Not a few of us miss that great Jesuit and AMU co-founder, Father Joseph Fessio, the founder of publisher Ignatius Press. Back when he lived here in Ave Maria, he came to the house for dinner and gave us a book, The Grain of Wheat, a collection of aphorisms by the great theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar. The book’s short thoughtful sentences – each one a complete thought – made my prayer time extremely fruitful. They offer a sublime concision.

Now Father Fessio has a new project that he calls his anti-blog. These are the two reasons he calls it an anti-blog:

Many blogs are very personal; they contain a lot of information about the author. This blog is entirely about someone else, not me. And blogs in general tend to provide an immediate and steady stream of comment on current events. This blog consists of texts over 300 years old—that are about eternity.

Father’s anti-blog AngelicPilgrim.com will publish one couplet each day that was written by a German priest known as Angelus Silesius (the Silesian messenger). The poems were collected, edited and published by von Balthasar years ago, but are no longer in print.

These short poems remind me of von Balthasar’s aphorisms in that they each contain a short complete thought that inspires prayerfulness. On the anti-blog “each poem is posted in German and English and includes audio of Fr. Fessio reading the poem in German.” Here is the poem for today:

Nothing is for itself

Der Regen fällt nicht ihm,
The rain    falls    not     for  it(self),
die Sonne scheint nicht ihr,
the   son    shines   not  for  it(self)
Du auch bist anderen
You also are   for others
geschaffen und nicht dir
created     and  not  for you(rself).

Ignatius Press plans to re-publish the book of poems after the couplets are all first published on the anti-blog. May we all be prayerfully inspired by such sublime concision. Thank you, Father Fessio.