Dec 13, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
Persons who know me know I am a fan of Charles Schultz and his Peanut cartoons. He is an inciteful lay theologian. I don’t know anyone who perceives and probes the world of children and garners from it such great truth and wisdom as he in his Peanut cartoons. One...
Dec 6, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
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...
Nov 29, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
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...
Nov 22, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
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...
Nov 15, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
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...
Nov 7, 2021 | Pondering and Kindling
On the Christian calendar November 1 is celebrated as “All Saints Day.” The practice began in the 4th century to commemorate the martyrs who had died for the faith. Over time, it developed as a celebration of all the saints of the church, whether known or unknown. In...