“What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” (Ps. 116:12-14, NIV) In this passage, the Psalmist was in the...
An article in the November 16 Commercial Appeal had this headline that immediately captured my attention: After guilty plea, student to gets released to treatment program. The story was about a student, during Juvenile Court hearing, pleading guilty of shooting a...
“When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, ‘Were not our hearts burning within us while he...
Rudyard Kipling’s poem, “Recessional” was composed on the occasion of Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897. The poem expresses pride in the British Empire, but also an underlying sadness that the Empire might go the way of all previous empires. I was recently...
“Be still and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in all the earth.” (Psalms 10:10, NIV) Bernard of Clairvaux was born in France in 1091; with every educational advantage, he showed great promise. His all-out commitment to God...
The headline of the lead article immediately grabbed my attention. Our Memphis daily newspaper, The Commercial Appeal, shouted in large black letters: The US has no Black Catholic saints. Could a future one be buried in Memphis? (10-17-21) The picture accompanying the...
“Pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17-18, ESV) Evelyn Underhill wrote, “A man of prayer is not necessarily a person who says a number of offices, or abounds in detailed...
Not long ago, I went through two or three weeks of difficulty sleeping. One evening, in the closet where I prepare for bed, I found a small placard hanging in a very obvious place, “Don’t Count Sheep; Talk to the Shepherd.” That’s SO, Jerry.” Jerry is my wife, nothing...
“For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many...