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Two of my favorite British poets (OK, I have a number of others, too) are Robert Herrick (1591-1674) and George Herbert (1593-1633). Both were filled with the spirituality of Christian life and belief. Especially for this weekend of Mardi Gras and its prelude to Lent, I offer a poem from each of them to help us enter into Ash Wednesday and the following days of penance and resolve to reform.

This Tuesday is the Feast of the Chair of Peter. What are we celebrating? Not necessarily a physical chair (at least, not only that) but rather the teaching authority from which the chair flows—the “cathedra” not only of the bishop of Rome but also of the Church at large. [Ironic footnote: the true "cathedra” should be sited in St John Lateran as this is the official cathedral of Rome—oh, well!]

This title actually doesn’t refer to “older” and more “modern” saints—it’s actually a reference to some of the ones whose intercession we asked last weekend and this weekend. I want to consider St Jerome Emiliani and the Seven Founders of the Servite Order. After all, even if we ourselves know little about them, they’re in the liturgical calendar and so are worth learning about.

The word Tao indicates the moral, ethical, and spritual “path” or “way” of Eastern philosophy. Can you follow the “way”? You’ll ultimately be safe if you do (perhaps it’s not an accident that the first word to describe the Christian faith was odos, the Way...).