David P. Schmitt

May 19, 2024 | 1517.org | David P. Schmitt

Carl Sandburg once defined poetry as “the opening and closing of a door.” I like that definition because it focuses less on what poetry is and more on what poetry does. Poetry gives you a glimpse of something. A door opens and closes. In between the opening and the closing, you catch a glimpse of something. You do not have everything, but you have a glimpse. And the more you think about that small glimpse, the more it grows into a larger vision which transforms your world.

May 7, 2024 | 1517.org | David P. Schmitt

Deep conversations... we have all had them. These are the conversations which draw you closer to another person. It could be about something that happened in their childhood, a broken relationship with their kids, or where they thought they would be by the time they were forty. The normal way a casual conversation moves from one trivial thing to another stops, and you settle in for the deep dive.

May 2, 2024 | 1517.org | David P. Schmitt

Today, the Church experiences a contemplative pause. We are moving from Easter, through the Ascension, to Pentecost, and today we pause between Ascension and Pentecost. Jesus has ascended into Heaven but has not sent the Holy Spirit yet. So, the disciples gather, in celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, in awe of the ascension of Jesus, and in hope of the coming of the Holy Spirit. Liturgically, the reading from John is helpful.

Feb 7, 2024 | science.org | Jan Philipp Bange |David P. Schmitt |Wiebke Bennecke |Giuseppe Meneghini |Kenji Watanabe |Takashi Taniguchi | +8 more

Nov 16, 2023 | 1517.org | David P. Schmitt

For me, this time of the church year is always a bit rough. The readings turn to the last days and the Church rightly proclaims the final judgment. Christ’s words of warning to the religious leaders in Jerusalem before His death are repurposed by the lectionary to be Christ’s words of warning to the Church today, calling us to remember He is coming in judgment.