About 20 years ago, I stood on a train platform in Brewster, N.Y., awaiting a train bound for Grand Central Station. Beside me stood a diminutive Haitian nun, about 75 years old, who carried no luggage save a large purse-like bag. She was a dear friend who had been visiting my family. Her final destination ...
Who Killed the Two Party System? In my first blog of the New Year, I promised more on Joe Manchin, the Super Senator who rules Congress. You probably expected me to say nasty things about him. But you were wrong because I come to praise Joe Manchin, not to bury him. (What?!?! Is Buck ...
Last Monday, I flew to New Orleans for the ordination of a friend at St. Anna’s. I had time on the round trip to read The New York Times front-to-back on Monday and Thursday and discovered two pieces I want to tell you about. I’ll start with the second one, Frank Bruni’s final column for ...
During the end of Lent, Holy Week and Easter, I have been shirking my Quixotic duties in order to concentrate on ecclesiastical matters as well as on my own spiritual health. But now that we are fully engaged in the 50 days of Eastertide, it’s time for me to pull out my keyboard ...
As usual, I am overthinking the soon-to-arrive season of Lent. I have had a love/hate relationship with these 40 days for decades. On one hand, I subject myself to hours and hours of introspection prior to Ash Wednesday trying to figure out what my Lenten disciplines should be. On the other hand, I ...
When you swear off writing as long as I did, readers deserve to know why. My first excuse: I was overwhelmed by too much of 2020, depressed by the bizarre election season and numbed by alarming pandemic developments. So after my last blog on Oct. 8, I switched off my laptop and cleared ...
After my last blog (Forgiveness, Sept. 25), an old friend from my Springs days posted a comment. Bunny Bramson and I have known each other since the mid-1970s when we both worked in New York for Springs. Here’s what she said: Hey Buck. I anticipate reading your words but am now saddened at how ...
On Sept. 13, the 15th Sunday after Pentecost on the church calendar, my sermon at St. John the Evangelist in Newport, RI, was framed around the day’s gospel, Matthew 18: 21-35. Here’s the passage, from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, if another ...
I wake up most mornings thinking of ways to escape, even if just for a while, the distressing reality of life in America today. Many of you may also be looking for respite, given the daily onrush of alarming news. I cope by immersing myself in activities that bring both peace and a sense of ...
Ecclesiastes 9: 11-18 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favour to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all. For no one can anticipate the time of disaster. ...
