Class

We all can render a great service by listening to opposing opinions without agitation, discourtesy, or violence, and by offering our opinions not as nonnegotiable demands but as calm, courteous statements. —Sri Eknath Easwaran,  The Bhagavad…

Today’s One-Liner (#154)

 Wherever the corpse is, that is where the vultures will gather. –Matthew 24: 28, New Jerusalem translation For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. –Matthew 24:28, King James translation