Quantum Hints Of God

In her book of devotions entitled Revelations of Divine Love, 14th-century mystic Julian of Norwich describes how she came to understand that God is light, Whom she described as, “our endless Day.” Seven centuries later, physicist Bernard Haisch came to the same understanding: “The solid, stable world of matter appears to be sustained at every instant by

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Helping Comes First

 When Saint Pius of Pietrelcina (1887-1968) — Padre Pio as he’s widely known — decided he wanted to build a free hospital for the poor up the road from his friary, he started with a piece of land and a few friends and supporters. Four years later, in 1956, he had one of the most modern hospitals in Europe. Since the padre’s death in 1968, the facility, which

Women Belong In The Picture

Women, as today’s gospel (Luke 8:1-3) makes clear, accompanied Jesus in his ministry. They left their families to follow Him and offered financial support for His mission. They stood by Him at the cross, and all four gospels place women at the tomb when the resurrected Christ is revealed. As scripture scholar Elizabeth Johnson points out in her groundbreaking book Consider Jesus: Waves of Renewal in Christology, “Jesus Christ

Please Be Seated

The names of the apostles are integral to our story of faith, but in truth, we know very little about many of them. Bits of information from the gospels and Acts of the Apostles do allow a glimpse of their lives in the first Christian community. The rest we can only prayerfully imagine. We know that

Q: How is #ALpolitics similar to Portland, OR?

Portland, Oregon and Birmingham, Alabama couldn’t be further apart in many ways – geographically, and politically, particularly. However, recent research show that one attitude in particular is very similar.

And that is, resident’s thoughts about

Stretching Exercises

Exercise physiology experts tell us that our physical bodies should be “warmed up” before engaging in any type of exercise – that we should gently stretch our muscles before beginning any exercise routine or competitive event. It’s not uncommon to see athletes “warming up” before games, and baseball pitchers in the “bull pen,” and football players on the sidelines will stretch and move about to get their muscles accustomed to the rigorous vigor of competition. Similarly, being an example of

Faith Will See Us Through

Martyrdom of Saint Januarius; Girolamo Pesce; circa 1727; Oil on canvas, 262 x 193 cm; Bishop’s Library, Vác, Hungary

The stories of early Christian saints are often larger-than-life. So it is with Saint Januarius (third century). According to legend, Januarius was thrown into a fiery furnace by the Romans during a time of intolerance toward Christians. To everyone’s amazement he emerged unscathed. Taken figuratively, the story says a lot about how faith can help us in the face of intolerance when it comes to things like race, gender, immigration status, and so on. We may be

Share The Wealth

Healing the Centurion’s servant, by Paolo Veronese, 16th century

 Like the centurion who came to Jesus for a healing, we’re aware that we fall short of having “earned” the great gift of the presence of Jesus “under our roof” or in our lives. But Jesus chooses to dwell with us, imperfect as we are. As Pope Francis says in Misericordiae Vultus, our salvation depends on mercy. Mercy is the “ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us.” Mercy is the “bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.” A daily awareness of our own “unearned rewards” helps us to share our spiritual wealth with others. Do I hear an amen?

Can American Health Insurance Be Repaired?

Naysayers to the “public option,” or “single payer” health insurance plan claim that it’s “socialized medicine.” You know… much like what Military Service Members  – and their families – in the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines have access to. And to be certain, the health insurance “money grab” came through Richard Nixon‘s signature on a bill written by  Massachusetts’ U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy… the Health Maintenance Organization Act of 1973.

Before that law was passed, it was ILLEGAL to profit from delivery of healthcare services. Now, we have avariciously rapacious Wall-Street masters slave driving the people for more and more and more and more profit. The greedy, never-ending quest for profits has quickly deteriorated the American healthcare delivery system, which was once a marvel of the world. Now, according to the World Health Organization 2000 report of its 191 member nations health systems, the United States ranked 37th in efficiency worldwide, while France, Italy, San Marino, Andorra, and Malta round out the top five most efficient nations for delivery of healthcare services. Japan ranks 10th, while the United Kingdom is 18th, and Canada is 30th. The United States is sandwiched in between Costa Rica, and Slovenia, respectively.

