Michael Malone - Weebly

y everyone, named her Judith Sorrow: Sorrow for her
situation, and Judith for that Apocryphal widow who
defeated the army of Nebuchadnezzar by herself cutting
off the head of his general, Holofernes. They named her
that; then told her to be a good, obedient girl; then fed
her, clothed her, and taught her what they knew. Still,
she had in these last five years hardly attended Mass at
all. Poor child, sighed the old priest, inching his hips
over to escape the spot where a spring poked up in his
lumpy mattress. Poor child. Pray God this tragedy isn't
the last straw for her, and she turns her face entirely
away from His loving kindness, unreconciled. Why in
the world had God tried this particular child in this
particularly horrible way? And conscientiously
attempting to discover the answer to this question,
Father Crisp fell asleep.
His Anglican brother, Father Sloan Highwick, had
gone to bed hours earlier, without a single word written
on his Whitsunday sermon. For more than forty years of
Saturday nights, Highwick had said that he probably
should jot down some notes in preparation of his
pastoral duty, but somehow he never did it, finally