BERT DISCOURSES
Concerning matters of heart and mind, time and eternity
The category headings invite your reading and response. If a fire ignites in you, write about it and we can discuss posting your words. Please be sure to read the WELCOME posted in the Critical Essays section to get a sense of what kind of interaction you have been invited to share. Language is a medium that works within the bounds of the known while at the same time pressing us into the domain of the unknown. This unknown is the region of revealed truth that can be experienced and to a degree expressed. Language is the means by which we both come to know and come to be known, but it is not the end of knowing and being known. St. Paul writes in I Corinthians 13: 12 “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” Ultimately language exhausts itself and, we move on to the direct personal encounter with God. Our human relationships have that character; just as the reality of God is made known to us in language but is not ultimately contained in language, so is the dynamic principle of how we engage each other a function of language that finally moves past the limits of language. In her essay “The Regional Writer” Flannery O’Connor wrote this, specifically referring to writing fiction: “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.” I’m seeking that location. Help me do it!
The Dormition of the Theotokos: Two Homilies by Father Mark McNary
Those of us who have lost those we love hear on earth who have fallen asleep in the Lord, let
your hearts turn be filled with joy when you look at our Lord holding His Mother…for those who fall
asleep in Christ are translated by Him into Paradise and we will fellowship with them for a lot
longer there than we had here.
Short Story: “Swingset Therapy” by Shelly Long De Mendoza
Swingset Therapy by Shelly Long De Mendoza The couple in their late 30s parked in the mulch-covered lot and walked hand in hand over the wooden bridge which led to Greenfield Lake Park. The husband carried a traditional wicker picnic basket with red and...
Short Story: “Coming Home to Mother” by Robert Tucker Harrell
Coming Home to Mother by Robert Tucker Harrell How long has it been this time? Except for a week’s respite in July and a week in October, I have been stoned every day since last February. But it is different now. . . The party ended a long time ago, and I cannot even...
Short Story: “Hick Junction Devil” by Robert T. Harrell
Hick Junction Devil by Robert Tucker Harrell In Fall of 1982 I reached a breaking point. I have been brittle since then, unsure of where the next break in the ice would be. Fall and winter of 1984 and early 1985 brought me to another breakpoint, much more brutal and...
WELCOME
Welcome to Bertdiscourses, a place where thinking minds converge to share writings on the categories you see across the top of the page. The logo in the upper left corner establishes the concept: Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, is the source from which our human...
Robert (Bert) Tucker Harrell
One could argue that my life makes no sense, or one could argue that it makes absolute sense. I won’t argue about it because, until it’s over the retrospective assessment will be incomplete. Only God has the authority to actually render my case. I told someone at a cocktail party who was pressing me with some urgency on ecclesiastical issues of the late 1980’s that I didn’t know what to tell him other than, “My greatest concern is that my repentance is genuine.” His watery eyes went blank, and he stared at me for a moment and simply walked away. Being not yet quite one year clean and sober at that moment, I sipped my soda and breathed a sigh of relief. I’ve lived out two careers which overlap each other at the end of the first one and the beginning of the second. I served as an Episcopal priest for 25 years, and as a high school teacher of Theology and English Literature for 26 years. From 2004 until my retirement in 2018 I was an ex-Episcopal priest turned Roman Catholic layman chairing the Theology Dept. and then finally, near the end, chairing the English Department of a very fine Episcopal School. During eleven of those years I also ran the RCIA program in a large Roman Catholic parish. We moved to Fort Worth, Texas in June 2018. In October 2019 we became Catechumens in Antiochian Orthodox Church, a journey which came to fruition at our Chrismation on June 7, 2020, a deep and long overdue change for which we are deeply grateful. In late 2021, after a very remarkable time in the Antiochian Western Rite, we prayerfully and carefully discerned (with the guidance and counsel of our priest) that we should continue our Orthodox journey in the Eastern Rite. As things unfolded, we have found our way into the life of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Fort Worth.
I can say unequivocally that marrying Christina in 1977 has been the one thing of my past about which I am certain of God’s leading and great mercy. Her depth and strength have made all the difference! Our road together has been full of unexpected twists and turns, and through all that we have shared 45 years of grace. We figure the best is ahead of us. I have started this website as an act of retirement, and whatever clarity I still possess I offer to the Lord for whatever’s left, be it long or short.
