Tag Archives: peace
Thank You, Mandiba!
To look at me, you might not think I would be much affected by the death of Nelson Mandela. Half a world away and older than my father would have been had he lived… what do I know about such things? I was only vaguely socially aware in my youth, and more into Bob Geldof’s Band Aid and the activism of Bono because of the cool music involved than an anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. So, what did call my young attention to Nelson Mandela? One word… forgiveness. I am in complete awe of is …
#PrayforPeace: A Tweet-Cyclical
If you are not on Twitter, you may be unaware of how intense the Pope has been using that social network to preach the Gospel under the handle @Pontifex. Over time the Pope is becoming savvier with Twitter (or at least he is allowing his Twitter interns to do so). I think I noticed the first Papal hashtag this past World youth day when he tagged his tweets with #Rio2013 and #JMJ. A hashtag (#) placed before a word or phrase on Twitter allows that particular “tweet” to be searched. When many people use the …
Christ at the Center: Home Edition
Sixth Sunday of Easter: May 5, 2013 Gospel: John 14:23-29 Jesus said to his disciples: “Whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words; yet the word you hear is not mine but that of the Father who sent me. “I have told you this while I am with you. The Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything and remind …
Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus
In the Excerpt from “In the Footsteps of Jesus: Catholic Social Teaching at Work Today,” it states, “Charity and justice are incomplete without each other; they are two sides of the same coin. Charity calls forth a generous response from individuals; justice requires concerted communal action to transform institutional policies, societal laws, or unjust social situations.” As the disciples accosted a woman for pouring expensive oil over the head Jesus, thinking that she has wasted precious oil that could have been sold to help the poor. Jesus said to them, “For you always have …
The Legacy of War
Webster defines WAR as 1. a conflict carried on by force of arms, as between nations or between parties within a nation; warfare, as by land, sea, or air. 2. a state or period of armed hostility or active military operations: The two nations were at war with each other. Many of my teenage years were spent in the midst of the Vietnam War. I lost count of the number of brothers killed in Nam with whom I attended high school. Individuals with great gifts the world would be denied. I played in the band with …
The Big Picture
Even though we are part of a universal church, our outlook is usually local simply because that is our most direct experience of Catholicism. We experience the parochial more than the universal Church. Taking the effort to expand our horizon is well worth the effort, as I realized anew last week at the Social Action Summer Institute at Bellarmine College in Louisville. Because the Social Action Summer Institute took place in Kentucky, there were many participants from the Midwest. But I also met people from New York, Florida, Arizona and Oregon. The presenters were largely …
Vacation Purgatory
My family took a short trip to the Smoky Mountains National Park recently and I think I discovered Purgatory. Down in Tennessee it goes by a different name: Pigeon Forge – perhaps you’ve been there? If you have, then you know exactly what I’m talking about. It’s tantalizingly close to paradise, you can hardly get to the mountains except by going through it, and it seems interminable. I’d expected Gatlinburg to be bad, but nothing prepared me for Pigeon Forge. I mean, there we were, after 325 miles and 6 hours of driving, deep in …
Teilhard and the Lillies
It’s already been a wild ride this year. Our parishes are awaiting a new pastor and regionalization. Three of my sons are seeking employment and facing down a hundred grand in student loans between them. The media is full of drugs and gangs, weird weather, and corporations out of control. It all sometimes makes me want to hide under the bed. I am too well acquainted with the emotion resulting from all this. Fear! Just the word alone causes my blood pressure to rise and my nerves to go on alert. For too many of …