The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 388

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also cross-post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 17 November 2021 to 1 December 2021.

Angelus

Apostolic Letter

General Audiences

Messages

Papal Tweets

  • “Let us not to forget to thank God. If we are bearers of gratitude, the world itself will become better, even if only a little bit, but that is enough to transmit a bit of hope. Everything is united and connected, and each one can do their part wherever they are. #Thanksgiving” @Pontifex, 25 November 2021
  • “The prayer of adoration is the prayer that makes us recognize God as the beginning and the end of all of History. And this prayer is the living flame of the Spirit that gives strength to witness and to mission.” @Pontifex, 26 November 2021
  • “Let us be fearless amid the messy situations all around us, because that is where the Lord is, in our midst; God continues to perform his miracle of bringing forth good fruit (Jn 15:5). Christian joy is born precisely of this certainty.” @Pontifex, 27 November 2021
  • “I thank all those who are committed to alleviating their suffering. Let us remember migrants, their suffering and #PrayTogether.” @Pontifex, 28 November 2021
  • “I feel sorrow thinking about those who died crossing the English Channel, those on the borders of Belarus, many of whom are children, those who drown in the Mediterranean, those who are repatriated to North Africa and forced into servitude.” @Pontifex, 28 November 2021
  • “Even during these days so many migrants are exposed to very serious dangers, and so many lose their lives at our borders!” @Pontifex, 28 November 2021
  • “In the #GospelOfTheDay, Jesus exhorts us to be vigilant: not to allow our hearts to become lazy. We cannot be ”sleepy Christians“ without spiritual fervor, with our intensity in prayer, without passion for the Gospel.” @Pontifex, 28 November 2021
  • “Our life becomes beautiful when we wait for a dear one or someone important. May this #Advent help us transform our hope into the certainty that He whom we await loves us and will never abandon us.” @Pontifex, 28 November 2021
  • “Service makes our talents bear fruit and gives meaning to our lives. Those who do not live to serve, serve for little in this life.” @Pontifex, 29 November 2021
  • “Let us #PrayTogether for catechists, called to announce the Word of God: that they may be courageous and creative witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit. #PrayerIntention” @Pontifex, 30 November 2021
  • “Today is World #AIDS day. Let us #PrayTogether for the many people who are affected by this syndrome. In some areas of the world, access to the necessary treatment is not available for many of them. Let us commit ourselves to guarantee fair and effective health care.” @Pontifex, 1 December 2021
  • “It’s often difficult to move from the logic of falling in love to the logic of mature love. To love is not the pretension that life should correspond to our imagination. Rather, it means to choose in complete freedom to take responsibility for life as it comes.” @Pontifex, 1 December 2021
  • “Tomorrow I will go to Cyprus and Greece to visit the dear populations of these countries rich in history, spirituality and civilization. It will be a journey to the sources of apostolic faith and fraternity among Christians of various confessions. Accompany me with your prayer!” @Pontifex, 1 December 2021

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A brief Advent reflection
Liturgy

A brief Advent reflection

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I wrote the following when requested by my Carmelite group to write something about the history of Advent and my own brief reflection on it.

(Etymology: Latin adventus, a coming, approach, arrival.)

According to the General Norms for the Liturgical Year and the Calendar

Advent has a twofold character: as a season to prepare for Christmas when Christ’s first coming to us is remembered; as a season when that remembrance directs the mind and heart to await Christ’s Second Coming at the end of time. Advent is thus a period for devout and joyful expectation.

Officially Advent is not a penitential season according to Canon law. Because the liturgical color for Advent is violet, like the color of Lent, people might think that it is.

First, I will give a brief history of the season of Advent. Advent’s earliest form started in France and developed parallel to Lenten disciplines with periods of fasting. Then, similar traditions began to be acquired elsewhere. A liturgical season in preparation for Christmas did not fully appear in Rome until the sixth century, emphasizing preparation for Christmas over a penitential aspect. Over the next four centuries, the liturgy season developed as to only having four Sundays and being set as the start of the Church year.

