“We become what we think we are.” That was the constant admonition of my life’s mentor, Father Luke McCann. Luke was genius, and constantly ahead of the curve by 20 years in everything. As with so much he taught me, I am still unpacking the depth of it all almost twenty years later. “We become [...]
Archive for the ‘Lent’ Category
Bioethics: Possible Roles of Guilt and Shame in Fueling the Culture of Death
Posted in Dignity, Lent, Uncategorized on April 6, 2012 | 8 Comments »
Were the Apostles the First Deacons?
Posted in Bishops, Lent, tagged Apostles, Deacon on March 19, 2012 | 6 Comments »
As Holy Week looms large on the horizon, I’m thinking out loud a question I have thought to myself for years: Were the Apostles really the first Deacons in the Church? Did the Apostles institute the Diaconate, or did Jesus at the Last Supper? I believe that a scriptural case may be made for the [...]
Rethinking Ash Wednesday
Posted in Lent, Uncategorized on February 23, 2012 | 11 Comments »
Some of the loudest lamentations of this penitential season come not from the laity, but from the clergy. Specifically, the churches packed on Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday when people who don’t darken a church door all year arrive, “to get something for free.” I understand their frustration and also see within it a missed [...]
Contemplating Lent and Imperfection
Posted in Lent on February 21, 2012 | 4 Comments »
One of my favorite actors, for a host of reasons, is Peter O’Toole. I recently viewed a video of him being interviewed by David Letterman in 2007. At one point in the interview Letterman asks O’Toole if he ever thought of an epitaph to leave the world when he’s gone. O’Toole, who has led a [...]
Holy Saturday: The Lord’s Descent Into Hell
Posted in Lent on April 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
From the Holy Saturday Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings: A reading from an ancient homily for Holy Saturday What is happening? Today there is a great silence over the earth, a great silence, and stillness, a great silence because the King sleeps; the earth was in terror and was still, because God slept [...]
Will
Posted in Dignity, Lent, tagged Aaron T. Beck, B.F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity, Freud, From Sin to Psychiatry, Karl Menninger, Whatever Became of Sin on April 22, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Today is Good Friday. If today could be summarized in a word, a good choice would be: Will. Great battles have raged in academia over that word, that idea, the degree to which humans exercise autonomous judgement and action. In psychology, Sigmund Freud theorized in his Psychoanalytic Theory that man’s behavior is shaped by subconscious [...]
Good Friday
Posted in Lent on April 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Apocalypse Now
Posted in Lent, tagged Apocalypse, Earthquake, Japan, Lent, Tsunami on March 15, 2011 | 8 Comments »
First, the largest earthquake in their history. Then, a tsunami of equally epic proportions. Then, a nuclear meltdown and radiation release that has hampered search and rescue with contamination that could make the area off-limits for decades to come if matters get any worse. And the worst is yet to come, Cholera, Typhoid, Dysentary from [...]
Temptation, Suffering, and Joining Jesus on the Way to the Cross
Posted in Lent on March 15, 2011 |
My apologies for not tending my garden here at Coming Home for the past week. I’ve been busy creating the new website, Proud Parents, trying to make it a tight, one-stop education center for parents regarding Planned Parenthood, STD’s, and the safety of our children. Much has gone on in the past week and it [...]
Lent: Hold Fast
Posted in Lent, tagged Saint Ambrose on March 6, 2010 |
From today’s Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings From the treatise on Flight from the World by Saint Ambrose, bishop Hold fast to God, the one true good Where a man’s heart is, there is his treasure also. God is not accustomed to refusing a good gift to those who ask for one. Since [...]
Lent: Fear of the Lord
Posted in Lent, tagged Fear of the Lord on March 4, 2010 |
From today’s Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings From a treatise on the psalms by Saint Hilary of Poitiers The meaning of “the fear of the Lord” Blessed are those who fear the Lord, who walk in his ways. Notice that when Scripture speaks of the fear of the Lord it does not leave [...]
Lent: “Allow Christ to Find You”
Posted in Lent, tagged God Shepherd, Lost sheep, Pope John Paul II, Seven Deadly Sins on February 20, 2010 | 4 Comments »
In the movie Pope John Paul II, actor John Voight plays the part of the Pope. In one scene, John Paul’s first trip home to Poland, a crowd has gathered outside of the window of his residence. John Paul climbs onto the full window to address the crowd. In his brief comments (true story), he [...]
Lenten Reading
Posted in Lent on February 19, 2010 | 3 Comments »
From today’s Liturgy of the Hours, Office of Readings. A homily of Pseudo-Chrysostom Prayer is the light of the soul The highest good is prayer and conversation with God, because it means that we are in God’s company and in union with him. When light enters our bodily eyes our eyesight is sharpened; when a [...]
Lenten Preparation: Isaiah, Matthew, and James (III)
Posted in Lent on February 17, 2010 | 8 Comments »
Third in a series. Today begins the season of Lent. It is a season of deeds, penetential in nature. Some of these deeds are acts of self-mortification to focus our minds on God and our relationship with him. But our deeds cannot end there, me and Jesus. He wants our faith to be lived in [...]
Lenten Preparation: Isaiah, Matthew, and James (II)
Posted in Lent on February 14, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Matthew 25 As I so often mention here and elsewhere, there is a great difference between being pro-life and merely anti-abortion. This presents a challenge to us all. We cannot possibly champion every good pro-life cause. It’s impossible. There is a phenomenon in the social sciences known as Compassion Fatigue. Loosely defined, it is the [...]
