Photo by Fox News
Friday afternoons are my quiet time.
My wife works and I am alone in the home/office to finish up projects from the week and take a look at what the following week looks like.
Yesterday was no exception. I had some work to finish and had music on in the background. I didn’t listen to the news the entire afternoon and into early evening. At around 7 p.m. I quit work and headed upstairs to the kitchen to pull together dinner. Continue reading
Yes, there´s Halloween in Spain.
And although it was never a huge deal for me growing up, now I love seeing pictures of my nieces´ and nephews´ costumes…and of course, I never mind an excuse to eat chocolate. It’s the first year in a long time that I haven’t been trick-or-treating or given out candy. (We still got some American Halloween candy, though.) But I barely noticed because of what I was doing instead. Continue reading
How would you reveal yourself to someone? Stand in front of them, maybe. Shake their hand. What if they were blind? Speak to them. What if they were deaf? Don’t speak — use sign language.
How would you reveal yourself on a first date so your date can get to know you better? You wouldn’t tell your date everything about yourself, all your bad habits, all your secret obsessions. Too Much Information!
From these two scenarios, we learn two things: revelation depends on the capabilities of the receiver, and revelation should be gradual.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at how God revealed himself to man throughout history. There are four general stages of God’s revelation of Himself to man (in chronological order): implicit revelation through His creation, explicit revelation in Scripture, the incarnation of His Son, and the beatific vision that all of us are awaiting as the moment when we will finally understand God. “Understanding” God won’t mean that we will be able to fit God into our human brains in Heaven. God will always transcend us even in heaven, but our mind will not be hindered by sin. Continue reading
A 1972 Datsun chugging at a stoplight would not get a second look, well maybe from an antique car dealer. External appearances, whether positive or negative, tend to be the driving force for judgements.
Hardly able to hold back their giggles, participants at a local drag race looked upon Tim’s 72 Datsun in polite disgust as he trickled up to the latest muscle car for a Saturday morning drag race. Tim won; it he drove an electrically powered car specifically engineered for racing. Important not to go by first impressions. Continue reading
“…the jar of flour did not go empty, nor the jug of oil run dry…” –1st Kings 17:16
On Wednesday, November 4, 2015, on Southwest flight 5141, during the Denver-to-Detroit leg of the trip (the flight continued on to Atlanta where this writer lives), there were three women who, at first brush, would appear to have little in common; yet for the duration of the trip, these three could not get enough of sharing, laughing and crying over the joyful hope contained in a life committed to prayer. Continue reading
“Behold the servant of the Lord”
Christ never did anything for himself. His life, his words, his miracles- all reflect his prayer: “Thy Kingdom Come!”
His focus wasn’t his impact, his legacy, his importance. He glorified the LORD, his Father, by His life.
Mary shows us how to follow his example. Her life was a series of “yes” to the LORD. She’ll never refuse help and accompaniment to those who come to her.
Mary, teach me to live Christ’s prayer “Thy Kingdom Come!”
Army Sgt. Dennis Weichel, 29, died in Afghanistan in March. He lifted a little girl out of the way of a huge military truck and was, himself, crushed.
Pfc. Ross A. McGinnis died in Iraq in 2006, when he jumped on grenade to save his fellow soldiers.
Cheryl Anderson, an English mom, died shortly after the birth of her daughter in August. She had been diagnosed with cancer during her pregnancy, but refused the treatment because it would have harmed the baby. The baby girl is named Taylor. Continue reading
‘The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” — G.K. Chesterton
Visiting my old home in Bloomfield Hills, MI is always special, not only to see my old bedroom, etc…but home is simply where the person I love the most in this world, my mom, is located. Visiting my old home/community in Washington, DC is also special because of the friendships and contacts I developed after 19 years. Coming back to my current home in Rye, especially after a lot of travel is heart warming and consoling…and I am so blessed to have such an exceptional community of priests. But all of these will pass, and they all anticipate our ultimate home-coming in heaven, where we will see Christ face to face and enjoy his love and friendship for all eternity!
6:00 am starts my day with an iPad alarm, which usually brings the thought of wait, that must not be the alarm that means it’s time to wake up…although when I’m in my right mind I’m not quite sure what other type of alarm goes off at 6:00 am. You can see I’m not a morning person. Thankfully, that moment is quickly followed by “Cristo Rey nuestro” that gives rise to the much more motivating response of “¡Venga tu Reino!” and the joy of having one more day to spend for his Kingdom, at his side.
One of my favorite parts of my day then follows: my hour of prayer in the quiet of our little oratory, before the rush of the day begins. This finishes with morning offering as a community. Then off to breakfast – and the daily adventure begins. Continue reading
My youngest child is a living pause button in my life. At 6, he is too little to know the pressures and programming of homework and club sports, and too much of a little boy to be stressed out by a schedule. As he’s ushered through his day’s activities he somehow maintains a space in his brain that is free, where he considers the best design for a Lego airplane, or which tree’s leaves would fall to the ground first in a race.
He often invites me into this space. At the grocery store, as I am trying to get in, grab what we need, get out and move on to the next task, he stops dead in his tracks: “Mom, if this was a mine, I would use a pick axe and get that apple, because it’s green like emeralds. What would you dig out? Do you like the apples that are red like rubies? Rubies are beautiful, you know. You could put them in earrings.” Pause. Shift gears. Look down at his bright eyes, get into his curious mind… “I would definitely pick the rubies, Daniel. And look- bananas!!! They’re gold! We should mine those too!” He lights up, “Yes, mom! We should mine the bananas to get gold to pay for our groceries!!!” Our chore became a treasure hunt. Continue reading