Saints Now

November 3rd, 2009 Posted in writing | Comments Off on Saints Now

I don’t think I’m alone in having grown up thinking that the pre-requisite for being a saint was to be dead. But, really, what makes a saint isn’t being dead but being alive.

“Saints” is what Paul called the members of the churches to whom he wrote his epistles. They were the “holy ones” (the “saints”) of God, whose own holiness causes him to fully enter our world and our history.

And being holy doesn’t mean being perfect, either. Though Matthew says that Jesus told his followers to “be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Luke says that he told us, “be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.”

Saints, in other words, are part of this world, living (through God’s grace) with engaged and compassionate hearts. And when their bodies die, our faith tells us they themselves are still alive, praying for us and for the world.

Back of the Jesuit Residence, Marquette University

October 22nd, 2009 Posted in photo | Comments Off on Back of the Jesuit Residence, Marquette University

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Tracking the Trip

October 14th, 2009 Posted in writing | Comments Off on Tracking the Trip

I flew from Milwaukee to Denver recently. Embedded in the back of the seat in front of me was a small TV screen, one of the channels displaying a map of the Midwest. Superimposed was a small white airplane, which moved to show the progress of the trip. I though to myself, Wouldn’t it be something if we could see our lives that way — getting the whole view, not just a glimpse?

But of course, we don’t how far we are from our journey’s end, only that we haven’t arrived yet. We can see what is coming only one day at a time, sometimes only one hour at a time, and sometimes even less than that.

Maybe that’s all to the good, because if we knew when our life would end, many of us might have little reason to try to live well every day. Ignorance of how close we are to the end of our journey makes it possible for us to be like the wise virgins in the gospel story — always alert for the Bridegroom’s arrival.

South Dakota Skyline

October 4th, 2009 Posted in photo | Comments Off on South Dakota Skyline

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Using Both Wheels

September 24th, 2009 Posted in writing | Comments Off on Using Both Wheels

According to an article in this week’s New York Times Magazine, more people in the United States are praying today but fewer are going to church. Apparently, churchgoing doesn’t necessarily lead to prayer and prayer doesn’t necessarily lead to communal worship.

But shouldn’t there be a connection between them? If it’s the case that we are built to share our lives in community (Aristotle’s view) then isn’t faith meant to be lived out in a community, too?

The Second Vatican Council said as much when it taught that God wants to make people holy and save them “not merely as individuals, without bond or link between them, but by making them into a single people, a people which acknowledges Him in truth and serves Him in holiness.”

If we can make that connection, then, it can be like riding a bicycle with both wheels working instead of just one, and when they’re both working well, we’re a lot more likely to get somewhere.