
You’re No Jack Kennedy Or Army Major General Charles Rogers
Senator Lloyd Benson never resided at Number One Observatory Circle, the official residence of the vice president of the United States.
His 1988 vice presidential debate opponent, Senator James Danforth (“Dan”) Quayle did.
There Remains Only One Course: That I Die
True story…
One of my absolutely closest and most cherished (a far better word than “prized” or “special,” because, for me, it means I “carry him in my heart”) friends was kicked out of the prayer service the night before my father’s funeral.
His crime?
Crying too loudly.
The Formula For Peace Is Simple
Some introductions just don’t come easily.
Others can become an almost-fulltime task.
We’ll try to simplify this one.
A son of Syracuse, New York and immigrant parents from Ukraine, Borys Gudziak ain’t no academic slouch.
Katyn Forest Massacre
“Your ‘yes’ to God requires a ‘no’
to all injustice, to all evil, to all lies,
to all oppression and violation
of the weak and poor.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Memento Mori!
By telling the tale, Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.) taught the lesson in his Politics:
It is anomalous that wealth should be of such a kind that a man may be well supplied with it and yet die of hunger…
These – The World’s Sick, Poor And Oppressed – Are The Treasure!
“Stop and think...”
Our father’s voice echoes through the decades.
They may have been preceded by “Did you bother to…”
And followed by “before you open your mouth” or “before you do something foolish.” (He’d probably say “stupid.”)
The Rabbi And The Pope
The quote struck like a thunderclap…
And we’ll return to it quickly.
Looking for an explanation for why we write AuthenticHealers, we thought of Rabbi Asher Finkel…
Hey Skipper
I don’t remember my father ever speaking with me about my eleven days as a political prisoner in Chile’s infamous Estadio Nacional or that I had been told that “in fifteen minutes” I would be put “in front of a firing squad.”
Kyrie Eleison! Christie Eleison! Kyrie Eleison!
“A church that doesn’t provoke any crises,
preach a gospel that doesn’t unsettle,
proclaim a word of God
that doesn’t get under anyone’s skin,
a word of God that does not touch the real sin
of the society in which it is proclaimed –
what gospel is that?
Very nice, pious considerations that don't bother anyone,
that's the way many would like preaching to be.
Those preachers who avoid every thorny matter
so as not to be harassed,
so as not to have conflicts and difficulties,
do not light up the world they live in.”
Bishop Oscar Romero, Saint and Martyr
The Violence of Love
Truly Sobadenated Clyante
In governance and international diplomacy, life is never as simple as badly punctuated (and improperly capitalized) blathering posts would have some people believe.
History and context are as important as knowing what the hell you’re talking about.
Here’s context.
Permission To Die? Go, My Child!
The final scene is so brutal, so disturbing, so beyond words that it grabs you by the throat and puts such weight on your chest that, for fifteen minutes, it is almost impossible to breathe.
The Lessons Of A Little League Coach, A Navy Nurse And “Chaps”
There’s a problem – actually, many – in teetering on the edge of eighty and half-a-century as a priest: We tend to think of the now-grown folks we’ve worked with in counseling or as altar servers as “kids.”
We All Belong To God
Goshen, Indiana native and Maryknoll Missioner, Father Bob McCahill
has lived and served in Bangladesh since 1984.
Every three years, he moves to a new village
and resumes his mission of helping obtain medical help
for the poorest of God’s poor – especially children,
often carrying them on his bicycle to hospitals or doctors
whom he miraculously conscripts into this service.
The following is an edited version
of his 2024 Christmas letter to family and friends.
The Lessons of the Flower Angel
For more than thirty years and as a Christmas gift to his family and friends, Father Skip wrote original short stories as his Christmas homilies. We hope you will accept this whimsical gift from 2008 in the spirit in which it is offered.
Ooye Gooye Mangoes And Saint Francis A Gaudete Sunday Gift
For more than thirty years and as a gift to family and friends, Father Flynn wrote short stories for his Christmas Eve homilies. This Sunday, December 15, is celebrated as Gaudete – “Rejoice” – Sunday in the Anglican/Episcopalian and Roman Catholic, Lutheran and some other Protestant Churches.
Please accept this story from 2018 as a Gaudete Sunday or early Christmas gift.
The Heebie-Jeebies, Jitters And Apoplectic Willies
Please keep it a secret.
Just between you and us.
If Florida’s governor and the charming Mom’s Against the Freedom to Learn and Think (including the Sarasota politica and her politico husband who were accused of three-soming; he – the one-time Florida Republican chair - was also accused of sexual assault/rape) hear about it, they might develop carpal tune syndrome while pearl-clutching.
America’s Own Ministry For The Propagation Of Virtue And The Prevention Of Vice
Whoa!
Is he kidding?!?!?
‘Cause news outta a Texas roadhouse “church” is…
It’s wackadoodle Taliban-esque.
Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid!
Somebody’s gotta say it.
So, we will. (And we’re repeating ourselves.)
We don’t want to go back to a 1950s-style America.
Then Comes Wisdom Through The Awful Grace Of God
Sometimes I need to explain my punctuation.
Happily (I hope), I learned better-than-average punctuation and grammar from the good Sisters at Epiphany School. Nonetheless, there are times when I depart – not without reason – from the “correct.”
Do You Know The Country Without Freedom?
For the moment, we have dropped seven words from the following quote.
“Do you know the country without freedom,
the country of terror and tyranny?
Yes, you know it well, but are afraid to talk about it.
They have intimidated you to such an extent
that you don't dare talk for fear of reprisals.
Yes you are right…
Through their unscrupulous terror tactics
against young and old, men and women,
they have succeeded in making you
spineless puppets to do their bidding.”
Helmuth Hubener