Category: Advancing the Kingdom

When most of us hear the adjective ‘chronic’ we expect what follows will be some form of illness such as diabetes or arthritis.   What are we to think, then, of the phrase ‘chronic vigor’?  In his magisterial treatise, An Essay on the Development of…

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a…

“Lux fiat”. According to Genesis this was God’s command on the first day of creation when he said: “Let there be light”.  He saw that it was good. But it wasn’t until the fourth day that God created the sun. Hence, we have the mystery…

Earlier this month I attended a Christmas concert at a local high school. The surprisingly accomplished performance ended with Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus.  At the opening chords, a smattering of the attendees in the audience rose and remained standing while the rest stayed seated. (Most of…

As Advent progresses it is clear from casual observation the regard we as a nation once held for Christmas is no longer generally shared. Years ago, even among non-believers for whom the Nativity was only embellished legend, there was at least a respect for its…

The term intersectionality has been popularized in the past few decades. It refers to the effect the confluence or intersection of various traits such as sex, age, race, ethnicity, and education has on an individual or group of individuals. It is especially applicable in sociology…

Doxy and Praxy were great friends. They had grown up together and each would feel lost without the other. Praxy was the more practical of the pair. She was resourceful and managed to accomplish what needed to be done. A ball of boundless energy, she…

According to the commentary in the Catholic New American Bible, the Book of Jonah in the Old Testament is a parable written sometime after the return of the Jewish people from exile. It is principally a story about the recalcitrance of a curmudgeonly prophet who…

When his grandmother asked him if he was ever going to settle down and establish roots, the thirty-something millennial offered as an excuse for not doing so: “Commitment is the enemy of choice”. With  irrefutable candor unique to grandmothers, she admonished him and said: “Commitment…

Sometimes ambiguity is instructive.  The expression “for the love of God” was popular generations ago. More often than not it was an exclamation: “Oh, for the love of God, get over it!”. At times it was a genuine religious explanation: “I do it for the…