Words for Wednesday ~ Father Paul's Second Quandary

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over as a moveable feast with many participants supplying the Words.
    When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Elephant's Child (Sue) took over the role of co-ordinator.
    Now, after Sue's demise River at Drifting through Life has taken over as our new coordinator. Thanks!

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to our mind.

This month the words are again supplied by Sean Jeating, who thankfully stepped in when our regular supplier was MIA, and can be found at River's blog.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog, then we can come along and read it and add a few encouraging words.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

We were given these words:
Technique  
Think  
Taught  
Way  
Completely
    and/or:
Learn  
Write  
Exist
Reading  
Lost

I read the words on Wednesday, and then I took a long, warm soak. Bathing always makes me think. This time my thoughts went to my dear Father Paul from Mary, Allan and the End of the World. But it was not until today I finally found time to sit down and write out what I though.

All this happens years, maybe 15 years after Father Paul's Quandary

Father Paul had begun to feel old. He was the only priest in their settlement. As far as he knew, he was the only priest on all of the Earth. They had found another settlement in what had been the south of Italy, and the Italians had all moved close to their settlement, making a satellite village, where Father Paul went every Saturday evening and did what priestly things had to be done, mostly baptisms and confessions. Early Sunday morning, he celebrated mass and then walked back home in time for mass in the big "town" where all the rest of the settlers lived in small clusters, much like the villages of old Europe. But now he was beginning to tire, and on his weekly treks he was thinking. One Sunday after mass he spoke with Allan and Mary and Tom, the old pilot who had been the rock steady leader of the community for years, but now had stepped down to give room for younger people.
Father Paul scratched his long, grey beard and looked at them: "I have been thinking, lately. We survived the end of the world, didn't we. But if it was the end of the world, what then? God promised to be with us all days until the end of the world. Did the world really end, and am I only a parody of a priest? ... and more to the point, what will happen when I die?"

"You've been doing some tough thinking," Tom said. I am not a theologian, I was never good at discussing fine points from the Bible for days on end."
"I'm no better," Allan said. "I always asked the priest when I had that kind of questions. I always meant to ask you such questions, but I never made it that far. We've been busy ..."

"And now we're old ... " father Paul said despondently. "It's not dying that scares me, I'll happily meet my Creator and Boss," he smiled softly, "But the thought that scares me is: 'what will happen to the world'  I feel that, striving as we are, we're only a parenthetical bump on the last pages of Earth's cruel history."

In the end Tom declared a common day of prayer and fasting on the next Friday.

It was Robert who after the day of fasting and prayers asked to have the word. He started by carefully opening Father Paul's worn Bible and reading aloud from Matthew 28.20: "Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world" When I studied - he looked directly at Fr. Paul - you see I had the idea of becoming a priest once too, but then I had trouble with so many things, languages, celibacy, obedience ... that my mentor sent me back home to think it over, I then became a mechanics ... and met Liza, he said smiling fondly at his wife, having her hands full with their children. But we were always reading this chapter as "All days until the ends of the world" - plural, not the end. And tell me - where does the world end?" He looked at them all after his rhetorical question. "No, the world has no ends. This is one of God's jokes." He turned once again to Father Paul: "Tell me, please, does your sacraments still work? Are we still cleansed in baptism, forgiven when you say 'Ego te absolvo', and are bread and wine still turned into blood and body of our lord Jesus Christ upon your word?"
Father Paul rose to his feet and looked admiringly and with gleaming eyes at the young man. "You're right, and what more is, you have put it in terms I, and anybody else can if not verify, then at least feel. Of course we still have to believe, but ... I'm convinced. The ends of the world indeed," He sat down laughing.

Robert waited for silence to be restored before continuing: "And furthermore I was taught that in times of need anyone, even those not baptized, can baptise whomever needs it in any kind of water, only not beer or pee. Am I even right there, Father?"
Father Paul managed: "Water, any kind of water, not beer, milk soup or any such," before he began laughing in earnest. His laughter was echoed from many of the people gathered in the room.
Robert continued: "Really it's no laughing matter, but I was also taught that God understands laughter, whereas the devil does not. So to resume ... In the same way, you are the only priest of the whole world, as far as we know anyway, and in times of need you will legitimately be able to create new priests when you find the right ones."

Robert sat down and Father Paul went over to him, where he sat next to his wife. they spoke together in low voices for a short while, then Fr. Paul went to the lectern. He looked around at the people in the big room, drew a deep breath and said: "Thank you, Robert. Thank you everybody. We have all come a long way from when we thought the world ended. According to Robert it has not, and won't before its time is truly up. Not by any human derision, but in God's own time." He smiled and looked at everybody, they looked back at him, some of the children fidgeting.

He continued: "I'll keep this short.  Because still I'm not as young as I used to be, and your propensity to multiply and fill the world is wearing me down. I need help. And Robert just volunteered to become a permanent deacon, able to baptise, marry, and hold sermons. He already gave us a nice test sermon, I dare say. And if anybody has anything to say against him being thus ordained speak now - or at least before next Sunday to me privately - or be silent ever after!"


Here ends this spin-of from Mary, Allan and the End of the World.

No Poetry ~ and no, MotherOwl has not gone missing 😕

Sorry. I was too busy, and the prompt Dismembered only made me think macabre thoughts, or of the Knights who say Ni! none of it good for any poetry.
I did not draw anything either - it is a drawing prompt too, and I usually draw something with the prompts as well. But not today.

And now it's Tuesday, and I see that I forgot to press "Publish". Double sorry. I promise to be back soon!


- - - - - -  - Coming Themes  - - - - - - - -

taken from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group.

