A potential paradox/friction/confusion/fertile ground for mediation. (Or, I’m just missing a piece of the puzzle.) Justice = rendering what is owed to another 1) Question: What is the “what” that is owed to another? I have an internal sense of what is owed to others. Some words or labels: respect, love, kindness, compassion, help, service. […]
Do you still get homesick? Do you dare let yourself feel that ache, That deep emptiness of longing, a hole of nothingness? Or do you cover it up, With half promises, with misdirected hopes, with distractions? Do you still long for wholeness, Completeness, oneness, with another? Do you still hunger? Do you still long for […]
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 want to record an email conversation that occurred between a friend and I back in late February. My spiritual director reminds me to listen—or rather take my own advice—to what I say to other people. This seems particularly germane to my current sense of lostness. From David: Epistemology is something I think about from […]
Has someone’s courage ever made you look at yourself and ask what you’re afraid of, what you know of love? Your pain has changed me Your dreams inspire Your face a memory Your hope a fire Your courage asks me what I’m afraid of And what I know of love And what I know of […]
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, […]
There is a line from a William Stafford poem: “It’s for the best,” my mother said, “Nothing can ever be wrong for anyone truly good.” And then I look at the suffering Jesus endured, and the suffering of all people. If any one was definitely good, it would be Jesus. As for me, the only […]
In a narrative essay titled “Teaching a Stone to Talk” (found in the book by the same name), the author Annie DIllard describes an eccentric man trying to teach a stone how to talk. Several times a day, he removes his stone from the shelf, a dark gray, “palm-sized oval beach cobble”, and proceeds with […]
From Br. Joseph — The young boy asked, “Why Christmas?” His father replied, “You know, it’s December 25th, the season when everyone puts up Christmas trees and decorates everything in red and green. We hang Christmas lights on the house and…” “Yes, I know all that Dad. Not when is Christmas. Why Christmas?” The father […]
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 […]
This statement by Ronald Rolheiser, from his book The Shattered Lantern, got me to wondering. When there is no pattern to our actions we experience meaninglessness. Just because I do not recognize or perceive a pattern, does this mean that there is no pattern? Would God do this to me or to us? Would He […]
From the last line of the song “Closing Time” by Semisonic, Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. Life is full of little transitions, little deaths and rebirths. What stays the same? What dies? What is transformed? It is the Paschal Mystery, the mystery of the Cross. What do you get to take […]
The world consists of imaginary people, claiming imaginary virtues and suffering from imaginary happiness. (Vernon Howard [via]) Imaginary people—yes; Imaginary virtues—yes!! Imaginary happiness—more or less, until it no longer satisfies. But is the loneliness, pain, and sorrow imaginary too? Maybe that’s why we imagine?
From the movie, Red Planet: Chantilas: [Suppose] we just finished poisoning the earth and everyone was dead in a hundred years. Then what was the point of anything? Art, beauty—all gone—the Greeks, the Constitution, people dying for freedom, ideas. None of it meant anything? What about religion? Do we give up on God too? Gallagher: […]
My God, why does it have to be so hard to love You? My God, why do I always try so hard to be where You are? See You’re the God of every person You’re the one who reigns in me You are all that I could ask for You’re my world, my everything And […]
At the end of the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest, a man of limited “smarts”, laments the answer to a question that has bothered philosophers and theologians from ancient times. I don’t know if we each have a destiny, or if we’re all just floating accidental like on a breeze, but I think maybe it’s both. […]
Will Americans decide to give up their freedom for “feeling” safe and secure? At the beginning of the 20th century, the world was fearful that democracy would be extinguished. At the beginning of the 21st century, democracy appears to be flourishing in many parts of the world. Will democracy once again be in danger at […]
I find myself asking God to have mercy on those who died in some long ago battle or tragedy described in the pages of history. Am I a fool? Does love and prayer reach far back into time? What about the future, for people who will die to tomorrow or next year or ten years […]
“…What I like doing best is Nothing.” “How do you do Nothing,” asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. “Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it, ‘What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?’ and you say, ‘Oh, Nothing,’ and then you go […]
Are you holy? This question was asked by the guest speaker at a conference I attended this past weekend. No one raised their hand. The speaker went on to say that she has asked this same question for many years. No one has ever raised their hand, except for one person. The speaker asked this […]
Kevin, one my students, asked me a single interview-type question for his religion class. He asked, “Why is your relationship with Jesus life-giving for you?” My reply: Jesus is love, peace, and energy. Love—I know that I’m am loved by Him (and by others); thus, I am able to love others. Through Him, I can […]
Here are my questions for Caitlin: 1) As a junior in high school, what do you want to be when you grow up? 2) What is the best and worst thing about going to a small, catholic high school? Do you miss public school? 3) What is the best and worst thing about having your […]
Karl at St. Stephen’s Musings asked me five interview type questions. You are all invited to participate. (See directions at the end of the post.) 1) You have written some short fiction in the past. Do you have other stories in the works? Yes, I have been working on a story based on an incident […]
Within the course of a lengthy conversation covering a gamut of topics like retreats, Thomism, and his new parish assignment, I asked a young priest what was the best thing and worse thing about his new job? He said that the best part is being there for people, especially at some critical point in their […]
The ashes of Ash Wednesday are to remind us that we came from dust, and shall return to dust after we die. It is also a reminder that we are given the gift of time between those two stages of dust. It is up to us to fill that time. How are you spending your […]