Rise Up In Faith

Talk about “life-threatening”: Sometimes vitality itself is the threat! Lazarus was looking mighty good for a dead man after Jesus called him out of the tomb. So the religious authorities put Lazarus on their hit list along with Jesus. Next time, Lazarus might stay dead; however, nobody

Turn It Over

One of the many advantages of memorized prayers such as the “Our Father” is that we can say them when we have no words of our own; we don’t have to think. That’s also one of their disadvantages: We don’t have to think. In fact,

Get Outside Your Comfort Zone This Lent

The desert’s a great place to encounter the Holy, as a long tradition of desert fathers and mothers attests. But the desert’s a traditional place to make intimate acquaintance with your demons as well — which is

Be Fast To Offer Assistance

Lent is just getting under way, a good time to carefully consider one of its key traditions: fasting. What can fasting mean in our health-conscious culture? The fasting of Lent is not about

Lent: 40 Days Of Self-Aggrandizing Pseudo-Sacrificial Piety

Lent… it’s not just the stuff in your belly button.

It’s supposed to be a time for Christians to draw closer to their Maker, to become more Christ-like, more holy, more sanctified… to be more set apart to do His work on this Earth.

Instead, Lent has become nothing more than a self-serving, self-aggrandizing moment of pseudo-sacrificial piety in much the same way as Easter or Christmas has become secularized. It’s piss-poor, utterly worthless, and without any redeeming cultural, social, spiritual, or religious value.

Where does “giving up” chocolate, liquor, teevee, or red meat on Fridays for 40 days improve one’s spiritual life?
Seriously?

Some have expressed sympathy for this expression, as if it were my experience.

I never said that was my experience.
It’s “my estimation” based upon observation.

My observation is precisely that Lent has

Be nice to me… or else!

It certainly seems that there’s no shortage of opinion on FaceBook.

Recently, I had seen this posted on a friend’s page, and remarked upon it. Whether or not Eminem said it, I am uncertain. However, the sentiment expressed was what caught my attention.

Since we’re now in

Ash Wednesday, Triduum & Lent

Lent is a particularly sacred time of the liturgical year because it marks the beginning of the time of Christ’s suffering before His crucifixion  – which, of course, leads to His resurrection, which is a time of, and cause for rejoicing!

This year, I have decided to sacrifice coffee during Lent. We sacrifice things in our lives as a reminder that we are to mortify our flesh, which also serves as a reminder to more fully devote our lives to Christ, Who was the Agnus Dei – the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.

Perhaps this year, you may make a good effort to

The Mute, Poignant Ironies of a Life Well Lived

Ironies are rarely mute.

It’s just that they choose to speak afterward.

They’re kinda’ like God.

It’s sometimes said that, “Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.” Or, as a dear friend of mine once put it, “I don’t believe in coincidence. I believe in God-incidence.”

Thanks be to God, I’ve recently accepted an offer of employment in my field, and will shortly be relocating to be more near that job. For me, that means an out-of-state move. I am thankful… IMMENSELY thankful, for the opportunity, in so many different ways.

As part of my expression of thanks, I had written a note of thanks to one of my Flickr contacts recently, and wanted to share the essence of that letter with you all.

So, with little editing, what follows below represents the gist of the idea I shared in the message.

And before you read further, be aware that this note contains very poignant irony.

Enjoy!

Wings on my ass – a cause of blindness? My iPhone story in Lent.

This is the season of Lent. It’s a strictly Christian observance… well, it actually has its roots in the Jewish Passover.

Oh well.

Christians are the “new Jews.” Oy vey!

I started out thinking I’d share about my iPhone troubles – I have an unlocked and jailbroken 32G 3G[S] iPhone.

Yeah. Top of the line.

iResisted doing that – purchasing an iPhone – for quite some time. I used  – and still do – use a Palm Treo 650, and have never had moment’s trouble with it. NEVER!

I used it to surf the web, and sent e-mail from about four accounts, three of them associated with my work, all from different organizations. One day, several years ago, at a family reunion in MS, someone told me something had fallen out of my pocket. Looking down, I saw the stubby antenna lying on the floor. Loathing to pay the very-nearly $40 for a screw and tiny piece of plastic, I reverted to using two devices – as I had done previously with a Nokia “candybar” style phone, and Palm Pilot.

Back to Square One… right? Two devices… one phone, and one computer/calendar/appointment/memo/address/contact gizmo.

A few months back, I bought the iPhone for