“Follow Me.”

This morning I’ve decided to post an entry from my journal.  By accident (?), I prayed the Office instead of Morning Prayer today, and the first reading was from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. Notably, it is also the first reading for masses said today. There’s a lot in that reading: it proclaims the…

Healing Wounds

The Church receives its essential mission and identity as the bearer of the divine forgiveness. We have been entrusted with speaking the shalom of Jesus to a fallen and hopeless world. But it’s not cheap grace that we share. We participate in Jesus’ mission of showing his wounds as well. The Church refuses to explain sin away…

Dresser of Sycamores

At this moment, I’m the only one awake… the family is still heavily snoozing away. Well, I guess it’s not quite true that I’m the only one awake: the dogs are meandering around the house, click-click-clicking away with toenails on hard flooring and driving me to distraction…! But as I sit here this morning I’m…

Theodicies – Part 2

I have been writing about theodicies—arguments addressing “the problem of evil”; that is, answering the question of how God can exist when there is evil and suffering in the world. In addition to what I have already discussed, there are other arguments we can review when looking at how to explain evil and suffering in…

Freedom

A bald eagle soaring high above the earth with nothing to hold it down may bring to mind the idea of freedom. He is able to simply fly where he wishes, no burdens, no hardships… just free. So on a day in which we celebrate the notion of freedom, I am asking myself: just what…

Breaking of the Dawn

Thoughts and prayers for all who are mourning this day, but in a special way for my Tennessee family… During my morning prayer today, I read from the book of Daniel. It recounts the prayers of Hananiah, Azariah and Mishael who were placed in a furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon for their unwillingness to…

Theodicies – Part 1

One of the things that I studied when I was going through the diaconate program was the Problem of Evil. Back in 1672 at the age of 26, Gottfried Wilhelm Liebniz, a 17th century philosopher coined the term theodicy as he struggled with how to explain how a good God could allow evil to exist…

Little Things

The more things change the more they stay the same. This morning I was struck by this passage from Psalm 60: O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses; you have been angry; oh, restore us. You have made the land to quake, you have torn it open; repair its breaches, for it totters….

A Meditation on Past, Present, Future

This morning during prayer and reflection, I came across an excerpt from a letter that was written around the year 155 by St. Justin Martyr to the emperor Antoninus Pius. I have read it before, but it’s still striking to see the incredibly close correspondence between how the early Christians worshiped and the liturgy of…

In Awe

What brings you awe? What captivates your mind bringing that feeling of complete childlike wonder and a sense of fear all at the same time? What inspires you and helps you to gain deeper insights into this world? Certainly many of the things we see and experience in nature can be awe-inspiring. Things that are…