One of my favorite saints, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Flower, often wrote of appearing before God with empty hands, both from the standpoint of having used all of the graces and opportunities to do good works but, also, perhaps, as an expression of intrinsic humility in that we can never fully do enough […]
Reaching Eyes A hand reaches out, with eyes behind and yet I may not glance, to avoid the dance of charity not felt for I am a judge in motion ever ready to drop my gavel deciding who is true or false when in reality it is I who should be the first defendant resplendent […]
Your Will I reach For Your Will But I only wave my will instead I seek Your Answers But my answers are the ones I choose I ask For Your Help Yet I insist on telling You what that help should be I decide Your credit Yet I only credit You when […]
The Story and Its Reminders We have all heard the story of the woman caught in adultery who fell before Jesus at the point of being stoned under Mosaic law ( John 8:1-11). First, we know that those who brought this woman before Jesus were not really interested in the law, compassion, forgiveness or, for […]
One of the most perplexing puzzles in human salvation is the confrontation between taking salvation and sin seriously on one hand and, yet, feeling an almost insurmountable uselessness in one’s daily effort to save one’s soul on the other. The paradox is clear: we have to take salvation seriously, but the more seriously we take […]
