breathe warmth

The first fresh sent of spring air scurries between snowflakes, brings joy, renewal, and hope. 
You breathe warmth in the midst of a cold, dead winter, intone the song of sparrows perched on freshly thawed branches, and urge the little violet to bravely show her head above the ground, contrasting the white. And Mary, sweet Mary, you tend with gentle force these frigid hearts. You tend, sweet Mother, to this frosted garden and make it beautiful for our Beloved guest.

cliche

After a friend told me about three awful situations he was in I had nothing left to do but offer prayer. I felt so cliche about doing it but his response was beautiful.

Me: I'm praying for you, said the Catholic. But really.

Friend: I appreciate it. I really do.

Me: I'm glad. And the end of the day it's all I really have to offer.

Friend: Prayer is the best the human race has to offer. Reaching to touch the divine nature on someone else's behalf? There's nothing I can think of that is better. Thank you.

let sing

"Be joyful, seek the best, and let the sparrows sing."

-- Pope John XXIII

keep me close

"Keep me close, keep me close

Keep my head above water.

I need to hear Your voice.

I can't do this on my own.

Take all my guilt

Take all my pride

I want to know you sincerely."

surrender to completion.

Like a flower needs it's light, earth, and air, so I need You. I need You more than my lungs need air and my veins blood. Without You never would I have made my fleeting dash across the stage and exunt stage right. No lips to smile, no heart to swell, nor head to throw back in joy.
There is a hole -- a huge, gaping abyss -- and it hurts so dreadfully. A substance or mortal fill this hole? But I'm designed for more? The King of kings and infinite being to calm my heart and ease my soul? Unworthily, but necessarily, I close out this ending world and surrender to completion. 

neglect

The times when I've been failing, smothered, empty, hollow, and neglecting my relationship with Him -- giving up on any goodness in my life, and so too my final good -- those are the time when I crave Him. I actually feel. My heart writhes in longing. The blood through my veins and air in my lungs, He propels my life, and desperately I need Him. How merciful that in the times I most neglect Him, He grants me the most feeling and longing for Him.

"Human Fiction"

Every creative work has a part of its maker in it -- it's nearly impossible to make something with complete unbiasedness. Every person has a perspective through which he will communicate with the world. Unnecessary categories and labels only serve to discourage a view of the unity of the human condition. (See, right there I asserted an assumed principle that the human condition exists -- a theory I believe and with which some people disagree severely. But everybody will, I hope, at least admit that we are all together homo sapiens trying to make some pretty things here.) 
Imagine if you walked into a bookstore and there were  millions of little sections "Atheist Fiction","Buddist Fiction", "Humanitarian Fiction", "Racist Fiction", "Relativist Fiction", "Materialist Fiction"...whatever. But that is not the case. If one walks into Barnes and Nobles now, what will be seen is a "Fiction" section and "Christian Fiction" one, and the latter is assumed to be poorly written -- the plot and characters are merely a stage to shout bible passages from. This assumption -- unfortunately -- is often correct. 
Literature expresses the views, thoughts, and stories of people. And people are innately unique. So uniform characters who all think the same societally accepted thoughts is absolutely ridiculous. Good writing is a hard earned craft which ought to be appreciated and evaluated as just that. Not on the belief system of author or characters. 
There is a mindset amongst some Christian writers that any book they write has to go through a Christian publisher to get to the mainstream of this sub-culture. And for main stream of this subculture is all to which they aspire. They lose sight of the over arching goal of writing with the most skill and craft as possible in this self expression.
For some writers -- like myself -- there is a fear of writing a Catholic of Christian character for fear of being shoved off to the the ever-dreaded "Christian Fiction" shelf. In my writing I hope to accurately and fully explain the life and pains of a person through my character. A person's believe in spiritual beings, life after death, and the like greatly shape this person's life and so, to fully write the way a character views the world, certain greatly polarizing opinions must be expressed. Does my character think there is hope after death? Or that there is no God? What does he think is a good thing?
I think it is a huge mistake to start classifying fiction. If classification is so greatly craved, why not "Human Fiction"? At the end of the day, we are all humans trying to fight through this life thing. Literature shows on a page that through an array of colors, creeds and opinions, the same basic traits shine through: love, joy, hope, humanity! And this is far too beautiful of a thing to sacrifice to classifications and labelings.