A “Responsorial Psalm” is read or sung between the first (usually Old Testament) and second (always New Testament) readings. The funeral guide provided ten options. I almost went with the first option, Psalm 23 (The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I shall want) but after some more reflection, I selected the third option (P-3) from Psalm 27, as I believe it describes God’s loving care for his people.
The seven verses from Psalm 27 (1, 4, 7-9, 13-14) that make up this responsorial psalm...
My funeral guide listed 47 biblical passages that could be read during the funeral – nine from the Old Testament (first reading), nineteen from the four gospels, and nineteen from the rest of the New Testament (second reading). In response to my question, Brian said that I could pursue other passages – but the guide’s selection proved sufficient.
The funeral guide listed one caveat – during the “Easter Season,” the first reading must be from either the Acts of the Apostles or the Book of...
Years ago, I was a fan of a television show called “Dragnet,” in which Los Angeles police detective Joe Friday often pleaded with the crime scene witnesses for “just the facts.” That line became kind of a running joke with the comedians of the day, “Just the facts, Mamm, just the facts.” Anyway, that is what I desire for my obituary “just the facts” – no need to get overly flowery and gushy. In the remainder of this post, I offer my suggestions.
Photograph: Let’s start with the obituary’s...
In the last part of this series I wrote that “for a variety of reasons, I have decided to be cremated and have a memorial service (without a Mass).” I intended to leave it at that and moved on to my obituary. When I was pretty much finished with my (then) nine-part series, I decided I needed to add another part to explain (to myself and possibly others) “why” I decided on a cremation with no vigil, and a memorial service with no Mass.
Cremation Pros
This is the easy part. Cremation eliminates...
The St. Wenceslaus funeral guide began with an introductory note from my pastor, Father Mike Eckley. In that note he reminded me that a Christian funeral “… is a statement of hope in the resurrection of the dead.”
The second section of the guide was entitled “Preparing the Vigil,” the vigil being a service that is usually held the evening before the funeral. The vigil has some of the same elements as a funeral (e.g., music, readings, homily). It also includes a “litany” of pre-written prayers...
Well, I finally got around to it. In my December 19, 2025 “Happy Holidays” post, I noted my plan to publish a series of essays in mid-January, regarding my planned funeral. I then hemmed and hawed as I attempted to write out those plans – going instead with a few book reviews to kill some time as I got my act together. So, here we are, in mid-February.
This is the first of a (planned) eleven-part story on my upcoming (date unknown) funeral. Note that this series is “Draft One.” The plans may...
A “Scholarly” CoPilot Review of “The Polesworth Circle”
As you may recall from my previous post, after reviewing my book The Polesworth Circle, CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant, offered to provide “a more academic version” of the initial review. I accepted CoPilot’s offer, and below is what I almost immediately received. If you care, you can compare the tone of the two AI-generated reviews. I loved them both and found them both insightful – RIGHT ON! I was, however, forced to look up...
In my previous post, I printed a review that I (a human) previously wrote concerning The Polesworth Circle, a book/play that I (a human) wrote. In this post, I am presenting a review that CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant, wrote in response to the instruction posed below.
“Write a 1000-word review of The Polesworth Circle by Robert Burdett.”
CoPilot’s review is published below – verbatim; not one word was changed. After the review, I will come back with a few comments on this “non-human...
When I first wrote my play “The Polesworth Circle,” as an appendix to my book BS3: Etcetera, I also wrote a review of the play (pages 69-70 in BS3). That review – of an imaginative performance of the play – is presented below. As far as I know, no other “humans” have reviewed the play or the book.
In my next post, I will print a “non-human” review of the book, that was written by CoPilot, Microsoft’s AI-powered assistant. I think that you will find the similarities (few) and differences...
Well, this is kind of weird. I am writing a review of a book after reading a review of a book – that book being From Calvinist to Catholic, an autobiography by Peter Kreeft (copyright 2025).
The review, Enjoyably Evangelical, was written by Kevin DeYoung, the senior pastor at Christ Covenant Church in Matthews, North Carolina. I ran across DeYoung’s review in the October 2025 issue of First Things. Let me begin with a few quotes from DeYoung’s review that enticed me to read (and review)...
