Category Archives: Musings

Those who serve

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Today I celebrated the Rite of Committal for a US Marine Corp veteran. Given our proximity to the Quantico National Cemetery, we are called upon several times a week to assist families with the committal of their loved ones – most often retired service members or their spouses. Sadly, we also serve when an active duty member is interned. They are mostly connected to the Marine Corp, but the hallowed grounds honor members from all branches of the military. Continue reading →

Your phone and chaos

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Chaos Theory is often misunderstood, misrepresented, and spoken of by lots of folks who toss around a term to convey the idea of complete randomness of this or that. The study of chaos is branch of mathematics that looks at apparently random states of disorder and irregularities that are actually governed by underlying patterns and deterministic laws. Those patterns and law might not be readily apparent, they are just highly sensitive to initial conditions.

But chaos as always been confusing and had many different meanings. The Greeks understood chaos as the primordial void. For the Roman poet Ovid, chaos was an unformed mass, where all the elements were jumbled up together in a shapeless heap. “Chaos” is held as a synonym of anarchy. Chaos (“19521 Chaos” to be precise) is also the name of trans-Neptunian planet out there in the Kuiper-belt. Just thought you would want to know.

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With a Father’s Heart

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Pope Francis has declared his year to be the “Year of St. Joseph.” It is a celebration of the 150th Anniversary of the proclamation of St. Joseph a Patron of the Universal Church. Today is the Solemnity of St. Joseph. Pope Francis, in honor of this year, has provided the Apostolic Letter Patris Corde – With a Father’s Heart. It is a wonderful reflection of the attributes and characteristics of fatherhood – and also understands that St. Joseph serves as a model, not just for fathers, but for all who care for others. The Pope makes a special connection to all the front line, critical care, and essential workers who labor far from the limelight, especially so in this year of pandemic.

From Pope Francis’ Apostolic Letter, Patris Code: WITH A FATHER’S HEART: that is how Joseph loved Jesus, whom all four Gospels refer to as “the son of Joseph”. Continue reading →

In the courtroom

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One of the wonderful things about the Gospel of John is the Book of Signs a name commonly given to the first main section of the Gospel of John, from 1:19 to the end of Chapter 12. Included within this section are the seven signs of the reign of God as evidence, as witness, to a new creation. The seven signs are

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A clear view

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Several days ago I posted an article about Artificial Intelligence (AI). In this morning’s New York Times there is fascinating/disturbing article about facial recognition – something not foreign to many users of smart phones that use the technology to unlock phones and open software. But the article by Kashmir Hill is about a company, Clearview AI, that provides advanced facial recognition software to law enforcement agencies, private companies, and public concerns.

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Your response

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Today is the Feast of St. Patrick which has optional readings you can find here.

The scene in the gospel is familiar – “oh sure, I’ve heard this before, Jesus is calling his disciples to be fishers of men” – perhaps too familiar. As with most scriptures, there is more than meets the eye.

The account begins with a wide-angle view with Jesus in a natural amphitheater with a large crowd. Having Simon Peter take him in the boat just a little offshore, Jesus can take in the breadth of the crowd as he teaches. There among in the crowd are people who have heard of the great things he has done in Nazareth and Capernaum, as well as Pharisees, scribes and officials from Jerusalem. There too are the ones who will become his disciples and follow him.

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Hope and Healing

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Today’s readings are a combination of the well-known (the Gospel) and the “what’s-going-on” (Ezekiel). The former is the familiar story of the man, afflicted for 38 years, who encounters Jesus and is heal and has hope restored. The latter is a grand vision of living waters flowing from the Temple into all the land bring abundance and life.

The Ezekiel reading is the epilogue to the “dry bones’ vision the prophet had just proclaimed. In his vision, the prophet finds himself standing in a valley full of dry human bones. Before him, the bones begin to move and assemble into human figures, skeletons rising and standing in the valley. Almost as in modern computer-generated visual effect, the skeletons begin to receive layers of living flesh: tendons, muscles, organs and skin. They then arise, standing upright, alive and vital. These are the Israelites living in exile who are returning to Jerusalem.

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Hope and Healing

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Today’s readings are a combination of the well-known (the Gospel) and the “what’s-going-on” (Ezekiel). The former is the familiar story of the man, afflicted for 38 years, who encounters Jesus, is healed and has hope restored. The latter is a grand vision of living waters flowing from the Temple into all the land bring abundance and life.

The Ezekiel reading is the follow-on to the “dry bones’ vision the prophet had just proclaimed. In his vision, the prophet finds himself standing in a valley full of dry human bones. Before him, the bones begin to move and assemble into human figures, skeletons rising and begin to stand. Almost as in modern computer-generated visual effect, the skeletons begin to receive layers of living flesh: tendons, muscles, organs and skin. They then arise, standing upright, alive and vital. These are the Israelites living in exile who are returning to Jerusalem.

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Heaven and Earth

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In today’s first reading from Isaiah, the prophet is speaking to the Jewish people in exile in Babylon (or soon thereafter) and reminding them of their mission to be a light to the world of the goodness and justice of the God of the Covenant. Isaiah holds up an image of a “new heavens and a new earth” – a similar image to one spoken of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament…. and those images, I suspect, are quite different from ones we hold in our minds. Images that propose for us, heaven is somewhere not here, a place we hope to go to when we pass from this mortal coil, where God lives. Earth becomes the transit stop on the way. All of this is mingled into the idea of the Second Coming of Jesus. When this latter topic is brought up, I will often say, “That’s right…. but have you ever heard of the Second Going?” Continue reading →

Tech and the future

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I subscribe/follow several sources of news and information on thing tech. More big picture than detailed technical. This week the CEOs of Airbnb and Facebook offered their insights about the post-pandemic future. It has been my experience the press release/announcement is splashy event with all the rest playing itself out over time. But in the interim their pronouncements about the future are increasingly red-carpet events and there is a tendency to opine about things not exactly “in their wheelhouse.” [Note: idiomatic use of “wheelhouse” – the field in which a person excels; one’s strongest interest or ability; Oxford English Dictionary … in case you were wondering.]

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