Praise in the Fire

Fiery furnace. What comes to mind when you hear those two words? Maybe you wonder what other kind of furnace there could be but a fiery one. If your summer ever included at least a week of Vacation Bible School, you may think of the faithful young men sent by Nebuchadnezzar into Babylon’s great furnaces, a story we find in the Old Testament book of Daniel. Unfortunately, we know the three—Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah—by the names the pagan king’s servant gave them: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Fortunately, we’re quite familiar with their devotion. Know what they did when the king tossed them into the furnace? They worshiped God. They prayed. And they sang....read more

Faithful to the God of Faith ... read more

The human body is an astonishingly complex feat of divine engineering. Stretched end to end, a typical adult’s circulatory system would stretch nearly 100,000 miles, or about four times around the earth. Those vessels, capillaries and veins convey a gallon and a half of blood—more than ten pints. It’s common knowledge that humans shed skin cells. Truth is, the body replaces cells constantly, from throughout the body. Whether it takes days, months or a lifetime to accomplish, you’re not the person as a mature adult that you were as a child, in every way you might imagine. A person has more than twenty organs, at least a third of them vital, and over two hundred bones. That’s an awful lot of essential body parts, and pounds and miles of connective tissue—all of it part of who you are. Lots of parts. Lots of work. All important. Sounds kind of like the church. . . .read more

Try Doing It Right to Begin ... read more

Heroes are born in moments of instinctive action, through selfless responses to challenging circumstances, saving and extending life. With resolute intent, heroic people not only see what the simple miss but what the myopic choose to avoid. Assuming the burdens of others, saving the naive from indecision and error, and the reckless from their fate, instinctively noble people mend, preserve, assist and comfort the hurting. We all know more than a few. You know some personally, and our parishes enjoy the blessing of many. Arguably, those who serve with selfless energy and compassion, they follow the model of the Savior and the saints. When Jesus called his disciples to works of mercy, it was a cry for heroic responsibility. It was a response to the needs of the crowds that followed them.. . .read more

Never, Never, Never Forget ... read more

“Just as men’s joy for the world’s sake has a sorrow that accompanies it, so also godly tears are a seed of perpetual and unending joy.”                                                                                             

                                                                                   St. John Chrysostom

“Christ’s good is communicated to all Christians, even as the power in the head is shared by all the members. This communication is effected by the sacraments of the Church, in which the power of Christ’s passion operates, the effect of which is the bestowal of grace for the remission of sins.”                       

                                                                                    St. Thomas Aquinas

“The root of all good works is the hope of the resurrection; for the expectation of the reward is the what moves the soul to good works.”

                                                                                    St. Cyril of Jerusalem

“The little daily lesson: to keep soberly and quietly in His presence, trying to turn every little action on His Will; and to praise and love through cloud and sunshine is all my care and study.”                 

                                                                                    St. Elizabeth Ann Seton