The Trouble With Being A Priest Was

Fire, Loveliest Of The Four Elements Of The World, And Yet An Element Too In Hell. While It Burned Adoringly In The Core Of The Temple, It Had Also Scorched The Life From A City, This Night, And Spewed Its Venom Over The Land. How Strange Of God To Speak From A Burning Bush, And Of Man To Make A Symbol Of Heaven Into A Symbol Of Hell.

When Holy Church Occasionally Hinted That She Still Considered Her Authority To Be Supreme Over All Nations And Superior To The Authority Of States, Men In These Times Tended To Snicker.

The Wild Black Scavengers Of The Skies Laid Their Eggs In Season And Lovingly Fed Their Young. They Soared High Over Prairies And Mountains And Plains, Searching For The Fulfillment Of That Share Of Life's Destiny Which Was Theirs According To The Plan Of Nature. Their Philosophers Demonstrated By Unaided 15 Animals Reason Alone That The Supreme Cathartes Aura Regnans Had Created The World Especially For Buzzards. They Worshipped Him With Hearty Appetites For Many Centuries.

That's Where All Of Us Are Standing Now, He Thought. On The Fat Kindling Of Past Sins.

The Trouble With Being A Priest Was That You Eventually Had To Take The Advice You Gave To Others.