Reflection Just before he leaves his disciples, Jesus gives them one final task. His last words to his disciples–to us–are both challenging and exciting: “You are my witnesses.” That is the task before us to be true witnesses of Jesus. Our vocation is to stand with the living Jesus, to witness on his behalf. But to be a true witness
Reflection We are all endowed with an inner transparency for the holy, for the mystery we call “God”. We are programed internally in the power of living spirit, always inviting us to attune more deeply to the Great Spirit who infuses the whole of creation. Whether we adopt a formal religion or not, we are innately spiritual and will remain
Reflection On some level we are all creators whether we want to be or not. As we live our lives, there are always people watching us, listening for clues, looking for differences, assessing our actions, our words. We constantly create environments which others enter into and feel either nourished or negated. We create waves of energy that wash over other
Reflection In Laudato Si, Pope Francis asserts that a truly ecological approach is also inherently social. “When nature is viewed solely as a source of profit and gain, this has serious consequences for society. This… has engendered immense inequality, injustice and acts of violence against the majority of humanity, since resources end up in the hands of the first comer
Reflection The world envisions peace as the absence of war. Jesus’ vision of peace is far more embracing than that. The shalom of Jesus reaches into the very nature of God’s bond with creation, with our human nature and the nature of the universe. It is a vision of a reconciled world, a world of order where there is justice, harmony, and
Reflection Service serves us as well as others. It strengthens us. When we serve, our work itself sustains us. Service rests on the basic premise that the nature of life is sacred, that life is sacred, that life is a holy mystery which has an unknown purpose. When we serve, we know that we belong to life and to that
Reflection Those who love me will keep my word John 14:23 Keeping his word means love in action. We might try to profess loving Jesus while dismissing his word. We might think that we can do one but not the other. Jesus’ words do not recognize that distinction. We fool nobody with our prayers or pious words. To consider oneself
Reflection The concept of a deeply spiritual earth may seem strange to our western culture. We are used to identifying the sacred with our places of worship. The rest of the earth is often considered a resource or simply real estate. Yet, deep within us there is an awe and a sense of mystery in response to the natural world.
Reflection The Spirit is simply God’s self-communication in grace, present and active everywhere, pervading the world. This basic but profound reality bears repeating today, because so many do not experience God’s nearness but think of God as distant or even unreal. This is most unfortunate. Through the Spirit, the risen Christ is universally present in the world everywhere and in
Reflection Prior generations and other cultures have reverenced those who were recognized as “elders” in the community. They understood that although youth is energetic, strong, spontaneous and attractive, it takes time to develop experience, wisdom, and character. One has to live through loss and gain, success and failure, love and pain, joy and sorrow, to attain the integration that etches