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        Sometimes I like to listen to the day's scripture readings, rather than read them myself. Other days I really like reading them so that I can meditate on them. In light of that, I was searching for an online recitation of the rosary so that I could just listen to it and I found a website of Bishop Robert Barron reciting a scriptural rosary (Word on Fire). It was really quite beautiful. It can be found on YouTube as well. In the opening reflection of the luminous mysteries, he talked about the baptism of Jesus and how Jesus did not need to be baptized (since he was sinless), but that he did that for us. We know that he came to take all of our sins upon himself, and that led me to think about sharing in the sins of our brothers and sisters. While we are not Jesus and could never do what he did, the "sharing" idea really struck me. Let us pray today for each other in our struggles, our sinfulness, our obstinacy and our wayward journeys. Let us--without lectu...

    "While I'm Waiting" by John Waller came up on my music list the other day. I'm including the lyrics at the bottom of this post because I think they reflect the way so many people feel. I was reading an article by CBN's Chris Carpenter about John Waller and learned that this song became popular from the movie "Fireproof" and originated out of Waller's personal experience while struggling to grow his musical career. Interestingly, Waller had given up on having a music career and began writing songs for his church. Here's what I thought was interesting. Waller doesn't call his music "worship" music, but "declaration" music. Waller told Carpenter: "I classify myself as a declaration artist because the difference between vertical worship and declaration is that declaration is just taking a truth from the Word of God, putting it in a nutshell . . . “While I’m Waiting” is very much a declaration song. It’s not like,...

    Our grandson figured out that if he gets right up, gets dressed and makes his bed, he will have time to play before going to school. It's pretty neat when kids make connections like this that affect their behavior, because these sorts of connections are made throughout life. Now whether or not, as adults, we have something driving us to jump out of bed, that's another thing. Our kids acquired the habit of setting multiple alarms over the years so they'd be sure not to oversleep. For me, I like getting my prayer time in while the house is still quiet. If I pray early, then that leaves me more time in the morning to do other things. I wish I could say I always manage to do this, but that just isn't the case.   Obviously, what I'm talking about here are trade-offs. Everything's a trade. We trade our time and work for money or fulfillment, we trade our energy for health or accomplishment, and we trade our rest for whatever seems worth it. In all of this tr...

  On any given day, I could easily find much to be depressed about. When we look around us, there are a lot of discouraging things going on in our country and around the world.   But here's the thing. As disciples of Jesus, we have more to be hopeful about than we do to be discouraged about. And, we must be careful that our "membership" in the Body of Christ is what feeds our attitudes, not our secular-leaning culture. We look to Jesus to form us so, clearly, we must stay connected to him throughout our days if we are to bring his light into this world of ever increasing darkness.   His light, his joy and his hope are the tools of disciples, but if disciples lose these, we will have bigger problems. The way we lose these is to spend more time away from Jesus. The way we gain these, is to stay deeply, intimately connected to him. Listen to him. Let him guide you, especially if you are struggling.   The light of Christ is needed in this world and Jesus has left i...

  I was reading about St. Peter Claver in "How the Saints Shaped History" (by Randall Petrides) with great interest as St. Peter was a Spanish Jesuit who served in Colombia, and our youngest daughter is from Bogota, Colombia.   According to Petrides, Claver "tended to the thousands of slaves who were shipped from West Africa into the port of Cartagena," assisting them when they arrived, providing food and medicine "to give them a sense of dignity, and to advocate for improved treatment."   While he could not stop the slave trade, he would visit those who were sent to plantations, even staying with them where they lived under terrible conditions. As Petrides continues, interestingly, St. Peter Claver is responsible for leading over 300,000 slaves to conversion and baptism, even though they had witnessed the behavior of their "Christian" traders and owners.   As I read this account, and the way this saint responded, my mind jumped ...

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Pope Benedict elevating the Body of Christ [Wikipedia;  photo ] Readings   (Jerusalem Bible: Australia, England & Wales, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, Scotland) Readings   (New American Bible: Philippines, USA) Gospel   Matthew 22:1-14   For the shorter form (22:1-10), omit the text in Brackets.]  ( English Standard Version Anglicised, India) And again Jesus spoke to them in parables, saying,   “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son,   and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come.   Again he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.’   But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business,   while the rest seized his se...

