The Catholic Poetry Room 11

About

The average Catholic doesn't read poetry very often. That's a shame for several reasons. Beauty is one of the primary entry points for the faith. As Bishop Robert Barron has said, "Once hooked by the beauty of the faith, people will be more receptive to the idea that such beauty is inextricably connected to a way of life." That has been my experience. Poetry is a great entry point to deeper faith. A significant amount of Scripture is poetry and metaphor. This makes the reading of Scripture more difficult for people with no experience of poetry. Exposure to poetry helps people read Scripture in a new way. There was a time when poetry regularly appeared in newspapers and magazines. Today there are many excellent literary journals that carry poetry but few places where Catholics without a literary inclination will bump into a poem. To help solve this problem, I asked Deacon Mike Bickerstaff, Editor-in-Chief of Integrated Catholic Life, if he would be interested in a weekly Catholic poem as an addition to his site's editorial content. Not poems from a single poet, but rather a range of poems written by both current Catholic poets as well as Saints and other deceased poets. Deacon Mike thought it was a wonderful idea and so we're off and running with the Catholic Poetry Room, a weekly feature on the site.

Country of Publication

United States

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