This coming Sunday is the 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. The admonition “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while” always catches my attention and I think to myself, “I need to do that.” As always I try to offer a context for the gospel we are about to read. After all Mark is writing a story and so it is good to remind ourselves where we are in the narrative. Consider the sequence of passages assigned to these summer Sundays (in juxtaposition with all the verses of Mark): Continue reading
A Reading of Rest
Reply
“Off with you, visionary…never again prophecy in Bethel.” (Am 7:12–13) Amaziah, Beth el, Amos, Israel, Judah…. Isn’t it often the case that the first reading from the Old Testament is this jumble of odd names and places – and not enough of the story to really know what is going on? Let me fill you in.
All of us tell stories. Sometimes were are the hero of the stories about ourselves. Stories define us. To know someone well is to know his or her story—the experiences that have shaped them, the trials and turning points that have tested them. When we want someone to know us, we share stories of our childhoods, our families, our school years, our first loves, and so on. And there in milieu are the stories that inspire us. I wrote about 
James Carville, the Ragin’ Cajun, is an American political consultant and author who has strategized for candidates for public office. Carville gained national attention for his work as the lead strategist of the Bill Clinton presidential campaign. Also interesting is that he is married to Mary Matalin, an American political consultant well known for her work with the Republican Party. They don’t talk politics at home. 
In the early summer of 1219, Francis left Assisi and traveled to Egypt, meeting with the Sultan of Egypt, Al-Malik al-Kamil. According to the Franciscan chronicler Jordan of Giano, informed by an eyewitness, a prophetess living in the Holy Land who was known as “the Tongue-that-Proclaims-the-Truth” declared to the friars: “Come back, come back, for the order is troubled by the absence of Brother Francis; it is divided and in the process of destroying itself.” Thus in May of 1220, the Poor Man of Assisi returned to Italy, where problems had been multiplying in his absence. In a prior article we mentioned some of the problems that had arisen, which Francis addressed. He then considered the future of the Franciscan movement. In September, 1220, he formally resigned his role as minister of the brothers. 
In 
Back in 1983 the division of the company I worked for bought an IBM personal computer and hard drive (they were an add-on, were only 10 MB and were about as expensive as the computer.) That was going to be our “competitive edge” or so said one of the senior executives. I inwardly rolled my eyes knowing that the rapid advance in the personal computer world / emerging technology would transform the business world as performance improved and prices dropped. I had already purchased a portable computer (ok…”luggable” would be a better description) that came with word processing software, a spreadsheet, and a database – and 20MB hard drive and for 50% of the costs of the new office computer. To put this in context, there was no Microsoft or MS-DOS. Unix or CPM were the operating systems de jour. OK … enough history. My point is that there is this underlying belief that technology would make our lives better – especially in the world of business. 
In 
This coming Sunday is the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time in Year B. The 
Knowing the Mission. I have two thoughts for you today. The first concerns “the twelve” while the second involves Jesus’ instructions: “Do not go into pagan territory or enter a Samaritan town. Go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, make this proclamation: ‘The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.’” (Mt 10:5-6)
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