As I've said before, this isn't the world I grew up in. Back then, the Solar System had nine planets, assorted moons, and asteroids. Plus, of course, the sun. Now we've got planets, dwarf planets, minor planets, natural satellites, trans-Neptunian objects, plutoids, comets, centaurs, and small Solar System bodies. Just to keep things interesting, definitions for the new labels overlap. Some labels, like plutoids, didn't catch on; and it all keeps changing as we collect more data. This week I'll be talking about sednoids, another subset of trans-Neptunian object; 1 along with whatever else comes to mind. "All the News That's Fit to Print" — and Some That Isn't 'COMET PILLS! GAS MASKS!! GET 'EM WHILE YOU CAN!!!' Sedna, Sednoids, and Orbits: Traces of a Missing World? Beyond the Kuiper Cliff: An Unexpected Void and Wandering Worlds Charting the Borderlands of Sol Out of the Ecliptic, Beyond the Kuiper Belt To be Continued...

  Ask any funeral director and they will be able to share with you the ugly side of funeral planning. They'll have a story (or two) about family dysfunction that will make your toes curl. My mom was always aware of this and would warn us that when she died, she did not want us fighting amongst ourselves over her stuff. My brothers and I had learned this lesson well over the years, but it really just wasn't in us to fight anyway. Maybe our Dad's death at a young age somehow instilled in us a sense of teamwork. We always rallied together in support of our mom who widowed young, leaving her with us four kids to care for. We intuitively pulled together. As my mom was aging, we all used our various gifts to contribute to her welfare, and when she passed, it was the same thing. There wasn't any drama at her funeral, which she would have really appreciated. Too many times she had witnessed this kind of drama with her friends' families, I suppose. I bring this up bec...

  Poor Jonah. We've been reading the Book of Jonah in our daily scripture readings and I find it amazing that he thought he could run away from God. And then, when he finally did what God told him to do ("announce the message"), he got mad that God forgave the Ninevites. God didn't do what Jonah thought he should do, so he got mad. God then asked Jonah, "Have you reason to be angry?" I was thinking, that's a good question we might want to carry with us when we feel ourselves beginning to boil. Sometimes, but honestly probably not as often as we think, we might be justified in answering Yes. Most of the time, I would venture to guess, the answer should probably be "No, I don't really have a reason to be angry." What reason do I have for being angry at the grocery clerk who isn't very kind? What reason do I have for being angry at someone not doing something my way? What reason do I have that God is taking too long to answer my prayers...

  Pope John XXIII presiding at the opening of Vatican II 11 October 1962 [ Wikipedia ;  photo ] Today, 11 October, is the Memorial of Pope St John XXIII, the date chosen because it is the anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council in 1962. I remember watching that on black and white TV early in my second year in the seminary. That time we were around 180 seminarians in St Columban's, Dalgan Park, here in Ireland. Today we are around 60 priests, mostly retired, not a seminarian in sight. Only one seminary remains open in Ireland. So things have changed since 1962. The Second Reading from the Office of Readings in the Breviary for the Memorial of Pope St John XXIII is an extract, below, from his address on the occasion of the opening of the Council. I have  highlighted  parts of it. From  the address  of St John XXIII, Pope . (At the solemn inauguration of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, 11 October 1962.) The Church is the most loving mot...

I was sitting in Mass on a Sunday morning and glanced around and just happened to see a fellow parishioner scrolling through his phone during the homily. As human nature does, I started glancing over now and again to see how long he would keep it up. To my sadness, it not only continued through the homily, but during the prayers of consecration and more. Okay, I thought, he's probably not Catholic. He probably just brought his mom to Mass and doesn't really know what's going on. He got up a few times to go back into the gathering space to take/make a phone call, and then returned. For awhile, he stopped scrolling on his phone. I admit to being surprised when he went up in the communion line, having already decided in my head that a Catholic surely wouldn't spend his time during Mass scrolling on a phone. I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt--which admittedly was not mine to give. Maybe there was a family emergency. We've all had those. But honestly, he...