Paradox is not “cherry picking” or trying to have it both ways. G.K. Chesterton said, “Paradox is the truth standing on its head to get attention.” A good example of this is centered on our path to salvation. Each of us has a unique life history which in so many ways dictates the progression of our journey. However, we will encounter many of the same obstacles, walk through many of the same thresholds and cross paths with many of the same temptations. These parallel paths converge at the same destination. Not only this, it can also be said, one thing we truly have in common is we are all different. Paradox at its finest.
So is there room for paradox in your world view, in your working model so to speak? It really doesn’t matter one way or the other. What’s important is your model is being completed, always building, always being restored, always simulating what’s going on around you in a credible way. After all, what we are striving to do is to awaken a person’s curiosity and bring her spirituality to the forefront. Evangelization takes courage, the willingness to try, allowing yourself to be challenged and giving yourself permission to fail. Blessings for all of us.
Tag Archives: Universal Christianity
Eric my friend RIP
Funny how things seem to pop up, forgotten moments which are now important. I remember back in 2002 I was having a particularly difficult time. My wife went back to Florida. I was in Pennsylvania working a job, she had enough of my craziness. She wished me well, said I would just have to go through what I was going through by myself; she couldn’t do it. I knew it and understood, I didn’t like it but I understood. Shortly after that, I remember one afternoon there was a bird flying through the work site which was on the Delaware River. I don’t know if it was a shore bird or what, I couldn’t tell at the time, I don’t remember much about it except when it tilted its belly to the sun, in the light of the sun shine, the light reflected off the bottom of its wing and in that nanosecond, I saw something, a glimpse of something really beautiful. It was years later, literally 10 years later, that I understood what I saw. It was because of Bishop Barron’s homily; he described what was objectively valuable and what was subjectively satisfying. I didn’t know I was having one of those objectively valuable experiences at the time, I certainly wouldn’t have phrased it that way but that’s what it was. There are those times when we see something in nature, have a realization given as a grace which changes our lives, when the event is incidental and the experience monumental.
Know you are on my prayer list. Your Brother in Christ.
I hope this letter finds you in good spirits.
This morning, I was looking back at the day in South Carolina while I was driving through the mountains watching the sun shine through the trees and the leaves were blowing and the shadows were dancing across the hood of my car. It was truly beautiful. Reminded me of the day on the Delaware River, that magic moment when the world became objectively beautiful. I know now what a valuable experience these moments hold for us. I can see in my mind’s eye the morning looking over the Atlantic Ocean when I realized that I’m the only one on the planet that’s seeing the sun glistening across the water the way it is right now, right here. It’ll never happen that way again, it’s only happened like that one time, this time. Now I realize in those moments, I’m part of that cosmic concert, sometimes I’m playing an instrument, sometimes I’m just listening to the orchestra. it’s all good. Blessings for all of us. Your friend in Christ
Return GOD to Public Life
As our government corrupts our society, controls and influences the people for the sake of its own political agenda, the language is changed to fit the Progressive platform. The government needs two languages, the one we speak, which makes sense and will navigate us through our daily lives and the other is legal which controls the courts and reduces the people to sheep, who are shepherded, controlled and “protected”. Now we have Atheism classified as a religion and protected under the law. Not to protect the person for what he doesn’t believe, (as if that makes any sense at all) but to deny the people who do believe, what they believe. The court has ruled, a person believing in God infringes on another person’s right not to believe in God. So, you as a believer cannot demonstrate your belief. However, the nonbeliever can demonstrate his belief by not allowing the believers to demonstrate theirs. The government picks the winners and losers; to accommodate what works best for the government, not the people. The end user is the end loser.
Ephesians 1:3-14 Commentary
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us to journey into Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavens. God chose us for himself, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him. With God’s love he destined us for adoption through Jesus Christ. Through the beloved, God gave us the covenant, the favor of his will, and the glory of his grace.
In Christ Jesus we have redemption by his blood, the forgiveness of transgressions, and we are in agreement with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight, Christ has made known to us the mystery of his will. With the covenant and with his favor, he set forth his plan for the fullness of time, to sum up all things in himself, in heaven and on earth.
In Christ’s glory we were also chosen, destined for the covenant with the purpose of God who accomplishes all things, according to the intention of his will. In Christ, we exist for the praise of his glory; we who first hoped in Christ. In Christ we have heard the word of truth, and the gospel for our salvation; we who have believed in him. We were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit. This spirit is the first installment of our inheritance toward redemption as God’s possession, and for the praise of his glory.