Posted in Main on April 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’ve been thinking about a post my friend Beth made on Journey. She recounts a conversation with a colleague, who told her he doesn’t go to church because he disagrees with many of the rules. Beth’s response was, “Where else would I go,” concluding that, “scrapes, scars, warts and rashes,” this is her community; she [...]
Posted in Main on April 29, 2008 | No Comments »
Today we celebrate the feast of St. Catherine of Siena, the first woman named as a doctor of the Catholic Church and a mystic “whose plunge into God plunged her deep into the affairs of society.” She cared for lepers in a local hospital, baked bread for the poor in Siena, served as a mediator [...]
Posted in Main on April 28, 2008 | No Comments »
Since returning to Catholicism after spending a number of years practicing Buddhism, I have from time to time over the years been struck by the closeness of certain Buddhist concepts to Christian ones (althought they are often expressed in very different ways).
According to Buddhist teaching, the First Noble Truth realized by the Buddha upon attaining [...]
Posted in Main on April 27, 2008 | No Comments »
As the time for Jesus’ Ascension draws near, he over and over again reassures the disciples of his continuing presence among them. “You are in my and I in you.” (John) ”I am with you always.” (Matthew)
I have heard someone say on more than one occasion, “If I had been here when Jesus was around, I would [...]
Posted in Main on April 26, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Jesus says to his disciples in John’s Gospel today, “If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first…If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.” And as I hear these words, the other words of Jesus that come to mind are those in Matthew: “Blessed are you when they insult you and [...]
Posted in Main on April 25, 2008 | No Comments »
I’m currently reading Shane Claiborne’s, The Irresistible Revolution, a book that can perhaps best be described as a challenge to live an authentic Christian life. One of the experiences he describes in the book is a summer spent working with Mother Teresa’s projects in India. He says that one of the things he learned there [...]
Posted in Poetry on April 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Spring has finally arrived in Minneapolis after a very long and very cold winter. As I walk outside on these beautiful days and feel the sun on my face and see the beginning of flowers blooming, what I hear in my mind is, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” the first line of [...]
Posted in Main on April 23, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Today’s Gospel from John uses the image of the vine and branches to give us an important reminder. The Father is the vinegrower, Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. “Just as a branch cannot bear fruit on its own unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in [...]
Posted in Main on April 22, 2008 | No Comments »
I describe myself as having an Ignatian spirituality combined with a strong commitment to the Vincentian charism, the latter being a product of the fact that I spent 14 years teaching at a law school that was part of a Vincentian university - St. John’s University in NY - before moving to Minneapolis last summer. During that [...]
Posted in Main on April 21, 2008 | No Comments »
I’ve been spending some time reflecting on the texts of some of the talks Pope Benedict gave during his visit to the U.S. this past week, and there are certainly many things to reflect on. One of the things I noted from his homily at the Mass in Washington the other day was a statement about [...]
