Afganistan makes no sense

Why are we still in Afganistan? With no clear goal, no measure by which we can mark 'victory', what are we doing there except expending the lives of young American heros?

Bring them home.

Tree of life

An image of a lone majestic tree continues to appear in my prayer life. Someone, I take him to be the Lord, sits beneath it. I am on a well worn path, making my way toward the tree. Ripe wheat lies on either side of the path. It is the most serene image I have ever found while praying.

It's going by too fast!

"Does all of life go by this fast?"

"No, just the summers."

--from Paul Monette's play, Just The Summers

Baby Boom

My parish is experiencing a baby boom. Even the usually sedate Saturday evening Mass is frequented by young families now. It's nosier of course but so much more joyful. For me, as a celibate turning 50, the sight of so many kids brings out what must be a grandfatherly type of love. Children do no wrong in my eyes and I feel happy just seeing them.

It's all too complicated

People of faith are sometimes accused of being smug and holier than thou. In truth, finding faith means you've accepted the complicated pattern of darkness and light within this world. It's the light, however, that interests us more.

I haven't all the answers and that's why I choose faith.

Thought For The Day

"When an oak is felled the whole forest echoes with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze."

Thomas Carlyle

The stained glass in the church is German designed; the Munich studio in Chicago.