Politics of the common good That phrase, “politics of the common good,” reads as naivete. In a recent post, I wrote that politics is the pathetic name we give to the art of governing. Our immersion in our “shock and awe news” entices us to judge, criticize, and offend Jesus by neglecting his command to […]
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Thinking about Capernaum Capernaum was Jesus’ town. The ruins pictured above were the great synagogue where Our Lord preached. It’s here where five of the twelve apostles lived: Peter, Andrew, John, James, and Matthew. Jesus’ town was the site of numerous miracles, among them the raising of Jairus’ daughter from the dead and the healing
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God as mystery “What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him?” So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Your father left these instructions before he died: ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they
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Making an oratory of the heart… The phrase “oratory of the heart” is not common parlance. I first encountered it in Brother Lawrence’s Practice of the Presence of God,. and had to stop and think about the word oratory: Oratory is defined first as eloquence in public speaking and second as a place of prayer.
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The weapon of prayer We don’t think of prayer as a weapon. At least I don’t, especially when I mitigate its power by saying, “All I can do is pray.” Yet, I know this life is a battle, so I have written about spiritual warfare countless times. Why then don’t I use my primary weapon
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The advocate will teach you all things “Now I am going to the one who sent me,… because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts.But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.But if I go,
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Words are not always a blessing Brother Jerome Leo (RIP )’s understated remark, “Words are not always a blessing,” refers to Saint Benedict’s sixth chapter, The Spirit of Silence. His comment evokes a wry smile of recognition. The Benedictine monk makes us pause at the truth in the fifteen-hundred-year-old words: Let us do what the
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Words of Blessing: Peace and Shalom On the day whenthe weight deadenson your shouldersand you stumble,may the clay danceto balance you.And when your eyesfreeze behindthe grey windowand the ghost of lossgets in to you,may a flock of colours,indigo, red, green,and azure bluecome to awaken in youa meadow of delight. When the canvas fraysin the currach
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Why are we commanded to love? “Christ did not love humanity, He never said He loved humanity; He loved men. Neither He nor anyone else can love humanity; it is like loving a gigantic centipede.”)[2] Why do we need Christ and his difficult command to love? Because we are fallen. (This stance was nicely summed
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Faces of the human heart This image magnifies two faces of the human heart in Lucas Cranach’s painting, Christ and the Adulteress, found in Bishop Erik Varden’s piece, 5 Sunday of Lent. Front and center we see one face with a terrible, smug smile and a large sharp rock at the ready in his right
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Lin Wilder has a doctorate in Public Health from the UT Houston with a background in cardiopulmonary physiology, medical ethics, and hospital administration
Book Author: LIN WILDER
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