You CAN!

My late father, who grew up in abject poverty in rural West Alabama in Lamar County, escaped poverty by serving in the Navy during the Korean War. Daddy said he asked his father – who had at most, a 3rd Grade education, and who, like him was well-acquainted with the backside of a mule and a plough – if he thought it would be a good idea for him to join the Navy. Daddy said that his father replied, “I think it’s a good idea. Maybe you won’t have to work as hard as I have.”

Daddy completed High School, which was almost an unheard-of thing for many in that era, especially in that location, and then went to Navy Boot Camp at San Diego, which is now San Diego Naval Air Station, where he experienced culture shock. Though he never identified it as such, his stories to me about his time there clearly indicate it was.

The idiomatic phrase “everything but the squeal” was a very real thing for him. That phrase means

Do You Really Need All Your Closet Baggage?

Undated photograph of Saint Sharbel Makhlūf

Saint Sharbel Makhlūf, the Hermit of Lebanon (1828-1898), whose birth name was Youssef Antoun Makhlūf, dedicated himself to imitating Christ at an early age. He entered the Maronite monastery of St. Maro, took the name Charbel, after a Christian martyr in Antioch from the 2nd century, and was eventually granted permission to live as a hermit. Many sought his counsel over the years, but it wasn’t until his body was discovered incorrupt in 1965 – long after his death in 1898 – that hundreds of miracles were attributed to him, including a well-documented healing from paralysis in 1993 which was

Get On Board With God

“We believe in God . . . the Almighty,” we pray at Mass every Sunday: We believe God to be all-powerful—to think anything less would mean God isn’t God. If we look at the world around us, though, we see bad things happening to just about everyone. Where is the Almighty in all that? The church’s answer has always been that

Appearances Can Be Deceiving

Mary Magdalene is often depicted weeping (the English word maudlin, meaning “excessively weepy and sentimental,” is derived from Magdalene). Although in 1969 the Vatican officially separated Mary Magdalene from the sinner in Luke’s gospel, centuries of sermons and Christian art

All We Need Is Love

Today is the anniversary of the birth and death of a towering intellectual, theological and biblical scholar, orator and polyglot fluent in speaking, reading, and writing Latin, Italian, Hebrew, Greek, German, Bohemian, Spanish, and French, renowned preacher, nuncio (diplomat of the pope) to Bavaria and Spain, minister-general of the Capuchin order, missionary, evangelist, who established Capuchin monasteries in Germany and Austria, was said to have known the entire original text of the Bible — Lorenzo da Brindisi, also more commonly known as Saint Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619), who died on his birthday exactly 60 years later – and whose parents Guglielmo de Rossi & Elisabetta Masella gave him the birth name Julius Caesar Rossi – pretty much did it all. 

Aged 16, he

Share Our Sacred Trust

Apse Mosaic in Basilica of Sant’Apollinare in Classe, near Ravenna, Italy; Saint Apollinaris of Ravenna was the city’s first bishop, and is depicted in the central portion of the mosaic. The basilica was consecrated May 9, 549 by Bishop Maximian and dedicated to Saint Apollinaris, first bishop of Ravenna and Classe.

Today we honor the first bishop of Ravenna in Italy. Originally from Antioch, Saint Apollinaris of Ravenna was given his assignment by Saint Peter to continue to make inroads in the spread of Christianity. Apollinaris faced constant persecution and was eventually martyred by the Romans. The city where he served, Ravenna, has become renowned for the beautiful mosaics that adorn its churches and monuments. Named a UNESCO World Heritage site, the city’s sacred art is

Holy Ground Is All Around

You’re not looking for God in the supermarket. You don’t expect to see God in traffic. You don’t usually have a religious experience while doing homework, standing in line at the bank, or eating cereal. Moses was certainly not expecting to

Government–Mandated Waste Drives Up Prescription Drug Co$t$

Just Like Food “Expiration” Dates, Drug “Expiration” Dates Are Also Fake… And It’s Co$ting You BIGTIME

Hospitals and pharmacies are required to toss expired drugs, no matter how expensive or vital. Meanwhile the FDA has long known that many remain safe and potent for years longer.

The box of prescription drugs had been forgotten in a back closet of a retail pharmacy for so long that some of the pills predated the 1969 moon landing. Most were 30 to 40 years past their expiration dates – possibly toxic, probably worthless.
But to Lee Cantrell, who helps run the California Poison Control System, the cache was an opportunity to answer an enduring question about the actual shelf life of drugs: Could these drugs from the bell-bottom era still be potent? 

