Indubitable

A wall hanging at St. Timothy’s soup kitchen At a recent commencement speech to the 2012 graduates of Loyola University, Father Gregory Boyle (see my post on Father G’s ministry) said: “Loyola has not prepared you for the real world. It has asked you to challenge it, to be less concerned with the bottom line and more concerned with those that line the bottom.” For the last week, “issues” at work have had me irritated and stressed out. Lately, practicing…

Read More Read More

A sinuous dragon disgorging a leafy, flowering stalk, itstail terminating in another leafy vine, forms this letter “S” on the titlepage of the Third Epistle of St. John the Apostle. Rochester New Testament, 1130 AD. Preeminence is one of those superlatives to which we can only hope to aspire.  A word with universally positive connotations: distinction, excellence, prominence, renown, superiority, supremacy, transcendence. If someone or something is preeminent ina group, they are more important, powerful, or capable than other people orthings in the group. The word preeminence…

Read More Read More

My recent visit to the American invasion beaches of Normandy was unbelievably moving.  I’d recently finished Stephen Ambrose’s best-seller D-Dayto try and be ready for the experience. Despite almost 600 pages of minute by minute detail about the invasion, I wasn’t remotely prepared. Our guide was simply fantastic and I can’t imagine trying to do this without someone like him (Eric Le Deux-Turnbull) to put it into perspective (more on this another day). A haunting picture of SS-Panzergrenadiers Sepp Bund,…

Read More Read More

Sometimes you run into the darnedest people in the parking lot! Tate took these pictures of the Big Guy’s plates while he & Tiff were shopping at Fry’s Electronics (I hesitate to call them vanity plates–He’s not at all like that once you get to know Him) . I’m sure I could wax eloquent about this picture for a long time. I was pleased to see He was in a domestic Minivan rather than a stretch Maybach limo. It is also noteworthy that these…

Read More Read More

For the Zoramites, the Rameuptom was all about indulging their pride. Yet everything was tidily packaged into something much more socially acceptable: worship. It is SO much easier to rationalize when couched in these terms.  While teaching Sunday School recently, we spent a few minutes talking about the Rameumptom. Paul Riddle leaned over to Tate and indiscreetly pointed out that my Rameumptom was my new bike. It was pretty funny, and spot on. All I could say was Touche´.[1] It’s sobering to…

Read More Read More