Angelic beings highlighting a peasant child – that in itself is miraculous. I mean, who cares…who would even notice? It is just a kid! World over – world-wide do you have any idea “how many” peasant babies are routinely born? I would venture to say a lot. Just a lot. I wonder if the angels […]

Thank you my family for coming together. You bring me hope in what can sometimes be a very hopeless kind of world. Know that you are loved beyond imagination. We live in a world where hope is receding and where hope is desperately sought after and needed. It was into a world where people weep […]

There a whole lot of people today who think that everything revolves around them. Everyone needs to cow tow to them. It is all about them…and always has been. No one, NO-ONE – is more important! They are the center of every conversation. And, if they are not, give them a little while and sit […]

This is the end of the liturgical Church Year. Oh sure some of us will gather together on Wednesday night to give thanks for another year of blessings upon our already blessings…but that day, really isn’t liturgical, as much as it is civil. But “there is always a precedent” for giving thanks…like it is “the […]

In my rather humble estimation, Paul Tillich was one of the finest theologians I ever read. I kind of grew up on him and his writings. One of his writings in particular seems to speak especially to our day and our time. He called his work “The Shaking of the Foundations.” It was about “the […]

Sometimes, people get forgotten. Jerusalem was a company town. The Temple was not only a religious institution – but it was also an economic one, as well. The Temple employed hundreds of employees, if not thousands, during the high holidays. A lot of people do not know that the Temple served as a central bank […]

One of the things I learned a long time ago is that Mark, our first “gospel-form” was written during a highly contentious and portentous atmosphere, one filled with violence and threat. Apocalyptic literature is always for “tough and tumultuous times.” After a day spent talking about “loving your neighbor” and “care for widows and orphans […]

I make all kinds of people uncomfortable when I talk about “money.” People brace themselves for what is to come. I have even been told that my statements can be anti-or-even-counter-productive. Oh well… Hear this: “The size of the gift, the enormity of the sacrifice, the amount of our offering does not buy relationship with […]

Ah, the saints… In Christianity, “saint” has a wide variety of meanings, depending on the context and denomination, of course! The original Christian denotation was “any believer” who is “in Christ” and in whom Christ dwells, whether in Heaven or on earth. The word saint thus would include “all of the baptized.” By that same […]