It is my experience that in modern times the care of children, particularly those in crisis, has been abandoned by the pastor. My concern for ministry to children has been growing for a long time. My first experience in clinical pastoral education was at a children’s...
“Being” means allowing God to lead even when opportunities have been postponed and the doors seem closed. That is exactly what happened to Paul. If he had not been forced to wait, he would have never heard the call to Macedonia. The same is often true for each of us....
Language change is not all-important: if it were, then changing language would be all that was needed to change the world. Nor is it unimportant: if it were, we could concentrate on doing love and justice, and quit worrying about how we speak of God. To separate...
If God forgives us instantly and completely, then who are we to sulk in despair over our failures? If God finds no pleasure in condemning, then we have no right to find some sort of sadistic pleasure in self-contempt. To allow the sins of yesterday, or even an hour...
With the words “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us” the community recognized the bond that had been established between them and God as revealed in Jesus. God did not stay distant from them, remote and isolated; rather, in Jesus, God chose to live with humanity...
Could the real pageant not be a play at all, but my lifeAs I take my gifts, my insecurities, my worriesTo the Christ Child, like the Magi took their gifts to the manger,And allow God to recreate within me a new life,A living pageant that does not end on Christmas Day,...
The image on the slide screen was cavernous and beckoning. As the gathering in the San Pedro chapel took in the translucent greens and blues of the watercolor, we heard its artist, Sister Doris Klein, C.S.A., offer these words: “In the cave of our hearts…in the fabric...
I personally know a family whose most meaningful Christmas truly embraced its spirit. [In 1986 this family thought of a needy family in their congregation that was struggling just to survive.] The parents and their two children discussed together how to help this...
The basic issue for the Christian, it seems to me, is whether we believe we are stewards or owners of what we possess. A good steward receives gratefully anything his Lord gives to him. But he must account for it and use it wisely. We Christians also believe that this...
Find out how much God has given you, and from it take what you need; the remainder is needed by others. The superfluities of the rich are the necessities of the poor. Those who retain what is superfluous possess the goods of others.