Latest Articles
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Jesus and Nicodemus
BNicodemus really wanted to understand. He went in the dark to find Jesus and the first thing he hears is that he has to be born again It was not a good beginning. It will be nearly two thousand years before being “born again” has any meaning that Nicodemus might have understood. Back then,…
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What We Do Know
Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, is now gone from us. We know that he fully expected to be with God in Christ when he went through death. Now it is our turn. We declare, in what we say and love and in what we do—that we fully expect to be with God in Christ when…
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Purgatory? We’re in It!
Some councils have been trying for maybe 1,000 years to get the belief in Purgatory, which is not named in the bible, as part of our faith. For if our sins are to be purged (with suffering, of course) after we are dead, then we are free to insist with God that we live without…
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The Now and Then of Advent
Advent is a time of waiting, Waiting can be looked at from two ends. The first is from the present end. Now. And the other is from the far end. Then. This is how Advent shows us, if we pay attention to it, how it goes with us. If we are in a good space, the…
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Last Words
Probably for 1,500 years, devout Christians have ended our days with a final prayer before falling asleep. It’s from Psalm 31, the psalm that Jesus prayed to Himself as He hung on the cross. To Himself, that is, until the last lines. Then, Jesus said out loud, as some of the disciples remembered: Jesus called out…
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Vanity and Guilt
Here’s a bit of spiritual direction that helped me fifty years ago. Once, in a saintly passion, I cried with desperate grief, “O God, my soul is black and vile; of sinners, I am chief”. Then stooped my Guardian Angel and whispered from behind: “That’s vanity, my little man, you’re nothing of the kind.” Amen…
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Give God the Glory
We say on Sundays throughout the year, “Glory to God in the highest.” And Psalm 155 famously declares: Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory (Ps.115.55). Well, how? How do we actually give God glory here and now? Here are some thoughts. First, we look into our own…
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Waiting like Jesus
Waiting is one of the most difficult thing for us to do. Even putting it that way draws an underline under difficult, because waiting is not something for us to do—it means we can do nothing just now. That’s hard. We have to wait until an infant emerges from the womb. We have to wait until…
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The First Commandment
Just now in our nation, it is difficult but important to think about how we worry about tomorrow, how we give in to feeling down, discouraged, and hopeless. Recall what we call the First Commandment I am the Lord, your God which clearly tells us that Almighty God has chosen to have an intimate relationship with…
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Easter Coming
America right now seems to be in confusion, looking down blind alleys, walking empty streets. Plenty of us find the head of our national government no help right now. What’s going on seems to be beyond their grasp. This and worse is what it was like for the eleven and the women who stayed with…