· 14 July 2008 | 226 words
There is a line from a William Stafford poem: "It's for the best," my mother said, "Nothing can ever be wrong for anyone truly good." And then I look at the suffering Jesus endured, and the suffering of all people....
· 3 June 2008 | 692 words
In a narrative essay titled "Teaching a Stone to Talk" (found in the book by the same name), the author Annie DIllard describes an eccentric man trying to teach a stone how to talk. Several times a day, he removes...
· 12 December 2007 | 417 words
From Br. Joseph -- The young boy asked, "Why Christmas?" His father replied, "You know, it's December 25th, the season when everyone puts up Christmas trees and decorates everything in red and green. We hang Christmas lights on the house...
· 11 November 2007 | 1563 words
In The Shattered Lantern, Ronald Rolheiser quotes Dag Hammarskjöld: I don't know Who--or what--put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I did answer Yes to Someone--or Something--and from...
· 4 November 2007 | 254 words
This statement by Ronald Rolheiser, from his book The Shattered Lantern, got me to wondering. When there is no pattern to our actions we experience meaninglessness. Just because I do not recognize or perceive a pattern, does this mean that...
· 14 October 2007 | 69 words
From the last line of the song "Closing Time" by Semisonic, Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end. Life is full of little transitions, little deaths and rebirths. What stays the same? What dies? What is transformed? It...
· 8 September 2007 | 44 words
The world consists of imaginary people, claiming imaginary virtues and suffering from imaginary happiness. (Vernon Howard [via]) Imaginary people--yes; Imaginary virtues--yes!! Imaginary happiness--more or less, until it no longer satisfies. But is the loneliness, pain, and sorrow imaginary too? Maybe that's...
· 13 July 2007 | 206 words
From the movie, Red Planet: Chantilas: [Suppose] we just finished poisoning the earth and everyone was dead in a hundred years. Then what was the point of anything? Art, beauty--all gone--the Greeks, the Constitution, people dying for freedom, ideas. None...
· 10 July 2007 | 366 words
My God, why does it have to be so hard to love You? My God, why do I always try so hard to be where You are? See You're the God of every person You're the one who reigns in...
· 29 June 2007 | 83 words
At the end of the movie Forrest Gump, Forrest, a man of limited "smarts", laments the answer to a question that has bothered philosophers and theologians from ancient times. I don't know if we each have a destiny, or if...
· 17 April 2007 | 94 words
Will Americans decide to give up their freedom for "feeling" safe and secure? At the beginning of the 20th century, the world was fearful that democracy would be extinguished. At the beginning of the 21st century, democracy appears to be...
· 7 February 2007 | 84 words
I find myself asking God to have mercy on those who died in some long ago battle or tragedy described in the pages of history. Am I a fool? Does love and prayer reach far back into time? What about...
· 17 January 2007 | 101 words
"...What I like doing best is Nothing." "How do you do Nothing," asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time. "Well, it's when people call out at you just as you're going off to do it, 'What...
Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on us