Posts by G K Zachary
A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings
With a largesse of poetic license, the mathematician Edward Norton Lorenz presented the metaphorical example of a distant butterfly flapping its tiny wings, weeks earlier in Brazil, leading to the formation of a tornado, weeks later, in Texas. The Butterfly Effect has come to mean that in a complex system, a small change can have…
Read MoreThe Cure for Confusion
I read the dystopian, science-fiction novel, “Lord of the World,” by Msgr. Robert Hugh Benson, about the Anti-Christ many years ago. Given the times, I think it is time to give it another read. Much has been written about this somewhat unknown work of fiction. But then, is it really fiction? I honestly cannot remember…
Read MoreAnswering Prayers
Here is a survey with a single question in it. When you pray earnestly and intensely, from your heart, do you find that your trials usually increase first, before God answers your prayers “in the way He knows best.” That has been my experience. If I ask for patience, he answers my prayers. Guess how?…
Read MoreComposing Arias
In Rom 7:15, St Paul says, “For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.” I have an intimate understanding of what he means and for far too long I have been focused inward on my defects, my weaknesses, and my habitual sins with which I return to the confessional.…
Read MoreHow to Travel in Space …
I have always been fascinated by the fact that there is not an up or down in space. What does looking downward or upward mean when floating in deep, dark, and empty space? To orient oneself, one would have to move toward a fixed and lighted object in space. I am reminded of this when…
Read MoreThe Catholic Imagination
My experience feeds my imagination, particularly when it comes to trial and suffering. I do spend idle time reimagining the experience as it could have been. Of course, this bordered on fantasy in my youth. The new screenplay adds a different setting, spiced with elements of dashing bravery, courage, and fantastical powers, delivering due comeuppance…
Read MoreThe Way
I apologize for this short post. It is more a trip report and less a reflection. Greetings to you from the City of Santiago de Compostela, the endpoint of the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James. Home of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the reputed burial place of Saint James the Great.…
Read MoreThe Imposter Phenomenon
Mt 5:48 says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. There is a sense in which this is a literal imperative which seemingly, definitionally, is impossible to achieve. Its import leaves the reader wondering if Jesus was mocking our imperfections, and incapacity for perfection, from a higher perch. For a very long…
Read MoreThe Anxiety of Parents
The sixth division of the Book of Tobit narrates the return of Tobiah (Tobit’s son) to Nineveh and Tobit’s healing. It begins with a section subtitled, “Anxiety of the parents”. Tobit and Anna are “keeping track of the time Tobiah would need to go and come” (Tb 10:1). Anna is losing hope of seeing her…
Read MoreFatherhood
I remember the first time, as a child, that I was sent on an errand to the neighborhood grocery store. I had been to that store before with my father. While there, all I did was gaze intently at the jars of delectables placed out front and pester him for what I wasn’t allowed to…
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