(A reading from the wonderful collection of Thomas Merton’s nature writings, When the Trees Say Nothing.  This excerpt was originally published in The Sign of Jonas, p. 280)

“The first Sunday of Lent, as I now know, is a great feast.  Christ has sanctified the desert and in the desert I discovered it.  The woods have all become young in the discipline of spring: but it is the discipline of expectancy only.  Which one cut more keenly?  The February sunlight, or the air?  There are no buds.  Buds are not guessed at or thought of, this early in Lent.  But the wilderness shines with promise.  The land is dressed in simplicity and strength.  Everything foretells the coming of the holy spring.  I had never before spoken so freely or so intimately with woods, hills, birds, water, and sky.  On this great day, however, they understood their position and they remained mute in the presence of the Beloved.  Only His light was obvious and eloquent.  My brother and sister, the light and water.  The stump and the stone.  The tables of rock.  The blue, naked sky.  Tractor tracks, a little waterfall.  And Mediterranean solitude.  I thought of Italy after my Beloved had spoken and was gone.”

(This entry is cross-posted at http://leftatthealtar.wordpress.com)

(Incredible photo of Mammoth by Max Roper, and used with his generous permission! [edit: this teeny format doesn't do it justice; click on the photo to see the larger, more glorious version on Max Roper's site]  This reading is from the wonderful collection of Thomas Merton’s nature writings, When the Trees Say Nothing, p. 48)

“Either you look at the universe as a very poor creation out of which no one can make anything or you look at your own life and your own part in the universe as infinitely rich, full of inexhaustible interest, opening out into infinite further possibilities for study and contemplation and interest and praise.  Beyond all and in all is God.”

(This entry is cross-posted at http://leftatthealtar.wordpress.com.)

Left at the Altar will be moving here, soon!  In fact, maybe I’ll move in time to start National Blog Posting Month.   Except that’s now, in the Universal Time Zone.  (Still have a couple hours in the PST.)

This was one of the first few entries on Left at the Altar, back when I started it in April 2004.  I’m having trouble importing the whole archive, so I’m giving up and will put a link to the old site over on the sidebar.  But I thought I’d keep this one post, since it explains the name and intent of this blog.  Originally published on April 12, 2004.  (This intro added 10/31/09!)

What’s with the name? I focus-group tested my blog title on a small group of friends Saturday night. Half liked it immediately, and half weren’t quite sure they got it. It’s a play on words, folks. I fervently hope to add this blog to the growing voice of the Religious Left – those of us who stood by a little cowed for the last many years, wondering how the so-called Religious Right, and wealthy political organs such as the Christian Coalition (no, I’m not giving them a hypertext link; if you are so compelled, google them), came to be considered the voice of The Faithful in the United States, while the popular/media depiction of the “Left” grew increasingly secular. The inimitable Anna Quindlen spoke for a lot of us in a terrific recent column, “At the Left Hand of God.” Anyway, some of the obvious blog titles were already taken (check out, eg, The Religious Left). But this one came to me Saturday morning, and I liked it.

As the subtitle tries to make clear, this won’t be exclusively religious material. More often than not, this blog will be populated by re-directs to great (or irritating) commentary I spot elsewhere, news items, books that I’m reading or hope to, etc. But when I veer into matters of faith, I will be steering Left.

That said, back to the backlog of items I’ve been storing up…