Posted inFaith, The Good Word

Good Friday: Love and Be Silent

The play begins with an unexpected abdication Know that we have divided In three our kingdom and lsquo tis our fast intentTo shake all cares and business from our age Conferring them on younger strengths while we Unburdened crawl toward death I i 17-41 King Lear rejects the realm mdash one mig

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

He Learned Obedience

Hearing these words from the Passion of Saint Luke quot Father if you are willing take this cup away from me still not my will but yours be done quot 22 42 it rsquo s difficult not to feel that we have intruded into a conversation between intimates one we have no warrant to hear Jesus ple

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

Imagination or Intimacy?

We live in an age of online dating Having done most of my own courting before the French Revolution mdash I gave it up when pantaloons went out of style Why pursue romance without panache mdash I rsquo m reluctant to opine on the surety of this new approach but I would note one novelty of we

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

Heading Home

Jesus preached by way of parable I reckon that if it worked for the master the disciple can ply the same craft which is why I often begin sermons with a story something that hopefully has a emotional hook to draw in the hearer But the Parable of the Prodigal Son is already so emotionally evoc

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

The Turing Test We Call Life

Had he made the wrong choice of schools His courses were demanding quot We have tremendous long and hard lessons to get through in both French and Algebra quot The discipline was dogged quot They give a man one of these black marks for almost nothing If he gets two hundred a year they dismis

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

Neat, Pat, Cheap Endings

Billy Wilder rsquo s movie The Last Weekend about the suicide of an alcoholic author won the 1946 Academy Award for Best Picture Wilder also garnered that year rsquo s Oscar for Best Director and Ray Milland won Best Actor portraying the final days of a binging alcoholic The film gained a four

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

Deeper than Duty

Sometimes the way to understand one story is by way of another The story which we rsquo d all like to understand more fully is the resignation of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI The story the Church sets before us this First Sunday of Lent is that of Christ rsquo s Temptation Perhaps a story

Posted inFaith, The Good Word

Ash Wednesday’s Holy Water

nbsp Sometimes class discussions veer in a direction I don rsquo t intend For example I don rsquo t remember what aspect of the Incarnation I was trying to present in a class of freshman college students when a young man suddenly asked quot Where does Holy Water come from quot I was still t

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