My penance from a recent Reconciliation was to pray and reflect over this song from the Missal/song book: Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown? Will you let my name be […]
I found this story attributed to Fr. Jerry Orbos. (via and via) There is a story about a rich father who takes his son on a trip to the countryside to show how poor some people are. The child is quiet through the whole trip. On their way home, the father asks his son what […]
Relax into the back of your chair, and take a slow, deep breath. Let it out slowly. Take a another slow deep breath. Let it out slowly. Concentrate on your breath as you breathe slowly, in and out, in and out. Feel the air enter and fill your lungs. […]
From a Newsweek article titled “Visions of Jesus”, March 27, 2000 [via]: Clearly, the cross is what separates the Christ of Christianity from every other Jesus. In Judaism there is no precedent for a Messiah who dies, much less as a criminal as Jesus did. In Islam, the story of Jesus’ death is rejected as […]
Recently talking to a colleague about parents and grandparents, I was reminded of my Grandpa Joe. He died in the late 1980s of old age. He slowly became senile in the last four or so years of his long and productive life. Born in 1899 in rural Kentucky just south of Lexington, he lived through […]
Tom writes “What Would Jesus Laugh About?”. I have always wondered if the apostles joked around a little with each other as they journeyed across the country side with Jesus. I imagine Simon Peter got teased a bit by his friends in a good-natured way after he tried to walk on water toward Jesus (Matthew […]
Fr. Scott always signs his letters and notes with “Keep Hope Alive”. It’s kind of like his motto. When I discovered this wonderful watercolor of a monarch butterfly called “Monarch Morning” by Roderick MacIver, I just had to scale and crop it down to fit on my cell phone screen. The caption on my cell […]
Lord God, We recognize your faithfulness to us. We recognize your holiness. We recognize your great power. We recognize your mercy and forgiveness. And so, We respond by being faithful to our covenant with you. We respond with obedience and purity. We respond with humilty. We respond by showing mercy and forgiveness. Bless us, O […]
Received this little story in an email. Being a math teacher in a Catholic high school, I naturally liked it. Little Zachary was doing very poorly in math. His parents had tried everything: tutors, mentors, flash cards, special learning centers. In short, everything they could think of to help his math. Finally, in a last […]
Deb at Abiding linked to an interesting little experiment in “mapping personality awareness” called a Johari window. Developed in 1950s, a Johari window is “describing yourself from a fixed list of adjectives, then asking your friends and colleagues to describe you from the same list, a grid of overlap and difference can be built up.” […]
I heard once that if you read the four Gospels with a highlighter, and marked every time Jesus touched someone to heal them, you would find that you highlighted something on just about every page. Touching was Jesus’ preferred way to heal people. He could have easily commanded someone to be healed from across the […]
I sought the Lord and afterward I knew He moved my soul to seek Him, seeking me; It was not I that found, O Savior true; No, I was found by Thee. — anonymous hymm
Something to reflect on this Lent: So God must have foreseen all my sins and rebellions against Him, all the trouble I would cause Him, including the hell of Calvary. Yet He chose to create me. (The word foreseen is not perfect in this context, for it seems to put God into time. But it […]
Lent should be more than a time of fasting. It should also be a joyous season of feasting. Lent is a time to fast from certain things and to feast on others. It is a season to turn to God: Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ indwelling them. Fast from emphasis on differences; […]
Throughout most of Lent, nearly all of the quotes that will appear in the “Quote of the Day” above come from a book I most highly recommend. The book is Peter Kreeft’s The God Who Loves You. It is a wonderful blend of theology and mysticism, of left and right brain thinking, of the head […]
I’m trying an experiment that will be available only on the main page of this weblog. At the bottom of the sidebar, I have added a section called “Bookmarks”. This is a collection of links to other places on the internet that I feel that are worth noting. I am hoping to focus on other […]
Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding and my entire will— all I have and call my own. You have given all to me; to you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your […]
On Ash Wednesday, the traditional words said as one receives ashes are: Remember, man, you are dust and to dust you will return. Our school’s deacon has “suggested” a modern, up-to-date version: Remember, dude, you are dust and like to dust you’ll actually return.