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Catholic

The Gift No One Wants

“Where Is God When It Hurts?”
The Gift No One Wants

One evening several years ago, my wife was having severe abdominal pains.  She wanted to wait and see if it improved overnight.  I insisted on taking her to the emergency room.  She was admitted immediately and subsequently underwent surgery to remove a section of her colon due to advanced diverticulitis.  We were both reminded that night that we ignore pain to our own peril. 

In a recent sermon referring to signs that frequent our summer highways during construction season, our pastor put it this way: “Temporary inconvenience; permanent improvement.”  If we pay attention to the signs of pain when they manifest – physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually – we can travel the road to healing and restoration.  Can pain then actually be a gift?

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Catholic

What If?

Social Distancing Gone Too Far
What If – audio version

One of my sons lives in Seattle with his wife and three children.  On a recent phone call with his 9 year old son, Judah, I asked him to tell me about his favorite home school activity during the pandemic.  He introduced me to a You Tube Channel with 3.78 million subscribers called “What If?”.  Each episode highlights a hypothetical question about some aspect of science in our universe to stir the imagination.  His favorite was “What if we dumped our trash into volcanoes?” That drew 13 million other viewers.  Naturally the imagination of his grandfather, whose blog “views life and the world through a different lens,” was stoked by this channel, too.  Not sufficiently, mind you, to watch his 4:26 video.  Though I was able to carve out 6:47 to watch the “What If We Never Aged?” episode.  Go figure.

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Music

Mother of Sweet Sorrow

Words and Music by Tom Kneier &Ray Niccolai; Arranged by Ray Niccolai
Tom Kneier – vocals; Ray Niccolai – acoustic guitar, bass guitar, digital flute
Text & Music Copyright 2019 by Tom Kneier and Ray Niccolai

You held him in your arms in Bethlehem wrapped in swaddling clothes; laid Him in a manger and heard the angels sing “Glory to God on high”; and you pondered all these things and held them in your heart.

You held him in your arms in Jerusalem clothed in white in the Temple; laid Him on the altar and heard the prophet say, “A sword shall pierce your soul”; and you pondered all these things and held them in your heart.

You held him in your arms on Calvary stripped of all His clothes; laid Him in the tomb and heard the soldier say, “This was truly the Son of God”; and you pondered all these things and held them in your heart.

In your womb, in your arms, in your life you carried Jesus; carry Him now into our hearts, Mother of sweet sorrow; Mother of sweet sorrow.

Catholic

Are We There Yet?

By Tom Kneier

The International Space Station (I.S.S.)
Are We There Yet?

It was a beautiful letdown when I crashed and burned;

when I found myself alone, unknown, unheard.

It was a beautiful letdown the day I knew

That all the riches this world had to offer me would never do.

In a world full of bitter pain, bitter doubts,

I was trying so hard to fit in, fit in,

Until I found out, that I don’t belong here.

from the song, “The Beautiful letdown”, by switchfoot

Endurance

An American astronaut named Scott Kelly currently holds the record for the longest continuous time in space – 340 days.  From March 28, 2015 to March 1, 2016, Kelly called the International Space Station his home.  In his book, Endurance, Kelly recounts those days in vivid detail. The length of the ship consisted of three American modules and two Russian.  The port and starboard were made up of three Russian modules and one each from Europe, Japan, and the United States.  It was the combined work of fifteen nations over an eighteen month period. 

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