I know all the local sizzle is on the new Archbishop steak. But I can’t help but pass along this Easter-inspired sprint around the globe by a New York Times guest columnist who goes by the one-word name Bono. Above is one choice quote in a column packed full.

Here’s another…

Christianity, it turns out, has a rhythm - and it crescendos this time of year. The rumba of Carnival gives way to the slow march of Lent, then to the staccato hymnals of the Easter parade. From revelry to reverie. After 40 days in the desert, sort of …

Near the end he begins to describe our global crisis as an overheated economic Carnival that has now left us in the Lent of recession. Which actually gives me hope. Because it’s Lent that makes Easter taste so sweet.

Or as the old preacher’s formula goes: “Friday’s here. But Sunday’s coming…”

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Just in case your summer reading list has wilted in the heat, my good friend John Nunes, president of Lutheran World Relief, recently posted a booklist of top books for the globally enlightened student.

The list was in response to a college professor who asked him what books she should encourage her students to read to gain greater global awareness. He passed along the question to a group of friends and colleagues. I was honored to be included.

My contribution was as follows:

The Gospels in Our Image: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Poetry Based on Biblical Texts, edited by David Curzon. A kind of midrashic collection of poems ranging from the deeply reverent to the keenly skeptical. Also a great primer in world poetry from the last century.

Jesus and the Disinherited, by Howard Thurman. A classic in Black theology. A seminal read for the young Martin Luther King, Jr.

Exclusion and Embrace, by Miroslav…