Posts Tagged ‘Morgan Meis’
Friendship and Faith at the Movies: A Conversation with Jeffrey Overstreet and Morgan Meis
On the importance of artistic and spiritual friendships to our work and faith, how both church and friendship have served to break us down and put us back together, and how our favorite films do that too: from Mike Leigh’s Another Year and the documentaries of French filmmaker Agnès Varda to The Muppet Movie.
Read MoreThis Is a Hard Teaching
May 1, 2019
Suddenly, just as I was starting to get a little bit comfortable in my role as Brother Morgan in the New Order of Saint Francis at Saint Anthony’s Cathedral, an Ecumenical Catholic Church in Detroit, the children came. No one knows why the children came, and no one asked the children to come. They just…
Read MoreMorning in a Forgotten Neighborhood
October 15, 2018
The other day it was raining. The clouds were impossibly low, skimming the tops of buildings as they scuttled across eastern Michigan on their way to somewhere nice. The rain fell not so much as drops but as a fine, coating mist that moistened rather than drenched. A pack of stray dogs picked their way…
Read MoreThe Modern Predicament
August 22, 2018
You might stumble into a lengthy life through no particular fault of your own. You might, as well, find yourself in a situation of relative comfort and ease without ever exactly earning it. And who could blame you for it? Such things happen to people now and again. But what if it isn’t that important…
Read MoreAn Italian Journey with Auden, Goethe, Sex, and God
June 20, 2018
Recently, I was wandering around some of the less travelled corners of Tuscany with a copy of Goethe’s Italian Journey when I found myself struck, powerfully and without precedent, by something Goethe had written. But I have to touch first upon W. H. Auden, the great English poet, who, for reasons not explained anywhere…
Read MoreThe Incredible Hulk Meets Queen Divine Justice: A Fable
May 21, 2018
When Hulk stops in Africa for a drink of water, he happens to be within Wakanda’s borders, and soon a small fleet of highly advanced aircraft are dropping their payload on him—and trying not to get their wings ripped off. Amidst all the explosions, a scrawny young woman on a motorcycle rides up and sweet-talks…
Read MoreNotes on Heresy
May 15, 2018
I haven’t any major gripes with the Roman Catholic Church. On the whole, I feel gratitude. The church took me in when I needed some in-taking. Living in Detroit, however, I have found myself worshipping at Saint Anthony over on the East Side. The Mass at Saint Anthony is presided over by Bishop Karl Rodig,…
Read MoreHow Can I Speak of Haiti?
April 3, 2018
There’s nothing to say about Haiti. Even to begin, to start, to try, is to fall into cliches. The cliches of the poverty. The cliches of the beauty. The cliches of the complications. Even the cliche of talking about the cliches. You can’t write about Haiti without overdoing it. You also can’t write about Haiti…
Read MoreIn Praise of Albuquerque
March 8, 2018
The sun was high in the sky. Midday, late July. The light was washed out. The black of the asphalt was washed out, not even gray anymore, not even a color. Albuquerque is divided between the people who, at midday, go elsewhere and the people who don’t go elsewhere. As I said it was midday,…
Read MoreWe Want Something Just Like This
January 30, 2018
“Something Just Like This” was one of the biggest hits of 2017. It reached number three on Billboard’s top 100. It was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Pop Duo/Group Performance category. The single has sold millions all over the world. “Something Just Like This” is a collaboration between Coldplay and the more recent…
Read More