According to the data, most people have already given up on their resolutions for 2014. So, I thought that this would be a good time to share the resolutions that Pope Francis made for this year, in hopes that it will reinvigorate us to continue our quest to do better. Also, his list is full of great ideas for us to incorporate into our lives as well. (This came from an interview by Paterno Esmaquel II originally posted on Rappler. It is a series of Pope Francis quotes in the form of New Year’s resolutions.) Read More
On the Inside; On the Outside
“God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work for me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for nothing. Therefore, I will trust him, whatever, wherever I am. I cannot be thrown away.” ~John Henry Newman
This morning, I was standing in our kitchen, waiting for my tea to steep. Gazing outside the window at the cold and snowy landscape, I noticed a robin in our neighbor’s tree. How strange, I thought, to see a robin at the end of January. We usually don’t see these birds here until the weather warms up, like around early March. But there she was, just sitting in the tree and enjoying the winter morning. Read More
There is a saying: “Jealousy is thin because it bites but never eats.” And that is so true! When we find ourselves filled with jealousy, we feel and experience a never-ending biting or gnawing, a pinching and grabbing that just drives us nuts! Read More
Source: zengardner.com
I have a confession to make…I hear voices. I swear, I hear voices all the time. Now you tell people that you hear voices these days, and they are probably going dress you up in a very special kind of jacket, lock you up in a room with padded walls and put you on some heavy medication. Our modern world is not so accepting of people who hear voices.
And yet, when you think about it, we all have lots of voices running through our heads every day. We still hear the voice of our parents and the things that they taught us, the messages and lessons that they wanted us to have for life. We can still hear the voice of our favorite teacher or our favorite coach challenging us to be better and to try harder. Maybe we can hear the voice of a colleague, a supervisor, or even a friend, trying to give us some good advice. Read More
I have one of those magnifying mirrors in our bathroom that enable you to see everything on your face. And I do mean everything! It’s a little scary (and humbling) to see all the little bumps and pores on your skin. But this past Saturday as I was shaving in the morning, I noticed something a little out of the ordinary. Read More
I read an article in the newspaper the other day that listed the most annoying words of 2013. These came from an annual study done by a Michigan university that suggests words to banish due to overuse, over-reliance and overall fatigue. These are the some of the words: selfie, twerking, hashtag, Twittersphere, t-bone, Obamacare, intellectually/morally bankrupt, and anything on “steroids.” Also, people were tired of the suffixes “-pocalypse” and “-ageddon” use to make words such as “snow-pocalypse” or “ice-ageddon.” Read More
With the holidays upon us, my wife and I are blessed to have all three of our boys home from college. It’s been a wonderful experience to have all of them home together for the first time in a long time. Not only is it precious time to spend together as a family, but we get to witness first-hand how they are growing and maturing right in front of our eyes. It is a very good thing to be a part of one, big happy family! Read More
I was recently digging through some old documents in my file cabinet in my home office when I came across these song lyrics that I had written back in 1989. It was a meant to be a recitation with an instrumental version of “Silent Night” playing in the background. But since this is not possible within my little blog post, I will share the story with you as it was originally written… Read More
I am passing along a beautiful blog post from my friend Fr. Tom Zielinski from the St. Anthony Spirituality Center in Marathon, Wisconsin. As we are in the home stretch of the Advent season, let his words fill you with joy and anticipation for the Lord’s coming…
“Acceptance” is a word that is becoming more important for me during Advent. We have the usual words of waiting, longing, desiring, expecting, which are all very appropriate for this season. But with the Second Sunday of Advent, the word and idea of acceptance stood out for me in the Sunday readings. The word itself was not there, but the idea was. Read More
