Letters Along the Way

In the last post one of the links takes you to my other blog, Letters Along the Way. Let me take a moment to explain why I have two blogs.

This blog, From a Brother, is a public diary about my being-becoming a Capuchin Franciscan friar and is written in a mostly public language for a public audience. That is how it was conceived and that is how it is currently intended. When and if it ever becomes inaccessible or unintelligible to you, my readers, do let me know!

On the other hand, Letters Along the Way is not a public diary. It is a spiritual journal. It is available for the public to read but it is not at the moment intended for public comment. From a Brother was created to answer the questions many friends have about religious life in the Catholic Church and with the Capuchin Franciscan friars in particular. It exists to address their curiosities, and I am happy to indulge every curiosity! Letters Along the Way is not an answer or an address to any person. It is a personal response to God. Of course, From a Brother is also a rendering to God, but it is more of an answer, and an answer is not the same in quality as a response. An answer meets the exigency of the question. A response transcends the question. This explains why Letters Along the Way, which was dedicated from the beginning in a vague and indistinct way to being a record of my soul's indescribable migration to God, gradually took the form of poems, prayers, and songs. And its first tagline, "From Babylon to Boston and Beyond," became "Some Markings -- Some Footprints of Pilgrim Path," the earthly itinerary becoming rooted more from above than below.

From time to time there may be goings-on that point to spiritual happenings too deep for me to put into prosaic words. Or there may be details in my mundane life that are best kept within the confidence of the fraternity. Such details will remain off the record in a journalistic sense and hence, off this blog. But those jarring experiences or crisis points may seek expression by other means that keep confidentiality but satisfy the groaning of the Spirit in my spirit that seeks to be heard.

So stay tuned to this blog for the daily dispatches from friary, church, and society; but also adjust your tuner once in a while and see what stirrings of the Spirit arise over the ether at Letters Along the Way.