” ‘Twelfth Night’ is a play full of fun and confusion, a parody of the pretensions of the rich and ‘noble.’ Its characters show a reversal of servant-master roles. There are violations of the strict rules of deference toward lords and ladies.”
“I came across the remains of a tree that appeared to have lost a war with a small boulder. Time and water had exposed this battle, cutaway-style, and several years’ worth of history now lay open to inspection.”
“And yet, we still commemorate the moment that the God of creation chose to enter human history, in a time and a place that held its fair share of loss, of poverty, disease, death and oppression.”
“Learning to read came hard for me. Left-handed and left-eyed I just naturally began on the right side of the page and tried to read left.”
“Our time here, even pre-pandemic, is difficult, painful, too short and too long, with glimpses of joy in between. This Christmas has the possibility of reminding us what life and effort, and the birth of a Savior showing us a better way was meant to be. “
“This question helped focus me and quell the overwhelming nature of my work, but more importantly it grounded that work in God. It required me to say, “Here I am”, minute to minute, hour by hour and day after day.”
“That is what the star led to: a world whose old beliefs had to be turned in a new direction, no comfort in trying to hold on to ways. There was a new, hard message that we call Christianity.”
“During each Advent since then, I find myself reflecting on what it would have been like to be Mary. The magic and mystery of this season sometimes covers over the real physical bodies involved in the incarnation.”
“In our class, the professor, a dynamic Jesuit priest named John Mossi, asked us what we thought a mystic was and there were a variety of answers. ‘A saint,’ someone said. ‘A person who has out of body experiences,’ another suggested. ‘Someone who is especially holy,’ added a third.”
“There was much discouragement; the President had to push and insist, historians tell us, that the generals and strategists hold firm, that they remain steady in their faith, pretending if not feeling, courage amid disaster.”