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In Mother Theresa (Formed.org) her character offers a prayer near the end of the movie after learning that her close spiritual advisor has died. Here’s the prayer: “If my pain and my darkness console you, do what you want with me my Lord Jesus.   If my separation from you puts others on your path and if their love brings you joy then Jesus, I readily suffer that which I am suffering.   Your will is everything I desire.   Now I know that you have never abandoned me.” I can’t say if these were actually her words (my guess is they could be), but regardless they are truly beautiful.   They reflect an acceptance of our own suffering, offered as a sacrifice for others.   But more than that, the focus, you will notice, is on whatever brings Jesus joy.   St. Theresa was definitely about satisfying the “thirst” of Christ. It is hard enough to be self-giving when you are feeling good and everything is going well, but to keep that heartfelt desire when you are at your lowest

This social distancing thing is taking its toll on many of us. As human beings, God made us to be social beings, meant to live in community with each other. Even one of the two greatest Commandments is to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt 22:39). So, how can we love our neighbor, if we are staying inside our homes? Our “New Normal”? We like to gather together to work, play and worship as community. So, this coronavirus has really put a kink into our lifestyle. At work, difficult discussions always have the best outcomes when meeting face to face. When at home, we live for the hugs and kisses, the interactions from sports, and the chats with neighbors across the picket fence. At church services, we come together, united in spirit, to worship God as one family, sharing the sign of Peace, and drinking from the cup. Life seems to have been turned upside down. We now work alone, using technology to interact in meetings. Or, we are unemployed. We live low-key lives in our home

I read a news headline the other day about a news anchor being hit with a police complaint because he threatened an elderly man.   An elderly man.   How old do you suppose the elderly man was? I pictured a man with a walker, or at the very least, a cane, hobbling down the sidewalk.   Frail and slight, I couldn’t imagine why someone would threaten him, let alone a news anchor! It reminded me of the time, many years ago, that our neighbor’s adult daughter came to our door.   I don’t remember what she needed, probably because I am still recovering from her calling me Ma’am.   I mean, come on, I was only 34! I found myself rationalizing that some people might use Ma’am as a sign of respect for anyone older than themselves.   Still, how do I rationalize that while I was talking to my neighbor the other day and she mentioned her mom, I realized I was her mom’s age?   The added insult is when people talk about their parents of a certain age, as if they are old? I’m

Va, pensiero  from  Nabucco  by  Giuseppe Verdi This recording of  Va, pensiero , also known as  The Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves , from Verdi's opera  Nabucco  was made as a tribute to Italy's medical workers and others fighting Covid-19 in that country. The  Wikipedia article on the aria , which includes the Italian lyrics with an English translation, notes  Verdi composed  Nabucco  at a difficult moment in his life. His wife and small children had all just died of various illnesses. Despite a purported vow to abstain from opera-writing, he had contracted with  La Scala  to write another opera and the director, Bartolomeo Merelli, forced the  libretto  into his hands . There is a touching image at 4:40 of a medic cradling Italy as a new-born child. I first became familiar with this beautiful chorus back in the 1950s when it was regularly played on  Hospitals Requests  on Wednesdays at lunch time on Radio  Éireann, Ireland's state-owned national radio

I recently thought about writing our governor to let her know I support her strict mitigation policy.   I am a big believer in social distancing and think the protests against it are ridiculous.   She has been doing a very good job in that regard, in my opinion.   You want to protect your First Amendment right to life?   Stay home so you have a life to protect, not to mention the lives of others. Anyway, I’m not here to complain about that. Before I got a chance to write our governor to tell her what a great job she is doing and that she should stay strong and hold to her convictions so we don’t boomerang into a bigger problem, she curiously said this in an interview with David Axelrod about abortion not being an elective surgery: “[W]e stopped elective surgeries here in Michigan . . . .Some people have tried to say that that type of a procedure [abortion] is considered the same and that’s ridiculous.” She added, “You know a woman’s health c are, her whole future,

Today’s reading from the Acts of the Apostles finds the companions of Jesus gathered together as some of them return from being questioned by the leaders, elders and scribes. The ones who were released came back to the group and told them the instructions they had been given by the elders’ group, which was—stop speaking or teaching, at all, “in the name of Jesus.” As you might imagine, this did not go over very well, and it elicited from the group a prayer that I want to highlight today.   This comes from Acts, Chapter 4, Verse 29, and goes like this: “And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and enable your servants to speak your word with all boldness, as you stretch forth [your] hand to heal, and signs and wonders are done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” Scripture tells us that as they prayed, the place where they were staying shook, “and they were all filled with the holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.” A f