Our cantor adjusted his guitar, cued the pianist and adult choir, and learned into the microphone, saying: “Our entrance hymn will be ‘Lift High the Cross’ found on Page 376. Now, please stand as we begin our celebration of the Eucharist.” A thousand people rose and filled the church to the rafters with glorious singing.[...]
“Don’t fight him like a wolf! Fight him like a MAN!” These wise words come during a fierce battle from the brave black panther, Bagheera, to his young charge, Mowgli the man-child, in Disney’s latest live action, The Jungle Book. The special effects were gorgeous and bigger than life, and the story was funny, sweet,[...]
From Mel Gibson’s “Passion of the Christ” Every day people are carrying crosses up their own Via Dolorosa. They stumble, get back up, and fall again. And you are invited to give them comfort and aid. But are you helping or hurting? Heavy lifting helps! This Palm Sunday we’ll read again how Jesus, under the[...]
“Rose, can you please come right away? I’m in the hospital. They say I have bleeding on the brain.” Oh, dear. After I finagled my way into the ICU, I found my sweet, eighty-seven year old friend lying in bed with a bruised and swollen face, stitches in her forehead, wired to flashing and beeping[...]
“I hate him! I hope he burns in hell!” Gulp! How do you handle it when someone spits out such fury? What do you say? What do you do? I’ve heard this too many times in my twenty-plus years ministering to the separated and divorced. Sadly, I’ve witnessed well-meaning but misdirected responses such as: Oh,[...]
“Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you…” Well, that’s pretty bold of James and John, the sons of Zebedee! In Mark’s Gospel (Mark 10: 35-45) we hear about how these two practically demanded the choice seats in heaven. And yet if we see God as a Loving Father, he[...]
Imagine a man got drunk, then angry at his wife, slapped her hard across her face, made the kids cry, kicked the beloved family dog, and then tripped down the stairs and gravely injured himself. His actions hurt the whole family, but the nurses and doctors at the hospital care less about what he did[...]
This title will shock some, anger others, and make perfect sense to those who have come through it. Don’t get me wrong; divorce is horrid, it violates the whole family, the poison of it reaches into every part of our community, and, yes, God hates it. (Malachi 2:16) But there’s another part of this difficult[...]
Gollum gives me the heebie-jeebies. He’s disgustingly distorted, slimy, devious, whiny, and schizophrenic. And probably an image of ME when I am at most selfish moments. Gollum is a creepy little character from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, who came upon a magic gold ring, fell under its spell, and changed from[...]
The CHOLERIC loves to bark orders. It comes naturally to this extroverted, take-charge “personality” type. Is this you . . . or someone you know? There are lots of “personality” tests out there and you may have taken one in school or for work. The Myers-Briggs model is popular (ESTJ, INFP, and so on)[...]
