Light and salt

Is 58:7-10

Thus says the LORD:
Share your bread with the hungry,
shelter the oppressed and the homeless;
clothe the naked when you see them,
and do not turn your back on your own.
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your wound shall quickly be healed;
your vindication shall go before you,
and the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer,
you shall cry for help, and he will say: Here I am!
If you remove from your midst
oppression, false accusation and malicious speech;
if you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday.

Finally caught up

Today really spoke a lot about the grandeur of God. It was beautiful outside. The sun was shining and the temperature was in the mid forties. We have too much snow on the ground to get any warmer. I cleared off the snow/ice that had caked onto our deck. All I could think was that it was nice to finally be outside. It was nice to be out in the clean air of Iowa. It seems that sickness is surrounding me. In the week and a half that I was in Texas, the flu was passed through the office here at Holy Ghost forcing almost everyone to stay in bed for a couple of days, including the pastor. I missed it. But, I did hear that our vicar general, Msgr. James Barta, was in the hospital with some heart complications. Plus, visible head of the church, Pope John Paul, was in the hospital. I was starting to get depressed. It’s amazing how the sun can put us in the right frame of mind. It’s amazing how the sun reminds us of the hope that the son puts into our hearts.

Back from Texas

After a week and a half of travel, I'm back in the great state of Iowa. Sorry that my postings were so infrequent in the past couple of weeks. I didn't have regular internet access and, when I did, I had to respond to parish emails and the like. I found my time in Texas, at points, to be a time of intense prayer and reflection. Generally, I would awake a couple of hours before I needed to be somewhere and pray and say mass privately. I was going to go to St. Mary's parish on the campus of the University of Texas A&M for daily mass but I decided that I needed a little time away from people. Those mornings would prompt a lot of prayer, especially these past few days for Pope John Paul. The tough thing about being a priest on vacation is that you are constantly worried about how things are going back in your parish. I imagine some business owners go through a similar situation but I'd prefer to think of it like a parent who leaves adult children. I kept wondering who died in my parishes and if someone answered the letters I sent out before leaving asking people to consider vocations to priesthood and religious life and what meetings I missed. I'm getting caught up on all that and, as usual, everything was handled well when I wasn't here. Now I just have to clear off my desk of tasks before I go to a meeting tonight. I taped the state of the union and hope to watch it before supper. So many tasks, so little time.

Reflecting on our own freedoms

What would it be like to live in Iraq right now? Can you imagine growing up in a situation that didn't allow you to vote or be free? And then to have your sworn enemy come in and change it around so that you could choose your leaders? I keep coming back to two different questions: Are we helping them to realize the goodness of a democratic state or are we just giving them yet another civil war. And how will we react when George Bush invades the Vatican because we don't have a freely elected civil leader?