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Disturbed

I’ve been stewing on this for days now. Unsure of what to say, and how to say it. Last Sunday, the pastor at my church, St. Elizabeth Seton in Carmel penned a bulletin article which was also published online that spoke of the leaders of the various Black Lives Matter protests as “maggots and parasites”, among other things. While his intent and the points he made may have had some validity – his tone and choice of words was significantly flawed, insensitive, and downright wrong.

But that is why I am not disturbed.

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Sunday, 12/24/17 – The Ultimate House

David has a great idea!  I can see Him sitting in His palace with Nathan, maybe over some wine, looking out at the vineyards below and suddenly David blurts out – “I got it! I’m going to build God a house!”  Nathan’s like, “Yeah, OK. Well, do what’s in your heart and God will be with you.”

God speaks to David through Nathan and is like, wait, what?

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Into the Fire

I was on my way home from work one day, and I was stopped, sitting at a stoplight. The evening was bright and sunny, one of those cloudless blue sky days. I was just listening to the radio and all of a sudden I hear sirens and a horn blaring. From the opposite direction comes a fire engine, enroute to a fire or an accident somewhere.

As the truck is passing by, I’m watching it and I look in the rear of the cab, behind the driver where the rest of the firefighters are. They’re busy, putting on gear, layer after layer. I catch a glimpse of this one fireman, on the side of the truck closest to me – he’s young and I can tell he’s fit, well trained. And he too is busy, putting on his gear. Continue reading “Into the Fire”

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Puddles

I love running with my son Joseph. I love coaching him in cross-country, and I love it when he chooses to run with me when I go out for my runs. Sometimes in the past, he would get so upset, and I would get so frustrated if he didn’t try his best, but I’ve worked through that. A wise woman (my wife) told me once, that some days, he just needs his dad, not his coach. I’ve taken that to heart…

And now, he really wants to be out there with me. He wants to get better, and faster. But yet, I’m still going to be his dad first, coach second. I want him to have fun, and love running for life. I’m going to use running though. I’m going to use it to teach him virtues and discipline in life, and use it as time to bond. But I also know that he will teach me so much more.

Today, its about puddles.

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Traveling the Lesser Road – Reboot

We could all take the easy road. And more often than not – we do. Usually, we’re looking for that path of least resistence in life, that comfortable paved road that we’ve driven a thousand times that we know like the back of our hand. We want things faster, cheaper, and easier. We want an “App” for everything, and we want it now! On the surface that’s not a bad thing. Efficiency is good.  But when does efficiency turn into complacency? When does comfort turn into laziness? When does it begin to control us?

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Final Thoughts On Our Pilgrimage

As we were driving into Indiana last night, it was after the sun had went down over the horizon, but the colorful splendor of its’ setting was filling the western sky with a beautiful, warm glow. There were clouds overhead, but there was a break just before the horizon, almost as if a curtain was being dropped on the day. As we continued towards Indianapolis – towards home – the curtain of clouds kept dropping lower and lower, but the glow of the setting sun still shown a little until when we got home.

It was as if God was lifting up the curtain, peaking under, making sure we were making it home OK, until when we got off at the 116th Street exit, he let the curtain fall on this pilgrimage as if to say, welcome home. Job well done, my good and faithful servant.

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World Meeting of Families – Papal Mass: Speechless

I don’t know what to say. As special as yesterday was in seeing Pope Francis up close, today was 100 times better. And the Papal Mass was simply amazing. It was the most spiritual and special and peaceful and beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. I’m not sure I can put it into words right now what today meant, and what we felt. So a lot of this post may be random thoughts. I’ll be able to put some more elegant thoughts and words together after my 10 hour drive home tomorrow. 🙂

We got there early today, and after shuffling around found a perfect spot right at 21st street and Ben Franklin Parkway. The crowds were sooo much bigger today, and people were crowding in. But we had our spot by the fence in prime position for the Papal parade on Pope Francis’ way to celebrate Mass. And when he got to us, he stopped, right in front of us and the secret service brought two babies out of the crowd, one right over my son and the Pope kissed them!  Just a beautiful and amazing sight.

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Festival of Families – Love and Energy

Wow! I am exhausted, so todays post is going to be a bit of a short one…:) And besides, I’m still processing the day, and it’s hard to write it all out right now, so a lot more will come out at a later time. But we started the day early. We were up and out of the hotel at 9:30am and walked to the Cathedral where the Pope was celebrating Mass. We waited for over an hour for him to come out, but he must have snuck out a side door because we did not see him. But the energy and the atmosphere was amazing!  During the Mass, they showed the Mass on large jumbo-trons and we listened to it over the speakers, and in quite a stunning moment during the Gospel Acclamation, some of the clouds moved out of the way and a circular rainbow showed around the sun, and lasted for the duration of Mass. Truly the Holy Spirit was looking down on the day!

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World Meeting of Families – Day 4: Security

When we walked out of the hotel this morning to head to the convention center, it was a different city. Many of the downtown streets were void of traffic, concrete barriers at both ends. We walked a block, and we saw more barriers. We turned north on our normal route to the convention center and were told we had to go through a secure checkpoint. We got through the security and there were just a scattering of people, but then an important looking figure and his entourage walked up to us – Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. He made a beeline for the 3 of us and asked, “Did you just come through there?  How was it?”  And then he proceeded to talk to us, ask us where we were from, and talk to Joseph about school. When he asked Joseph his name, Mayor Nutter said, “Joseph, that’s my Confirmation name!”  Finally he told us a bit about City Hall which loomed in the distance, and then he gave us three commemorative coins for the Papal visit with the City Hall and the City’s seal on the back.

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World Meeting of Families – Day 3: New Evangelization in HD!

Busy day today… We drove in for the first time (took the train the other days) and were able to check into our hotel in the morning. We are at 17th and Chestnut St. – near the epicenter of all that will be happening this weekend. The busyness in downtown Philadelphia is increasing by the moment as the City prepares for Pope Francis. Add to that the excitement the Pope already being in D.C. and now New York and the anticipation has only further increased. People are flocking into the City in droves now, from every direction. Vendors on the streets selling souvenirs, the faithful seeing the sites, it is truly a great scene.

But with all the excitement and anticipation – the reason the Pope is coming here, the reason he has come to this country, in light of what others may say, is because of this World Meeting of Families.

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