Truth be told – and it’s sad to say – there are probably as many corrupt Democrats as there are corrupt Republicans, neither of whom have the people’s best interests at heart, or in mind. Such ones’ solitary concern is with their own wallet, and how they can profit privately at taxpayer expense. That includes graft through directing contracts and business toward friends’ business interests.

Look at

Emotional Suicide, Anyone?

 We are told in today’s reading (Matthew 18:21-35) that the unforgiving servant will be “tortured” for failing to forgive another, after having been forgiven himself. Because a parable is a symbolic way of talking about a profound truth, we can take the word tortured metaphorically and ask, “In what way are we ‘tortured’ when we fail to forgive?” Failing to forgive makes us hostage to our hurt. Unable to move on, we become captives, prisoners to our own resentment. Unwilling to accept the imperfections of others, we can become

Build On A Loving Foundation

The third-century life of Saint Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, might have given rise to the comedy tag line: “It’s always something,” but his troubles and those of the church were anything but funny. If it wasn’t a heresy, it was bitter controversy over whether someone who had renounced the faith might be reconciled with the church; or it was exile, or the plague, or schism. Cyprian’s response was always generosity. During a terrible plague, for example, he

Good Grief

There isn’t a lot of support for personal grief. While we have days for national mourning, families in mourning are expected to pull themselves together and return to their routines in fairly short order. The placement of

Christ Before Us

Russian author Alexander Solzhenitsyn, exiled for years in a Soviet gulag, had finally reached the limits of his endurance. Bitter cold and brutal treatment had taken their toll. He put down his shovel and sat down, resigning himself to a swift, violent death at the hands of the guards. A gaunt, old prisoner scurried over and

Shed Some Light On The World

Saint John Chrysostom (349-407), the archbishop of Constantinople from 398 to his death in 407, often reminded his subjects to offer prayers universally—that is, to pray for everybody in the whole world. “For [Jesus Christ] did not say ‘thy will be done in me or in us,’ but ‘on earth,’ the whole earth,” he wrote. Because of

Listen To The Queen Of Peace

The origin of today’s memorial goes back to the celebration of the

Hard Prayers

The highest commandments for those who follow Jesus tell us to love God and one another. To love others with a Christian love means to seek their good, even when we do not feel like it or “others” are behaving in a way that makes it very difficult to wish anything good for them. Even more shocking, Jesus calls us to

Be Reconciled In Love

Christianity is not just a theoretical philosophy; it’s meant to be lived. One radical way you can put your faith into practice is to follow Jesus’ advice on what to do when someone sins against you: “Go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone.” This is not the way of the world, which encourages the aggrieved to

GOP Cause & Democrat Effect

POS45 and the GOP are showing the people why the Democrats will sweep the House & get control of the Senate next year. 

The GOP continually demonstrates they care NOT for humanity. Their god is money and greed. In their warped imagination, people are expendable. Protect a fertilized egg or zygote, and neglect those whom are living and breathing. Take from the poor, give to the rich. I got mine, good luck with yours.

As my late father said many times,

The Least Of These

Only the “birthdays” of Jesus at Christmas, John the Baptist in June, and the Blessed Virgin Mary today get a special day in the church year, so when a “nativity” comes up, it’s something to notice. Mary’s birth is the dawn of our salvation. And that salvation comes through humble vessels like Mary, who in her Magnificat praises God saying,

Decipher The Holiness Code

The presence of holiness seems obvious to demons — they knew Jesus on sight. But the rest of us have a hard time recognizing the holiness all around us. Like Bill Murray’s character in the motion picture “Ghostbusters,” we seem to have trouble with