Rev. Terrance Klein reflects on what the specter of dementia reveals about the nature of the human body and spirit.

Fifty-eight-year old Luis recalled his grandfather Ignacio as being so domineering that he could command others with his eyes ldquo If we were doing something wrong hellip he talked to you with his eyes With his eyes he told you no nbsp And with his eyes he told you to go outside nbsp H

Late in King Lear mdash Act IV Scene 5 to be precise mdash the old King cast off by his unloving daughters and wandering in a storm comes upon his faithful servant Gloucester The earl rsquo s eyes have been ripped out by Lear rsquo s enemies Recognizing him the king reminds him just how human

This isn’t the day we lose the Lord. This is the day he carries our hopes to heaven.

At the start of Jean Echenoz rsquo s beguiling novel entitled only nbsp 1914 nbsp a young boy named Anthime rides his bicycle on windy hills above his home From there he can see his village and several others Then as abruptly as it had begun the pervasive rumbling of the wind suddenly gave way

Dying from AIDS, a man learns to give and pray.

If Marcus Aurelius had been a wife and a mother he might have written Jenny Offill rsquo s new novel nbsp Dept of Speculation Every vignette is suffused with well wrought insight and wisdom For example ldquo My daughter breaks both her wrists jumping off of a swing rdquo We take our daughter

Eucharist reaches back into history, to the Christ who lived among us. It also reaches forward, to the one yet to be revealed.

Saint Thomas and the disciples weren’t ready for resurrection. They had to be won over by the wonderful.

Sometimes pleasures and joys slide one over the other nbsp They pour so quickly into our lives we begin to believe the cup of blessings can rsquo t run dry nbsp But then some crack appears nbsp The blessing cup becomes hourglass and happiness begins to pour away nbsp nbsp While still a gr