Faith & Life Inspirational Message

It is with considerable trepidation that I write about my granddaughter.   Certainly it is not that she embarrasses me.   To the contrary, I am very proud of her.   That is one of the roles of grandparents, as I have learned from others.   Of course, she is cute, smart, and about the most amazing young kid of this century!   And of course, that is totally biased and ungrounded, but that is my prejudice.             Actually writing about my grandkid is something like pulling out too many photos of her and subjecting a friend with more photos than the one picture he or she probably is willing to look at.   I know it takes longer to read this than it would take to look at one picture and say something like, “that’s nice!”             I have begun to realize that my granddaughter is becoming my teacher.   That is probably not surprising to C...

Recently I have had a couple occasions of reunion.   They both brought some joy to my life and I truly appreciated the opportunities.   In my mind, reunions are a good thing.   They have positive connotations.   I can’t imagine saying that we are going to a reunion and we hope to have a really bad time!   So for me, a reunion is always a good deal.             I know there are family reunions.   Some families do reunions on a regular basis.   That would not be true of my family.   Family reunions are rather rare in my tribe.   I am not sure of all the reasons, but that is the way it is.   There are class reunions in schools and colleges.   There are other kinds of reunions in clubs and other organizations.   Again, I am assuming these reunions also are meant to be fun and to bring some joy.             There are f...

Recently I read an interesting article that basically told me what I already knew.   The article focused on the happiness theme.   That is not surprising, since happiness is an “in thing” these days.   There are many studies that attempt to show us what happiness is, how to be happy and how to make it last.   I have said many times that I am certainly for happiness.   It is hard for me to imagine anyone saying, “No, I prefer being unhappy!”       The article was helpful as a reminder.   And it put together some important information for me to share with you.   I am convinced that happiness is not always a spiritual issue, but it can be a spiritual issue.   Personally, I am not sure that happiness should be a spiritual goal, but I am certain that happiness as a byproduct of spiritual goals is a good thing.            The author of the article, Ramesh Ponnuru, works in ...

The title of this spiritual reflection came from an article I read about the Pope, Francis I, and his recent apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”).   This publication comes far enough into Francis’ papacy, people now are beginning to suspect they understand how the Pope thinks about things.   Clearly the first Pope from the southern hemisphere looks at things differently than the previous European-based Popes did.   I find this fascinating.             Since the publication of this apostolic exhortation (a long document), there have been a variety of comments.   The Pope has been praised for his emphasis on the missionary impulse of the Church.   He is lauded for his focus on the poor and marginalized.   He has been criticized for what some see as an attack on capitalism.   One commentator went so far as to label the Pope a Marxist!   I find some of this to be ...