My reflection on this season is to think of both expectation and God’s hiddenness. We are blessed with knowing the spoiler alert of the Incarnation. That we lose the surprise, shock, and wonder that God would come to us as a baby. Our Advent season condenses the time from the protoevangelium in Genesis 3:15 of the coming Messiah and through all of Israel’s history until a child is born unto us. That is a lot to draw on and to pack in.

All those generations that lived and died trusting in God’s promise. All those that awaited the day amidst the turmoil of the world. The internal and external battles. Yet when the promise of that day arrived, God was hidden in a manger known to so few. A hiddenness that could only be revealed by humility. Mary’s fiat, Joseph’s justness and faithfulness, those men of a humble profession being shepherds. The world went on around them as if nothing had changed, yet everything had.

We still live our lives, forgetting this basic fact that Jesus had come to save every one of us.

Jesus would later tell his disciples:

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.”

Are we silent enough to be able to pray with loving attentiveness to be able to see? To be able to hear that still small voice. To use our time for preparation in contemplating on the wonder of the Incarnation? Or do we lose ourselves in busyness?

God keeps coming to us in hiddenness. Through the Eucharist, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, through the Mass, all the graces he would shower on us.

How do we shape our expectations? Do we limit what God could do like those who saw the coming Messiah as a political power in an earthly kingdom? But, on the other hand, are we willing to let him surprise us with the gifts he wants to give us? How much detachment, humility, and love have we cultivated to allow him to do this?

I am preaching to myself here, and I am not pleased with the answers that come to mind. The point of expectation is knowing we are not yet at the moment we want to be. It is a gift to know this about ourselves and to know who is the fulfillment of our desires.

“I see clearly that if we expect to please Him and receive an abundance of His graces, God desires that these graces must come to us from the hands of Christ, through His most Sacred Humanity, in which God takes delight.” St. Teresa of Jesus

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Chesterton and Thanksgiving
Punditry

Chesterton and Thanksgiving

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I want to be able to emulate G.K. Chesterton’s charism of gratitude.

“I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.” (A Short History of England » Ch. 6: The Age of the Crusades)

“And they specially affected one idea; which I hope it is not pompous to call the chief idea of my life; I will not say the doctrine I have always taught, but the doctrine I should always have liked to teach. That is the idea of taking things with gratitude, and not taking things for granted.” (Autobiography, XVI.—The God with the Golden Key)

“You say grace before meals. All right. But I say grace before the concert and the opera, and grace before the play and pantomime, and grace before I open a book, and grace before sketching, painting, swimming, fencing, boxing, walking, playing, dancing and grace before I dip the pen in the ink.” (early notebook, mid 1890s)*

“The test of all happiness is gratitude; and I felt grateful, though I hardly knew to whom. Children are grateful when Santa Claus puts in their stockings gifts of toys or sweets. Could I not be grateful to Santa Claus when he put in my stockings the gift of two miraculous legs? We thank people for birthday presents of cigars and slippers. Can I thank no one for the birthday present of birth?” (Orthodoxy, “The Ethics of Elfland”

Note: Often you see the above quote with “God” substituted for “Santa Clause.”

Plus this zinger:

“The Americans have established a Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the fact that the Pilgrim Fathers reached America. The English might very well establish another Thanksgiving Day to celebrate the happy fact that the Pilgrim Fathers left England.” (Chesterton in America “And What about the Quakers?”)

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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 387

