Category: Reflections
Hope Lies in Seeing Clearly by Fran Salone-Pelletier
Slowly, over the years, the song has become more than a hummed tune. It is now a call and command to receive and accept clearer vision.
The Month of the Holy Souls by Jane M. Bailey
In thinking about the saints, we can’t help but wonder how we stack up. That wonder just might help us to become more loving and trusting human beings.
On Presence: The Commonplace We Can No Longer Remember by Wally Swist
By sheer application of being conscious in the moment, we defy the odds and realize our birthright, which is the experience of finding the numinous in the commonplace.
Songs in the Key of Life by Fran Salone-Pelletier
Silence reigns while a bumper-sticker mentality speaks loudly and persistently. Is there an alternate path to take? Might there be a way to honor life without entombing it?
Flesh of My Flesh and Bone of My Bone by Ed Burns
We are flesh of each other’s flesh and bones of each other’s bones. If we fail to recognize and act upon this truth of Genesis, we risk jeopardizing our very existence as human beings.
The Signs of the Times by Gene Ciarlo
Right and wrong, good and evil do not undergo radical changes as the centuries advance; they undergo circumstantial and time-honed changes. In every aspect of life, we have had to adjust to the way society is developing and its changing values.
Offer It Up by Nancy Enright
Wearing a mask is uncomfortable, inconvenient, and difficult. It can also be a form of sacrifice, a way of "offering up" to God.
Awakening to God at the Beach by Fran Salone-Pelletier
As I walk, I mimic the cry of the gulls, the hasty pace of the sanderlings, the egrets’ mincing walk, the crabs’ sideways crawl. I find joy in the obvious diversity. I crane my neck to see pelicans glide with prehistoric grace across the tops of the waves.
Constantly Renewed Gifts: On Inner Prayer by Wally Swist
Especially in times of stress and even those stretches of chaos, through lean times and during periods of dread, I and those around me have benefitted by my practice of inner prayer.
Violence and Contemplation by Ed Burns
Genuine faith will help us to get at the root of the things that we struggle with and wonder about in our daily lives, including matters such as violence.
I Believe That I Shall See the Good Things of the Lord in the Land of the Living by Fran Salone-Pelletier
This is a costly freedom. This is a call to find ourselves in each other and see ourselves as each other. Humanity is us, so to speak.
Gifts in the Midst of Chaos by Anne Kerrigan
When I realized I was alive, it took time to process what had happened. The story of Lazarus became my story. The image of Lazarus stumbling forth out of the grave while shedding his burial cloths became my own image.
The Mathematics of Jesus Christ by Jim Reagan
Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and sheltering the homeless at a personal sacrifice is a cornerstone for “building a new society within the shell of the old” with “a philosophy that is so old that it looks like new.”
Under the Bond of Peace: A Pentecost Homily by Fr. Ryan Lerner
We must pray for the Holy Spirit to come anew into our hearts and help us to embrace the dignity of every person regardless of their race, class, creed, tongue, or their country of origin.