Leave, Herod wants to kill you. In the Christian liturgy for the thirty-first of October, some of the Pharisees approach Jesus to tell him to leave Jerusalem …”Leave, Herod wants to kill you.” “Go and tell that fox, ‘Behold, I cast out demons and I perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day […]
Leave, Herod Wants to Kill You-Constipated Grace Read More »
Not a hair on your head was originally written in late 2013. I am reposting it for two reasons: It feels eerily even more relevant in October, 2019 as a beleaguered Israel prepares for war without global support of any kind; the United Nation’s attention on Israel is confined to absurdities and the US continues
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Contradictions of sin and mercy There are times when an essay from the past feels fitting. This is one of those times. Mostly because there is one man who better understands the contradictions of sin and mercy better than any other: Karol Wojtyla. His first published work was a series of meditations prepared at the
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Surprised by Grace Now and then, I am surprised by grace; that phrase is used a lot by Christian writers weakly attempting to convey what Paul describes as living and active and sharper than a two edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit. Because it’s always much more than surprise…more
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CS Lewis and Karl Rahner Most likely they never met. But the atheist turned Anglican Christian CS Lewis and the Roman Catholic Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner perceived their God in radically similar ways. Both men served as apologists for their faith causing more than a little consternation in the minds of more rule bound colleagues.
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Defining freedom: The old/new lure of socialism On this Independence Day weekend, taking a few moments to consider defining freedom – for ourselves, our lives and our choices-seems fitting. I find this old/new lure of socialism antithetical to what we stand for in this country founded under God. But this is clearly not so for
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The Feast of the Ascension: Why Does it Matter? Last night, Fr. Paul began his homily during the vigil Mass for The Feast of the Ascension of Jesus, with that question. It’s a fantastic scene, isn’t it? This event witnessed by eleven ordinary people a couple of thousand years ago; fantastic to them then and
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Death, Hope, Heaven, What are we here for, anyway? In my pre-Catholic ‘pagan’ years, I worried about death. Mostly because I feared standing before a God I did not think I believed in and explaining why I had wasted knowledge, understanding, and time. After twenty years as a Catholic, I would like to think that
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Your life is worth dying for… Exactly what are we worth? We usually think about our worth in dollars and cents. In terms of salaries, bonuses and raises. Each of us asks the question at least once, probably several times during the different phases of our lives: From the beginning of our careers and the
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King David, You, Me and Idleness It isn’t as if King David opened his eyes that morning, to ask, “What are the 3 most effective ways I can take this blessed God-Given-Life and invoke the worst conceivable miseries upon me and on everyone I love, am obligated to?” Or “How can I best take the
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