Karl Barth famously instructed the preacher to hold the Bible in one hand and the daily newspaper in the other. Over the years both The New Yorker and Commonweal have supplemented and surpassed the newspaper in providing provocative material to help actualize the sacred text.In pondering the readings for this Sunday's liturgy I found myself harking back to one of the pieces in the current issue of Commonweal. I was particularly struck by this line from Chandra Bozelko's "The God of Ambition:"

It is when we want our wills to be done that we become undone, staring skyward from our own personal foxholes.

But then, unbidden, lines from John Donne's "A Hymne to God our Father" came as well:

Wilt Thou forgive that sinne where I begunne,Which is my sin, though it were done before?Wilt Thou forgive those sinnes through which I runne,And doe them still: though still I doe deplore?When Thou hast done, Thou hast not done,For, I have more.

I have a sinne of feare, that when I have spunneMy last thred, I shall perish on the shore;Sweare by thy self, that at my death thy SunneShall shine as it shines now, and heretofore;And, having done that, Thou hast done,I have no more.