We are in a time where it is common to speak of spiritualities, ways of living our transcendental experience or ways to better our life of faith. As many are well aware, there are spiritual experiences outside the Roman Catholic Church, which at one time was inconceivable given the high amount of influence the Roman…
All posts in Guest Writer
The effects of change
Tonight I feel compelled to talk about changes.. not just religious changes or bodily ones as we get older..nor necessarily spiritual ones..but change, and how it affects us. I of course can and will only speak of change personally. To do so otherwise would be to ‘talk of what I know not of” as a…
The Journey of Faith to the Old Catholic Church The Road Less Traveled
A few weeks ago while celebrating Mass at Saint Miriam Parish and Friary in Flourtown PA, the reading for the day was from the Gospel of Saint Luke 4:21-31. This was the lectionary reading from the Sunday before my Monday morning CPE (Clinical Pastoral Education) class that I am taking at the Jewish Theological Seminary…
A Calling
Do you have a strong impulse toward a particular course of action? This is what some would define as a calling. What is to be done with this impulse? Do we, as possessors of a limited mind, have the ability to answer this call? The answer does not come by simply picking up a phone.…
Independent Roman Catholicism?
I’ve heard it said a zillion times: Impossible! No such thing! Can’t be! A contradiction in terms! You’re delusional! I am a cradle Roman Catholic. My childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood was filled with active and enthusiastic Roman Catholicism both on my part and that of my family. For 10 years, I worked as a…
Faith, Light, Hope, Joy and Love
The spiritual joy that marks the Christian faith is that we are waiting for the coming of the Lord, and our entry into a life of eternal communion with God as well as our willingness to bear our share of the Christian work-load, to do our bit, in our time, to realize the goals of…
Goat? Or Sheep?
Wonderful are the promises for those who follow Jesus, our Shepherd. Yet Jesus warns of some who … Are not His sheep, for they did not heed to His voice. Though in His flock (kingdom), will one day be cast out. Yes, Jesus described a day in which the sheep and goats will be parted.…
The Merchant and the Friar
In every story their lies a grain of truth; the plays of William Shakespeare are no exception. The Elizabethan playwright modified many stories he heard for the stage. The Merchant of Venice, written in 1596, might be based on St. Anthony of Padua who lived four centuries earlier. Both persons were involved with shipwrecks, foreign…
Seeking God in Worship
Since the beginning of the reformation movement, religious movements have moved away from older traditional styles of worship to more a “contemporary” and vernacular form of worship. And while the translation into a vernacular language of texts such as the Bible as well as the preaching of the Gospel made the good news of Christ’s…
Carrot, egg, or coffee?
A young woman went to her mother and told her about her life and how things were so hard for her. She did not know she was going to make it and wanted to give up. She was tired of fighting and struggling. It seems as one problem was solved a new one arose. Her…