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also cross-post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 15 October 2021 to 24 November 2021.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “Dear young people, if our world is to arise, it needs your strength, your enthusiasm, your passion! Message” @Pontifex, 19 November 2021
  • “Child labor is the exploitation of children. It is the denial of their rights to health, education, harmonious growth, to play, to dream. It means robbing children of their future, and therefore, humanity itself.” @Pontifex, 19 November 2021
  • “Today Christ’s invitation to Paul is directed to every one of you young people: Get up! Do not remain on the ground ”feeling sorry for yourself“. There’s a mission waiting for you! You too can testify to what Jesus has begun to accomplish in you.” @Pontifex, 20 November 2021
  • “The way we relate to children, the extent to which we respect their innate human dignity and fundamental rights, expresses what kind of adults we are and want to be, and what kind of society we want to build. #WorldChildrensDay” @Pontifex, 20 November 2021
  • “It is my hope and prayer that each of you can joyfully say: “With Jesus, I too am a king”. I too reign: as a living sign of the love of God, of his compassion and his tenderness. #ChristTheKing Homily” @Pontifex, 21 November 2021
  • “Dear young friends! Be free and authentic, be the critical conscience of society. Be passionate about truth, so that, with your dreams, you can say: “My life is not captive to the mindset of the world: I am free, because I reign with Jesus for justice, love and peace!” #WYD” @Pontifex, 21 November 2021
  • “The kingship of Jesus is completely different than that of the world: He did not come to dominate but to serve. He did not come amid signs of power, but with the power of signs. He is not like other kings, but he is King for the others. #ChristTheKing” @Pontifex, 21 November 2021
  • “If we put the #Gospel at the centre and bear witness to it with fraternal love, we will be able to look to the future with hope, whatever the tempests, great or small, we may experience today.” @Pontifex, 22 November 2021
  • “Love rejoices in seeing others grow and suffers when others are anguished, lonely, sick, homeless, despised or in need. Love makes the heart leap; it brings us out of ourselves and creates bonds of sharing and communion.” @Pontifex, 23 November 2021
  • “The Lord puts people who suffer on our path, people who feel alone or have lost their strength and courage. We must know how to recognize them and, with Saint Joseph’s help, become their friends and their support on the journey of life. #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex, 24 November 2021
  • “The joy of the gospel fills the hearts and lives of all who encounter Jesus. Those who accept His offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness and isolation. #EvangeliiGaudium Apostolic Exhortation” @Pontifex, 24 November 2021

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Book Review – “Who Am I, Lord?”
Book Review

Book Review – “Who Am I, Lord?”

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

When I was at this year’s Catholic Answers Conference, I heard Joe Heschmeyer speak on the subject of identity. This talk is based on what he learned while writing Who Am I, Lord?: Finding Your Identity in Christ His speech gave me enough to think about that I picked this book up there.

In part of the introduction, he writes about the years he spent in the seminary before discerning that the priesthood was not his vocation. He reflected on just how much his identity was wrapped up in him being a seminarian. Not an easy process as you lose what you thought was primary regarding your place in life.

His describing this time in his life hit home with me as something I had not fully processed. It seems to me, we each develop a hierarchy of identities. That it is the primary ones, when lost, do the most disruption. For example, as a widower, I have felt unmoored as something fundamental about my identity is lost. That I am “just too old” to have to be discerning what God wants to do with me, as I thought I had it all figured out.

I found a good deal in this book to help me think about this. The subtitle of “Finding Your Identity in Christ” of course, points to the fact that if we place this at the top of our hierarchy of identifications, we will never lose this. We are indeed called to be children of God and can find everything we need in him.

He described the framework of his book as a diptych. The term is usually used regarding “an artwork consisting of two pieces or panels, that together create a singular art piece these can be attached together or presented adjoining each other.” Wikipedia.

In the last chapter, he again discusses this:

Each of the chapters in this book is half of a couplet: Chapter 1 goes with chapter 3, chapter 2 with chapter 4. The point is that each of the identities of Christ that we’ve looked at has a sort of “companion identity within us, and understanding the one helps us to understand the other. But this chapter is coupled with chapter 4, in which we discussed Jesus as Lord and God.

We must take seriously the idea that we are made in God’s image and likeness and keep orienting our lives to this fundamental idea.

This following story he cites, I think, is representative of the points he is making.

An Elder was asked by a certain Soldier if God would forgive a sinner. And he said to him: Tell me, beloved, if your cloak is torn, will you throw it away? The Soldier replied and said: No, I will mend it and put it back on. The elder said to him: If you take care of your cloak, will God not be merciful to His own image? Apophthegmata Patrum (Sayings of the Fathers)

There was much that I highlighted and found useful. I also delighted in his deft use of humor, such as describing natural theology as “CSI: Theology.” I highly recommend this book.

My musings on the subject sparked by this book are to realize just how disordered we have arranged our hierarchy of various identities. Identity politics has placed on top what is mostly the least important aspects of ourselves. For most of us, we need to reassess this and ground our identity in what is timeless and changeless who not just incidentally, loves us!

