What is it
  to be Catholic,
 Slovak, 
and Democratic 
in a world of change?
What is it 
to be a peasant, 
a farmer, 
a coal miner 
committed in perpetuity 
to creating, liberating and transforming 
within one’s own ethnic space?
When- 
abruptly gone 
are the farms, 
the coal mines 
and the common language of ethnic folk 
unifying the clan?
Cities beckoned 
with their multi-ethnic schools 
and diverse work places 
daring the folks 
to learn new languages 
of ethnicity, of worship, of ideology.
Grieving 
the loss of tradition 
and their easy speak, 
they gasped 
at how conflicting languages 
antagonized and divided the clans, 
long sustained by common roots.
Enter a Pentecost of imagination! 
moving gently along the divided way, 
extending hospitality 
to awkward contradictory positions. 
Imagination is always loyal 
to the deep unity of everything.
Imagination unleashes creativity 
that liberates and transforms, 
‘uploading’ new languages 
of diversity, liberalness, 
latitude and tolerance 
seldom probed in our peasant past.
Like the first Pentecost 
a new language of each other 
bursts our ethnic space 
into global flames of love and respect.
To fully grasp this new world arena 
is to venture more deeply into the heart of God.

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