Dear Friend,

In the 5th century AD, St. Augustine wrote about the "Four States of Man":

*The first state of man (the haec sunt prima) is "living according to the flesh -- with reason making no resistance." This can be seen in so many ancient cultures and religions (and unfortunately more than a few in our own time) with their human sacrifices, their idols, their pagan ceremonies, and even cannibalism.

Dear Friend,

I hope this week's "pastor's Pen" will give you a laugh.

A man has been lost and walking in the desert for about five days. One hot day--actually, they’re all hot--he comes to the home of a community of Irish missionary priests.

Tired and weak, he crawls up to the house and collapses on the doorstep. One of the priests takes him in and the community nurses him back to health.

Dear Friend,

Saint Theresa of Avila once said, ʺA growing Christian must have at his or her roots the life-giving waters of penitence.

The cultivation of a penitential spirit is absolutely essential to spiritual progress.

The lives of great saints teach us that self-distrust is vital to godliness.

Dear Friend,

Healing takes time, patience, and determination to persevere through the long process of healing.

It’s not easy, but it is the reality of the healing process.

A good friend recently told me his own experience with the healing process of his right knee. About two years ago he had a total right knee replacement.

Dear Friend,

In football they have a "huddle."

The goal of the huddle is to give you thirty seconds to call the play, that is why they give you a huddle.

At a professional football game, there may be sixty thousand people watching you huddle, they don’t mind you taking thirty seconds to call the play.

Dear Friend,

During the time of the Coronavirus, we are realizing that God never liked to have anything to do with those who prayed the “easy” way. Let us think of Moses, he was not a “weak” dialogue partner either, from the very first day of his vocation.

Dear Friend,

The Book of Genesis, through the occurrences of men and women of a far-off time, tells us stories that we can reflect on in our own lives. In the Patriarch Cycle, we also find that of a man who shrewdly developed his best talent: Jacob. The biblical account tells us about the difficult relationship Jacob had with his brother Esau.

Dear Friend,

Most of us have now learned to live with "voice mail" as a necessary part of our daily lives. But have you ever wondered what it would be like if God decided to install voicemail?

Imagine praying and hearing the following:
Thank you for calling Heaven.
For English, Press 1
For Spanish, press 2
For all other languages, press 0

Dear Friend,

All blame is a waste of time.

No matter how much fault you find with another, and regardless of how much you blame him, it will not change you.

The only thing blame does is to keep the focus off you when you are looking for external reasons to explain your unhappiness or frustration.

Dear Friend,

How would you like to spend 2 years making phone calls to people who aren't home? Sound absurd? According to one-time management study, that's how much time the average person spends trying to return calls to people who never seem to be in. Not only that, we spend 6 months waiting for the traffic light to turn green, and another 8 months reading junk mail.

Dear Friend,

Pope John Paul I states that a problem with educating young people in the church stems from a failure to understand how young people learn. He claimed that adults learn in the following pattern:

Dear Friend,

Let me offer a few thoughts from a bishop friend of mine in Ireland about how to cultivate a sense of humor:

1. Catch yourself in some amusing inconsistency and then laugh at yourself. This is the foundation of a healthy sense of humor.

Dear Friend,

The Gospel (Mk 6:30-34) tells us that the apostles gather around Jesus after returning from their mission. They tell Him what they have accomplished. He then says to them, “Come away by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while.” (v. 31). However, the people understand where they are headed and, when they get off the boat, Jesus finds the crowd waiting for Him. He feels compassion for them, and He begins to teach (cf. v. 34).