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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 386

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller
pope-francis2-300x187

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also cross-post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 9 November 2021 to 17 November 2021.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Letters

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “There cannot be a cooperation that generates peace without concrete collective dedication that promotes integral disarmament. #ParisPeaceForum2021” @Pontifex, 11 November 2021
  • “It is time to develop a new form of universal solidarity that is grounded in fraternity, love, and mutual understanding: one that values people over profit, one that seeks new ways to understand development and progress. #COP26![img” @Pontifex, 11 November 2021
  • “Here at the Portiuncula, Saint Francis welcomed Saint Clare, the first brothers, and many poor people who came to him. Hospitality means to open the door, the door of our house and the door of our heart, and to allow the person who knocks to come in.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “It is time to be scandalised once again before the reality of children who are starving, reduced to slavery, tossed about in the water in the aftermath of a shipwreck, innocent victims of every sort of violence.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “It is time for sleeves to be rolled up so dignity can be restored by creating jobs.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “It is time that eyes be opened to see the state of inequality in which many families live.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “It is time that the poor be given back their voice, because for too long their requests have remained unheard.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “It is time that the circle of indifference be broken so as to discover once again the beauty of encounter and dialogue.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “It is time that violence against women cease and that they be respected and not treated like bargaining chips.” @Pontifex, 12 November 2021
  • “We are called to discover Christ in the poor, to lend our voice to their causes, but also to be their friends, to listen to them, to understand them and to welcome the mysterious wisdom that God wants to communicate to us through them. Message” @Pontifex, 13 November 2021
  • “What is it that gives solidity to life, and will never end? Saint Paul tells us: “Love never ends” (1 Cor 13:8).” @Pontifex, 14 November 2021
  • “A person who is generous, helpful, meek, patient, not envious, does not gossip, brag, or lack respect (cf. 1 Cor 13:4–7), this is a person who builds Heaven on earth. That person may not be noticed, and yet, what he or she does will not be lost because good lasts forever.” @Pontifex, 14 November 2021
  • “Let us bring an outlook of hope to our world. Let us bring it with tenderness to the poor, without judging them. For there, with them, is Jesus; because there, in them, is Jesus, who awaits us. #WorldDayOfThePoor Homily” @Pontifex, 14 November 2021
  • “That is the word that makes hope blossom in the world and relieves the suffering of the poor: tenderness. We need to overcome the temptation to be concerned only about our own problems; we need to grow tender before the tragedies of our world, to share its pain.” @Pontifex, 14 November 2021
  • “I am grateful for all the initiatives of solidarity on the occasion of the #WorldDayOfThePoor. I also invite you to repeat the strong moment of witness and prayer that we lived last Friday in Assisi Moments of Prayer – YouTube” @Pontifex, 15 November 2021
  • “Dialogue between members of different religions does not take place simply for diplomacy, courtesy or tolerance. The goal of dialogue is to establish friendship, peace and harmony, to share spiritual and moral values and experiences in a spirit of truth and love. #DayForTolerance” @Pontifex, 16 November 2021
  • “Saint Joseph, you who came from the periphery, help us change our vision and to take care of those persons who are discarded or are on the margins of society. #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex, 17 November 2021

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Book Reviews – Not God’s Type and Tolkien’s Modern Reading
Book Review

Book Reviews – Not God’s Type and Tolkien’s Modern Reading

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

So I have been reading a couple of books from Holly Ordway. I had heard her a couple of times on Catholic programs over the years. First up was her conversion story detailed in Not God’s Type: An Atheist Academic Lays Down Her Arms, which I found very interesting.

There was much in what she wrote that I could relate to from my atheist days.

“Life inside the fortress of atheism was good. I thought I could make sense of the world just as well as, or much better than, the people who claimed to have faith. I didn’t believe in God, but I had a worldview that felt perfectly satisfactory. It wasn’t a particularly cheery view, but I preferred truth over comfort any day.

She relates her love of reading and then how Tolkien’s works changed everything for her. As she says her imagination had been baptized in Middle-earth. It would take some years for this influence to flower.

Reading through this I could not help to think about how I had deprived myself by purposely avoiding Tolkien and Fantasy in general and priding myself on SF as the most realistic. It was only much later fantasy epics played a part in my life, when I wondered why I loved virtuous heroes, while I was not virtuous myself. I think reading Tolkien earlier for me would be like the parable involving rocky soil. It was only on my way in to the Church that I even read the Hobbit and the LotR and it is still flowering in me slowly.

