Advent: Exercising Good Stewardship of Our Spiritual Lives
When you say the word “Advent,” what immediately pops into mind? A feast of color, atraditional manger scene bathed in soft candlelight, glistening snowflakes falling on festive trees,a yearning for the One who is to come. But sometimes, the season brings other images: crowded stores, treats that tempt us to toomany calories, limitless to-do and …
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Transform November into a Month of Thanksgiving
Very soon Americans will celebrate the Thanksgiving holidays; a time where so much is devoted to sumptuous meals highlighted by turkey and pumpkin pie, traveling to and from the ancestral home, enjoying family, feasting on leftovers, seeing a Thanksgiving Day parade and watching football. For many of us, Thanksgiving Day is so full of activity …
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Stewardship of Leisure Time: Refreshing Our Spirits
The anticipated number of travelers on the highways and in airports for the first week of July is a hopeful sign that people are “catching their breath” and beginning to wind down and relax a little. Those in the mental health fields argue that because of the stress and anxiety in our daily lives we …
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Pray for the Men in Our Lives This Father’s Day
This month Father’s Day is celebrated on Sunday, June 16. Father’s Day is one of these “one-size-fits-all” holidays that can be joyful for some, stressful for others. Not everyone had a storybook relationship with dear old Dad. Some still grieve a departed father. Others are just joining the ranks of fatherhood and stepping with trepidation …
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Stewardship Reflection
Good Stewards Avoid “Compassion Fatigue” One of the spiritual maladies Christians face today is “compassion fatigue.” The media inundates us with details of disasters, natural and made, far and wide. We can’t turn on the television without being assailed by news stories of another event that cries to us for help, and our mailboxes are …
Good Stewards Avoid “Compassion Fatigue”
One of the spiritual maladies Christians face today is “compassion fatigue.” The media inundates us with details of war, hunger, poverty and disasters, both natural and human-manufactured, all over the globe. We can’t turn on the television or digital media without being assailed by news stories of another event that cries to us for help, …
Stewardship in the New Year: Making Commitments to the Lord
Stewardship is a commitment of mind and heart to the Lord; a way of life that needsconstant renewal and transformation. This time of year has always been one of lookingforward to a new year, reflecting on the changes we need to make in our lives andresolving to follow through on those changes. Perhaps those who …
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Good Stewards Live the Beatitudes
At the beginning of his famous commentary on the Sermon on the Mount, Saint Augustine maintains that: “If anyone piously and earnestly ponders the Discourse which Our Lord Jesus Christ delivered on the Mount – as we read the Gospel According to Matthew – I believe that he will find therein, with regard to good …
Advent – A Season of Hope
Advent is a time of waiting and expectation; a season of quiet anticipation and preparation. We are waiting for our Lord to come into the world as the baby Jesus, born of the Virgin Mary in Bethlehem. We are also preparing for His return, His second coming as the shepherd-king, to restore harmony and right …