Category Archives: story

Why did this happen?

Posted on March 22, 2020 by

When Jesus and his disciples come across a blind man begging, the disciples ask a question that the sages have answered in various ways throughout the ages: why is there suffering in the world? Why do even the unarguably innocent – babies and children – suffer? Why do we live with these questions from birth and throughout our lives, even in the midst of joy, even in the midst of love, even with Jesus walking right next to us? Continue reading →

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The longest Lent

Posted on March 19, 2020 by

After forty days, he was tempted to give it up: the faith, the fast, the body, lay down among the dry bones. Continue reading →

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Pray as though nobody’s listening

Posted on March 11, 2020 by

Oh, but what about those things that “our Father who is in secret” will see? And what will be their just reward? What is behind that other door, the one within our hearts and souls, which attempts to guard my guilt and my ungraceful, unpaintable, distressed and unfading mantras even from the sight of God, let alone myself? Continue reading →

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When we can’t see the end of the story

Posted on February 3, 2020 by

It can feel sometimes as though Jesus has withdrawn to the backwaters of Galilee, , and we do not know when we will see him again, nor whether he will come with whips and cords to clean out the temples of power, or even our own house; or whether he will come in chains, bowed down by the burdens of the principalities that still oppose the reign of God, its justice, its mercy, its peace; or whether he will come in glory, a light to shine the world toward salvation. Continue reading →

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Kittens

Posted on January 29, 2020 by

There is a lot going on in the world, in the country, in our communities and families.
Sometimes, the best antidote to overwhelm is to give in to [ahem – kittens] the overwhelming, particular, peculiar love of God. Continue reading →

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Dreamers

Posted on December 22, 2019 by

On the night before Jesus died, his closest friend denied three times that he even knew the man. In the nights before Jesus was born, Joseph dreamed. Would we be ready to stake our reputation on the acknowledgement that yes, Jesus is the Son of God; that yes, the way of the Cross, the way of self-giving, selfless, vengeance-denying love is the way to life, liberty, and the pursuit of heaven; that yes, Jesus, born of Mary, is God Incarnate, Emmanuel, God with us? Continue reading →

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Be patient

Posted on December 15, 2019 by

When our children were small and there were too many things to do with the two hands that I have, one of the children, wise and observant, noticed that often their requests were met with the same, repeated phrase. I realized this one day when they asked me, “for a drink, now please, and not in a minute.”
Be patient, beloved. Continue reading →

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