back again

Yes I'm back again after 2 hours of studying secondary participle clauses. Next week we start analysing the Acts of the Apostles. Not going to be easy!

I forgot to say that Jadallah our handyman is on holiday because his wife just gave birth to their 5th daughter - no sons. We were all happy that mother and baby are ok, but he couldn't hide his disappointment that it wasn't a son. And he's got lots of problems with housing as well. I hope he gets an apartment from our Custody Housing Project because he works so hard, and he deserves it.

I bought 3 books from the library this morning - whenever there are duplicate books, the library sells them to students, and I got 3 that will make interesting reading. Its all about the background of early christianity. I always thought that God created the universe with his Word; and this Word became flesh and dwelt among us as Jesus Christ; so words are very important. They share in the creative process of God's action, and in a way we should respect and use words properly. St Francis of Assisi used to pick up bits of paper from the ground and kiss them and put them in a reverent place because he said that the pages contain words and with these words we can assemble the name of God etc... And this brings to mind last night's renewal of vows because after Mass there was a reading from Celano (a biographer of St Francis from the 13th century). Strange I never read this passage before (Fr Marcello also said he never heard of it), but the passage goes to say that when Francis was thinking of how to write a Rule for his friars, he had a dream. He saw tiny grains lying on the floor, blown about by the wind. Then God told him to pick up the tiny grains and make a piece of bread with it. When he awoke, it became clear to Francis that the tiny grains on the ground were the pieces of Gospel/Bible teaching that people throw away and reject. By putting the Bible together, the bread became the symbol of our Rule which is meant to feed/nourish. Interesting.

Anyway from this digression, the lesson is simple - read! Wonder at how a wriggle here and a stroke there when put together becomes a word. Put words together and you have a sentence to express your thoughts. It's architecture - constructing sentences, building on it, giving it form so that sense can come out of it. Each time we speak or write, we're architects of words. And these words have power because we give them power. A word from a judge or lawyer can destroy forever a person's life or bring justice - "guilty". So why not just reflect alittle today about words. What if there was no language today, that humans never developed words. What would the world be like?