Plough Ahead

William T. Ward A Hospital Chaplain’s Companion Chapter 1: The Origins of Illness In Judaism, the commandment to visit and care for the sick is known as Bikur Cholim (Wikipedia 2025). In Christianity, Jesus says, “I was sick, and you visited me … as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me” (Mt 25:36,40 RSV-2CE). The Prophet Muhammad said, "Whoever visits a sick person or visits a brother for the sake of Allah, a caller calls out to him: 'You have done well, and may your walk be blessed, and may you occupy a place in Paradise'" (Jami` at-Tirmidhi 2008: Vol. 4, Book 1, Hadith 2008). Hospital chaplains encounter an endless array of illness scenarios as they walk into a patient’s room to provide spiritual and emotional support to patients and their families, regardless of a patient’s religious beliefs, if any. A thorough understanding of the origins of illness from a biblical perspective will provide a practical framework for hospital...

  William T. Ward The Many Moves of Saint Antony of the Desert At the age of 33, I purchased a woodlot situated down a gravel road in western Maine, a mile from the nearest neighbor or utility pole. I sought escape from people and to deprive myself of modern conveniences sporadically, where I could do as I liked, answering to no one. I cut down trees and removed stumps, creating a passage to the interior. Two brothers spent a weekend helping to build the shell of a small cabin. Thereafter, occasional weekends and vacations were spent alone, finishing the interior. After a stressful week at my high-tech job, I would drive straight up there, looking forward to the distinct sense of decompression that would invariably follow. Unwittingly, it had become my desert. But was there more to this pursuit on a subconscious level? I could not imagine an act of "sell what you have and give it to the poor" (Matthew 19:21), but I could pretend to have done so on weekends. On a much gr...

  William T. Ward The Contribution of John 7:37-39 to the Understanding of the Motif of the Temple There is something very appealing about the possibility of being considered one of the “fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Eph 2:19 RSV-2CE), as Paul explains such status to the Ephesians on becoming an integral part of “a holy temple of the Lord” (Eph 2:21). The motif of the Temple evolves from the earliest period of Salvation History through the Body of Christ and will likely develop further with whatever may transpire in John’s Revelation. While not attempting to predict the future, this essay will review said evolution with emphasis on this passage from the Gospel of John: “ On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and proclaimed, 'If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water.’’ Now this he said about the Spirit, wh...

  Statement of Intent * In 600-800 words, please describe your personal and academic background, and explain why the M.A. in Theology is a good fit for you in light of your interests and goals. Note: This went a bit long, so maybe it can dually serve as a writing sample. I was raised a cradle Catholic in a church-going family, originally in a mid-size city in Connecticut. Kindergarten through 4 th grade was spent in a depressing public school. When a new Catholic school opened around the corner, my parents asked if I would be interested and I said yes. It was like landing in Oz. Coinciding with my new start was a family announcement that we would be moving to the small town on Cape Cod where we had recently purchased a summer cottage. I loved this new summer escape but did not want to live there. So my Catholic school career lasted a mere four months. I was thriving there and asked if there would be a Catholic school I could attend once we moved, but was told no. I ...

The predictions were 6-12 inches when I went into work that evening as night shift computer operator at Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, one of the last of the great textile mills of New England.   My normal shift was 6pm-2am, but it was open-ended as I was required to stay until the work was done, there being no shift to relieve me until the daytime people came in at 8am. I didn’t think much of this prediction as three weeks previously we’d had a 20-inch storm.   The headlines in the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune read, “Storm of the Century!”   Nobody remembers that storm now.   And I’d been living in the snow belt for over four years at that point, including Worcester, MA, Atkinson, NH and now Lawrence, MA. My apartment was on the third floor of a 3-decker, right on Broadway in Lawrence, across from both a Jack-in-the-Box and Broadway Liquors.   It wasn’t much, just three rooms.   Maybe its most interesting feature was access to the roof through a ha...

I'm sure they didn't use this translation; The Jerusalem Bible is my go-to version: Sirach-Ecclesiasticus - JERUSALEM BIBLEJERUSALEM BIBLE (bibledoctrine.us) The rainbow 43:11 See the rainbow and praise its maker, so superbly beautiful in its splendour. 43:12 Across the sky it forms a glorious arc drawn by the hands of the Most High. The wonders of nature 43:13 By his command he sends the snow, he speeds the lightning as he orders. 43:14 In the same way, his treasuries open and the clouds fly out like birds. 43:15 In his great might he banks up the clouds, and shivers them into fragments of hail. 43:16a At sight of him the mountains rock, 43:17a at the roar of his thunder the earth writhes in labour. 43:16b At his will the south wind blows, 43:17b or the storm from the north and the whirlwind. 43:18 He sprinkles snow like birds alighting, it comes down like locusts settling. The eye marvels at the beauty of its whiteness, and the mind is amazed at its falling. 43:19 Over the ea...

  My nightmarish weekend, 50 years ago … the same weekend the Daniel Webster Inn burnt down . At age sixteen, I got drunk. It wasn’t the first time. I had done so once previously, at age fourteen. At that time I had found a boxful of assorted liquors stashed away in my grandparents’ attic, apparently forgotten. I decided that one day I’d give them a try. It turned out that trying one of each wasn’t such a good idea. I got horribly sick, my parents found out, and I got grounded. The experience left me with such disdain that I swore I’d never drink again. That pledge lasted about a year. I got back into it slowly: during a campout with friends; sneaking slugs of wine from my grandparents’ refrigerator; stealing an occasional beer from my father’s supply. I was wary of overdoing it, but the memory of that initial drunk eventually faded so I decided to plot something larger. I searched through my parents’ liquor cabinet, looking way in the back for something they may have forgotten abo...