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We should be more surprising. My hope is that at some point I’ll be able to reflect on the Gospel of John without complaining. We’re only on chapter 3, so I’ve got time, which is good, because this is not that reflection. I happened to be watching Oceans 12, which was not as good as
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Can we see clearly without being a little disappointed? Can God? So let’s Bible. The back half of John’s second chapter is hard to figure. After the wedding at Cana, Jesus goes straight to Jerusalem for the Passover (which he will do three times in John’s gospel, whereas the Synoptics only have Jesus entering Jerusalem
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There’s a funny misunderstanding in the life of St. Francis of Assisi that I got a new insight to during our recent retreat. You might know Francis’ story. He was praying in a little, rundown, abandoned church in the valley below Assisi, and the painting of Jesus on the crucifix spoke to him, by his
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Get to? Or Have to? I think it was Bert and John Jacobs, in their book about their clothing brand Life is Good, who first flagged for me the fundamental difference in mindset that happens when we say we get to do something compared to when we say we have to do something. Think about
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So I need to start by telling you about what I learned from the fly. The Cathedral of San Rufino in Assisi, Italy, was built in the 12th century, but the interior is a mishmash of styles, all beautiful and extravagant. Except, just to the left of the main altar, there is a tiny little
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This is my favorite tree, and I took several photos of it, none of which do it justice. It’s in the middle of a well-manicured garden that was right outside our window. The trees around it are just like trees I would draw: straight line trunk, branches all straight at roughly the same acute angle,
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Don’t let the sheer quantity here deceive you. I am not a writer. I mean, I write. It’s not that I’m illiterately dictating to people with laptops who encircle me. I write a lot, for work, in emails that are generally boring and longer than necessary. Not unlike here. But I have friends who are
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My first reflection on what will be a very slow walk through John came during the Easter season, which is the time of year when the Church uses John as the gospel at mass. I had said then, at the beginning of this, that I don’t much like John’s gospel. So it surprised me a
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When Betsy was an infant, I would sing Jiminy Cricket’s “When You Wish Upon a Star” to her as a lullaby each night. And (sometimes) the last line is right. Betsy has grown up at Walt Disney World, charming (as a toddler) and befriending (as a teenager) performers and other cast members and learning the
Reading Francis 