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Won’t Someone Please Stop Me?
Some years ago, Judith Viorst wrote a book of poems entitled: How did I get to be 40 & other atrocities. One of the poems, “Self-Improvement Program,” reads like this:
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We Need A Heart With Many Rooms
To come to peace as a human being is not a simple task. We aren’t simple. Our hearts and minds are pathologically complex and pull us in many directions all
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Death Washes Things Clean
When I was a child, as part of our family prayer, we used to pray for a happy death. In my young mind, I spontaneously associated a happy death with
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A Chance to meet the Lynx’s Eye
Soren Kierkegaard once commented in a letter to a friend how frustrating it is trying to communicate: “What I require is a voice as piercing as a lynx’s eye, as
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The Real Christmas Story
Among John Shea’s poems, one finds a little piece entitled: Sharon’s Christmas Prayer. It reads: She was five, sure of the facts, and recited them with
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Curing Fire By Fire
In his Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot contrasts two kinds of fire: The only hope, or else despair Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre – To be redeemed from
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The Monasticism Of Daily Life
David Steindl-Rast once commented that leisure is not the privilege of those who have time, but rather the virtue of those who give to each instant of life the time
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Social Justice And Contemplation
Some years ago, Ernst Kasemann, the Scripture scholar, commented that the problem with the church is that, chronically, the liberals aren’t pious and the pious aren’t liberal. If only, he
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Romero Died Before He Was Killed
On March 24, 1980, Salvadoran Archbishop, Oscar Romero, was assassinated as he celebrated the Eucharist. A recent film, Romero (Paulist Films – Cineplex Odeon), excellently depicts the interplay of forces
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High Season For Religion Foes
These are tough days for those who believe in the institutional church and in organized religion. Daily our newscasts document incidents of sin, corruption, abused power, misguided fanaticism, and betrayed