Archive | February 2017
You are browsing the site archives by date.
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Dear Friends, Ash Wednesday is upon us once again. Easter is late this year on Sunday, April 16th, So, you may ask ~ what’s this Ashes thing” We Catholics like symbols. (So does Harry Potter.) What are ashes about? What can they tell us about life? And death? And reality? When the priest smears ashes […]
Carnival ~ Letting our hair down before Lent begins
Dear Sisters and Brothers, Well, this week the Big Easy and Rio have one thing in common ~ one huge party. And what is so interesting it’s very Catholic. It’s a time to let your hair down before the strike of midnight on Ash Wednesday when we Catholics fast and abstain from meat on Ash […]
About Presidents and security and . . . You never know . . .
Today is Presidents’ Day. It’s always celebrated on the third Monday of February, but it originally was meant to mark George Washington’s birthday on the 22nd. It’s come to honor all presidents, past and present. We’ve had some great ones, and some turkeys too, as some of us of various political persuasion will argue over […]
True love is faithful love ~ in God’s love
Flagler Beach Florida sunrise / bob traupman. HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY, EVERYONE! We’ve been reflecting on St. Paul’s eloquent words about love from I Cor. 13. And this is my final post on the subject. Love is not pompous, it is not inflated,it does not seek its own interests, […]
What is Love? (or the Man from Tennessee)
Dear Friends and Lovers everywhere, I had a delightful conversation with these two good people from Tennessee a few summers ago while I was living in St. Augustine. They were sitting on the curb behind the Village Inn Restaurant. The conversation began with a polite reprimand to the dude for throwing a cigarette butt on […]
Love transforms us
Dear Friends, We’ve been talking about St. Paul’s Ode to Love (1 Corinthians 13) ~ the awesome love that transforms. But many of us don’t know how to love in a way that transforms because we’re more interested in getting love than giving it. So, let’s think about that for a moment. Many young folks in our society have […]
Jilted lovers ~ or Joyous love?
mesa verde national park of southern colorado / march 2008 / bob traupman. Dear Sisters and Brothers, Our society finds it quite acceptable for people to hop into one relationship after another or just satisfy their needs by”hooking up”. How many times have young people thought that this was the person of their dreams and been […]
St. Paul’s Ode to Love ~ How do we measure up?
Many of us are thinking of our Valentine’s these days — our lovers, intend-eds, spouses, classmates, mothers and also spouses remembering their deceased loved ones. Hallmark would encourage us to “send the very best.” And the marketeers would like to get their greedy fingers on our credit cards for this one-day holiday, wouldn’t they? […]
A Light for the Nations ~ and me and you too!
The Feast of the Presentation of the Lord in the Temple ~ February 2, 2017 I’ve always loved this feast day. It marks the old conclusion of the Christmas season—forty days after Christmas. The second reason is that it also marked the anniversary of my AA sobriety. So, today the Church celebrates the feast of […]
