Freundian Clips
John Freund, Just because...Freundian Clips
Recent Posts
- Easter People in a Good Friday/Holy Saturday World?
- Holy Week: What Would You Do?
- Transfigured
- Lent: a Campaign of Christian Service?
- He Gets Us
- Connecting Dots: Lent, Valentine’s Day, and Systemic Change
- Why Am I a Vincentian Priest?
- Did Jesus Contradict Himself?
- Why Did I Create Mindwalk?
- How What I Dreaded Became a Source of Life
- Lessons Learned From a “Street Priest!”
- Is Advent “Missing In Action?”
- Christ the King and the “Duck Test”
- Thanksgiving
- Will You Be Traveling For the Holidays?
- Are You “Woke?” – Should You Be?
- The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same
- Raised in the world of “Pay-Pray-Obey”
- The Early Church Had No “Office of Evangelization”
- Street-level Encounters – a Parable
- Have Catholics Seen Such Polarization Before?
- Changing Our Clocks, Fast-forwards and Do-overs
- What’s Your Way of Handling Conflict?
- Unfinished Family Business?
- How Are You At Predictions?
- Real or Fake – Spotting the Difference
- Hearts on Fire – Feet on the Move!
- Star Wars, the Nones, and the Good News
- Serving Others In a Digital World
- Shocking document bishops signed in the Catacombs 60 years ago
- NATO As No Action – Talk Only
- What was your mother’s special recipe?
- If Jesus’ Mother Had a Scrapbook
- Does Everybody Want to Change Your Thinking?
- Is it Time for the “Brocolli” Approach?
- Putting Newest Cardinals in Their Place
- Missing the Point!
- Can You Imagine That!
- Know Any Relationships Not Going Anywhere?
- Who, or What Has Transformed Your life?
- Have You Tried Praying the News?
- Revisiting – Are You an Original or a Photocopy?
- Nobody Wants To Do the Dishes!
- What Did Jesus Did Not Have?
- Remember Where You Were on 9/11?
- Some See More Than Others … Do You?
- Are Interruptions the story of your life?
- What Does Labor Day Mean For You?
- How Did America Get So Mean?
- What Catechism Did Jesus Use?
- Is There an “Immaculate COMPLEXION?”
- “The more things change…”
- Why is Mary Fittingly Called Queen of Heaven?
- Practical Prophets
- Name Two Women Who Changed Jesus’ Mind?
- Know Anybody Who Walks On Water
- What Are You Afraid Of?
- Suppose God Checked Your References!
- Making Connections In My Life
- What Two Days Changed Our World?
- Remember Any Sermons 30 Years Later?
- Do We “Live” the Words “All are Welcome?”
- Have You Ever Gone Out On a Limb?
- Do You Remember Your Grandparents?
- From “Sage on the Stage” To “Mentor in the Center”
- Has Pope Francis “Made a Mess?”
- When Did Christians Become Soldiers?
- Yes! I Actually Attended a Session of Vatican II
- How Have You Changed?
- Praying the Our Father With New Ears
- Are We a “Listening” Community?
- Be Honest! Do We Prefer To Serve the “Good Poor”
- Do These Images Speak To Polarization Today?
- Have You Read the Declaration of Independence Recently?
- Is July 4 a dangerous memory?
- Lessons From Those Flying Geese
- Do Mothers Have Favorites?
- What Are You Hoping For?
- A Tale of Two Tragedies At Sea
- Jeopardy and the Our Father
- Things I Did Not Know… Connections I Never Made
- Suppose You Were Asked To Be a Father To Jesus
- A “Father” Learned From His Grandfather
- Journeying From Opposites To Equals
- Lyrics That Lead to Prayer
- The NATO approach to Corpus Christi
- Imagine God Requiring a Security Deposit On “Our” Home
- I Asked the Wrong Question About the Trinity
- Mindwalking Keeps Surprising Me
- Are All Your Vacation Pictures Perfect?
- What Fire Do You Feed?
- Remember Saying, “Are We There Yet”?
- Parents – Comforters? Nudges? Both?
- Ever Know Something Was Coming But Were Unprepared?
- Learning From Roller Coasters
- What Size Is Your Dream?
- Walking In the Shoes of the Fisherman
- I Thought My Mom Knew Everything
- Surprised By Vincentian Elements at the Coronation!
- Was Jesus an “Either/Or” …or… a “Both/And” Thinker?
Tell me who your friends are…
“Tell me your friends, and I will tell you who you are.” In this Vincentian Mindwalk I offer a way of understanding Pope Francis through how and for whom he prays.
Any Difference Between St. Peter and Pope Francis?
There is deep polarization in the church today. But many do not realize the deep polarization that existed in the Church 2000 years ago. In both eras, we see the eternal struggle for balance between two necessary poles – what is of value in the past and the need to adapt to new situations. How St. Peter then and Pope Francis now try to discover the core truth in apparently conflicting positions. What can we learn from how these two shepherds faced division then and now?
Should You Rethink How You Think?
In our polarized world, everybody wants to change our way of thinking. Does God also want us to change? What change of thinking is God asking… and how would it change how we live?
Your Mission As God’s Storyteller
Pope Francis writes movingly that we are not only God’s story but that we must also be God’s storytellers… that story as lived in us and in our brothers and sisters. Vincentians accept the special vocation to tell God’s story.
It is the mission of Vincentians to focus on sharing stories of the forgotten and marginalized.
Mom, How Long Until Christmas?
As children, Christmas could not come soon enough. Now it comes and goes in a flash.
In this Vincentian Mindwalk I explore what it meant to wait for the Messiah coming then… and now recognizing Jesus who into our lives everyday.
Where Do “Thanks” Go After Thanksgiving Day?
Each Thanksgiving a family spokesperson reminds us of additions to the family, milestones achieved, significant people no longer present. If only momentarily, people are united in giving thanks and saying Amen.
In this Vincentian Mindwalk, I ask what happens to all the ’Thanks” after Thanksgiving Day.
Gratitude for Blessings in Disguise?
It’s impossible on the basis of any given experience to accurately assess the true consequence to our lives.
Unless we appreciate the full context of any situation, we can’t know what the result will ultimately be.
Just think of “Good” Friday and Easter Sunday.
“Home for the Holidays”
For many of my years, “Home for the Holidays” was in the back of most people’s minds come Thanksgiving and Christmas.
In this Vincentian Mindwalk I reflect on a practice that seems to be non-existent. Going to God’s House to give thanks on Thanksgiving.
RINOs, DINOs and the Duck Test
“If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” Sometimes it is referred to as “the duck test”.Jesus had his own way of saying it. “By their fruits, you will know them”. As I was thinking about the feast of Christ the King, I wondered how the “duck test” might apply to followers of Christ the King.
The “Public Relations” Plan of the Early Church
Jesus did not found the church as an institution with a slick “Public Relations” plan. He started a movement that developed into the community we know as the early church.
In this Vincentian Mindwalk I explore how this came to be.