As personal as it gets

Posted on March 21, 2015 by Friar Musings

“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 March 15, 2015 by Friar Musings

John 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 March 8, 2015 by Friar Musings

During 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 →

Are you listening?

Posted on March 1, 2015 by Friar Musings

I don’t think it is possible to hear the story of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac — and not feel disturbed, at least a bit uneasy. Even if we do not ask it out loud this time, this day, there probably has been a day when we have wondered, “What kind of God is this that would ask the slaughter of an innocent young boy?” As soon as we think it we catch ourselves and think, “That’s not right. God was only testing Abraham. God never intended to have Abraham go through with it.” But then again, there is the lingering question. And we wonder. Continue reading →

Remembering Rightly

Posted on February 22, 2015 by Friar Musings

Several summers ago we did a special summer Bible study on biblical covenants. We traced and discussed all the covenants between God and his people – beginning with Adam, continuing with Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, and reaching its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. Covenants: the memory and the promise that we will hold God alone and above all things, He will be our God, and we will be his people. Covenants are the means by which God builds his people. Continue reading →

Outside the camp

Posted on February 15, 2015 by Friar Musings

“He shall dwell apart, making his abode outside the camp.” For me these are frightening and dreadful words. Spoken to a person in the wilderness, a person on the Exodus betwixt and between the slavery of Egypt and the promised land of Palestine. These are words spoken about brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers – now shunned to a life apart, a life without. No longer part of the only social fabric they had known. They are words which mean that you do not belong; and may soon not be remembered. Continue reading →

Hands of compassion

Posted on February 8, 2015 by Friar Musings

The story of Job is the well-known biblical account in which a person’s life goes from prosperity and security, from joy to despair – and Job is the one who asks aloud what some of us only whisper – where is God in all of this? Job watches while his life unravels losing prosperity, family and feeling that the entirety of his life under assault. He has looked into his life and his heart, searching for his sin, then at least he imagines he can reconcile what has happened to him. But he is a blameless and upright man. Just when he thinks he had suffered and so much taken from him, then the assault encompasses his own body and he grows sick and covered with sores. No wonder he laments: My days … come to an end without hope. …. I shall not see happiness again. Continue reading →

What have you to do with us?

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Friar Musings

I got to enjoy a homiletic holiday today; that task of preaching fell to others. Still… the inclination to muse about “what would I have said” lingers. And things always muse in context. Here in Tampa this weekend the Superbowl takes a back sit to the Gasparilla Pirate Fest. It is a whole week of things “pirate” as the city is invaded by a scurvy, crusty band of brigands if there ever was one. Now you know the local context. Continue reading →

Fishers of men

Posted on January 25, 2015 by Friar Musings

Two weeks ago we celebrated the Baptism of the Lord, when our gospel has that great image of Jesus plunging into the waters of the Jordan, into the water of Baptism, plunging into the midst of our lives, all-in, showing us he belongs to us in his full humanity – and to show us a life with a higher purpose – fulfilling the deepest desire of God: that all might be saved. Continue reading →

Home and Belonging

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Friar Musings

We post things on Facebook once or twice a week – maybe a 30 or so folks visit each post, some percentage of them “like” the post, and perhaps the post add a few “friends.” This Thursday we posted a simple item on the parish Facebook page letting people know there will be a tour of our beautiful church today at 1:15 pm. But this post about the tour of the church has gone somewhat viral. By early Saturday evening more than 8,300 people have viewed the post, several hundred “liked” it, and a whole bunch of people became “friends!” Holy cow! Holy guacamole! People like us! We have friends! This affirms everything we have tried to do here at the parish! …. ahhh… well….. let’s not get too breathless about it all. I don’t think all 8,300 hundred people are coming for the tour. Still, it’s good to know people find the church building beautiful. But I wish they would and they could all have the feeling of the one person who wrote: “Absolutely love this community. Like coming home every time I step through those doors.” That is what I would like to have people experience when come through those doors – people who meet them, welcome them, to fulfill what is perhaps the deepest of human desires: belonging – knowing that you are home. Continue reading →

friarmusings

the musings of a Franciscan friar…

Category Archives: Sunday Morning