The Occasionally Reverend
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Monday, February 24, 2025
Slava Ukraini!
On this day, February 24th, 2025, we mark the third anniversary of the invasion of the sovereign nation of Ukraine by Russia. Rape, murder, torture, turning cities, towns and villages into rubble, blowing up a dam, threatening nuclear power plants - thieving beyond imagination: pillaging museums and steaing anything that has value for Ukrainian identity: This is what Russia does... and today, we voted to stand with North Korea to oppose declaring Putin a war criminal. Unbelievable!
Monday, January 13, 2025
The Equinox of God's Mercy - Fr. Guerric DeBona, OSB
Let’s face it: there is a reason we call winter “dead.” Lifeless. The Big Chill. In mid-January in North America, we are far from the Magi’s Star, the cozy eggnog fellowship in parish or home with festive warmth. We must smile ever so broadly just to pierce the black ice of the morning sky. And our grumpiness.
Yet somewhere a voice is proclaiming the very beginning of the letter to the Hebrews, “He spoke to us through his Son.” Somewhere, someone is singing the entrance antiphon for this bleak Monday, “Behold him, the name of whose empire is eternal.” Somewhere, a congregation hears Mark’s Gospel that the time of fulfillment is now: “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the Gospel.”
That Kingdom proclaimed by Christ is here and for the entire planet. A good portion of our horizon may be frozen, snowbound, and encased in arctic air, but the Word of the Lord has announced a summer global fishing expedition for redemption—the Lord has set sail in human flesh, an Incarnation making us his companions, his disciples, and granting us a love beyond the angels and the eternity of the sea.
Somewhere beyond our knowing, hummingbirds hum our baptismal names, Canada geese gather like an assembly of the faithful, and a lava cactus on Bartolome Island in the Galapagos blooms at dawning. These voices remind us that somewhere is actually here in the spring of divine love, in the Kingdom with Christ who proclaims the equinox of God’s great mercy.
Fr. Guerric DeBona
Guerric DeBona, OSB, is professor of homiletics and the director of spiritual formation at Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology.
Sunday, November 17, 2024
The Inward Sea - Howard Thurman
Saturday, July 27, 2024
Solitude or Isolation?
There is a difference between solitude and isolation. One continuing impact of covid is that many of us remain isolated - disconnected or only tangentially related to the living breathing community of "our" people. Solitude is a blessing. Isolation can make us ill.
Photo: © Ann Cahill - County Clare, Ireland - 2007
From Blessed John O'Donohue....
Solitude is one of the most precious things in the human spirit. It is different from loneliness. When you are lonely, you become acutely conscious of your own separation. Solitude can be a homecoming to your own deepest belonging. One of the lovely things about us as individuals is the incommensurable in us. In each person, there is a point of absolute nonconnection with everything else and with everyone. This is fascinating and frightening. It means that we cannot continue to seek outside ourselves for things we need from within. The blessings for which we hunger are not to be found in other places or people. These gifts can only be given to you by yourself. They are at home at the hearth of your soul.
Excerpt from his book, Anam Cara, 25th Anniversary Edition. Ordering Info: https://johnodonohue.com/anam-cara
Sunday, May 19, 2024
Wednesday, May 1, 2024
Annual Clergy Retreat - The Episcopal Diocese of SC
Just returned from our annual Clergy Retreat and it was a fine time. The average age of our clergy is decreasing and the joy among us is increasing. TBTG!