Category: Pope Francis
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God is Coming
There’s a man goin’ ’round takin’ names And he decides who to free and who to blame Everybody won’t be treated all the same There’ll be a golden ladder reachin’ down When the man comes around – Johnny Cash I grew up a Mississippi Protestant surrounded by hellfire and brimstone preachers who often preached the question,…
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Risky Faith
I love to go see live music, there is nothing like the energy of hearing music being played in real time. It isn’t studio polished or in perfect time. Mistakes are made, but they add authenticity and color to the performance even if you don’t notice them – especially if you don’t notice them. My…
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#LoveLikeFrancis
There seems to be much going on in our world right now about standing up for what is right and spreading a message of love rather than hate. Regardless of who you want to point the finger at as a source of hate, the reality is that we all need to be…
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Where the World Ends and Heaven Begins
Read my reflection for Liturgical Publications’ Midweek Reflection Panis Angelicus fit panis hominem. (May the bread of Angels become bread for mankind.) This world is not always the easiest place to live. Few would mistake our earthly existence for heaven. Yet, we live in hope of heaven because God crashed into human history through the Incarnation, Jesus Christ,…
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Companions on the Journey
I recently supplied the International Catholic Stewardship Council with a reflection on St. Ignatius of Loyola, a great stewardship saint, for a newsletter of theirs. I got teased a little by the Executive Director, Michael Murphy, because he reminded me that Our Lady was held up in the US Bishop’s document on stewardship as the…
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Don’t Be a Sourpuss!
There are many voices out there today that paint a bleak picture of the Church and her ability to overcome secular culture and evangelize a broken world. They keep lamenting, “Look how bad everything is!” The jump from Church scandal to declining priestly vocations to empty pews. Sometimes, there are strong and important points to…
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Mother of Mercy
Pope Francis said in an address from 2013, “Mary, whose “yes” opened the door for God to undo the knot of the ancient disobedience, is the Mother who patiently and lovingly brings us to God, so that He can untangle the knots of our soul by His fatherly mercy.” What would this Jubilee Year of…
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Tear Down Those Walls
A few years ago I was lucky enough to visit the Holy Land – and saw all the usual sights and sights. It was my second visit; my previous visit had been fifteen years earlier. One of the things that struck me was the wall that divides Bethlehem and Jerusalem; the West Bank barrier or…
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Don’t Panic!
We all make mistakes. Children sometimes make more mistakes as the struggle and strive to become mature and wiser. However, some of us adults seem to be pretty good at screwing things up even after many years of accumulating wisdom. As far as my own children go, how interesting it is to hear how they begin the…
Tracy Earl Welliver 