For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John. — C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
For you will certainly carry out God’s purpose, however you act, but it makes a difference to you whether you serve like Judas or like John. — C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
The name Barabbas means “son of the father” (bar-abba). Before Pilate and the crowd, there were two sons of the father, one innocent, one guilty. They chose one to free, one to condemn. Which son of the father was Adam, and the rest of us, suppose to be like? Two sons of the father, that […]
A recent status update of mine on FaceBook: Gave up Dr. Pepper for Lent. Minimum amount of Mt Dew is staving off the caffeine withdrawal headaches, but it’s not the same as good ole DP. Giving up Facebook would have been easier. 😉 Offer it up. If you can’t read between the lines, I’m addicted […]
What we choose to fight is so tiny… When we win it’s with small things, and the triumph itself makes us small. — Rainer Maria Rilke, from the poem “The Watching Man”
Is “image and likeness” a redundant phrase, or does it mark a distinction? Arguably the latter. To be created in God’s image is to be granted the potentiality for sharing in the divine life, a potentiality that may or may not be actualized and is shared in equally by all human beings without their consent. […]
The song “Laughing With” is haunting me in a good way. When I searched for the lyrics yesterday, one of the first sites that came up was one of those song meaning sites. I read through some of the comments. Some were debating if the song was really about God or if it was a […]
I think there is a choice possible to us at any moment, as long as we live. But there is no sacrifice. There is a choice, and the rest falls away. Second choice does not exist. Beware of those who talk about sacrifice. — Muriel Rukeyser She is mostly correct, but her warning needs clarification. […]
I was listening to the homily for today’s morning Mass on EWTN radio as I drove to work. The homilist, Fr. Joseph Mary, paraphrased Dietrich von Hildebrand: The essence of purity is reverence. Fr. Joseph Mary added, “…reverence for the person, reverence for my own dignity, and reverence for God. That is what the essential […]
You have to wonder what kind of reflection it is on a man’s life if on the way to the cemetery his hearse gets a flat tire? Coincidence? Maybe. Perhaps we should focus not on the incident itself, but on how his family and friends react? That is where the choice is, where grace happens, […]
The song “Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel is a catchy little song played over the closing credits at the end of the movie, WALL•E. The song fits perfectly with the ending of the movie and with its hopeful allusion to the future. After further listening, I noticed that the song is dripping with great […]
I ventured out recently into the blogsphere and discovered this meme via Sarx (with some links in the chain A and the original). if the nature of god is omnipotent, benevolent, and anthropomorphic (that god is a person, who sees suffering as wrong, and can change all of it), why does god not act to […]
Abba Anthony said: Whoever sits in solitude and is quiet has escaped from three wars: those of hearing, speaking, and seeing. Then there is only one war left in which to fight, and that is the battle for your own heart. — Sayings of the Desert Fathers First, to begin even to approach an awareness […]
From Br. Joseph — All is gift. Even your next breath is gift if you think about. Everything involves a choice, especially how we spend our time. Is it our time or God’s time? Here is a reflection/prayer on time from Michael Quoist: I went out, Lord. People were coming and going, Walking and running. […]
From Br. Joseph — At some point in every faith journey, one finds him or her self taking an inventory of their core, central beliefs. Some of these beliefs are held very tightly, some loosely. The more central a belief, the more one aligns his or her identity. Paula D’Arcy describes her seven central beliefs […]
From Br. Joseph — At the still point of the turning world… …at the still point, there the dance is. (T.S. Eliot) From the book God Calling, today’s entry (Nov. 27) reads: Not our wills but Thine, O Lord. Man has so misunderstood Me in this. I want no will laid grudgingly upon My Altar. I […]
In The Shattered Lantern, Ronald Rolheiser quotes Dag Hammarskjöld: I don’t know Who—or what—put the question, I don’t know when it was put. I don’t even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone—or Something—and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in […]
Br. Joseph is a teacher at a Sisters of Mercy school, and his reflections are written with teachers in mind. As with good spirituality, it applies to everyone in some way. His permission has been given to post the reflections here. From Br. Joseph (Aug. 16, 2007) — A summer camp counselor noticed Becca early […]
Freedom is about choice, and there are two kinds of freedom. There is a freedom to choose to do whatever you want, and another kind of freedom to choose to live for others. One freedom leads in, the other out. One freedom is living with responsibility, the other with disregard except for self. One freedom […]
Love can wait to give; lust can’t wait to get. Christopher West was on Life on the Rock last night to answer questions related to Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Someone asked if he had any prayers to resist sexual temptation. I liked his response because it opens the door to a […]
An haiku of hope: Made is the promise: all lost things are someday found, if they want to be.
Is God in Hell? The modern explanation likes to say that Hell is the absence of God. But can such a place exist? The very existence of reality is grounded in God. Being or existence itself is in and of God. God is existence. All is within God. In otherwords, our existence is not independent […]
Of all the pitfalls in our paths and the tremendous delays and wanderings off the track I want to say that they are not what they seem to be. I want to say that all that seems like fantastic mistakes are not mistakes, all that seems like error is not error; and it all has […]
From today’s entry in God Calling: Not our wills but Thine, O Lord. Man has so misunderstood Me in this. I want no will laid grudgingly upon My Altar. I want you to desire and love My Will, because therein lies your happiness and the Spirit-rest. When you feel that you cannot leave the choice […]
What the self decides in time is ratified in eternity. — Peter Kreeft, Three Philosophies of Life I choose You…
My 16 year-old daughter I were leaving the church parking lot this morning when we spotted one of her childhood friends light up a cigarette in the back of her mom’s car. My daughter turned to me and asked with a hint of moral superiority if I just saw that. I replied, “The vices of […]