“Getting their son’s name right mattered to Mary and Joseph, also. Both of them were told before Jesus’ birth the name of the child that we all know as the one who was born in Bethlehem.”
“False prophecy always promises an unobtainable bliss and the illusion that we are in control, and sadly, many have used Christianity as the vehicle for that illusory message–that somehow, salvation guarantees that everything is going to be fine.”
“The Iconoclasts made their points that there is difference between worshiping God and worshiping graven images of God, and that perhaps our imagination shouldn’t be distracted by defaults. On the other hand, why should the human desire to create–imitating God’s ability to create–be stifled?”
“He’s not even expecting us to know for certain what all the injustices are. He only asks us to live in hope and faith that there will come a day when all has been rectified, and work like we believe that day will come.”
“When once asked in an interview whether he believed the Bible was true, [William Temple’s] reply was, ‘I believe the Bible contains all things necessary to salvation…as well as a good bit that isn’t.'”
“This, I believe–the fact that somewhere down the line James changed his mind–is today’s Good News.”
“In our Gospel reading today, Jesus talks about doing the will of the Father that sent him, rather than his own will. Vida Dutton Scudder was a person who sought to understand that will during the entire 92 years of her life, even if that life led her into unpopular or unorthodox places, or change direction on how she was best called to follow Jesus.”
“Sergius of Radonezh was born with the given name of Bartholomew sometime around 1314. (We really only know the date of his death, and he reportedly died at the age of 78. His older brother Stefan had chosen the monastic life, and Sergei followed suit, being given the name of Sergius (Sergei). Yet almost from the get-go he started persuading Stefan that the two of them should move to a more secluded spot to practice their vocation, and eventually the two of them settled in the woods.”
“We often talk about someone having “the patience of Job,” but as we see in our first reading today, Job was anything BUT patient in laying out the case for his innocence to the Almighty.”
“Jonathan Daniels, were he alive today, would be 81. The days are fast approaching when his cohort group will be gone from us. Once the cohorts are gone, the original story is gone. Will the story that remains be faded and monotone, or will the story be colorful and vibrant?”