What I found most interesting, regarded her fencing coach Josh and his wife Heidi. Holly seemed to have a hair-trigger when it came to attempts by anybody to evangelize her, to sell her Jesus. Josh was not an evangelizer looking to just put another notch on his Bible Belt. He is a Christian that worked at being good at his job, respecting others, and building relationships. Over years he was there to train her and answer questions as they came up, especially as she started to wonder about religion.

I think many Christians would have scared her off as she started to tentatively ask questions. Josh really seemed to be the perfect person to play such a role in her life and to challenge her as necessary. To show her the intellectual arguments over a period of time.

I was stunned by the very concept that there were rational arguments for the existence of God. Never mind whether I agreed with the arguments or not, the simple fact that Josh said, “Let’s reason this out” rather than “You have to take it on faith” made me want to keep talking.

What’s more, these arguments made frighteningly good sense. I could see, even right there in that casino coffee shop in Reno, Nevada, that they made more sense than I wanted to admit.

This paragraph was one I could totally relate to upon first hearing a summary version of St. Aquinas’ Five Ways of Knowing God. I was stunned by the idea that there were rational arguments for the existence of God.

Her portrayal of Josh gave me a lot to think about and the kind of slow-brew evangelization he practiced. One that was not about him. Holly would not end up joining the church he was part of and she initially became Anglican before coming into the Church. I got no sense from the book that there was any tension regarding this.

Overall this was a very good read. Her writing is so evocative and pulled me into the moments of her life, not just the ones I could directly relate to.

The second of her books I read was Tolkien’s Modern Reading: Middle-earth Beyond the Middle Ages by Word on Fire Academic.

I think the only thing I didn’t like about this book is that the title is a too narrow indicator of the content. Although, this book would be hard to concisely title.

There are a lot of lessons to learn involving this book. Beyond exploding the myth that Tolkien was stuck in the past in many ways and disdained anything modern from books to technology. That in fact he was very-wide read in a wide range of authors and genres. That he was no technophobe. He could enjoy authors he was diametrically opposed to philosophically. I think if there was a contest where you had to match up books and authors that Tolkien enjoyed or disproved of, most of us would lose terribly.

This book also reinforced to me the idea that you just can’t snapshot people. To get an idea of them from just one period or instant of time. Tolkien was quite capable of reassessing an opinion he previously had regarding a book. So much has been made of various comments he made on other’s works, including his friend C.S. Lewis, that needed more context. This book provides plenty of insight into this. It is always good to be reminded that people are complicated.

I also liked the methodology she employed in this book. She severely limits what other authors and books might have influenced Tolkien’s legendarium to only those he directly mentioned or that there was proof that he knew of them. She takes a very insightful deep-dive into these influences. Tolkien enjoyed detective stories, and this book reminds me of one. For the Tolkien fan, this book is a great read. It is rather amazing how angry it makes me how Tolkien’s early biographers and people up to the present have so inaccurately stereotyped the man.

By the way, before reading this book I had wondered if Tolkien had read Dune. I found this unpublished letter to John Bush, 12 March 1966.

Tolkien writes:

Thank you for sending me: copy of Dune. I received one last year from Lanier and so already know something about the book. It is impossible for an author still writing to be fair to another author working along the same lines. At least I find it so. In fact I dislike DUNE with some intensity, and in the unfortunate case it is much the best and fairest to another author to keep silent and refuse to comment. Would you like me to return the book as I already have one, or to hand it on?”

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Keep Chipping Away
PrayerScripture

Keep Chipping Away

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

I find it interesting how you can understand a theological premise and totally accept it, and yet you read a phrase that brings it from the abstract to the concrete for you.

This morning I was reading Scott Hahn’s commentary on Romans chapter 8.

“But in Paul’s view, suffering is God’s way of sculpting us into the image of his Son.”

While the following story of Michelangelo being congratulated at the unveiling of his immortal statue of David has no historical basis, it gets across this idea.

“How could you have achieved a masterpiece like this from a crude slab of marble?” a fan is supposed to have asked him.

