Dear All, I have never made any secret of my position on gun control: the more the merrier! Because this is a currently hot-button issue in the world of politics, I want to use it as a ‘tip of an iceberg’ topic with which to explore the oddity that is Catholic Christian morality. Along the way, I will also have to talk about the oddity that is the American political system.
Dear All, Before some politician tells us that we should thank him for getting things ‘back to normal’, I want to take a few hundred words to think about what we have learned about our old normal and what we might consider before we return to it. Let us begin with what we have learned in this season of pandemic.
Dear All, The readings for Sunday III in Lent are soooooo full of so many things that I am taking the expedient of sharing some thoughts with you about the first reading – The Ten Commandments – in this forum.
Dear All, Someone asked me the other day to explain the Lord’s Prayer. Why? It seemed disjointed and disorganized. Half of it is given over to ‘buttering up’ the Divinity and the other to a strange collection of disparate petitions.
Dear All, People tell me that I talk too much about myself. Of course, I think not. Especially, when I have learned something for myself that I think might be helpful for other folks – y’all. So here we go.
Dear All, It is ironic that, on the biggest candy day of the year, I get to talk about Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent; but stranger things have happened.
Dear All, Both Peter and Paul had experienced the merciful presence of the Risen Christ in their lives. Thus, each was convinced that, if even sin could not keep Christ away, no good thing – not even circumcision – could do so
Dear All, Amid all the kerfuffle of inaugurations, mitten commentary, and vaccine politics, I forgot to mention the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Dear All, When I mentioned the Constitution’s self-set priority of a more perfect union, it triggered a nagging idea that took several days to find words.
Dear All, An oath is a solemn undertaking before God to carry out whatever matter is covered by the oath ... that is the meaning of the ‘so help me God’ phrase.
Dear All, If you think for a moment that I am going to wade into the sea of ink that has been spilt over the storming of the nation’s Capitol this week … you’re right.
Dear Event Attendee: You are being contacted because you may have attended a Christmas Eve Service at Christ our Savior Church in Manchester, VT on 12/24/2020. The Vermont Department of Health has learned that at least one person with Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) attended this event while infectious. The Vermont Department of Health is closely monitoring the situation and Christ our Savior Church is assisting in our efforts to prevent further spread of the virus. You will be contacted directly by the Vermont Department of Health if you have tested positive for COVID-19.
Dear All, Just as I thought that I could slam the door shut on 2020 … I got a powerful reminder that the calendar is just about the worst possible tool for predicting anything except for the date of tomorrow.
Almost all of my favorite religious music is either music for Passiontide or for Christmas. As I thought about this fact (I do sometimes think about myself) I realized that each season reveals a different face of the one love that God has for us; his love of the innocent in Passiontide and his love of the powerless at Christmas.
Dear All, The moral teaching of the Catholic Church in the realm of societal affairs is of one piece with the Church’s teaching in the realm of personal morality.
Dear All, The fact of creation and the fact of the Triune life of God certainly have their effects on the life of the Church. But there is another that is just as important, even as it is harder to discern and describe: The Church does not believe in ‘trickle-down’ anything – economy, power, wisdom or anything else.
Dear All, With one foot planted firmly in the very eternity of God and a shrewd eye turned to the various cultures that are the matrix of her temporal existence, the Catholic Church, in a very clear way, practices that double commandment to ‘love God and the neighbor’.