I still get the weekly bulletin from St. Johns in DC. It began: “Many in our parish have been affected by the recent layoff of Federal workers. Some have already lost their jobs, and some are in fear of losing their jobs. Many of our fellow congregants are seeing their lives and livelihoods turned upside…
Gather And Return
Then I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. — Jeremiah 23:3. Jeremiah’s promise in 23:3 speaks of a shepherd’s heart yearning to gather the scattered remnants of his…
Compassion — Part II
Henry Nouwen’s reflections on compassion stayed with me yesterday and this morning, echoing a persistent unease about its absence in our current leadership. The shift is stark: where once compassion guided policy, now toughness and retribution reign. A fear of appearing “weak” seems to drive a culture of insensitivity, a far cry from the nuanced…
Compassion
Here we see what compassion means. It is not a bending toward the underprivileged from a privileged position; it is not a reaching out from on high to those who are less fortunate below; it is not a gesture of sympathy or pity for those who fail to make it in the upward pull. On…
A Struggle We All Know
“For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” (Romans 7:19). In these words, St. Paul beautifully captures a struggle we all know: that feeling of wanting to do good, yet finding ourselves falling short. It’s not that we don’t know what’s right; rather,…