This afternoon, as part of my series called “On the Road with the Rector,” I attended a lecture at the University of St. Thomas on “Flannery O’Connor, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Christ Pantocrator” by Ralph Wood. He is a former professor of mine at Wake Forest University who is now University Professor of Theology and Literature at Baylor University. I found myself at one point looking over his shoulder into the eyes of a self-portrait of Flannery O’Connor, which is eerily similar to the icon known as Christ Pantocrator. I love the way that her hat becomes just like the halo of an icon.

Are there authors like Flannery O’Connor who have shaped you in certain ways and made you look differently at yourself or the world around you? Write a haiku about them or one of them. Simply create a verse with five syllables in the first line, seven syllables in the second line, and five syllables in the third line. Here’s mine:

O’Connor loved the
peacock — a tail full of suns.
“Christ will come like that.”