Cantrell called Roy Gerona, a University of California, San Francisco, researcher who specializes in analyzing chemicals. Gerona had grown up in the Philippines, and had seen people recover from sickness by taking expired drugs with no apparent ill effects.

“This was very cool,” Gerona says. “Who gets the chance of analyzing drugs that have been in storage for more than 30 years?” 

Pharmacist and Toxicologist Lee Cantrell tested medicines that had been “expired” for decades. Most of them were still potent enough to be on shelves today. (Lee Huffaker for ProPublica)

The age of the drugs might have been bizarre, but the question the researchers wanted to answer wasn’t. Pharmacies across the country in major medical centers and in neighborhood strip malls routinely toss out tons of scarce and potentially valuable prescription drugs when they hit their expiration dates.

Gerona and Cantrell, a pharmacist and toxicologist, knew that the term “expiration date” was a misnomer. The dates on drug labels are simply

Turn Your Struggles To Service

Camillus de Lellis Tends the Wounded in the Hospital of the Santo Spirito in Rome During the Flooding of the Tiber in 1598; by PIERRE SUBLEYRAS, 1745.

Research suggests that more than 5 million Americans are problem or compulsive gamblers. Though he lived some 500 years ago, Saint Camillus (1550-1614) would be able to relate because he suffered from the same problem as a young man. In fact, he lost everything he owned by gambling — which perhaps contributed to his ability a bit later in life to leave everything behind to follow Jesus, eventually founding an order dedicated to caring for the sick. Perhaps you think

Bullying: Yes, it’s real, and yes, you have ultimate power over bullies.

In the past couple days, in the course of my reading on Professional Nursing Development & other healthcare related topics, I’ve also read about forgiveness.

Nurse bullying is a real thing. It’s tragic, of course, that it exists, but it does exist, and is probably more common than some imagine.

So we’ve moved from forgiveness to bullying, eh?

No… not really.

Here’s why not.

Bullying is never acceptable behavior.

Bullying, of course, is threatening and intimidating behavior used as a manipulative technique by someone who wants to force themselves, their ways, or opinions, on another person. And because Nursing is an exceedingly Female-dominated profession, that means that for the most part, Females are the ones doing bullying in Nurse bullying cases & scenarios.

And to be certain, bullying can occur in any human relationship, personal or business-to-business – it isn’t limited to the schoolyard.

Here’s where the forgiveness part comes in handy.

Our internal response to bullying is

Try A Little Kindness

One glance at the daily news reminds us: It’s a cold, cruel world out there. Innocence is slaughtered every day. The harshness of the world can make us tough, self-protecting, and cold at the center: “Not my job. Not my problem.” But the violence of our generation really is our problem, and the job of responding to it

We’re All Family Here

One of the little miracles of faith is its power to make strangers into family. People who might never have known or even chosen to be with one another find themselves together in

Be Enlightened By The Darkness

Saint Bonaventure had the “good fortune,” as his name means, of knowing other saints in his lifetime. His parents Giovanni di Fidanza and Maria Ritella named him Giovanni di Fidanza, bit legend has it that he was given his name Bonaventure by Saint Francis of Assisi, whose Franciscan order Bonaventure joined.

After making his vows, he was sent to complete his studies in Paris. While there, he became good friends with Saint Thomas Aquinas, with whom he received the degree of Doctor, and developed a friendship with Saint Louis, King of France.

Saint Bonaventure is known for his leadership of the Franciscans and his significant intellectual contributions to theology and philosophy. St. Bonaventure also wrote numerous mystical and ascetical treatises, perhaps most famously, “The Soul’s Journey into God.”

In 1273, he was appointed by

Little Irritants

The toilet lid is up.

The toilet seat is up.

The toothpaste cap is off.

The toothpaste tube is squeezed all over.

The toilet paper hangs off the back.

The toilet paper hangs off the front.

Dirty dishes remain in the kitchen sink overnight.

We are only as big as the smallest thing that irritates us.

Professor Dr. Robert Alter, PhD, professor of Hebrew and comparative literature at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in his 1984 book “The Art of Biblical Poetry” that a dialogue with “the voices of two lovers, praising each other, yearning for each other, proffering invitations to enjoy” the sensuous joys of sexuality and the encouraging dialogue of friends occurs in Song of Solomon, the unmistakably erotic book in the Bible.

