Your Life is God’s Favorite Prayer
The most beautiful eulogy I ever heard was also the shortest. It was spoken about 20 years ago and was for my great aunt, who devoted her life to being God’s servant. She was a nun, and what one of…
Making Something of a Sitcom about Nothing
If you are a fan of the old Seinfeld show (a sitcom that earned eternal life in rerun heaven), you probably quote lines from your favorite episodes. Although its creator called this a show about nothing, something always happened to…
A New Parable from an Old Western
In the wild, wild Middle East that was the Jerusalem of Jesus’ time, his disciples sometimes had to depend on the mercy of their quarry to successfully spread the gospel. Our gospel reading this Sunday (Lk 10:1-12, 17-20) indicates how…
Finding freedom on a different slave ship
People are funny about their chosen slaveries. The other day I saw a guy driving down the road dragging a boat behind him like a ball and chain. I’m sure he invests thousands of his discretionary dollars to keep it…
Keeping Our Identities Secure—from Ourselves
When the novel Sybil came out in 1973, the idea of having 16 different personalities was shocking. Today it’s not only normal, but expected. Online social media split us into our business selves, our party selves, our family selves, our…
An Atheist’s Favorite Gospel?
It takes faith to be afraid of God. That’s why the following headline in a recent edition of The Wall Street Journal’s Op-Ed section was such an attention grabber: Are Atheists Afraid of God? This was a commentary about a…
A Formula to Raise Faith from the Dead?
If you were like me in high school, any subject that ended in “ometry” made your eyes crust over. If I couldn’t see any practical application of its complexity to my simple life, I reasoned, why expend my few and…
Some of God’s best friends are born in foxholes
The phrase, “There are no atheists in foxholes,” is appropriate to remember on Memorial Day. It’s also fitting that this year’s holiday falls on the same weekend as the Solemnity of the Body and Blood of Christ. On Memorial Day…
Heed the call to boast
Boastfulness is a luxury that seldom lends comfort—not even to the boaster, ultimately. A boast is often made at someone else’s expense. I’ve been guilty of enjoying sweet flattery without acknowledging others who might have deserved a share of that…
Let’s NOT play Devil’s advocate
We can thank lawyers for adding “Devil’s advocate” to the American vocabulary. It’s a process where someone takes the opposing side of an issue to test the strength of one’s own case. We may have friends who do this with…