Category Archives: Sunday Morning

Seeing with wonderment

Posted on by
1

wondermentI think my favorite comic strip of all time is “Calvin and Hobbes.” It was a simple comic strip featuring Calvin, a preternaturally bright six year-old, and Hobbes, his imaginary tiger friend. The comic strip managed to infuse wondering (and wandering) on a cosmic scale into an ageless world of lazy Sunday afternoons, space adventures, and tales of befuddled babysitters, teachers, and parents. What I most enjoyed about Calvin and Hobbes was that it reminded me of our innate human ability to be surprised, to imagine, and enter into mystery – and to do it with an amazing, incredibly open wonderment. Calvin’s openness to the mystery of it all allowed him entry to even the theological arts where he mused about the combination of predestination with procrastination, finally concluding, “God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die.” Continue reading →

A sea change

Posted on by
1

USNA-graduationWe are firmly in the midst of high school and college graduation season. Every institution has their own traditions and ways to celebrate – including my alma mater, the United States Naval Academy. Every May, the seniors march on to the field at Navy-Marine Corps Stadium for graduation. The women and men are dressed in their “choker” whites (future Naval Officers) and blues (future Marine Corp officers). Theses graduating midshipmen take their places, listen to the speakers of the day, walk across the stage to receive their diploma, take the oath of office, and then it happens… Continue reading →

When it is revealed

Posted on by
1

ssn685-300I spent last weekend away. I joined several of my US Naval Academy classmates for a weekend in Ormond Beach at one of their homes. And as it is always likely to happen, when we get together, there were lots of sea stories. Daring tales of iron men and wooden ships braving the deep waters – and some of the stories were even true. It was also interesting hearing all the details of my friend’s assignments and their encountering other classmates in those assignments. Several of the men at the gathering had made careers of the Navy; several of us had not. Continue reading →

Who could love us?

Posted on by
4

I AM the Good Shepherd3[Note: I am away on vacation! I though I would repost this – it seemed to fit the readings for today] 

I suspect that most of us here share a fundamental experience with sheep. First we confuse lambs and sheep. Most of us think about lambs who seem wonderfully cute, are gentle of spirit, and how can you not love them? I mean, really. And our experience is mostly limited to the petting zoo/farm context. I suspect that as children we turned to our moms and said: “Mom can we have one? I promise to feed him and take care of him….. please…!!”

I assume most of us here share another attribute – we are all city slickers, urban folk, and suburbanites. Which are all good things… but does not necessarily give us great insight into the lives of sheep or shepherds. Continue reading →

An incomplete ending

Posted on by
1

resurrection-of-christ-iconThis year in the cycle of liturgical years we are primarily using the Gospel of Mark for our Sunday readings. But then this particular Gospel is the shortest of the four canonical texts and so it requires “a little help” to fill in the whole of the year – especially during the long stretch of Ordinary Time between Pentecost and Advent. This year, as per normal for Year B in the cycle of readings, the 17th through the 20th Sundays or Ordinary Time is from the Gospel of John. Continue reading →

As personal as it gets

Posted on by
Reply

Giotto_Lower_Church_Assisi_Crucifixion_01“The days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. It will not be like the covenant I made with their [ancestors]..for they broke my covenant, …this is the covenant that I will make…I will place my law within them and write it upon their hearts; I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” (Jer 31)

Way back in the day, before this life as a Franciscan, I was helping out with a teen ministry program at my parish. I will always remember one comment a young women made – the topic is not relevant (and not so well remembered) – but her last words stuck with me: “It’s not like I have a contract with God or anything.” Continue reading →

Like it or not

Posted on by
2

God so loved1John 3:16 – “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” It is perhaps the best known bible verse here in the United States. It appears on signs held up in crowd shots at major sporting events, it appeared in the midst of Tim Tebow’s eye black at a college national championship game, and it appears on bumper stickers. It’s everyone’s favorite Bible verse. But… I’ve wondered whether, if people thought about what this verse says for just a little longer than it takes to read a bumper sticker, it might just prove to be far less comforting and far more troubling. Continue reading →

Overturning tables

Posted on by
1

overturned-tableDuring Lent, as you might expect, we have more and more folks coming to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This past Friday we had three priests hearing confessions before the daily noontime Mass. Many folks carried with them one of the various Examinations of Conscience, most are based on the 10 Commandments – something we heard about in the first reading today. I wonder if our gospel might be a better model for examining our lives especially in this Lenten season. Continue reading →