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Posts published in “Uncategorized”

Trying to align my ora and labora

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– Sometimes I worry that my ora and labora are out of whack. Although the two words sound somewhat orthopedic, I am not thinking about the aging…

Brother Boniface goes to Heaven

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The photo is like an impressionistic painting, where blurred images somehow manage to depict clear reality. Or, in this case, reality transcended, for it is my…

Invisible wapiti at the old monk Hermitage

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– As a boy, my friends the Utah Trappist monks often told me about wonderful quiet weekends at their hillside retreat called the “Hermitage.” It took almost…

A Statement of Commitment and Action

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By Gary Topping– A Catholic friend of ours at Our Lady of the Lake parish in Seattle sent the following document which the parish is circulating among its members and…

Awful Autumn Mentoring: “You’ll never make it here”

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– The fall business retreat was a corporate office staple when I started my legal career in the waning years of the twentieth century. The formula was…

To Kill a Tiger

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By Gary Topping– During my career as a historian, I have conducted a number of oral history interviews.  We do these interviews when we can find a participant in an…

The plum blossoms will scatter

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– In the busy Salt Lake City law firm where I have worked for the last third of a century, lunch often is just one more item…

Trying To Go Back Home

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By Gary Topping– I grew up on the southern Oregon coast, and while I enjoyed living there, its drizzly humid climate did not always agree with me.  During the first…

Day and Merton: Saints in Utah?

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– My first Boy Monk blog post, two years ago this week, recalled the September 2015 speech by Pope Francis to Congress. The Pope described how American…

The subtle graces of September sunflowers

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By Michael Patrick O’Brien– September, perhaps the Rodney Dangerfield of months, has not always enjoyed the full measure of my respect.  Yes, there is an abundance of peach pie and…