God Outside the Box

Find my Thursday post over at the Catholic portal at Patheos, Summa This, Summa That:  God Outside the Box.

Here's a snippet:

Her conversation went something like this… “So-and-so is writing a book about her search for the meaning of life.  Her story line is, that having left her Catholic faith as a teen, she took the ‘best of’ from all the various religious practices she could find. Then she designed her own spirituality.” 

And so it goes.  Maybe you’ve encountered a similar situation in your own life, or with a loved one. There’s always a slightly different version of the same thing.

 A person takes their little God Box and fills it up with whatever suits them, inspires them, comforts or loves them.  Mix well and season to taste. Over time, they may dabble, or become connoisseurs of a kind of spiritualism, adding to or subtracting from the God Box according to their own improved recipe of personal relevancy. 

Read the rest here.

Need Hope? Me too.

I'm over at Summa This, Summa That today, making sense out the gift of hope found in my garden and in my life.  Here's a snippet:

Last week, a curious thing grew outside amidst the fresh frost of my New England October.  A single, perfectly formed pink rose bud appeared on one of my bushes –an unlikely occurrence in the garden as everything else dies back.

Not wanting to miss the promise of unfolding beauty to come, I found my clippers and promptly cut the single stem rose.

The rose, now in a bud vase, graced my workspace all week… it’s beauty and fragrance delighting and refreshing me. And I’ve really needed that. For, lately, I’ve suffered a few personal setbacks to my health and my work.  That does not make me unique; we all have times of trial and discouragement. But it does proves to me that, in God’s economy, our hearts can respond to the even the smallest spark, enkindling tangible hope as we grope and struggle with confusion or challenges.

More real than the beauty of a rose bloom in the chill of autumn, the action of grace often lies just beneath the surface of what is usually distracting us at the moment.  But to see it, we must call upon the promises of our baptism, an event long past for many of us, that carries ramifications for our present day.

Read the rest here.

Over at Patheos today, I'm talking the miners rescue and our own!

I'm over at Summa This, Summa That drawing parallels between the wonderful rescue of the Chilean miners, and our own epic rescue.

Here's a snippet:

The distance from confinement to freedom was a twenty-minute half-mile ride in a claustrophobic rescue pod. 

Sometime after midnight on Wednesday October 13, 2010, the world began to watch in sheer joy, and perhaps sober disbelief, as the first of 33 Chilean miners, trapped for 68-69 days in their dark, womblike cavern of life, emerged.  Weeks of international effort and cooperation worked to set them free from the bowels of a collapsed mine after their record-breaking stay underground.

US media outlets called this rescue operation a miracle in its size and scope.

For those of us Catholics who are Marian-devoted, and who pay attention to things nuanced by the rhythm of the liturgical calendar, we smile in humble recognition of the date.

It is indeed a day for miracles.  

Read the rest here.

Summa This Summa That: Bodacious and Fantastic

One of the joys of theology for me is looking back at some of the great saints and theologians of Christian history who populate our Tradition.  

Today's post over at Summa This Summa That captures some of the quotes that really grab me when it comes to the bodacious and fantastic news that we are sharers in the divine nature. 

Here's a snippet:

Singer Joan Osbourne had a hit single titled “One of Us.” It questioned:  “What if God was one of us?”

This is the cry of many human hearts today and, yet…

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world taking on the visage and form of a human person. It was and is the greatest plan to ever win over a single heart to God, and an even more magnificent strategy for the salvation of the world.

Go find the rest here. 

  

Something of the Glory of God Shines on Your Face

I'm back over at Patheos' Catholic portal, at the blog "Summa This, Summa That" -- this time talking about the dignity of the human person.  Here's a snippet:

The body of Jesus was not some kind of disposable earthly transport vehicle. No. Jesus completely united himself to humanity in a permanent way.

It is particularly relevant to the “respect life” issues -- to respect the life of the body and care for the dignity of the human person in every circumstance of natural life. For the body is also a temple of the Holy Spirit (Cf. 1 Cor 3: 16). The most powerful sign we have of that is that Jesus, God Himself, took on a body.

The humanity of Jesus signals to us the deep meaning of the human person. “Christ by his incarnation has united himself in some fashion with every person. (Gaudium et Spes, par. 22.)”

Read the full article over there.

Image credit.

Talking about Sunday on a Thursday over at Patheos...

I may never match the output of the amazingly prolific Elizabeth Scalia, (she must type realllly fast..) but here's my contribution to the Catholic portal over Patheos...  have you checked out Summa This Summa That recently?

Here's a snippet...

Sunday is the Son’s Day.  So I thought once-upon-a-time in my little girl reasoning. Jesus is the Son of God. He rose from the dead on a Sunday.  Hence, Sunday is Son-day.  Little did I know back then that my silly little play on words was not far from the truth.

Keep reading here.