Ouch! That hurt! It wouldn't have hurt anymore if he'd actually hit me with his fists. He had confronted me with the reality that my words had so offended his friend that that friend didn't want anything to do with God anymore. Oh No!
I was young and foolish (of course now I'm old and…
What do you think is the opposite of love? The easy answer is hate but that isn't even close. Because hate takes attention and focus and (usually) preoccupation with the object of your hate.
And the truth is love takes the same. To love something or someone takes attention, focus, and even preoccupation with the object…
American author Laird Barron once said "Mom was all about hellfire and brimstone. Her Old Testament God was a colossal, ancient brute, a maelstrom of blood and fire, of appetite and wrath." Sounds familiar.
Our society has been shaped by a narrative, both subtle and overt, about how we think of God. And, for many…
The dictionary defines the word "obligation" as "an act or course of action to which a person is morally or legally bound; a duty or commitment." When I was growing up, my mother taught me that I wasn't free to do what I wanted until I did what I must. In other words, I had…
When we were very young, my brother and I got up one early Christmas morning to see what we got for Christmas. Now, mind you, our parents were still sound asleep. But did that stop us? Did we go and wake them up first? No! And boy we had a blast, I remember one toy…
God gives us the gift of The Poor to save us from our own Spiritual Poverty! Call Fr. Barnabas during the show at 1-855-237-2346!
Our busy lives really do challenge us in keeping our priorities in the right order, don't they? We moderns are a complicated mishmash of schedules, opportunities, affluence, and "freedom." And that multiplication of events, desires, hopes, and advertisements don't seem to be slowing down. It seems that each new day brings a new barrage of…
In 1972 Stevie Wonder released the song Superstition. The opening guitar licks are still one the the most famous opening lines of any song I remember from my youth. But the lyrics always fascinated me, I guess because I was raised in the rural South and we had lots of superstitions. Things like black cats…
Politics makes strange bedfellows. When I start talking politics, especially as a priest, it makes folks (rightfully) nervous. After all, as a priest, I'm supposed to focus on being accessible and available to all people regardless of their positions on this or that political matter. And that's true.
But I've also found it extremely helpful…
Do you know the difference between a barrier and a threshold? It's actually quite an important distinction.
The old saying goes "good fences make good neighbors" and there's no disputing that clear boundaries are necessary in relationships for there to be healthy communion between persons. But, what happens when a boundary gets used to diminish…