Author: tkneier

Catholic

Word of God Sunday

Word of God Sunday AUDIO

On September 30, 2019, Pope Francis issued an Apostolic Letter that instituted the Third Sunday of Ordinary Time in the church liturgical calendar as Sunday of The Word Of God.  Each year it’s to be “a Sunday given over entirely to the Word of God, so as to appreciate the inexhaustible riches contained in that constant dialogue between the Lord and his people.”

He declares it to be a day “devoted to the celebration, study, and dissemination of the Word of God” as well as a reminder to “strengthen our bonds with the Jewish people and to pray for Christian unity.”  And that day is today!

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Catholic

A Christmas Gift from Dr. Seuss

A Christmas Gift from Dr. Seuss AUDIO

Remember Wacky Wednesday – a book by Dr. Seuss? A story where chaos is on the loose? Every page has pictures with things reversed. Order is banished and logic is cursed.

“A worm chasing a bird, a mouse chasing a cat“, and the Z before Y in the alpha-bat. It’s a fictional book for kids, it’s true. But Christmas for real is now crazy, too!

Jesus is the reason for the season, we’re told. But it seems that for most, He’s left out in the cold.

The miracle of God becoming a Child, is now just ignored or mentally filed.

Decorations, Christmas music, festive parties galore. Buying gifts online now instead of a store.

The Christmas season more than six weeks long, ends on Christmas day, doesn’t that seem wrong?

I’ll now stop channeling my inner Dr. Seuss. For making my point, it no longer has use.

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Catholic

The Price of Peace

The Price of Peace AUDIO

Guess the author of the piece on peace below.

“We must not be content simply to support the efforts of others in the work for peace; we must also scrutinize our own attitudes. Statesmen, responsible as they are for the common good of their own nation and at the same time for the well-being of the whole world, are very much dependent on the opinions and convictions of the general public. Their efforts to secure peace are of no avail as long as we are divided or set against each other by feelings of hostility, contempt and distrust, by racial hatred or by inflexible ideologies. There is then a very great and urgent need to reeducate and to provide fresh inspiration in the field of public opinion.

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The Laborers Are Few

On this Labor Day, many give thanks for the ability to earn a living. Others work within the capacity given them by their disabilities. And some must rely entirely on the work of others for their sustenance. But ALL are called to do God’s work.

Therefore, I offer this song to stir our hearts and rally to the cause of Christ. For though the harvest is full, the laborers are far too few.

Lord, Send Us Out – AUDIO
Catholic

What More?

Today is the forty-seventh time that I can give thanks to God for the gift of my wife and the covenant we made together. This song is once again for you, Madeline.

What More?
Catholic

The Little Way

The Little Way AUDIO

When you speak to him, you’re more likely to get a head nod than a verbal response.  He is incontinent and hearing impaired. Skin rashes and infections are frequent.  His monthly Social Security check comes by way of his cognitive disability.  His unsteady gait makes for slow going when you walk alongside him.

No, I’m not talking about a homeless man or a vet wounded in battle.  I’m describing my 25 year old son, Tommy. 

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Catholic

Just, Dust, or Dust Bust

Just, Dust, or Dust Bust AUDIO

On Ash Wednesday the minister who applied my ashes said, “Remember that you are just…(and after an awkward pause) I mean dust, and to dust you shall return.” I smiled as I walked away thinking how far from being “just” I really am. I looked it up in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. As one of the four cardinal virtues it “consists in the constant and firm will to give their due to God and neighbor.” Throughout the Lenten season I’ve been praying prayers of repentance for the ways in which I’ve fallen short in this notion of justice, along with our church and our nation. I invite you to join me in the days leading up to Easter and beyond.

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Unsearchable

My created space to create
Unsearchable – AUDIO

God is big enough to have created everything visible and invisible in the entire universe, and small enough to have been conceived in the womb of a teenage girl.

As the Irish abbot, St. Columban, wrote: “God is everywhere in his immensity, and everywhere close at hand.”

I can noodle on concepts like this because I’m writing from South Florida where I can watch sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico from my chair on the beach sans schedules, demands, or time constraints.

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Reflections

An Opus For God – reprised

Tommy (middle) with friends at a Young Life activity
An Opus For God – reprised

Today is my son’s 25th birthday and the feast day in the Catholic Church calendar of St. Thomas Aquinas for whom he was named. I have posted this story before, but I do so again today as a prayer of thanksgiving to God for the gift of his life for these twenty-five years and the inestimable blessing he has been to us and so many others.

* * * * *

Although it was her 44th birthday, my wife is the one who came home from her doctor visit with a surprise for me.  Madeline was pregnant.  I stifled the question “How is that possible?” as it tried to force itself past my lips.  After six children, I guess I knew pretty well. 

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