Blog (Page 29)
Ideas for saving energy
Can a whole neighborhood use the same garbage company?
Teaching Our children The truth
Curious children and thoughtful teachers, parents, and grandparents can use books to help children to become leaders who do better than their forebears.
Green spot follow up
In our August green spot we talked about Eco Park. I recently went there to check it out. I found it very well organized and easy to navigate through. I hate to throw things out that cannot be recycled so I had various items accumulating in my basement that Eco Park accepted (large pieces of styrofoam from packaging, paint cans, empty prescription containers, etc.) I’m embarrassed to admit how long I had these things gathering in my basement but it…
Three ideas for reducing your use of plastics
Looking for ways to reduce your plastic usage? Here are some ideas.
The Future of Four
I spent the Memorial Day weekend celebrating my grandson’s 14th birthday, with five other 14-year-old boys who have been his friends since Kindergarten. These five young men were modeling the importance of maintaining lasting connections, as they shared their future hopes and dreams with me to become professional athletes, lawyers, doctors, entrepreneurs and a veterinarian. Four out of the five were African American and so I found myself quietly praying that they all live long enough to fulfill those dreams, as…
Impossible To Be Held Back
April 5 Readings – Acts 2:14, 22-33; Mt 28:8-15 OK, OK, I know that Easter was yesterday and that the blog was supposed to end. But two things. First, I will really miss writing a daily blog and secondly, Easter Monday is a thing. Growing up Catholic (and in a strong ethnic French-Canadian church), we celebrated Easter Monday as a part of the Easter experience, and in many countries it is actually a holiday. So here’s one last reflection as…
Practice Resurrection
April 3 Readings – ACTS 10:34A, 37-43; COL 3:1-4; JN 20:1-9 It’s hard to believe we have reached the end of our Lenten journey together. I want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU to all of you who have been faithfully (or unfaithfully) reading this blog, commenting and offering your own insights. I have really appreciated the dialogue that this has created, and I was touched that so many of you offered your own lives, joys and challenges to me…
No Quick Fix
April 3 Readings – The readings for today are technically the “Easter Vigil” mass readings which include 7 readings, psalms, prayers, an epistle and the gospel! If you want to read all of them, please check it out at https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/040321.cfm The Easier Vigil is quite an amazing ritual and is the Christian “high holy day” and blueprint of the faith. This mass was intended to teach the faithful all they needed to know and was originally the only time of…
Today We Mourn
April 2 Readings – IS 52:13—53:12; HEB 4:14-16; 5:7-9; JN 18:1—19:42 Today’s a day just to sit with hard realities. Isaiah speaks of the suffering servant – the one who is targeted, marginalized and outcast. This the one who suffers under the weight of violence (individual and/or collective) and bears it in their bodies. Of course the Christian tradition identifies Jesus as the “suffering servant,” but I am guessing that we can all relate in one way or another. Our…
I Have Given You An Example
April 1 Readings – EX 12:1-8, 11-14; JN 13:1-15 I am always struck by the simplicity and power of how Jesus uses his body and words. He asks the disciples, ‘What have you got?” as he prepares to feed 5000 people and passes a basket around. He calms an angry mob who is about to stone a woman by drawing on the ground and then saying, “Let the one among you who has no sin cast the first stone…” And…
Money For Nothing
March 31 Readings – IS 50:4-9A; MT 26:14-25 One of my favorite lines from scripture appears in today’s reading: “the Lord has given me a well trained tongue that I might know how to speak to the weary a word that will rouse them.” And the gospel gives us another version of Jesus’ last supper and the betrayal by Judas for 30 silver pieces. As I have mentioned in other places, I relate to that line from Isaiah because of…
Life Hurts
March 30 Readings – IS 49:1-6; JN 13:21-33, 36-38 Holy Week certainly doesn’t pull any punches. It’s only Tuesday and some hard truths are already coming at us. Isaiah tells us that the “servant of God” is disillusioned and discouraged and wonders if their efforts were in vain. And then Jesus tells his disciples that “one of you will betray me.” He doesn’t say “if” someone will betray him. He says “when.” I think this is true for our lives…