Just in case anyone’s stressing over this, getting ashes doesn’t mean we’re holy. In fact, getting ashes means we’re not holy. Read More
healing | Deacon Allen Tatara Catholic Speaker
On the Inside; On the Outside
On a cold January day, a man wearing a t-shirt and a ball cap walked into a busy train station in Washington D.C., opened his violin case and began playing. Four minutes went by and finally one man realized there was a musician playing, so he slowed down for a moment to listen but then carried on. After about eight minutes, the violinist received his first dollar bill, tossed into his hat on the floor by a woman who never even looked in his direction. Children would stop to listen, only to be quickly pulled away by their rushing parents. Read More
Have you ever encountered a once in a lifetime opportunity you knew you couldn’t pass up? You just knew it was something so incredible that you just had to act on it immediately. Such a moment came for a blind and destitute man, named Bartimaeus. Read More
I was doing some research this week on the Internet, when I stumbled across something that I had never seen before… Read More
A Lenten Prayer (Jesus Creed) by Christine Sine
We have chosen to fast
Not with ashes but with actions
Not with sackcloth but in sharing
Not in thoughts but in deeds
We will give up our abundance
To share our food with the hungry
We will give up our comfort
To provide homes for the destitute
We will give up our fashions
To see the naked clothed
We will share where others hoard
We will free where others oppress
We will heal where others harm
Then God’s light will break out on us
God’s healing will quickly appear
God will guide us always
God’s righteousness will go before us
We will find our joy in the Lord
We will be like a well watered garden
We will be called repairers of broken walls
Together we will feast at God’s banquet table.
We live in a throwaway society. We are trained to be wasteful consumers based on the messages we hear on a daily basis. From advertisements for new skinny jeans, to exotic perfume, to shoes that we really don’t need or even have room for, we are all persuaded to buy new and throwaway the old. For this reason, it’s important to challenge this throwaway mentality of always wanting more with appreciating and valuing what we truly have.
Today marks the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion nationwide. The more than 56 million lives lost to abortion since that 1973 decision reflect with heartbreaking magnitude what Pope Francis meant when he talked about a “throwaway culture.” Read More
Back in the 1990’s there was a TV show called, “Hercules: the Legendary Journeys!” It featured the dashing Hercules, who went from town to town protecting innocent villagers from monsters, thieves, or the whims of the gods. There was also a movie called “Hercules” that came out this past July. Now, don’t feel bad if you don’t remember the TV show or you didn’t see the movie, because my homily won’t hinge on any plot lines. You don’t need to remember Hercules and his bulging muscles and flowing hair or any of the cheesy monsters. You just need to remember this one thing: the Greek gods were portrayed as detached beings who cared very little about the men and women below. Read More
This was my homily on the 6th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Sunday, February 12th.
Do you always want your beloved child to run up to you and give you a big hug? At all times?
Several years ago when my boys were small, they discovered these large clay deposits near a swimming hole on one of our camping trips. They also quickly discovered that this clay made great body paint! They would get all wet, and then smear the clay all over their body. Read More
