Instructions for the Catechumen by Timothy E.G. Bartel

Don’t vocalize the “P” within the “Psalms,”

To mispronounce will indicate you're new

At this religion stuff. It's fine. Review

The oddments of the language: “homage,” “alms,”

The sharp stigmata on the Savior’s palms,

The muteness of His mother—all is true,

Though stranger than you are accustomed to;

This learning worries just as much as calms.

Eventually the terms will fade away,

And categories seem too small to hold

Immensities discernible within

Their naming. Words have opened like the day

Will open on landscape white and cold,

Where seeds in earth intone: “begin, begin.”

Timothy E. G. Bartel is a poet and professor. His poems have recently appeared in Blue Unicorn, Modern Age, and Vessels of Light. In 2026, he published Roots and Fruit: An Introduction to the Christian Faith with Calla Press. Timothy lives with his family in Houston and teaches at Saint Constantine College.