Deacon Speakin'

Take a second and think about the boxes that you keep where you have placed your anger. Do you have many boxes? Are they categorized and alphabetized? Are they color-coated and sorted? Either way, there is a lot of work and effort in emotional storage, especially the angry and wrathful kind.

How do you treat the folks around you who think differently than you and maybe even disagree with your good ideas and suggestions? Here's a good one: how do you treat folks on, let's say FaceBook in this charged and ramping up political climate who post things that do not line up with your foundation? Yikes! Yes, let's go there.

Disagreeing can be a means to growth when performed civilly and respectfully. That is the very root of protest –to engage the other with whom we disagree in an attempt to come to a desirable outcome for all. Sounds easy right? Hardly.

Season 2 Episode 80 of The Catholic Deacon Podcast: As much as we like to fashion ourselves an advanced and forward moving population, I challenge you among all our political woes – who is more decent? Who is telling the truth? Who has our best interests in mind?  

Season 2 Episode 79 So, what is it that we can make of traditions anyway? They are abundant in all cultures and we even see them in our own families. Sometimes it is just a way for folks to spend time together but in other ways they define who we are.

Season 2 Episode 78: The Break Shot Initiate the break shot. The opening move in most pool games where the cue ball is fired into the group sending the balls rolling and bouncing off of each other, ricocheting off the rails, and sometimes disappearing off the table down the pockets and out of play.        

Season 2 Episode 77: We find that the people behind the masks are perhaps more profound than the people unmasked, because if you look at it in the right way you will realize that God reveals the most in all of us by showing us the least.

Season 2 Episode 76 "There has never been anyone like you up to now, and after you there will come no one to equal you."

Season 2 Episode 75: Jesus is telling us how to survive a wretched world and reach the kingdom of heaven…this applies to everyone…as Jesus says "anyone with ears ought to hear…" Too bad he didn't say that "everyone with ears will hear."

Season 2 Episode 74: "The true measure of a man is how he treats God when no one is watching."

Season 2 Episode 73: We tend to look to others in amazement of the things they can do and their feats of incredibleness – of their bigger than life achievements. It's only natural, and when you think about it, these hero types are a dime a dozen. Everybody's got em!

Season 2 Episode 72: There are some big issues out there that folks deal with, and maybe you are dealing with a few yourself? I think it is difficult these days to not to be struggling with something, not to be outfitted with a cross that gets heavier and heavier by the minute – one that weighs more and more by the day – one that drains us of our energy and enthusiasm to be the fullness of that im...

While we are being drawn to God, we must be constantly trying to find the voice He intended for each of us whatever that may be. It may not be a singing voice, or a writing style, or a manner of speaking, but make no mistake – you have a voice that is only yours.

Season Two Episode 70: We tend to do what we always do and that's apply what we know on Earth to the things of God. Those things of which do not apply to God – like space and time, and the unknown. God doesn't fit in our neat little compartments that we want to put everything in!

Did you ever take road trips as a kid or drive to a destination as a family getaway or vacation? Do you remember when you passed from your hometown and into strange territory? Do you remember seeing sights you've never seen before and how excited you may have gotten during the entire trip…watching your world through the windshield; of the things that lay ahead…of all the TBDs?

No matter what stage you are in, eventually we all need go into the cocoon in order to come out and fly around a bit.

Our elderly and our very young are proven to be the most vulnerable in this pandemic while nursing homes, rehab centers, and hospitals are the greatest risks for them. Warming shelters in the colder months and the homeless are also at great risk. Where is God?

Why wouldn't we give Mom her own day? When you really think about it, who else in your life has had a greater impact on you than your parents and that lady has impacted your life in a huge way!

Season 2 Episode 65: Jesus is referred to as the Lamb of God…so very valuable, so very much loved by the shepherd, so needed by everyone for sustainment, yet a sweet and pleasing sacrifice. That doesn't sound mindless to me at all...

What was your magnificence as a child and what is it now? In these days of quarantine and solitude, there is an opportunity to revisit that child who did not care what others thought of him or her; that child was curious and interested. There is a chance to be curious and interested today.

One is not steered off the path to righteousness in an abrupt 90 degree angle, but he is gradually veered in tiny nudges that result in the desired direction. Most times, we are oblivious to the nudges, or if we recognize them we quickly rank them as harmless and not threatening to anything obvious.        

We will gather and celebrate…virtually. We will stream our worship in safety…we will ache individually...we will pain as a congregation for the comfort of our churches as we ask ourselves – what happened?

We feel like we are somehow cheated that we will not have that opportunity to jockey for a seat at church on Easter morning. We feel removed from the chance to celebrate together, strangers and friends, in God's house with God's people. And it hurts.

I believe as social creatures it is our call to get out and do God's work; to get our hands dirty and serve the needs of others. But how is that to be done when schools, and churches, and nursing facilities are closed. How can we be His hands and feet when the most vulnerable and needy cannot be reached due to social distancing and stay at home mandates?

When the smoke clears from all of this, we will have the scars to show, and the memories to share. We will say things like…"remember when we couldn't go to Church?" and "Where were you during the Corona outbreak?" and "I never want to feel that way again." The heartache is real and the agony and separation is great. But, until we gather again very soon – keep reaching for God.