Brother Fire

February 3, 2008 – Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A Zep 2:3, 3:12-13 Ps 146 1 Cor 26-31 Mt 5:1-12 According to the Gospel of Matthew, there were huge crowds listening to Jesus when he gave the Sermon on the Mount. But that hardly accounts for the millions and millions of people who have read the Beatitudes and are familiar with this famous Gospel reading – in some form or another. What I find most interesting about this scripture is that when Jesus was facing the crowds there is so much that he could have said and done during this sermon. Think about it: he had a captive audience. He could have very easily “wowed” us by pulling people from the crowds and healing them. He could have demanded that we worship and venerate him. He could have asked for donations. He could have announced that he was going to die for our sins. He didn’t though. Instead he humbly and quietly shared God’s Word. He was a teacher. And he started with how we are already bl...

In the Catholic world, we will be talking about the Beatitudes in a couple of weeks (4th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle A, 2/3/2008) and I found this profound blog post, American Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, Part 1 from the Justice & Compassion blog. It's a vivid illustration how we Americans have distorted Jesus' message in His name. Please take a look at it and comment. Peace.

Many of the Independent Sacramental Movement (ISM) email groups & blogs have been pretty quiet. I was thinking the other day how it’s been a long time since there has been any talk of unity. But sure enough, it seems that the talk has restarted again. For those of you who are new to the ISM, you may not know that the I ndependent Sacramental Movement (a.k.a. Old Catholicism, Autocephalous Church Movement, Independent Catholicism, Independent Orthodoxy, etc.) in North America is not a church denomination, but rather a group of small churches that are loosely linked by apostolic succession and sacramental theology. While the churches are diverse and indeed independent of each other, most of its clergy have longed for some form of unity with their catholic sisters and brothers. Many have tried to ‘legislate’ unity by forming associations and councils but have failed miserably. It is usually early in the process of forming these associations that theological and ideologica...

An address at the march on Washington, DC for jobs and freedom (Aug 1963): Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, f...

One of my least favorite things about the end of the year are the number of year-end retrospectives that pop-up all over the media. Most of it is centered around celebrities of which I could care less. But this one from http://politicalhumor.about.com tickles my funny bone. Enjoy. Top 10 Bushisms of 2007 The Dumbest Things President Bush Said in 2007 10. "And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it." --interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 29, 2007 9. "I fully understand those who say you can't win this thing militarily. That's exactly what the United States military says, that you can't win this military." --on the need for political progress in Iraq, Washington, D.C., Oct. 17, 2007 8. "One of my concerns is that the health care not be as good as it can possibly be." --on ...

Ugh! That's the only word to describe the attitude of those who are scurrying around to find the "latest thing" to buy each other for Christmas. It seems that negativity is a prerequisite feeling for shoppers who think that the importance of the holiday is not that guy....you know...that famous guy...whatsHisname...oh yeah....JESUS, but rather buying stuff for people.. I generally am not a big retail store shopper. Which is ironic being that I work in retail part-time. I prefer casually meandering through small shops and patiently finding things that mean a lot to friends and family for the holidays. If I can't find that 'special something,' well then...that special something was not meant to be found and a gift card will have to do. Presents are nice. But clearly...that's not the point. And the point definitely isn't to make sure one says, "Merry Christmas!" instead of "Happy Holidays"...because if I don't say "Merry Chris...

Recently, I was speaking to my dear friend Virginia Walsh about how disturbing it is that Christians go after each other in the name of Jesus. The irony is that His greatest commandment is to love each other, yet we act as if Jesus' words have no meaning. I asked Virginia to write for my blog about an idea that she has to address the anger and disdain that opposing Christian camps have for one another. She sent an email introducing the post and I thought the email was as powerful as the post itself so I'm sharing it here: I'm deeply troubled, as I'm sure we all are, by the hurtful, sniping, name-calling, and generally disrespectful "dialogue" in civil society. In many ways, I believe that those behaviors have infected the Church. Does the following paragraph sound familiar? They're out to undermine our nation. They call themselves Christians, but they have no real understanding of God or morality. They pray, but they don't actually have a living relati...