During my recent Florida vacation, I read two books. The second was The Gales of November: The Untold Story of the Edmund Fitzgerald by John U. Bacon (copyright 2025). In this review, [brackets] are used to denote the pages from his book where the various quotes were obtained.
I previously described my fascination with the Great Lakes, the big freighters that ply them, and the Edmund Fitzgerald in particular, in my previous blog entries – A Michigan Vacation (October 10, 2025) and The “Edmund...
John William Carson (John to his friends, Johnny to his audiences) died 21 years ago on this date, at age 79. He was, for 30 years (1962-1992), the king of late-night television, a title that died with him. I hesitate to use his name today – in the same sentence – with the likes of Jimmy and Steven.
Over the past year, I have read three biographies on Johnny, the last being Love Johnny Carson: One Obsessive Fan’s Journey to Find the Genius Behind the Legend (2025, by Mark Malkoff with David...
During my recent Florida vacation, I read two books. The first was Unfettered, an autobiography by United States Senator John Fetterman (copyright 2025). I found it to be both interesting and easy to read. In this review, [brackets] are used to denote the page or pages where the various quotes were observed.
I first became aware of Fetterman in the lead up to his senatorial election in 2022, when he was the Democrat nominee for the U.S. senate from Pennsylvania, running against the Republican...
Back in October I wrote a travel essay on my 2025 vacation in Michigan. In that essay, I noted that I had been in Michigan only once before – when I changed planes in Detroit. This travel essay is a bit different in that regard. Per my count, I have visited Florida 23 times over the past twenty or so years. Per my calculations, I have spent roughly one half year of my life in Florida.
Twelve of those visits, like my last, were over the Christmas and New Year’s Day holidays, when my wife and I...
“Happy Holidays” from everyone at robertcburdett.com.
The photograph above (or to the side) was taken by my Bird Buddy birdfeeder (and AI-enhanced). AI added the sign and “watercolored” the photograph; everything else is real.
If you are still looking for a unique Christmas gift for someone who likes historical plays about William Shakespeare, please consider The Polesworth Circle. If you are looking for an apologetic series on the Catholic faith and/or praying scripture, please consider one...
As I noted in one of my recent articles, I read magazines with a pen or pencil in hand, underlining or otherwise marking the things that interest me, and then ripping out and saving the articles that are heavily marked up.
Over the last year or so, I ripped out and saved three articles from First Things that were focused on the mental and emotional health of young women, especially self-described liberal women. I suspect that I was interested in these articles, in part, because I am the...
I recently published the December 25, 2025, online edition of the Burdett Bugle (Volume 31, Issue 1). That is the fancy name that I have given our annual Christmas letter – for the past 31 years.
My wife and I got married in 1981 and we apparently avoided Christmas letters until 1990. Then (through 1992) we wrote and mailed out “typical” (newsy and braggadocious) Christmas letters, although ours was lengthier than most (2-3 pages). When I say that “we” wrote, I mean that “I” wrote. This has...
On September 17, 2025, I posted an article about my subscription to The Nation. I let my subscription expire and thought I was through with them – but they are still trying to get me too re-up. The ACLU is still pestering me too. They are wasting their postage.
Magazines in general are in trouble, victims of the internet. Many of them have shuttered their presses; others have switched to e-formats.
In the distant past, I subscribed to a variety of magazines such as Time, Newsweek, U.S. News...
The Institute of Religion and Public Life (the publisher of First Things) was founded in 1989 by Richard John Neuhaus, a Lutheran pastor who later became a Catholic priest.
A recent fundraising letter noted that, “Father Richard John Neuhaus wrote that the public square is naked without religion. An individual without a serious grasp of the role of religion in public life is likewise unclothed, vulnerable to ideological falsehoods. As G. K. Chesterton observed, ‘When men choose not to believe...
The New Oxford Review (NOR), per its website (newoxfordreview.org), “is an orthodox Catholic magazine that explores ideas concerning faith and culture. … [It] was founded in 1977 as an Anglo-Catholic magazine in the Anglican tradition, taking its name from the 19th-century [i.e., 1830s and 1840s] Oxford Movement. Inspired by the Movement’s leading luminary, St. John Henry Newman, and the dynamic papacy of St. John Paul II, the NOR converted to Catholicism in 1983.” Karl Keating, the founder...