Category: Prayer

Gratefulness

As I was driving home from Virginia yesterday, I was able to see some magnificent fall color. If I had to pick one particular season that I like the best, I think it would have to be fall. Growing up in Southern California, we didn’t see much when the seasons changed. In my neighborhood, the Pilcher and the Blaines families had Liquidamber trees, whose leaves changed when the weather cooled, but that was about it. Not that they didn’t put on a show. According the Wikipedia, The autumnal coloring (of the Liquidamber) is not simply a flame, it is a conflagration. Wow 🙂

During my first fall in Baltimore, I got to see some of the most beautiful foliage I had ever seen. Next to Johns Hopkins University is an area called Wyman Park. The various trees planted there many years ago put on an unbelievable display. Right then and there, fall became my favorite season. Fall is also a season of gratefulness. I’m not just talking about Thanksgiving.

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Into The Light

I hope you had the chance to follow some of the rescue efforts at San Jose Mine in Copiano, Chile that are taking place today. After 69 days underground, miner after miner was hoisted up nearly 2,000 feet of rock and into the sunlight, fresh air, and the waiting arms of loved ones and rescue workers.

These thirty-three men are being rescued from the longest underground entrapment in history. It is nothing short of a miracle. Over the weeks ahead, we’ll learn their tale of survival. What sustained them?

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A Very Good Day

Thanks for everyone who was praying for our Faith Fights Diabetes meeting this morning. To say that it was a success would be an understatement. I don’t know how many people will ultimately sign up to help with this initiative, but there is no question in my mind that our message resonated with the nearly sixty people who came.

The statistics are simply too hard to ignore. I talked about some numbers yesterday, but there was one slide that was shown today that took my breath away. According to the American Diabetes Association, one-third of all caucasian children born in the United States after the year 2000 will develop diabetes in their lifetime. For ethnic children, the number jumps to fifty percent. That’s either one out of three, or one out of two. Absolutely staggering.

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A New Adventure

This picture of Old Faithful in Yellowstone was taken the other day by my brother Don. Right about now, he’s headed home from a two-week trip throughout the Great Plains. Yesterday, I wrote about how, when I’m having a bad day, I often daydream about Tuscany. I guess if I were to ask my brother, he’d choose the great outdoors, fishing, hiking and camping. I think the key to it all is finding your happy place, and getting to it as often as possible, if not physically, then at least in your mind.

I’m really excited about a new adventure I’m embarking on. Tomorrow morning, a group of faith leaders from my county will gather to discuss ways we can fight diabetes. There’s supposed to be about fifty of us, and your’s truly is acting as the MC.

Somehow, I even got myself appointed Co-Chair of the future Action Committee which will hopefully be an outcome of this initial meeting. Not that I’m looking for more to do, but this issue is vitally important, not only in my community, but in yours too.

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The Holy Grail

I was recently began reading a daily devotional on male spirituality entitled On The Threshold of Transformation, and on one particular day the reflection was on the search for the Holy Grail.

The hunt of the Holy Grail has been to told and re-told in various cultures for centuries. The story’s appeal hits at the heart of one the deepest desires of all people, that being union with God. The original story has Joseph of Arimathea bringing a cup in which some of the blood of Jesus was saved before he was buried to Britain. The legend flourished in the twelfth through fourteenth centuries and continues even to this day, as the 1989 movie Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade shows. So, what makes this story so alluring?

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The Future

Last Thursday, we had a big storm roll through the Mid-Atlantic states. Schools closed early in anticipation of the powerful winds and possible flash flooding. It’s always good when the media gets the word out, although sometimes they present things in a rather apocalyptic fashion. In my area, the storm caused little damage, and things got back to normal quickly. That was the case for most people, but not for everyone.

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Isolation

Over the last several days, we’ve had a missionary priest visiting our parish. One of his challenges to us is to make efforts to bring our Anglo and Hispanic people together. Many of us want to see this happen, sooner rather than later, but it won’t be easy.

In some sense, many of us want to live with a certain isolation from those different than us. It might be that we just feel a bit more comfortable with the familiar. I don’t think this has to do with prejudice (although sometimes it does), but more likely we are so busy in our own little world that we don’t think we have the energy to put out the effort to learn a new language, culture etc.

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St. Francis of Assisi

Ten years ago today, my family and I were celebrating the Jubilee Year in the Umbrian town of Assisi. October 4th is the feast day of St. Francis, and there is an ancient tradition of celebrating the vigil of his death with prayer. It’s known as the Transitus of St. Francis.

Those two days in Assisi were some of the most memorable of all my travels in Italy. Almost 800 years after his death, I hope this little video gives you some insight into this holy man of God.

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Good Friends

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter; he who finds one finds a treasure.

A faithful friend is beyond price,no sum can balance his worth.

A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy, such as he who fears God finds.

For he who fears God behaves accordingly, and his friend will be like himself.

Sirach 6:14-17

I had the chance to go out to lunch with some friends today. It was good hanging out with them, enjoying a good meal and laughing a lot. I hate to admit it, but I don’t spend enough time with my friends. It seems like we’re all so busy that we end up too tired to make the effort to get together. Of course, this leaves us disconnected from the people we want to associate with, which leads to frustration and discouragement. Can this be good for us?

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Fourth Grade

We’re looking at a new textbook series at work, and I decided that, if we were to switch, it might be a good idea for me to get back into the classroom and try it out myself. So, this year I’m going to teach a 4th grade class. Today was our first session, and I’m whooped. I forgot how much energy kids this age have. Trust me, it’s a lot 🙂

That being said, they are fun to be around, and me and my assistant can’t wait till next week. I know I’m going to be a bit more prepared. Anyone who works with this age group knows you can never have enough activities to satisfy them. Anyway, I’m really looking forward to being with them this year. I know I’ll learn as much as them.