Farewell, Good-Bye to Dermot Somerville and his wife Ulla

Last night a wonderful Irish music session was held at the Nighttown Pub in Cleveland Heights to say good-bye to Dermot Somerville and his wife Ulla, both talented musicians and composers. Dermot is from Dublin, Ireland, and has lived in Cleveland since the late 1970s. He will soon be moving south to warmer climes. Dermot has played and sung all over town, was 1/2 of the band "Bodhran Brothers," with Mike Mazur, and was a key figure with his wife Ulla(singer, harpist, keyboardist) in the band "Shanua." And with Ulla and Shanua and other fine musicians, produced the greatest Irish-Gaelic/Estonian album in the history of the universe (and probably the only such album). He was given a wonderful farewell last night. A highpoint for me is when everyone sang "Wild Mountain Thyme," a great, sexy, sweet song of springtime.

Dermot is playing a guitar--(he's in a turquoise shirt)

About 20 musicians were present; maybe 50 people in the room at Nighttown

Petitions/Prayer of the Faithful for May 24, 2015--Pentecost Sunday

Here are the petitions I worked up for St. Mary's church in Painesville, Ohio for next Sunday, the Feast of Pentecost:

Prayer of the Faithful for May 24, 2015. Pentecost Sunday

Celebrant: As we celebrate the birthday of the Church and the coming of the Holy Spirit this Pentecost Sunday, let us, dear sisters and brothers, approach the one God to voice all our needs.

·         On this special day, we pray, in the words of the psalmist,”Lord, send out your Spirit, and renew the face of the earth.”  We pray to the Lord.

·         Paul tells us, “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.” Help us to cultivate these gifts in service to the world. We pray to the Lord.

·         We ask protection for Pope Francis and his work to renew the Church. We pray to the Lord.

·         For all who do not experience the comfort and joy of the Spirit. Help us, as a Pilgrim Church, to reach out to them. We pray to the Lord.

·         and for those for whom this mass is offered [name them]. We pray to the Lord.

Let us pause now and silently offer to the Father our own particular intentions [...allow for silence...]. We pray to the Lord.

Celebrant: Father, on this great Feast of Pentecost,  we have confidence that you will hear and respond to our sincere prayers, asked in the name of your Risen Son, and in the power of your Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

A Poem about the Souls of Dogs--for those who have lost their dog companions

The Souls of Dogs 

I believe that dogs have souls, as surely

As I believe we humans have souls.

Like us, their souls are enlarged by how we love

Them, and how they love us.

And yet their souls do not depend on us: they exist

Independent and separate from us, creations of the same God

We pray to.

It is not stupid to care for a sick dog,

To bathe, caress, and comfort when suffering and then

To bury and pray for your dog who has passed.

Your dog blesses you, yes, blesses

You, as surely as you blessed your dog.

                                                                                                Bob Coughlin

                                                                                                June 1, 2003

Petitions for May 10, 2015--6th Sunday of Easter

Here are the petitions/Prayer of the Faithful that I worked up for our parish, St. Mary's in Painesville, Ohio, for May 10, 2015. Some children are still receiving First Communion (and some received it last week). It is the month of May--the Month of Mary, the Mother of Jesus. It is also Mother's Day. I tried to keep all this in mind as I developed these petitions.

Prayer of the Faithful for May 10, 2015. Sixth Sunday of Easter

Celebrant: As we continue our celebration of the Resurrection of Our Lord, the Lord of Love, let us, dear sisters and brothers, approach the one God to voice all our needs.

·         Help us to realize, as the disciples did in the Acts of the Apostles, that the Holy Spirit blesses everyone, even those outside our church.  We pray to the Lord.

·         Help us to understand the truth of John’s epistle and gospel: where we see love enacted, we see God.. We pray to the Lord.

·         For the First Communicants, and for all of us as we remember our First Holy Communion. We pray to the Lord.

·         That Mary, the Mother of Jesus, intercede for us during May, her month. We pray to the Lord.

