Remember saying “Are we there yet?” Can it teach us anything about today?


Remember saying “Are we there yet?” Can it teach us anything about today?

Parents are both comforters and nudges!
Should it be any different with God’s Spirit?

We may know that a parent is dying. But are we ever really prepared?
The situation is more complicated if we did not see it coming – an accident, pandemic, violence.
Let’s explore how prepared the followers of Christ were to face his leaving them and ascending to heaven.
Sometimes I have said “Don’t you understand”? Something was so obvious to me!
Other times, with perhaps deeper frustration, I have felt, “You don’t understand (me).
When I thought about it, I realized… “It’s complicated!”
There are many ways and levels of understanding.
“Caller unknown” often leads to the marketer’s purgatory of Voice Mail , or even to the marketer’s hell of the Spam Folder. Do we really listen to the calls of the poor… or put their cries in voicemail?
Reading Pope Francis’ reflections, I was able to shift my focus and see more clearly what each of these seven gifts of the Spirit look like. I found much food for thought and personal prayer.
“Let Me See Again!” I never saw any connection between the life-changing experience of a blind beggar being given his sight and the Pentecost gift of Jesus’ spirit under the appearances of tongues of fire.
Now I cant “unsee” it.
Wildfires are clear and present dangers!This Vincentian Mindwalk explores a vastly more powerful and long-lasting wildfire, one that has lasted over 2000 years and transformed over two billion lives today.
My fear this Memorial Day is that once again nobody we do anything about mass shootings. Perhaps I look in the look in the mirror and ask what I can do.
STOP – LOOK – LISTEN! As I celebrate 57 years of priesthood, I think about how many roads I have crossed, am crossing, and still have to cross. In this Vincentian Mindwalk review my life using the metaphor of the “rules of the road”.
A late 19th-century artist, James Tissot, graphically posed a question for us today. In his depiction of the Ascension, he asks, “Why do you stand looking up into heaven? (Act 1:11) Instead of looking up to the heavens, should we be looking for Jesus’ footprints around us?
Today we increasingly hear about being “woke”. In this Vincentian Mindwalk I will try to move beyond any narrow political meanings.
Going back to my childhood I remember different surprises… those that delighted and those that disappointed. The biggest surprise today may be recognizing when and how how God enters our lives!