My apologies to those of you who have already read my blog post from a few weeks ago. It has now evolved into this September 20th homily. Discernment-wise and content-wise. This one you can also listen to or watch. So, I begin in the same place and end in another. Over the past several weeks,…
Jack Kornfield is a bestselling author. He is also, as I understand it, a Buddhist monk. Jack has taught mindfulness techniques and meditation around the world. Lots of people are familiar with his work. I have long admired and at times borrowed some of his stories. Today is one of those days. On the train from Washington, D.C. to Philadelphia,…
But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” – Exodus 3:14 Who is God? It…
Back in the sixties, I was a very lousy Girl Scout. In fact, I virtually flunked at being a Girl Scout. My uniform did not pass muster. I hated camping. I barely earned a badge. But I do remember the song – the campfire song: Make new friends and keep the old… I remember a…
This is a complicated Gospel we have here this morning. For starters, it is a little hard for me to imagine Jesus being so rude and angry. This is not my Jesus, my Jesus said “let the little children come to me.” He perpetually had birds on his shoulders and his arms were always outstretched.…
When I read the gospel for today, the story of a panicked Peter, sinking beneath the waves and his Lord who calmed his storm, brought to mind a short story I read a long, long time ago in high school: John Cheever’s The Angel of the Bridge. It is the story of a phobic fellow deathly afraid of…
I LOVE to sing, do you? Sadly, we cannot sing in church right now but there are lots of other places we can. You can sing in the shower. You can sing in your living room or in your backyard. You can make a joyful noise when you ride with your parents in the car.…
You’ve heard me say many times – over the years – that context is everything. We hear into today’s Gospel reading that Jesus fed 5000 men, not counting women and children, so Jesus really fed somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-15,000 people. This kind of image is easily tattooed on our brains. It’s a huge event. No wonder Matthew…
I remember my older sister reading me to sleep. P.D. Eastman’s Are You My Mother? was one of my favorites. But what really rocked me to sleep were Dr. Seuss’s rhythmic cadences of The Cat in the Hat. I never made it to kindergarten. I was no wunderkind reading at three. But I remember coming home from my…
Read more Reading for Hope (A Book Report Wrapped in a Homily)
Anyone who is a gardener knows what it is like to have the weeds take over -especially if you happen to take a vacation during the springtime. A couple of weeks away from your garden in the springtime can set you back for the whole summer. Isn’t it amazing how weeds grow! They seem to come…
