Innovate~Educate~Collaborate

Tag: congregations

  • Reflections: 5 June 2019

    “God is the unconditional love and forgiveness that Jesus reveals, but God is also the energy that lies at the base of everything that is.” – Ron Rolheiser, OMI We often forget that God loves us way before we ever come to meet God. The Greater Good in life is achieved with action. The price…

  • Reflections: 27 May 2019

    “The saints are what they are, not because of their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the gift of sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else.” -Thomas Merton The gift of sainthood is the acceptance, recognition, and belief in the Universal Christ. Because we meet the Living God in the…

  • GRACE, HISTORY, and CHRIST

    “The only really absolute mysteries in Christianity are the self-communication of God in the depths of existence, which we call GRACE, and in HISTORY we call CHRIST.” – Karl Rahner, SJ As I fed the birds this morning four enormous rabbits showed up and ate with the birds side by side, no fear of each…

  • Seminarians

    As we come to the close of another academic year, and just a few months away from the start of another, the question comes to my mind:  How do we as non-clerical and clerical people of God, understand our 3R’s; Roles, Responsibilities, and Relationships to seminary education? What do we or can we do to…

  • Our world is all about ourselves

    Our world is all about ourselves. The journey of the Disciple is to make it all about the Universal Christ. We rarely discern God’s will among the nitty-gritty of daily life, (at least I know I haven’t) and we often make spirituality more difficult for ourselves along the journey. How often have we misunderstood our…

  • God Speaks to Us….Are We Listening?

    The Second Vatican Council’s third major category is called ‘Revelation‘. Not only through scripture but also through tradition and history. In the documents, there is an emphasis on scripture. The Latin rite history was less accustomed to placing emphasis on scripture than on canon law. Revelations, if you think about it is God speaking to…

  • Missional Church, Discipleship & ‘Hassle Maps’

    Let’s face it: All too often, our quest for discipleship and creating a missional church is a succession of hassles. There’s an endless stream of frustrations, inconveniences, complications, disappointments, and potential disasters lurking in most of our daily experiences in re-missioning and creating discipleship. We all have our ‘preferred’ methodology for creating discipleship and a…

  • Lumen Gentium Are you still with us?

    DOGMATIC CONSTITUTION ON THE CHURCH:  LUMEN GENTIUM. “Thus, the Church has been seen as ‘a people made one with the unity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.'(4*).” Many scholars believe this document, Lumen Gentium (Light for the Nations) is likely one of the most important. Christ is light for all the nations,…

  • Liturgy…Vatican II ….. Still Relevant?

    Pope Francis said: “The Catholic Church must continue to work to understand the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council and why they were made, rather than rethinking them.” As we look at what was at the heart of Vatican II regarding liturgy, let’s keep in mind what Pope Francis said: “The liturgy is life…

  • Vatican II. Are you there?

    This blog and subsequent blogs for the next few weeks, that I will write, will center on the Documents of Vatican II. An event in the Catholic Church with attendance and participation by mainline protestant denominations back in the 1960s. John XXIII, a pope, chosen because many believed, at the time he would be a…