Without warning, they appear, each
cluster separate from the next, gold
beads strung on strands of grass,
glowing on the darkest days beneath
the fringe of summer trees, though who
knows how, or where they came from?
Yet faith, not knowledge, is the source
of hope that each bright blossom brings
along with trust that though they’ll die,
seeds wait, unseen, to rise again.
Like stars, I think, obscured by day
that blaze across the sky at night,
or that which dwells in each of us,
however hidden, the sacred Spark,
perennial abiding light that darkness
cannot overcome.
—Sarah Rossiter
Dear Reader,
Can I be direct with you?
War abroad. Socialists on the rise. AI upending human life. Endless uproar online. The modern attention economy doesn’t want readers — it wants users enslaved to the tyranny of the present.
First Things is the antidote: literary excellence, timeless truths, and a fixed point of reference in a culture that has lost its bearings.
But we can’t do it without readers like you.
Our goal: Raise $150,000 by November 1 to sustain First Things in the year ahead.
Your gift anchors readers in the permanent things.
Make your Fall Campaign gift now using the button below.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Giovanni Del Piero, Director of the Editor’s Circle, at gdelpiero@firstthings.com or 212-627-1985.
Forget Odysseus. Aeneas Is the True American Hero.
Who is our Odysseus? Or more precisely, who is the most Odyssean hero of American film? Matt…
Meet the Post-Religious Right
There have been many books written about the online right and the Trump movement, most by people…
Candace Owens and the Sin of Anti-Semitism
According to the online Encyclopedia Britannica, Sir Moses Montefiore (1784–1885) was “an Italian-born businessman who was noted…