Off the shores of the Philippines, a fisherman discovered a very large, misshapen pearl. It was not pretty. It looked more like an amoeba, with blobs and folds everywhere. He took the unusual find home and stowed it under his bed. When he moved ten years later he gave it to one of his relatives for safe keeping. The relative was part of the local tourism office. The 75 lb.-170,000 carat pearl is on display in the city hall of Puerto Princesa. It happens to be the world’s largest pearl, with an estimated worth of roughly $100 million. Continue reading
Different Kinds of Pearls
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When I left my home in Orlando to attend the US Naval Academy back in 1970, I arrive in a completely foreign land inhabited by football teams about which I had no knowledge. My plebe (freshman) year our first game was against Colgate. The place where Colgate toothpaste was invented? It had a recognizable name so I assumed it had a reasonable football program. What did I know? I knew that there was SEC football and who cares. Saturdays in the South are about as sacrosanct as Sundays. Football is tradition, loyalty, identity, passion an, to borrow a title from the 
There has always been research, commentary, etc. on what Jesus looked like. From the inheritance of Christian art in the West, we often see/imagine a man with long hair parted in the middle and a long beard – often with fair skin, light brown hair and blue eyes. It is historically far more likely that he looked like a typical Galilean of his time. But that is another topic. How about what did Jesus wear? Were we subject to the same “branding and imagery” on long robes and the like? One link to another which led me to a website with which I was not familiar: The Conversation. It is described as a network of not-for-profit media outlets that publish news stories on the Internet that are written by academics and researchers. Its funded comes from its university members, government and other grant awarding bodies, corporate partners, and reader donations. I can’t tell you a lot more than that, but I did run across and interesting article: What Did Jesus Wear? I found it interesting, so enjoy. 
The parable’s focus on the seeds is an allegory for those who hear the word of the kingdom proclaimed. The parables describe the varying receptiveness to what they hear; all hear the same word. Yet each type of person is identified as what was sown in a certain place. This might strike us as odd since we are biased to understand the “seed” as the Word of God proclaimed, but understanding of the parable rests on the interaction of the unvarying seed with the various types of ground. 
If you have been following the daily gospel readings, you have read about the growing opposition to Jesus. He has been performing miracles, casting out demons, curing the sick, and yet people are hesitant to believe. In some cases, they outright refuse, and in the most extreme, they recognize the supernatural but attribute it to being in league with Satan. The people resist, the authorities accuse, and in today’s gospel it seems as though Jesus’ family wants to see him. Unsaid, but its seems as though they want to have an intervention. 
Several weeks ago on my blog, I published “
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.” (Matthew 10:35-37)
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 
