Sometimes people have a certain intuition, a premonition, of their own imminent deaths. This may take the form of a vague sense of the approaching end, or a specific sign, but some seem to know it in a way that transcends natural knowledge. It is a distinct type of spiritual knowledge beckoning one’s attention [...]
The life of the magnificent young jazz/blues artist, Eva Cassidy, was sadly cut short by melanoma in 1996 at the age of 33. Her rendition of “Over the Rainbow” was recorded just nine months before her death, when she was battling the illness that would soon take her life. That fact makes this brilliant [...]
A few years ago I had the privilege of standing in the sacristy of a Ukrainian church watching a priest friend of mine prepare for Mass. The wonderful liturgies of the Church’s eastern rites (the Byzantine, Maronite, Ukrainian and others) express a richness and complexity of worship that contrasts with the simplicity of the [...]
If you were to ask a “bible only” preacher if he owns a hand-written copy of the bible in Greek dating back to the fourth century AD, he may be quite confused. A bible…uh…in Greek? Even sincere “bible only” believers may never have thought about where the bible actually came from. Your question may [...]
Roman Catholics venerate the extraordinary 4th century poet and writer known as Ephrem the Syrian together with the Syriac Orthodox Church. St. Ephrem is a canonized saint in both traditions and was named a Doctor of the Church by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. Ephrem served as a deacon in his homeland of Nisbis [...]
Switzerland is like a hidden jewel in the middle of Europe, a mountainous land with a highly secretive banking system and a tradition of remaining neutral during wars. The Swiss culture has given the world exquisite chocolates, precision watches, cuckoo clocks, the Swiss Army knife, and even the modern marvel of Velcro! What an [...]
One of my favorite spiritual writers is the 20th century German scholar, Romano Guardini (1885-1969). Don’t let his Italian-sounding name fool you. He was of Italian descent, but he grew up in Germany and had the penetrating intellect and organized mind of a German scholar. Guardini was a Catholic priest, a pastor, and a [...]
If you page through a traditional Catholic hymnbook you will eventually come across the name of Frederick William Faber (1814-1863) in the composer credits at the bottom of a given hymn. That would be Father Frederick Faber, English Catholic priest, convert to Catholicism, and composer of hymns extraordinaires. Fr. Faber made some of the [...]
Sometimes…it isn’t worry that causes us to focus on the future, but the hope of something better or happier…. We may spend our whole lives waiting to live. Thus we risk not fully accepting the reality of our present lives. Yet, what guarantee is there that we won’t be disappointed when the long-awaited time [...]
Some years ago, I had an employee who was not pulling his weight, and that was unfortunate because his position was critical to the organization. As I kept warning him about his failure to perform his job, our working relationship became strained and began to decline. Things were getting bad and I had to [...]