Nov 17 In a cave
Nov 24 Pot of tea for two
Dec 1 Moles eye view
Dec 8 Peace
Dec 15 Coconuts
Dec 22 Fungi
Dec 29 Sitting on old chairs

Sunday Selections ~ Søndagsbilleder ~ Colour25

Månedens farve er jo denne skønne himmelblå. Og vi har set mere til den blå himmel de seneste dage end jeg lige havde regnet med. Jeg glemte bare lige at tage billeder, hvor det kan ses at himlen faktisk er himmelblå.

The colour of November is this lovely blue. We've seen more blue skies than I expected these last days, but I did not focus on photographing the blue sky.

Oh, what a wonderful morning  --  --  𝅘𝅥𝅮♪♩𝆕𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅮𝅘𝅥𝅘𝅥𝅮  --  -- Åh, sikken morgen så dejlig
Himlen var BLÅ!  --  The skies were BLUE!

Et fint byt en bog-hus, som jeg mødte på min cykeltur i går. Bogstaverne er i hvert fald blå
-- 📘  --
A nice grab a book, leave a book hpuse, I spied while biking yesterday. Nice blue letters.

Local elections coming up. A reminder to vote -- ❌

  -- En valgpåmimndelse til de kommende lokalvalg.

Vores busser er også blå, i hvert fald delvist  -- 🚍 -- Our buses are blue, partially at least.

Words for Wednesday ~ Only the Words & IWSG November 225

The original Words for Wednesday was begun by Delores and eventually taken over as a moveable feast with many participants supplying the Words.
    When Delores closed her blog forever due to other problems, Elephant's Child (Sue) took over the role of co-ordinator.
    Now, after Sue's demise it is still to be discerned who will take over this role, River is doing it for the rest of 2025, but maybe Lissa will eventually be our new coordinator.

No matter what, how, where or who the aim of the words is to encourage us to write. A story, a poem, whatever comes to our mind.

This month the words are again supplied by Sean Jeating, who thankfully stepped in when our regular supplier was MIA, and can be found at River's blog.

If you are posting an entry on your own blog, please leave a comment on River's blog, then we can come along and read it and add a few encouraging words.

 It is also a challenge, where the old saying "The more the merrier" holds true.

So Please, remember to follow the links, go back and read other peoples' stories. And please leave a comment after reading. Challenges like this one thrives on interaction, feedback and encouragement. And we ALL need encouragement.

We were given these words:
Dog
Night
Bed
Knowledge
Move
    and/or:
Years
Stupid
Help
Craftsmanship
Lost

I might write something later today, maybe it'll be a couple of days ... I don't know. Time and inspiration are both elusive partners.

- - A - - B - - C - - 

November 1 question - When you began writing, what did you imagine your life as a writer would be like? Were you right, or has this experience presented you with some surprises along the way?

My answer - This is a question that has a very  ... strange ... answer. I began  writing even before starting school ;) At that time I imagined myself living in a small, simple  house in the countryside, near the woods, with a big garden, where I worked sowing, weeding, picking etc. during daytime and mostly in the summer. I'd spend the evenings and most of winter spinning, dyeing, weawing baskets, woodcrafting, making syrups and elixirs like an oldfashioned withch, and creating stuff and writing.
This is actually not a far shot from how I live today, but the road to here has been more bumpy than I imagined as a young child, and I'm still not a published writer.

Poetry Monday :: Funeral

Poetry Monday - what's that? It is a blogging game, that Mimi of Messymimi's Meanderings and I have taken over the hosting duties, mostly the supplying of the prompts - only temporarily we hope - while Diane at On the Border is taking a break for health and relaxation, travelling the world with her husband as far as we can tell.  We just hope she's going to take back over once she returns home.

The prompts now come from 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group. This is a Facebook group with a prompt for each day of the year, but no worries, the prompts will still be here and at Mimi's blog.

Today's prompt is Funeral. This prompt almost gave me the jitters, in this past years there's been way too many deaths and funerals for my liking. I hope this poem is the last word on that subject for a long time to come.

A funeral is a sad thing
but also part of life's ring
We're born, we grow, we multiply,
and one day in our cask we lie:
While you can cry, and do feel sad
remember all the fun we had.

- -  A  - -  B  - -  C  - -

Hvad er Mandagsdigtet? Det er en blogleg, som Mimi fra Messymimi's Meanderings og jeg har overtaget - midlertidigt! - fra Diane, der slapper af og rejser verden rundt med sin mand. Vi håber hun er parat til at tage over igen, når hun kommer hjem.
     Stikordene kommer nu  fra 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts. Det er en Facebook-gruppe, der udgiver et stikord til hver dag i året, men bare rolig, stikordene vil stadig være at finde både her og på Mimis blog.

Dagens stikord er: Begravelse. Jeg fik næsten nervøse trækninger af det ord. Der har været alt for mange dødsfald og begravelser i mit liv det seneste års tid. Jeg håber det her stikord er det sidste, jeg hører til det i et godt stykke tid fremover. Jeg kunne ikke finde på noget, men så kom jeg i taner om et digt, jeg skrev en forårsdag for snart 17 år siden. Det får I så.

Alt for hastigt med mig løber livet,
bort med mig og hvad jeg er og tror.
Alt for kort er tiden jeg fik givet
til at bo på denne grønne jord.

Hvert minut, hver uge, dag og time
vil jeg bruge, vil jeg passe på,
til jeg hører dødens klokker kimer
og mit bange hjerte går i stå.

- - - - - -  - Coming Themes  - - - - - - - -

taken from the 365 Days of Drawing Prompts and other Arts group.

Nov 10 Dismembered
Nov 17 In a cave
Nov 24 Pot of tea for two
Dec 1 Moles eye view
Dec 8 Peace
Dec 15 Coconuts
Dec 22 Fungi
Dec 29 Sitting on old chairs