“It was easy,” Michelangelo is said to have said. “All I did was chip away everything that didn’t look like David.”

Plus most days I feel more like a “crude slab of marble,” than being sculpted into an image of Jesus.

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The Weekly Francis

The Weekly Francis – Volume 385

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

The Weekly Francis is a compilation of the Holy Father’s writings, speeches, etc which I also cross-post at Jimmy Akin’s blog.

This version of The Weekly Francis covers material released in the last week from 21 October 2021 to 10 November 2021.

Angelus

General Audiences

Homilies

Messages

Speeches

Papal Tweets

  • “May the protection of minors be more and more a concrete, ordinary priority within the Church’s educational works. May it be the promotion of an open, trustworthy and reliable service, in strict contrast to every form of domination, betrayal of intimacy or silent complicity.” @Pontifex, 4 November 2021
  • “Being a member of the people of God is a gift, a responsibility: the responsibility of witnessing by our deeds, not just our words, to God’s wonderful works, which, once known, help people to acknowledge his existence and to receive his salvation. #Synod” @Pontifex, 5 November 2021
  • “Contemplating the Heart of Christ, we can allow ourselves to be guided by three words: memory, passion and comfort.” @Pontifex, 5 November 2021
  • “Memory. To remember means ”to return with the heart“. It is good for us to nurture our memory with those who have loved us, taken care of us, lifted us up. The Heard of Jesus reminds us that whatever happens to us in life, we are loved.” @Pontifex, 5 November 2021
  • “Passion. The Heart of Christ is an impassioned heart, wounded by love, torn open for us on the cross. That tenderness and suffering, that Heart reveals what God’s passion is: man.” @Pontifex, 5 November 2021
  • “Consolation is a strength that does not come from ourselves, but from the One who is with us: Jesus, the God-with-us. Let us encourage ourselves with this certainty, with God’s consolation. And let us as the Sacred Heart for the grace of being able to console when it is our turn.” @Pontifex, 5 November 2021
  • “Let us care for our common home, and also for ourselves, trying to eliminate the seeds of conflict: greed, indifference, ignorance, fear, injustice, insecurity and violence. Humanity has never before had at its disposal so many means for achieving this goal #COP26![img #EnvConflictDay” @Pontifex, 6 November 2021
  • “Let us #PrayTogether for the people of #Ethiopia, so sorely tried by the conflict that has lasted more than a year and has caused numerous victims and a serious humanitarian crisis. I renew my appeal for fraternal harmony on the peaceful path of dialogue.” @Pontifex, 7 November 2021
  • “In the #GospelOfTheDay (Mk 12:38–44), Jesus proposes the poor wideo as a teacher of faith: the sound of her few coins is more beautiful than the grandiose offerings of the rich, since they express a life sincerely dedicated to God with unconditional trust.” @Pontifex, 7 November 2021
  • “The world needs Christians who know how to demonstrate the beauty of the Gospel by the way they live; who are weavers of dialogue, models of fraternal life; who bring the sweet fragrance of hospitality and solidarity, who protect and safeguard life.” @Pontifex, 8 November 2021
  • “Let us commit ourselves to fostering an education in fraternity, so that the outbursts of hatred that would destroy that fraternity will not prevail. The threat of antisemitism still lurking in Europe and elsewhere is a threat that must be defused.” @Pontifex, 9 November 2021
  • ““Faith in Christ in your heart is like Christ in the boat” (Saint Augustine). We wake Christ up in our hearts and then we can contemplate things with his vision because He sees beyond the storm. #GeneralAudience” @Pontifex, 10 November 2021

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Odd Takes on Today’s Readings
HumorScripture

Odd Takes on Today’s Readings

by Jeffrey Miller
written by Jeffrey Miller

In the first reading today regarding Elijah and the widow, I think this offers biblical precedent for “Woman make me a sammich.”

As for the second part of the Gospel today I recently read that according to the Talmud, there were thirteen trumpet-shaped receptacles for offerings for the temple. The horns were called a shofar which acted as a funnel into a chest. Each one of these Shofar-chests had an inscription.
So what Jesus is saying is that those who placed money in the treasury as an act of their own aggrandizement ultimately had nothing to shofar it.

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