If, as Samuel Beckett wrote, all poetry is prayer, my devotions began in earnest thirty-some years ago when a habit of reading poems begat the practice of writing them. Writers are readers who go karaoke—first humming along, then singing along, then making up plainchants that sound like their own. Raised as a Catholic, I grew up associating food with forgiveness, confes (...)
Article
Channeling the Sin-Eater
An Undertaker’s Calling
The remainder of this article is only available to paid subscribers. If you’re not currently a Commonweal subscriber in print or online, an online-only subscription costs just $34 a year. Click here for immediate access.
This is sacramentally beautiful writing. And I am grateful for the word swithering.
Amen.
What a spiritualy beautiful was to begin a Sunday morning. The last two sentences brought tears yo my eyes.
This is one of the most beautiful. pertinent pieces I have ever read anywhere. The author captured wonderfully but eerily what it was like to growth up Catholic at that time and the lifelong struggle that followed to jettison the false baggage we were given to bear. It's definitely keeper that I will circulate among family and friends and re-read over and over myself. Thank you, Thomas Lynch.
Amen, amen, amen. Gerald Lavey speaaks for me.I have been a Commonweal reader for 60 years. I can't remember being moved as Thomas Lynch's Sin Eater has moved me! Thank You.
"All of God's answers have become You'er Welcome."
resonates. many thanks.