I Desire to Desire to be a Saint

I DESIRE TO DESIRE TO BE A SAINT Sainthood can seem an unattainable dream when we think of ourselves as candidates. The daily experience of our moral fragility and weakness can appear to put to rest any notion of such an exalted aim. But to accept that is to buy...

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Love Demands Love

LOVE DEMANDS LOVE  It can seem a strange proposition to command someone to love you. Our experience is that we either fall in love whether we want to or not, or else love blossoms as the result of kinship or other social ties. If someone came up to you and...

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Right and Wrong, not right and left!

During my own missionary globetrotting, I saw that missionaries often met with tension from the local public authorities. This is especially so when they are engaged in works like education, health and the care of the poor. In poorer countries, the state can envy missionary-run schools and hospitals, not just...

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On Mission to Caesar

ON MISSION TO CAESAR  With his words about Caesar and God, Jesus, the first to do so in history, separated religion from state. It is Christ who commands us to keep these two separate. The state is secular, i.e. it deals with the organization and administration of our earthly affairs,...

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Christ Above and In Creation

CHRIST ABOVE AND IN CREATION   Jesus berates the religious leaders of his time for failing to produce fruit at the proper time for the “owner of the vineyard”, his heavenly Father. Jesus angrily concludes his words by telling them that they will be dispossessed of the vineyard and it...

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