Dear Peregrinus: You expressed to me what I have heard spoken almost constantly by others – that you find it distasteful having to choose between two (un-) presidential candidates. I know what you mean. But voting is something much deeper and more significant than merely choosing. Our English verb “to vote” derives from the Latin verb vōvere meaning “to vow; that is, solemnly to promise or formally to consecrate something" to God ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: It has been since July, old friend, since we wrote to each other. Thank you for your letter. I am smelling autumn in the air in the mornings. Autumn has such a striking capacity to access my soul – the smell of the earth; the diminishing brightness of the daylight; the leaves changing color and then letting go. Mine is an autumn soul, which becomes in this season a longing for something that I know not what ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: Good to hear from you, and thank you for sharing with me some of what you are feeling as you have watched on the TV what they call “news” concerning which a prophet once wrote – “More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) I have felt the same as you, but possibly I have been disturbed by all of this to a degree more than you let yourself be ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: You write artfully, which I always experience as an expression of respect ... for yourself as much as for me. I deeply appreciate that you care about meaning. Nothing slapdash about you. Thank you. One of your thoughts caught my attention more than the others, because of the intensity of feeling you communicated with it. You wrote, “I am feeling bleakness at the choice of candidates foisted on us by our political system ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus (Wednesday, 9 AM):The musician and businessman called Prince died, as your recent letter mentioned. (Thank you for writing by the way.) You knew about him a lot more than I did, and so I really cannot answer sufficiently your question about what I thought of him. But I did know a little about him, and so I reply this.During the coverage, I noticed his house, which did not look like...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: It has been some time, just before Lent began this year, since I have written to you. Thank you for accepting the truth that you are often in my awareness – “Iʼd like to tell him this when we next talk or write.” It is a human power of great significance that we can stay present to those who are far away, or with whom we are out of regular touch, or who have died and are now among our Ancestors...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: I really enjoyed our opportunity to go to the Peetʼs Coffee Shop recently and, while enjoying the robust coffee for which they are known, being able to talk about many things. That we got eventually to Lenten musings makes sense, because you and I have regularly helped each other pay closer attention to sacred “seasons” of the Christian year – the season of Advent and Christmastide ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: You asked me why the liturgical season of Lent lasts for “forty days.” You thought this a terribly random length of time. You considered how the “seasons” – Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter – are never forty days long, but rather each one is some three months long. You then noticed how we talk of months – anywhere from twenty-nine to thirty-one days. Even sports seasons are never forty days ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: Good to hear from you. I had not expected that I would because Christmas is now so close, and, to be honest, I myself did not think that I would be able to write back to you because of many commitments before me to meet between now and Christmas. However, I remind myself that for me to pause, to let go of other concerns, and to bring my whole attention ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: In your recent letter, you wrote about feeling turbulent of spirit. And because you chose that word as the one that seemed most accurately to describe what it feels like to be you right now, I have paid close attention to that word. Is such turbulence as you are feeling a good thing or a bad thing? I think that you are saying that you think this turbulence is a bad thing ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: Happy second week of Advent to you! I appreciate that you stay in touch with me, and that you are so open with me about questions you have about our common faith in Christ. As to the questions that you ask me, I say this. You only ask a question to whose answer you are genuinely committed. This shows maturity, and in the case of religious questions, a reverence ...  Read More

Dear Peregrinus: A friend of mine asked me (she was not the only on who has) about your “unusual” name, what it meant. It had not occurred to me to wonder about your name, and so I thought that I would write to you what I have thought about it. Poetically, and without much investigation of your name, I have associated it with the Peregrine Falcon (Latin, falco peregrinus), about which...  Read More