Where was God when the Twin Towers fell? When the tsunami swept away thousands of lives in Indonesia? When the woman was brutally raped and murdered? The child abused? Christians beheaded by ISIS? Where was God? Psalm 74 is a lament of the community that asks this question. Where was God when the Temple was […]
Read More
“Truly God is good to the upright, to those who are pure in heart.” (1) Thus begins Psalm 73. The psalm ends with words of confident trust, “My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever.” (26) But the path to reach this faith […]
Read More
Peter Maurin, co-founder of the Catholic Worker, said we need to create a society “where it is easier for men to be good.” This is not a new idea. It has been around since the writing of Psalm 72. But is it possible? Psalm 72 Our psalmist for today has a dream of a better […]
Read More
Getting old is not for sissies, the residents of my mom’s retirement community told me on numerous occasions, quoting Bette Davis. The writer of Psalm 71 knows something about this. Psalm 71 The author of Psalm 71 is an old man. His hair is gray, “So even to old age and gray hairs, O God, […]
Read More
When you or a loved one are sick, it’s easy to become impatient with the slow healing process. You can’t wait for them to get better. The writer of Psalm 70 knows about being in a hurry! Dealing with Sick Kids When my kids were in grade school, it seemed that between snow days, special […]
Read More
We just celebrated Holy Week and are now in the season of Easter, a time for celebration and new life. Yet not everyone is rejoicing. The sun may be shining, flowers blooming, but those dealing with depression find little reason for celebrating. They are stuck in somber Saturday, alone with Jesus in the tomb. Psalm […]
Read More
Years ago, when I was a child and TV was young, there was a game show called, “To Tell the Truth.” Three people claimed to be the same person. The object of the game was for contestants to determine who was lying and who was telling the truth. At the end of the show the […]
Read More
In high school I read the short story “The Misbegotten Missionary” by Isaac Asimov. In the story, a small alien hitched a ride on a space ship. His mission: to save us from our own aloneness and destructiveness by making all “one,” a precursor to the Borg Collective on Star Trek. This alien had the […]
Read More
It was my first time riding this section of the Falling Waters Trail. The path was tree covered, providing ample shade from the sun, when to my right I glimpsed blue. Lime Lake? I had been looking for the lake but so far had only seen a swampy pond. As I road further, more blue […]
Read More
Several years ago, we had an unseasonably warm winter followed by a lost fruit crop because trees bloomed too early and the buds were killed by frost. The following year though was a boom year as the trees made up for the lost crop by producing in abundance, overflowing. Farmers had a difficult time harvesting […]
Read More
