Tough love

St. Paul and the sinfully divided community at Corinth and Jesus confounding the Pharisees by healing on the Sabbath. What do they have in common? Love isn’t always warm fuzzies; sometimes it’s very demanding and seemingly harsh. Sometimes the Gospel challenges us to be faithful; to the reality of our call to follow Christ. St....

Nostalgia & Reality

The much-too-late downfall of Cardinal McCarrick, whom I never knew personally but admired by reputation for many years, is the most recent of the ongoing flood of scandals challenging the Church. I don't think the flood is subsiding, and I suspect there are undoubtedly more challenges and scandals about to cascade down the spillway, In...

Smiles by the Ton

Do you see the "Smiles" button in the menu above? Have you ever clicked it to see what's there? Try it. You'll find the complete collection of the "Smile" pages I've compiled over the past year for the morning bulletin at Nazareth House. Now I've put all 286 "Smile" pages into an ebook. Nearly every morning,...

“Studies say…”, so they say.

Coffee - good or bad for you - is one of the things perennially in the news, which makes this fascinating talk especially relevant.. This is quoted from the TED blurb publicizing this video: You know those amazing health stories that start out "Studies say..."? All too often, there's a paywall between you and the...

Holy Water

Holy Saturday, as I've often said, is the only day of the entire year that does not have a liturgical celebration for it. (The Easter Vigil, often improperly referred to as an evening Holy Saturday Mass - yuck! - is the solemn, festive beginning of Easter, even if our clocks want to tell us it's still...

Three Days that Transformed the World

The events from Thursday evening to Sunday morning – the Last Supper, Agony and Betrayal, Trial and Torture, Death on the Cross, Sabbath Rest in the Tomb, and Resurrection – form one Mega-Event after which nothing is the same. Year after year, the Church’s Liturgy relives these events in Spirit and Truth. Our ceremonies are not...

Angry Judge to Wounded Healer

This is a good reflection while we are still near the beginning of Lent. The image of an angry God, the almighty vengeful despot, wanting to be appeased by the blood of His Son, has been too dominant in popular Christian culture for too much of our history. Royal governance and judicial trials, rather than familial...

3 specific laws – 80% reduction in deaths

Just when I think I can say "enough already" about guns, some pertinent, not always new, information comes to my attention. This evening I ran across this article from two years ago, based on research at Boston University. Gun-related deaths in the U.S. could be reduced by more than 80 percent if three laws implemented...

Bumpkins

With all the talk about "bump stocks," I never really understood how they work. Now maybe I know too much. These videos explain more than I think they'd like the rest of us to know. These guys are really having FUN firing a half dozen lethal projectiles per second. Projectiles that can leave a four-inch diameter...