Meant To Be Made New!
It was an old suit, but I loved it! It had both sentimental value and the added benefit of actually fitting me! But my dear bride said it had to go! Sure, it had a few stains but I thought they were hard to see. Yes, there was a...
Let’s Recapture Appropriate!
Think about the word “Appropriate.” What a powerful idea! If something or someone is “appropriate” then that thing or that person or that situation is laudatory, worthy of emulation, and creates a space where there is a sense of well-being. In other words, the complete opposite of the current...
Made Able!
I really like to write and I enjoy public speaking, but I had a hint of my tendency to wordiness when my first time in seminary produced a comment from one of my favorite professors. I had just finished a fairly intensive philosophy paper for his class and was...
No Longer Strangers!
I was embarrassed. I was ashamed. I had wandered into the wrong place. Everything about me screamed, “he doesn’t belong here!” And it was confirmed when a waiter came to escort me out! There is nothing quite as cutting to anyone than to be made to feel unwelcome or unwanted. The...
There Is No “Lone Ranger” Christianity
OK, so I have a hard time asking for directions. But, hey, since the invention of the GPS, I don’t have to! My man’s ego is protected by technology once again! Seriously, I do admit to not being crazy about asking for help. It feels like weakness to me...
The Blessing of An Inheritance
“Count your blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings, see what God has done.” When I sang that old hymn as a boy, I wondered what it could mean. After all, how can you count your blessings? There are so many. All you’d do is count...
St. Innocent Spiritual Warfare Lectures!
Faith Encouraged Friends and Partners, You are invited! Bring a friend!
One Use Only!
OK, so one of my most favorite movies in the whole world is "Princess Bride" and one of my most favorite scenes in the movie is when Vincent keeps using the word "inconceivable!" Finally, after so many times of hearing this word from Vincent, Inigo Montoya responds "You keep...
An Angelic Spectacle
"Father is not a title!" By now my parishioners and catechumens are sick of hearing me say this. But I say it so much because there is real healing truth in this reality. The Church isn't some collection of "club members" or a "society for the preservation of baklava."...
Simple But Not Easy!
"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones, after all." So says the author of Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder. But life is so very often not simple. It's complicated and difficult and filled with so many motivations all mixed together...