From the Archives...

My name is Randy Coleman-Riese, but my nom de plume on this blog is Romanus. This is my first post on Gil Bailie’s blog. Gil has invited me to make periodic contributions here during this time of transition, both personally and professionally, as he moves into a new phase of life in southern California and as he begins to turn his attention to fashioning a manuscript out of his work over the past number of years.

By way of introduction, I have known Gil for over 20 years as a friend and teacher; and have worked with him both as board member of the Florilegia Institute/Cornerstone Forum and for the past eight years as co-worker at the CF offices under the exalted title of executive director. However, the only staff I direct is me. It is my job to take the day to day responsibilities of the operation of a small non-profit organization from his shoulders while allowing him to give expression to his gifts as a speaker and writer explicating the truth, goodness and beauty of the Catholic Christian tradition - especially by means of the tools made available in the work or René Girard.

The use of the pseudonym is intentional in that I will not be posting ‘in my own name’ but rather will be making available on the blog excerpts from the large library of audio archival material Gil Bailie has accumulated over the past 30 years of work. I may add editor’s notes and comments that I feel will aid the understanding of the material on offer, but that is all.

I thought for this first post it would be interesting for folks to hear about Gil’s understanding of the ‘point of view of his work as an author’ or more precisely, his vocation. It has been a perennial challenge for us here to come up with what is known in the non-profit world as a ‘case statement’ – a concise and pithy paragraph that describes what it is we do and why it is important ( and better yet, why it is important to support this work!). Needless to say we are still working at it…

Below is a link to a streaming audio player of Gil speaking in 1989 about his vocation. This piece from 21 years ago came from an introduction to a talk he gave here in Sonoma entitled “The Sacrificial Cult and The Sacramental Church”.