The promises of God must be prayed about to be properly understood. For example, how was Abraham to understand the word of God that he “will be exceedingly fertile” when even having one son took a miracle? And how were his descendants to understand “the gift of the whole land of Canaan as a permanent… Read More »

Back in the olden days I used to have a banner which read: “The truth will set you free … but first it will make you miserable.” Too true. The truth has misery-making potential because it shakes us out of our complacency and our accustomed behaviors. St. Ignatius sees freedom to say “whatever you want,… Read More »

The children of Israel complained to God about their “wretched food” — the manna and the quail which came to them as a unearned gift and were keeping them alive as they wandered forty years in the desert. Complaining is a human constant. In this political season everyone seems to be complaining about something. Sure,… Read More »

On December 1, 1955 in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks, a local seamstress, refused to obey the segregation laws and give up her seat on the bus to a white man. For this act of civil disobedience she was arrested. That arrest was the small pebble which started an avalanche ultimately leading to the end of… Read More »

I try to imagine what kind of person would “beset the just one” or would try to kill Jesus. Certainly no one like me! But then I think of Dorothy Day. How much I admired her outreach to the hungry and the homeless that continues today in the various Catholic Worker houses. Yet I confess… Read More »

One of the characteristic complaints that God expresses toward the Jewish people is that they are “stiff-necked.” I never quite got that as a criticism until I slept wrong one day and woke up with a stiff neck. When I got into the car I realized how dangerous a stiff neck could be. I had… Read More »

The Bible gives us many images of God: King of Kings, Lord of Lords. Since I don’t know many kings or lords that is not really a helpful image of God for me. Even the more beloved images, like the Good Shepherd, don’t really connect with my experience since I don’t run into shepherds very… Read More »

Jesus asked the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda, “Do you want to be well?” You can almost imagine the sick man saying “DUH, of course.” But what he does instead is make excuses for all the reasons he is not well. What Jesus is really asking him, will you do those things which will… Read More »

How did we end up here? We certainly didn’t all start from the same place. Maybe you started as Peter Prodigal and did all the good things the bad boys do. After trying this, that, and the other thing in striving for happiness you discovered that nothing worked. In fact, pretty soon you found yourself… Read More »