There was an eye-catching headline on the front page of a recent Saturday edition of The Vancouver Sun. “Saint or Science?” it read. Underneath, was the following sub-head: “A Surrey man, ravaged by flesh-eating disease, lay close to death. Given just hours to live, he suddenly recovered after a visit from his priest. Now the …
It is dark and rainy in Vancouver. Spring should be evident by now, even if we haven’t officially entered the equinox. The cherry blossoms should be out, but there is no sign of them at all. It is cold and miserable. I have taken a few weeks off work to make inroads into my novel …
I’ve taken some time off work to give some overdue focus to the novel. For the past week, I’ve been buried in writing, re-evaluating what I’ve done, doing new research and striking off in new and exciting directions. It’s been a productive five days, I would say, and I feel a renewed sense of passion …
When St. Benedict founded the Benedictine monastic order, I believe he was attempting to establish religious utopian community. He may not have agreed with this idea, but he certainly established high standards of behaviour and conduct for his monks in order to achieve a community devoted to the pure pursuit of religious practice and contemplation. Benedict’s …
I had originally envisioned my novel taking place within the narrow confines of the monastery. The great advantage of staying inside is that life there is relatively simple. Yes, there are conflicts and sometimes even high drama, but compared to life outside the monastery, things inside are easy. Everything was going according to plan, but …
Yesterday’s post included a picture of Chaucer’s Monk from The Canterbury Tales. The portrait seems to be smudged and what the hell’s that on his head? A porkpie hat? He’s a rather goulish-looking figure, all told, and nothing like the “manly man” Chaucer describes in The General Prologue: His heed was balled, that shoon as …
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