The ambiguity of talent We use the word talent to connote skill or expertise. Often, we mean an individual with intrinsic aptitudes toward a thing. Whether it be athletics or mathematics, it’s someone with unusual ability. Organizational recruiters look for specific aptitudes in potential employees. We perceive these capacities as our own, as our property […]
The Ambiguity of Talent Read More »
Saint Paul to the Galations: Also Us “You stupid, senseless Galations!” One of the last Divine Office readings before Ash Wednesday is from St. Paul’s Letter to the Galations. He minces no words and we can practically see the spittle collecting at the sides of his mouth as we read the Apostle’s exhortations. St Paul,
Saint Paul to the Galations: Also Us Read More »
Once Peter has been handed the keys to the Kingdom, Jesus harshly-even cruelly, rebukes him for his most understandable response to hearing Christ predict his own horrific suffering, rejection, humiliation and execution. Mark writes that Peter “took him aside and began to rebuke him.” We infer that Peter took Jesus away from the other disciples
Peter and the Keys Read More »
Revolutions: seen and unseen We think of uprisings, upheavals, often political like the American and French Revolutions. Of the earth’s rotation around the sun or of Mary’s reply to Elizabeth’s , “And why am I so favored that the mother of our Lord should come to me?” Not so much. Or never. December twenty-first was
Revolutions: Seen and Unseen Read More »
In these few remaining days of Advent, I read and re-read the words of St. Paul about the futility of sacrifice and oblation or offering to God. First, he quotes the words of Christ himself: You who wanted no sacrifice or oblation, prepared a body for me. You took no pleasure in holocausts or sacrifices
No Sacrifice or Oblation Read More »
“Go to church.” I surprised myself when I said it. My friend had been quietly explaining her deep concern about her experience with public school. After years of homeschooling her children, she and her husband enrolled them in school. She said the curriculum no longer uses ‘BC” and “AD” as historical measures. Instead, they use
The Martian and Pope Francis It’s a strange correlation, The Martian and Pope Francis. But there is a striking parallel between the most unusual movie adapted from novelist Andy Weir’s self-published novel The Martian, and Pope. Francis’s speeches. The power of the person. If there is a single theme that seems to symbolize the insistent
The Martian and Pope Francis Read More »
Christ asleep on a pillow The first time I actually thought about being in a fishing boat in a raging storm with Christ asleep on a cushion, was during a meditation given on that Gospel passage shortly after I converted to Christian Catholicism. The Legionnaire priest giving the meditation guaranteed my undivided attention because of
Our three person God. Today is the Solemnity for the Holy Trinity in the Christian Liturgy. And I realize that this concept of our Three Person God foils me. Close to nineteen years ago, the man who would become my husband explained his experience of the journey to God. It begins, he said, with Our
Our Three Person God Read More »
Joy and Sorrow: Essential Paradox During those years in which I considered myself an atheist, I discovered the writings of Kahil Gibran (only after I joined the Catholic Church did I learn that Gibran had been Catholic) ; there was one meditation of Gibran’s in particular that I loved: On Joy and Sorrow. Your joy
Joy and Sorrow: Essential Paradox Read More »