Mega-Story

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

Deuteronomy 11:18-21: Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when...

Church

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

At 8 am on Sunday morning, my toddler was ready for church. She was dressed, fed, and determined to go to church.   We go every week. She knows Sundays are for church. Church which means Sunday school, music, friends, being known, sharing the peace, running...

Sowing Faith from a Boat

Monday, May 7, 2018

Hear my law, O my people; incline your ears unto the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable; I will declare hard sentences of old (Ps 78:1-2) Today’s Daily Office Gospel reading for today Matthew’s Parable of the Sower (Mt 13:1-16).  So familiar as to be...

Love and Friendship

Sunday, May 6, 2018

John 15:9-17 Acts 10:44;48   Jesus said to his disciples, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you… This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”   “You are my friends if you do what I command you.”...

Learning

Saturday, May 5, 2018

Tom Clancy, the great novelist, once said, “Life is about learning; when you stop learning, you die.”  Our early lives focus around family, church, friends, and school. School equals a child’s work hours; they’re working to learn, and that learning will...

Do Not Worry?

Thursday, May 3, 2018

In some ways Jesus’ teachings seem very naive.  Do not worry? Is he kidding?   Look at the birds of the air, he says.  And I think about diminishing habitat, about pesticides and drought.  As migratory routes are compromised and water is polluted, birds...

Here’s to Community

Tuesday, May 1, 2018

In the midst of traveling, late nights, different routines, and middle-of-the-night-wake-up calls from the baby, I forgot about my daughter’s baptismal anniversary.   It wasn’t until we arrived at her godmothers’ home and they presented her with a gift that I...

Love One Another

Monday, April 30, 2018

What happened on the Cross? And what happened afterward?  Here we are deep in Easter season, and we all feel safe again. Those dark days between Maundy Thursday and Easter Vigil are over. Christ Jesus did come back, rise again, and the reserve Sacrament isn’t all that...

Words – Useful and Dangerous

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Words are fascinating things. I remember Mama reading to me when I was little and couldn’t read for myself. The stories were great, with the sound of her voice changing the black marks on the page to adventures and heroes. I learned to read in the first grade,...

Time

Saturday, April 28, 2018

Religion doesn’t happen in buildings. That’s one of the hardest things for people to get, I think. And it’s mainly because religion itself has become so concerned with cathedrals, grand mosques, and ornate synagogues. There’s nothing wrong with those things. In fact,...

Feast Day of Christina Rossetti

Friday, April 27, 2018

Readings for the feast day of Christina Rossetti, Friday, April 27, 2018:   Psalm 84 Exodus 3:1-6 Revelation 21:1-4 Matthew 6:19-23   One of my favorite stories told by one of my fellow missioners to the Diocese of Lui in South Sudan was of being there in...

Reconcile

Thursday, April 26, 2018

Matthew 5:21-26   I just made a phone call this morning that I have been dreading for a couple of weeks.  I did not have a conversation, I left a message. But already I feel a little better.   The person I called is someone to whom I made a promise that I...

Mark, immediately

Wednesday, April 25, 2018

Immediately, suddenly, Mark wrote a gospel! When I was in college studying the New Testament for the first time, I was introduced to Mark as the author of the earliest, shortest, and least likely gospel to earn its evangelist an A for his composition skills. He was...

A Prayer for Paying Attention

Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Lord,   The world is rushing by Sights and sounds vying for my attention People walking and running in a hurry Cars zooming from here to there.   The days seem long But I know the years are short.   My hands constantly connected to my phone. Scrolling...