Vexed

When asked how to pray, Jesus advises his listeners to be brief, unlike those who "think that they will be heard because of their many words" (Matt 7:8). This statement, like many others in scriptures, raises questions. How many words are too many, and how else besides words to ponder Holy Writ? In these poems, Elizabeth Poreba seeks to keep Jesus' advice in mind while examining her life as a convert from a Puritan-infused Congregationalism to Roman Catholicism.