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?

NATO As No Action – Talk Only
In this Mindwalk, I explore an alternate meaning of the acronym NATO
It involves the story of a pivotal moment in the life of Frederick Ozanam. He was inspired to move from talk to action.

What was your mother’s special recipe?
Mothers often seem to have what seems like a secret recipe or ingredient for preparing a meal.
I wonder whether Vincent had some secret recipe that would account for the momentous changes he brought to the Church and society in 17th-century France.
I suggest it was his ability to imagine and support lay ministry, especially for women.

If Jesus’ Mother Had a Scrapbook
Mothers keep memories! Often in a scrapbook.
What if the mother of Jesus kept a scrapbook? It would be filled with what kept in her heart.
Might the mysteries of the Rosary be a peek at her memories of Jesus?

Does Everybody Want to Change Your Thinking?
Sometimes it seems that everybody wants to change our way of thinking. That has probably always been true. But it certainly feels truer now in our polarized lives.

Is it Time for the “Brocolli” Approach?
Many generations of mothers have cajoled their children with “Try it. You’ll like it!” (It seems they all went to the same “Mommy” school.)
A famous layman, of the last century, Chesterton, used it in a different sense. ”The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult and left untried.”
I wonder if maybe we should use the “try it, you’ll like it” approach to synodality.

Putting Newest Cardinals in Their Place
… Acts of the Apostles makes us reflect that, before being “apostles”, before being priests, Bishops, Cardinals, we are “Parthians, Medes, Elamites”, et cetera, et cetera.

Missing the Point!
Been in a conversation where someone missed your point? I certainly have. Also, more times than I care to admit, I have been the one who missed the point.
Unfortunately, the more the conversation touches our lives the more heated the conversation becomes… especially when come to what it means to be followers of Christ

Can You Imagine That!
On this feast of Vincent De Paul, we can be thankful Vincent never stopped dreaming… and working1
St. VIncent imagined a world very different from the world he lived in.
He imagined a world that could be … and asked what can I do.

Know Any Relationships Not Going Anywhere?
St. Vincent and Louise got off to a rocky start. Yet their collaboration produced transformational results that echo today. What can we learn from them?

Who, or What Has Transformed Your life?
Who, or what, has transformed your life?
Let’s explore what and who transformed St. Vincent de Paul.