Spiritual Directions for the Journey
Posted in Big Questions, Reflections from Fellow Wanderers, Reflections from the Pulpit - Wandering with Deacon Mike on May 9th, 2013
I was at a funeral service recently, and it was led by Pastor Mike. At the two hour mark my Mennonite friend whispered in my ear, “Mike there is a lot to be said for the Catholic Mass.” The theme I am kicking around for this week’s homily on the Ascension of our Lord is: [...]
Posted in Big Questions, Reflections from the Pulpit - Wandering with Deacon Mike on May 8th, 2013
In a scene at the very end of Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus gives us a “great commission” which in part answers the question raised by the disciple in the stain glass window who upon seeing Jesus ascend into heaven asks his friend , “What do we do now? The Great Commission Matthew 28 (16-20) Then the [...]
Posted in 1K Word Pictures, Reflections from the Pulpit - Wandering with Deacon Mike on May 6th, 2013
This coming Sunday we celebrate the Ascension of our Lord. This is also homily week for me and one of the unique things about preaching this weekend at St. Patrick’s is that the church is equipped with what is perhaps the world’s largest “PowerPoint” slide depicting the Ascension. If you look closely at the picture, [...]
Posted in Loving and Living the bible, Reflections from Fellow Wanderers on May 1st, 2013
Brennan Manning April 27, 1934 – April 12, 2013 If there was a model of the modern day itinerant preacher it might well be Brennan Manning. This alcoholic , ex-priest, divorced wanderer might seem to be an odd role model. Henri Nouwen talks about the Wounded Healer and Brennan was exactly that. He was deeply [...]
Posted in Reflections from Fellow Wanderers on Apr 21st, 2013
Below is a 10-minute video by Timber Hawkeye who has a very simple guide to happiness – 2 words: be grateful. Hawkeye takes a Zen Buddhist approach to how we can change ourselves and thereby change our world. It is a Christian approach as well as Jesus consistently taught his followers to be still, to [...]
Posted in Big Questions, Reflections from the Pulpit - Wandering with Deacon Mike on Apr 1st, 2013
Please click here for Kelley Mooney’s spiritual lyrical adaptation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” Please Click here for a Printer Friendly copy of the Homily. Please click here for the original version of Jeremy’s Easter Egg. Jeremy is one of my favorite theologians. He was a young man who had been born into a twisted and [...]
Posted in Henri Nouwen, This Sunday on Mar 10th, 2013
We are called to be as compassionate as God is compassionate. We are called to follow Jesus’ example as a son – “the younger son without being rebellious” and “the elder son without being resentful.” We are also called to grow into spiritual fatherhood – this means both father and mother, masculine and feminine. All [...]
Posted in Henri Nouwen, This Sunday on Mar 10th, 2013
Nouwen says the painting just as easily could have been called “The Welcome by the Compassionate Father.” In the painting, the father’s hands are the true central point. The light and the eyes of others focus on those hands. The left hand is masculine while the right hand is more feminine. So the character “is [...]
Posted in Henri Nouwen, This Sunday on Mar 10th, 2013
The elder son usually gets little attention in discussions of this Bible story. Yet, Nouwen explains how both Rembrandt and Henri himself had part of the dark, resentful side of the “elder son” in them. Henri admits he understands the envy that the elder son feels toward his younger brother. The elder son lived an [...]
Posted in Henri Nouwen, This Sunday on Mar 10th, 2013
Henri writes about the most famous person in the story: the younger son, the prodigal son. He says Rembrandt at a young age “had all the characteristics of the prodigal son: brash, self confident, spendthrift, sensual, and very arrogant”. The artist earned a lot, spent a lot, and lost a lot. The painting is about [...]
Posted in Henri Nouwen, Reflections from Fellow Wanderers on Mar 9th, 2013
The book, “Return of the Prodigal Son”, is based on Nouwen’s reflections on a Rembrandt painting called Prodigal Son, which hangs in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Prologue and Introduction tell of Henri’s encounter with the painting itself in 1986 and his move to the L’Arche Daybreak community in the town of Richmond [...]
Posted in Henri Nouwen, Reflections from Fellow Wanderers on Mar 9th, 2013
Some of my friends at St. Patrick’s may have noticed that I was scheduled to preach this weekend. As they (whoever they are) like to say nothing makes God smile more than people making plans. It turns out that this weekend is ShareLife Sunday, the annual appeal for folks to give to various Catholic Charities. [...]
Posted in Big Questions, Books/Movies/Podcasts for the Road, Reflections from Fellow Wanderers on Mar 5th, 2013
I am starting to consider that the second most important book on Christianity, I have ever read, after the Bible, is Fr. Greg Boyle’s “Tattoos on the Heart“. Perhaps I feel this way about the book because of my own work as part of the community we call the Friends of Dismas, or it might [...]
Posted in Big Questions, The Wisdom of... on Mar 3rd, 2013
Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. -Benjamin Franklin
Posted in Big Questions, Reflections from Fellow Wanderers on Feb 7th, 2013
Below is a homily from my deacon friend and elder, Robert Kinghorn. I have always enjoyed Robert’s sharing about the small Christian community in Scotland called the Community of the Transfiguration. Here is a homily Robert delivered a few weeks past on the 2nd Sunday of Ordinary Time. It is a message worth thinking about. [...]
