“The dog down there is on too short a chain. Change it, lengthen it. Then he’ll be able to reach the shade, and he’ll lie down and he’ll stop barking. And the silence will remind the mother she wanted a canary in a cage in the kitchen. And when the canary sings, she’ll do more ironing. And the father’s shoulders in a freshly ironed shirt will ache less when he goes to work.”
Any clergy out there interested in sharing their initial experiences in their first post-seminary assignments? Any lay folks interested in sharing their experiences with newbie priests?
Americans are about 5 times more likely to give an “F” (24%) than an “A” (5%) to churches for their handling of homosexuality. Two-thirds see connections between messages coming from America’s churches and higher rates of suicide among gay and lesbian youth.
Grandmere Mimi has called our attention to a deeply moving story, and challenged us to do something about it.
Graphing out one epistle and three gospel readings.
People love to tell you, when you’re expecting your first child, all about how much becoming a parent is going to change you. About how your world is going to turn upside down, and you’re never going to be the same again. But I found that I changed far more, and learned far more (about myself and about God), with the birth of my second child, than with the birth of my first.
God is light, and to those who have entered into union with him he imparts of his own brightness to the extent that they have been purified. When the lamp of the soul, that is, the mind, has been kindled, then it knows that a divine fire has taken hold of it and inflamed it. How great a marvel! Man is united to God spiritually and physically, since the soul is not separated from the mind, neither the body from the soul.