The Priest

By George Klawitter

In 154 sonnets The Priest combines male friendship with the liturgical year tracing the rise and fall of relationship and honor. In the words of Abbot Aelred:

“I found him patient with my frankness and grateful. Then I began to reveal to him the secrets of my innermost thoughts, and I found him faithful. In this way love increased between us, affection flowed the warmer and charity was strengthened, until we attained that stage at which we had but one mind and one soul, to will and not to will alike.”
—Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx, De spirituali amicitia, 3.124, trans. Laker

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Aug 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781663207388

George Klawitter

George Klawitter, CSC, retired in 2012 from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas, where he taught for eighteen years and chaired the Department of English Literature for eight years. He now teaches at Holy Cross College, Notre Dame. He published a life of Brother Gatian (After Holy Cross, Only Notre Dame) and the lives of early religious Brothers (Early Men of Holy Cross). He has also published two books of Holy Cross missionary letters: Adapted to the Lake and Holy Cross in Algeria.

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Copyright © 2020 George Klawitter.

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-0737-1 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-0738-8 (e)

iUniverse rev. date:    08/28/2020

for Don Cellini

Free to worship him without fear…

—Benedictus

Lock up your pencils—it’s a poet in love.

—Pete/Lou Berryman

I found him patient with my frankness and grateful. Then I began to reveal to him the secrets of my innermost thoughts, and I found him faithful. In this way love increased between us, affection flowed the warmer and charity was strengthened, until we attained that stage at which we had but one mind and one soul, to will and not to will alike.

—Abbot Aelred of Rievaulx, De spirituali

amicitia, 3.124, trans. Laker

Contents

1. The Priest and the Poet

2. The Priest

3. Thanksgiving

4. Transformation

5. Evening Vision

6. Transfiguration

7. The Process

8. Winter

The O Antiphons

9. December 17: O Wisdom

10. December 18: O Lord

11. December 19: O Flower

12. December 20: O Key

13. December 21: O Dawn

14. December 22: O King

15. December 23: O Emmanuel

16. Ministry

17. Justice

18. Purpose

19. Heading South

20. Amphiaraus

21. Oh no!

22. Conundrum

23. Begging

24. Vigil

25. Ash Wednesday

26. Words, Phrases, Sermon

27. Schedule

28. Lent: First Sunday

29. Confession

30. Wisdom

31. The Wake-up Call

32. The Diamond

33. The Marmoset

34. Vocation

35. Second Sunday in Lent

36. The God

37. Third Sunday in Lent

38. Parable

39. You

40. Fourth Sunday in Lent

41. Trip South

42. Flight

43. The Future Now

44. Hot and How

45. Secrets

46. The Riddle Blossoms

47. Community

48. Fifth Sunday in Lent

49. Sideshow

50. Sonnets

51. St. Joseph’s Day

52. What is Love Anyway?

53. Palm Sunday

54. Holy Week

55. Holy Monday

56. Holy Tuesday

57. Holy Wednesday

58. Holy Thursday

59. Good Friday

60. Holy Saturday

61. Easter Sunday

62. Easter Monday

63. Easter Tuesday

64. Easter Wednesday

65. Easter Thursday

66. Easter Friday

67. Easter Saturday

68. Ascension

69. Pentecost

70. Renewal

71. Spring at Notre Dame

72. We Never Learn

73. The Serpent

74. Touch

75. Fiction Over Fact

76. The Snowdrop

77. Head

78. Chest

79. Feet

80. News

81. Sunset

82. Back to Reality

83. Self-pity

84. Rector’s Rune

85. Shepherd and Lamb

86. Rescue! Rescue!

87. Nel mezzo del cammin… a riveder le stelle

88. The Day after Mezzo del Cammin

89. Hunting

90. Go Away

91. Soundless

92. Parable Two

93. The Flood

94. Travel

95. Come Join the Hunt

96. Together

97. Ubi Caritas et Amor Understood

98. Into the Depths

99. The Play’s the Thing

100. The Old One Hundredth

101. Here’s the Way it Stands

102. Reconstitution

103. Allegory

104. War

105. His Favorite Church

106. The Game

107. Meditation

108. Semester End

109. Amalgamation

110. Answer

111. A Plan

112. Priestly Pride

113. Going and Coming

114. The Residue

115. Hand in Hand

116. The Dilemma

117. Ordained

118. Life in the Slow Lane

119. Arctic Love

120. Our Aaron

121. The Journey’s End

122. Seasonal

123. Darkness and Light

124. The Effects of Presence

125. Dawn

126. Omega et Alpha

Addenda

127. Inevitability

128. On Vacation

129. A Work in Progress

130. Just a Moment

131. In the Heat of the Night

132. Our Year in Turn

133. Brief Encounter

134. The Evolution

135. Only Connect

136. White on Black

137. Discovery

138. The Trip Together

139. Rossini and the Cello

140. The Transfer

141. Truth be Told

142. Clay Works

143. Win No Win

144. Come

145. The Polar Vortex

146. The Clerical Game

147. The Climax

148. The Switch

149. Dissolution

150. Resurgence

151. Separation, Your Choice

152. One Last Chance

153. More than One

154. Closure

1. The Priest and the Poet

The mystery that surrounds your hands is

no more a mystery than surrounds my heart—

both move in darkness inside candlelight

effecting change where changes long to be.

A simple gesture sweeps across the bread

so bread is gone—divine magician!—

as any wonder sinks into the maze of you

lost from time, lost from explanation.

Was it really matter? Consternation

whether anything is false or true,

two brains shift their firm position

conjoining two where the one is fed.

People looking in can see only

the merge of happiness (what a sight!)

masked in agony, tradition’s