Blog of the Archdiocese of Washington
One of the observations that God makes about us over and over again is that we are stiff-necked (cf Ex 32:9, 33:3; Deut 9:3, 10:16; 2 Chron 30:8; 2 Kings 17:14; Jer 7:26; and many, many other texts). The charge occurs again in the reading from today’s Mass (Thursday of the 19th Week of the …
At Mass we are reading from the later chapters of Jeremiah the Prophet, who wrote in the time of the Babylonian exile. As such he serves as a kind of tour guide for us through a land of ruin, one that seems all too familiar to us today. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had been …
For some twenty-four of my twenty-seven years as a priest I have lived in and ministered to largely African-American parishes and communities. It has been a great blessing to me spiritually, liturgically, and personally. As you may imagine, I get a lot of questions from people when racially charged events appear in the news. I’m …
Continue reading “Some Thoughts on Recent Tragedies and Racial Tensions”
Some of God’s gifts come in strange and terrifying packages. I was reminded of this when I read the following lines from the book of Job in the Office of Readings: The earth, though out of it comes forth bread, is in fiery upheaval underneath (Job 28:2). We live just above a fiery cauldron, separated …
Continue reading “Living Near the Edge – A Meditation on Some of God’s More Terrifying Gifts”
One of the consistent observations that God makes of our human family, and we, the individual members of it is that we are stiff-necked (cf Ex 32:9; 33:3; Deut 9:3; 10:16; 2 Chron 30:8; 2 Kings 17:14; Jer 7:26, and many, many other texts). That is to say we tend to be stubborn, prideful, and …
Continue reading “A Consideration of the Human Tendency to be Stubbornly Unrepentant”
Some of you have heard the news that a local school board in Charlotte, North Carolina voted to eliminate the naming of valedictorians. The following appeared on FoxNews.com: Citing what it calls “unhealthy” competition among students, the Wake County school board is the latest in the country to make valedictorians and salutatorians a thing of the past, …
Continue reading “Evidence of Envy? A Reflection on the Elimination of Valedictorians”
There is a reading in daily Mass this week (Tuesday of the 7th Week of the year) in which James masterfully sets forth a fundamental aspect of our struggle against sin. He speaks of our disordered passions and double-minded ways. He assesses our problems and then offers solutions. The text from the Letter of James …
The eradication of poverty is an oft-stated goal of the modern, liberal West. President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s pronouncement of a “war on poverty” so imprinted this notion in the Western mind that it has become almost axiomatic. It is now a fundamental pillar in the thinking of almost every person (and organization) in the Western …