You may remember the story about the rich young man who asked Jesus what he needed to do to obtain eternal life. This is a parable about the poor old man. There was poor old man who approached a young man. The young man was an athlete, strong and skilled in sport. The old man […]
The power of a good metaphor. Two stories and a poem about water. From a commencement speech by David Foster Wallace: There are these two young fish swimming along and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, “Morning, boys. How’s the water?” And the two […]
From Br. Joseph — I will raise up a prophet like you among their kinsmen, and will put my words into his mouth; he shall tell them all that I command. If any man will not listen… (from Deuteronomy) A colleague addressed me yesterday in the hallway with a warm smile and a friendly, “Hey […]
From Br. Joseph — There is a philosopher’s axiom that says, “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” In other words, how you see is what you see. This is best illustrated by a little story. A fat, overweight Buddha was sitting under a tree one day. An arrogant, young […]
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 […]
From Br. Joseph — Most people are familiar with the poem “Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Stevenson. Here’s a different set of footprints (author unknown)… — — — — — — — Now imagine you and the Lord walking down the road together. For much of the way, the Lord’s footprints go along steadily, […]
A man’s daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father. When the minister arrived, he found the man lying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows. An empty chair sat beside his bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been informed of his visit. “I […]
A philosopher’s axiom: “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” This is best illustrated by a little story (via). A fat, overweight Buddha was sitting under a tree one day. An arrogant, young soldier walked by, saw him, and said, “You look like a pig!” The Buddha looked up at […]
She jumped up as soon as she saw the surgeon come out of the operating room. She said: “How is my little boy? Is he going to be all right? When can I see him?” The surgeon said, “I’m sorry. We did all we could, but your boy didn’t make it.” Sally said, “Why do […]
A young man approached the pastor and said, “I think I want to be baptized.” The pastor replied, “You think? Don’t you know?” “I guess I’m ready,” replied the young man. The pastor nodded and reached his hand out to shake the young man’s hand. As the young man returned the gesture, the pastor grabbed […]
In class yesterday, I had told the students to get out a half-sheet of paper and clear off their desks for a quiz. Some students were moving slow in clearing off their desk, desparately trying to re-memorize this small table of numbers they need to know for finding trigonometry values. I had just about every […]
There is a story of how, at the beginning of time, God decided to hide in the created universe, and God summoned three angels to advise on a suitable hiding-place. The first angel suggested that God might hide in the depths of the earth. “A good idea,” said God. “I will indeed hide myself in […]
Received this in an email— A group of students were asked to list what they thought were the present “Seven Wonders of the World.” Though there were some disagreements, the following received the most votes: 1. Egypt’s Great Pyramids 2. Taj Mahal 3. Grand Canyon 4. Panama Canal 5. Empire State Building 6. St. Peter’s […]
When I was quite young, my father had one of the first telephones in our neighborhood. I remember the polished, old case fastened to the wall. The shiny receiver hung on the side of the box. I was too little to reach the telephone, but used to listen with fascination when my mother talked to […]
A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said, “Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.” The Lord led the holy man to two doors. He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a […]
We were on our way home. We took the country road around the lake to avoid a dozen stop signs. Just five miles away from home, about eights minutes, with only two stop signs. Only another car or two on the lake road too. And then, from the back of the mini-van, child #3 said […]
The long desert road stretched endlessly to the horizon, following the contour of the gently, low rolling hills, merging into the infinite of nothingness. The evening sun was no longer hot enough to create heat waves that would shimmer over the blacktop of the road, creating vanishing mirages of water puddles in the middle of […]
There is a little old Christian lady living next door to an atheist. Every morning the lady goes out onto her front porch and shouts, “Praise the Lord!” The atheist yells back, “There is no God.” She does this every morning with the same result. As time goes on, the lady runs into financial difficulties […]
I received this story from a good friend who had a choice to make. She said I had a choice to make also. I have chosen. Now it is your turn to choose. The story goes that some time ago, a man punished his 5-year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive wrapping paper. […]
Overheard in my high school’s lunch line yesterday: He said: I don’t know why you wear a bra…not like you have anything. She said: Well, you wear pants don’t you? Poor lad, didn’t stand a chance after that.
Here is an interesting story about the origin of a semi-well known phrase: Every sailing ship had to have cannon for protection. Cannon of the times required round iron cannonballs. The gunner wanted to store the cannonballs such that they could be of instant use when needed, yet not roll around the gun deck.
A fable I once heard that seems appropriate to start Advent… The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit held a meeting in heaven to discuss the terrible situation down on earth. Things had gotten very bad. They discussed it among themselves and realized that there were three options. One, they could destroy the earth […]
All of our all-school Masses are good, but this one was extra special on several accounts. First, it was grandparent’s day at our school and there were about 65 sets of grandparents and students out of a school of 290. We hold Mass in the church across the street and it was packed to standing […]
Okay, I have had this huge debate going on in my heart. You see, I had this real serious problem at the end of last month. It was too big for me to handle. I knew I was in trouble, soon to be over-my-head kind of trouble. So I sent out distress signals. I reached […]
Last November, my dad came to spend Thanksgiving with us. I remember this sense of security come over me when he entered the door to my house. I felt it deep inside, and it reminded me of that sense of security I must have felt as a kid. It was a relaxing feeling, like I […]