Dwelling Places

                O n December 21, Pope Francis spoke about Our Lady and Saint Joseph in the Nativity scene being full of holiness and joy. He continued: “And you will tell me: of course! They are Our Lady and Saint Joseph! Yes, but let us not think it was easy for them: saints are not born, they become thus, and this is true for them too.” (Emphasis added)               T he pope’s unintended conflation of words or concepts takes place in his use of the word “saint” which means “holy.”  So it’s easy to conclude that the pope thinks that Mary’s ultimate holiness or saintliness was not present from the very beginning.  In fact, following the reporting of the Pope’s statement, many blogs and social media postings began criticizing Pope Francis that his statement was a contradiction to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception which proclaims Mary’s holiness from the point of conception.               B y his controversial statement, I really do not think Pope Fran

 The article by John Pavlowitz is a trap argument or proffer designed to lure weak and unschooled minds to a judgment about the moral character of a person: in this case Trump. So— who is a Christian? Obviously, the article deems Trump "not a Christian." Think about it. Mahatma Gandhi was not a Christian---and yet he was by the judgment of history, a pretty moral guy. Harry Truman called himself a Christian--even in the face of obliterating hundreds of thousands of innocent people with the explosion of atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  And I would never say "Harry Truman was not a Christian." Donald Trump wants to build a wall. Does that make him not a Christian albeit that Pope Francis rendered an ill advised opinion saying just as much? So this business of boxing up a character into monikers like Christian or Non Christian can lead us down a path that promotes unfair categorizations of souls. Calling a person Christian doesn't make him so. Cal

"Never Again?" or "Ever and Again?" E lections, and politics are only surrounding the real matter of abortion. There are those who say that people will use abortions to spin into an electoral campaign. Actually, there is nothing that anyone can spin about death. However you try to spin it, death is final. T his is why the holocaust is as profound an evil phenomenon as it is. It rises to the very height of being something for which we use the term "never again." I believe "an" abortion, a single one, not to mention the 3000 per day each year, rises to that standard of never wanting this to happen, and yet this "great provocateur" has managed to ingratiate itself into our culture so that people are saying, " ever and again ," instead. I know most of you acknowledge that abortion is a bad thing. However, I have sensed in many on social media, good people, a tendency to follow a line of thought that diminishes the preem

“Debemos acercarnos con confianza al trono de la gracia. recibir misericordia y encontrar la gracia para la ayuda oportuna.” De todas las palabras en las lecturas de hoy, esas palabras me llamaron la atención. Un trono es ese lugar donde se sienta un rey. Es un lugar donde la mayoría de nosotros nos sentiríamos indignos de estar cerca. Es un lugar de poder. Es un lugar de posición al que ningún hombre o mujer débil se atreve a acercarse. Y, sin embargo, el escritor de la Carta a los hebreos nos dice esta misteriosa línea:  "debemos acercarnos con confianza al trono" ... y luego continúa diciendo que es un "trono de la gracia".   Es fácil concluir, simplemente a partir de las palabras, que un "trono de gracia" es fácil de alcanzar o acercarse. ¿Pero es? Cuando Jesús habla de la gracia, hay una implicación o significado más profundo para la humanidad pecadora. ¿Qué es un trono de gracia? La respuesta está dentro del misterio de que…. ¿del desf

         T he kind of penitence that must take place to move the Church away from the precipice of destruction is the kind that comes from a much deeper well of ancient understandings of man who is flesh and spirit. We must mine the deeper understandings concerning how God reacted to more than just individual transgressions. We must also try to fathom the implications of national sins, corporate sins, as well as national and corporate penitence.  Where individual and corporate sin is present, visible and visceral individual and corporate penitence must serve to counteract the suffocating air of accusations, calls for penalties, and the general tendencies of an accusative “group-think” to pick up a stones and hurl them indiscriminately at individual or corporate scapegoats. [1][2][3] That undefinable “Thing”  Beneath Our Beds             I n the meantime, an undefinable “thing” lies beneath the beds of all -- hoping to ignite the devil’s ultimate nuclear weaponry – fear an