Feminist Biblical scholar Dr. Jo Cheryl Exum, PhD, Professor Emeritus at the University of Sheffield, England, in an expository entitled “Song of Songs” in the 2012 book “Women’s Bible Commentary,” wrote in part that, “We do not know whether or not the situation – love, one-to-one relationship – allowed a certain freedom from social constraints, or whether the genre (love poetry) of the social setting (private rather than public life) accounts for the Song’s unique portrayal of mutuality in love, but in any event, the Song testifies to a world-view that included a vision of romance in which

Home Is Where You Find Acceptance

This painting by Father Claude Chauchetière, S.J. (circa 1696) is one of the oldest portraits of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha.

Saint Kateri Tekakwitha (1656-80) was orphaned at age four when smallpox attacked her village, and claimed her parents’ and baby brother’s lives. The disease’s ravages left her permanently weakened, scarred, partially blind, and photo sensitive to the extent that the sun blinded her and caused her to feel her way around as she walked.

She probably never imagined the role she would have in her generation and beyond.

When Saint Kateri was 18, a Jesuit missionary, Father Jacques de Lamberville (1641–1710), established a chapel in Caughnawaga, on the north bank of the Mohawk River, which today is near Fonda, New York. Kateri was fascinated by the new stories she heard about Jesus Christ, vaguely remembered her mother’s whispered prayers, wanted to learn more about Him, and to become a Christian.

Having been adopted by extended family, Kateri’s uncle, a Kanienkehaka chief, allowed her to attend religious instructions taught by Father de Lamberville, and the following Easter, she was baptized, and became Catholic at age 21.

Not everyone accepted her choice to embrace Christ. Following her baptism, Kateri became a village outcast, and

What Construction Techniques Do You Use To Build Your Faith?

Henry II, who was crowned as Holy Roman Emperor (Romanorum Imperator) on February 14, 1014 by Pope Benedict VIII in Rome, ruled until his death aged 51 of a chronic urinary tract infection July 13, 1024, and was the last member of the Saxon Dynasty of Emperors which included Otto I. Sometimes also known as Saint Henry, he was canonized by Blessed Pope Eugene III in 1146 for his support of the church and monastic reforms, and is the only canonized German monarch.

Henry II’s ascension to the throne, however, wasn’t without some drama and backroom wheeling-dealing. John Crescentius, a consul and Patrician of Rome on several occasions purposely thwarted Henry’s visitation to

Take A Fresh Look

More than anything else, Jesus the Christ has one basic message: The kingdom of God is here right now. He proclaimed that it had begun and was on its way to fulfillment. In it is everything He was, taught, did, and wants us to learn and do: Love God –and- one another wholeheartedly, especially and particularly

Southerners Still Want Segregated Schools Because Hatred Runs Deep In The South

Following is an excerpt to a soul-searching article about the resegregation of schools in the South. 

After the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, racial discrimination was prohibited in any federally funded program. But in 1964, there was very limited federal aid to schools. However, in 1965, Congress passed the Elementary and Zsecondary Education Act, and there was quite a lot of federal money for schools that enrolled poor children. The Office of Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare took the Brown decision seriously. Top officials in the Lyndon B. Johnson told Southern districts that they would lose federal funding unless they presented real data on the racial distribution of students and faculty. 

So did the federal courts. Southern districts, governors, and legislators offered “school choice” proposals. They were a farce. Federal officials rejected them. Federal courts rejected them. 

Within ten years after the passage of ESEA, the South had more integrated public schools than any other region. 

But then the great rollback began. With more conservative justices on the federal courts, the zeal to follow through on the promise of the Brown decision faded. The Department of Education, created in 1980, never had the energy and focus of the LBJ officials. 

The authors of this article write:

“As we continue our “anti-dumbass” campaign to champion and improve Southern public schools for all students, we maintain our focus on the influence poverty, race, and racism continue to play in schools. Within the current political and cultural climate, there looms a growing sense of separation, where private interests replace democratic interests and the rich and powerful profit while the poor and underserved continue to struggle. You might think we were living in the 1930s or 1940s. This is, however, 2017, and the resegregation of public schools is increasing at an alarming rate. 

“As parents and proud Southerners we constantly ask ourselves,

Humility Is The Good Word

Among Saint Benedict’s renowned Rules for monastic living were guidelines for the Cellarer – the person in charge of the monastery’s provisions. The Cellarer safeguarded and dispensed the monastery’s food and drink and adhered to quotas set by the abbot. During lean times when

Listen To Your Intuition

Some people seem to be born with the gift of deep faith. They appear to have an intuitive grasp of the spiritual side of life and know God is always with them. The rest of us must seemingly