·         For all mothers, grandmothers, step-mothers, and honorary mothers—our first teachers in the reality of love. We pray to the Lord.

·         and for those for whom this mass is offered [name them]. We pray to the Lord.

Let us pause now and silently offer to the Father our own particular intentions [...allow for silence...]. We pray to the Lord.

Celebrant: Father, you are the author of love, and we have great confidence that you will hear and respond to our sincere prayers, for they are asked in the name of your Risen Son, and in the power of your Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen.

"A Child said, What is the grass?" My Grandson and Walt Whitman

A child said, What is the grass? fetching it to me with full
 hands;
How could I answer the child?. . . .I do not know what it
 is any more than he.

I guess it must be the flag of my disposition, out of hopeful
 green stuff woven.

Or I guess it is the handkerchief of the Lord,
A scented gift and remembrancer designedly dropped,
Bearing the owner’s name someway in the corners, that we
 may see and remark, and say Whose?

Or I guess the grass is itself a child. . . .the produced babe
 of the vegetation . . . . [Walt Whitman]#

This baby, my grandson, breaks my heart,

and makes it sing!

Great Spring for Wildflowers in Northeast Ohio!

Winter lasted almost forever this year and spring was late a-comin'. But it is glorious springtime here, and the leaf canopy will close in a week or so. So it's the last real chance to see Northeast Ohio's early wildflowers. This year we have hiked in North Chagrin, Girdled Road, Big Creek, Penitentiary Glenn, and other parks to see the flowers. Here are some of them:

Bluets--North Chagrin Reservation

Virginia Bluebells.

Yellow violets.

Spring Beauties.

Bellwort

Wild Geranium.

Violets

A hillside full of trillium--Big Creek, Geauga County.

Heaptica

Trillium--Big Creek.

Leaves of the mayapple.

Squirrel Corn

A serviceberry/sarvis up on Little Mountain

Marsh marigolds, Holden Arboretum

Birch flowers (I believe)

An ancient sugar maple returning to the soil.

Vernal pool at Girdled Road Reservation.

Leaves of Bloodroot.

Coltsfoot

Jack-in-the-pulpit

Fern fiddleheads.

Cutleaf Toothwort.

Trout Lily

Sugar maple leaves.

Reprise of a Poem Written for the 40th Anniversary of the Kent State Killings

Old Math: The Calculus of May 4, 1970


Neil Young’s song still dances around my brain
Forty years after that fateful Monday, May 4th, 1970:

“Four dead in O-hi-o. Four dead in O-hi-o.”

The math is both hard and simple:

4th day of the fifth month of the 1970th year of the Lord.
77 Guardsmen with fixed bayonets advance toward the crowd.
13-second fusillade;
67 shots fired, many into the ground or into the air;
4 dead in Ohio: Jeffrey Miller. Allison Krause. Sandy Scheuer. Bill Schroeder.
Their ages: 20, 19, 20, and 19.

9 wounded in O-hi-o: John Lewis, Thomas Grace, John Cleary,
Alan Canfora, Douglas Wrentmore, James Russell, Robert Stamps.
Dean Kahler permanently paralyzed.
Donald MacKenzie wounded from a distance of 750 feet.

Branded into memory, the image of Mary Ann Vecchio,
Horror on her face, arms extended over the lifeless body of Jeffrey Miller,
Shot through the mouth:
John Filo’s Pulitzer winning photo
Developed inside every young American’s brain.

58,000 Americans dead in the Vietnam War;
10 times that many wounded; how many with deep psychic injury?
Uncountable millions of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians.
A couple hundred million Americans torn up in anguish,
Conflicted, confused—a confusion that can never be resolved.

The old chant continues:

“Tin soldiers and Nixon coming,
We’re finally on our own,
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.
Four dead in Ohio.”
(Robert M. Coughlin, Kirtland, Ohio. May 4, 2010)

Four Dead in O-hi-o, Four Dead in O-hi-o. May 4, 1970

Tommy Fitzpatrick (left) in Vietnam. RIP 1969. Euclid Boy.