Arising early on Sunday morning, I prayed the Divine Office, sat for a bit in the church before the Real Presence of my Lord and Savior (there are advantages of living in a friary attached to the church), shaved (hadn’t done that in a few days, although you’d barely notice), and sat down to read the Tampa Bay Times, our local newspaper (digital version). Continue reading
In last week’s column, I was suggesting that we humans under appreciate the impact and power of habits – good and bad. The previous column, paralleling Stephen’ Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” began to explore the habits of the heart for committed Christians. The premise was that we humans are not fundamentally thinking creatures, or believing creatures, but desiring creatures. Thinking and believing are key and essential parts of who we are, but what pushes and pulls us has more to do with what captures our desires, our affections — our hearts. Our identity as persons is shaped by what we ultimately love or what we love as ultimate. It is the heart that needs formation in the Christian life. I then began to list some habits for forming a loving heart. The first three habits were: Continue reading
Mary Flannery O’Connor (March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and thirty-two short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often wrote in what is known as a Southern Gothic style. Her writing reflected her Roman Catholic faith and frequently examined questions of faith, morality and ethics. In a letter to her friend Elizabeth Hester she wrote:
Then another thing, what one has as a born Catholic is something given and accepted before it is experienced. I am only slowly coming to experience things that I have all along accepted.
Good words. May we be intentional, mindful, grateful, curious, and persevere in the Faith we received as our experience grows.
The following is an article from Bishop Robert Barron (March 17, 2020)
Blaise Pascal said, “All of humanity’s problems stem from man’s inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” The great seventeenth-century philosopher thought that most of us, most of the time, distract ourselves from what truly matters through a series of divertissements (diversions). He was speaking from experience. Though one of the brightest men of his age and one of the pioneers of the modern physical sciences and of computer technology, Pascal frittered away a good deal of his time through gambling and other trivial pursuits. In a way, he knew, such diversions are understandable, since the great questions—Does God exist? Why am I here? Is there life after death?—are indeed overwhelming. But if we are to live in a serious and integrated way, they must be confronted—and this is why, if we want our most fundamental problems to be resolved, we must be willing to spend time in a room alone. Continue reading
Sacred Heart is located in downtown Tampa, a short distance from Tampa General Hospital, the West Central Florida area’s regional trauma and ICU hospital. As you might imagine there are any number of associated medical facilities, offices, and clinics located within a mile or two of the Davis Islands located main facility. Continue reading
The first reading for today is an odd one in some respects even as the events around it are infamous and memorable. Moses is atop Mt Sinai with God. Meanwhile the people of Israel, just freed from the slavery of Egypt are worshiping the golden calf. It is worth noting that the story of the golden calf is a kind of “fall” story, similar to “the Fall” in the Garden of Eden. In both stories, immediately after the establishment of a relationship between God and humanity, human beings disobey. In the case of Exodus 32, God forms Israel as a new creation and they immediately fall into sin. What is God to do? How is God to be just to God’s self and be faithful to God’s people. In the years of teaching Scripture to folks in the parish, this passage never fails to raise the question about God’s wrath, God’s intent, Moses role, and bargaining with God Continue reading
It is ironic and odd that the Solemnity of the Annunciation of the Lord follows on the heels of the announcement of Tampa’s stay-at-home order. But wonderfully graced that we have the opportunity to let “Announcement” inform the other.
Today we celebrate the scene in which the Angel Gabriele comes to Mary to announce she will be the mother of Emmanuel, “God with us.” Words we need to hold close to our heart and memory in the looming shadow of the pandemic.
My friend, Fr. Bill McConville OFM, notes that part of the church’s art tradition is that the scene of the Annunciation often portrays Mary, not empty-handed, but holding a book or a scroll, her reading and reflecting on Scripture being interrupted by the angel’s pronouncement. The tradition is that she is meditating on Isaiah 7 (today’s first reading) in which there is the promise that a virgin will bear a child. Continue reading
The Other Side of the Virus,Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear. Continue reading
This afternoon in the city of Tampa Mayor Jane Castor plans to issue a “stay-at-home” order in response to the growing incidences of virus cases locally and statewide. We were not the first to issue such an order nor will we be the last.
In its own way, it is as though each family is being sent into exile away from so much of they know as familiar: work, recreation, grandkids, grandparents, gathering places where community is formed, church, and more. Consider a week during the “old normal” and list out all the places you went but now can no longer go. Perhaps that is a glimpse into a limited exile. Continue reading
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