This morning I set out for morning walk. It all began in the darkness before dawn when the house is still. As I stretched these old bones and got ready to begin, slowly the the first light of day began to reveal a waking world. This was the view that awaited. Continue reading
Before a baby is born, they are such a wonderful mystery. Though we can get a “peek” at them through ultrasound images, hear their heartbeat with a doppler, and speculate about what they might look like by forming a composite in our imaginations of their mom and dad’s features, we can’t really know them until they are born. And even then, though we may have dreams about what they could do and who they could be, we can’t accurately predict their futures. Continue reading
[This is a re-post from 2019 – which seemed appropriate for today]
As you no doubt are aware, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I certainly remember where I was on July 20, 1969. Amazing does not do justice to the feeling of that moment. We had just arrived at the front door of the universe. Who knew what was to follow? Yet, it is 50 years later, and we have time, experience, and perspective. Continue reading
This summer we have taken time to consider the first reading from daily Mass. The reading from the Prophet Micah is well matched to the Gospel in which the scribes and the Pharisees are asking for a sign so they will know that Jesus is who he says he is and as a consequence they will know what to do. Continue reading
On this day in 1969, Apollo 11 blasted off from Cape Kennedy on the first manned mission to the surface of the moon. Commander Neil Armstrong and lunar module pilot Buzz Aldrin landed the Apollo Lunar Module Eagle on July 20, 1969, at 20:17 UTC, and Armstrong became the first person to step onto the Moon’s surface six hours and 39 minutes later, on July 21 at 02:56 UTC. Aldrin joined him 19 minutes later, and they spent about two and a quarter hours together exploring the site they had named Tranquility Base upon landing. Armstrong and Aldrin collected 47.5 pounds (21.5 kg) of lunar material to bring back to Earth as pilot Michael Collins flew the Command Module Columbia in lunar orbit. After rejoining Columbia, they returned to Earth and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on July 24 after more than eight days in space.
In many ways St. Bonaventure is a Saint for the times in which we live – when divisions are ripe and the unity of a nation is being sorely tested. In the years while St. Francis was alive, the Franciscan Order experienced rapid growth – which only accelerated after St. Francis’ death and canonization – each friar and local fraternity trying to discern what it meant to follow Christ in the “tradition” of Francis of Assisi. They came to several differing conclusions and the opinions were not always offered “humbly.” Over simply, one group called for poverty to be the mainstay while another called for obedience. A third group was in the middle just wanting everyone to get along because fraternity and minority were the hallmarks of Franciscan life. The Order was beginning to come apart at the core. Continue reading
On this day in 1789, French revolutionaries stormed the Bastille. The Bastille, a prison housing only 7 prisoners at the time, was stormed by a crowd calling for the closure of the prison. The storming became the central event of the French Revolution.
Here in the United States there seems to be an ongoing, overt (sometimes covert) concern about what is “authentic”, “historical”, orthodox, true orthopraxy, etc. regarding what is correct liturgical practice in the Roman Catholic Church. It is always good to remember that there is no such thing as the Roman Catholic Church. That statement generally gets people’s attention. Continue reading
When I was a year or two short of being a full-fledged teenager, I was invited to attend my first funeral. It was not a Catholic funeral – and as I came to know – nothing like a Catholic funeral. It was a fundamentalist, born-again, raucous affair for a person who by all measures was a backsliding, church-skipping, no-good, no-count, reprobate of a man. The preacher made no bones about where this particular dearly-departed would spend eternity. He held up the miserable failing and sinful ways of this man as a warning of what would happen when Satan got his claws into you and dragged you down into the pit. Continue reading
On this day in 1909, the House of Representatives joined the Senate in passing the 16th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, allowing for a federal income tax, and submitted it to the states. It was declared ratified in February 1913.
