Michael's Random Thoughts and Photos on Spirituality

THE LUMMI NATION Members of the Lummi Nation will be blessing a new totem at St. Philip Neri Parish on Monday, August 24 from 5:30pm to 8pm The Lummi People. are the original inhabitants of Washington's northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. For thousands of years, they worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and waters of Puget Sound. All are welcome to this spirit filled event at 16th and Division in SE Portand.  There is lots of parking and we are on the Number 4 Bus line… Come and join us…

Lummi  Nation Members of the Lummi Nation will be blessing a new totem at St. Philip Neri Parish on Monday, August 24 from 6pm to 8pm The Lummi People. are the original inhabitants of Washington's northernmost coast and southern British Columbia. For thousands of years, they worked, struggled and celebrated life on the shores and waters of Puget Sound. All are welcome to this spirit filled event at 16th and Division in SE Portand.  There is lots of parking and we are on the Number 4 Bus line. Come and join us…

There was a common saying when I entered the seminary in 1966: "you keep the rule and the rule will keep you." Some in formation for priesthood, even today, don't get beyond this dictum. Some of them have risen to great heights -- bishops and cardinals.It is the dictum for succeeding in the "system" whatever than system may be. I am obviously ding something wrong —- thankfully. Fortunately I found out, early on, that Paulists aren’t good at keeping the rule.We are stretched by the overwhelming influence of the Holy Spirit -- by Wisdom as mentioned in our first reading from Proverbs.The line in our reading from Proverbs that caught my attention is: "Let whoever is simple turn in here." We are not looking fort simple-minded people; but wise people, watchful people, seeking people who want to enrich and deepen their experience of God. In Paul's letter we are asked to "watch carefully how we live" to not be foolish persons but wise ones. ...

Tempests, storms, upheavals seem to abound from the very personal to the global.  My dad is dying and in hospice care.  The terrible tragedy at the AME Church in Charleston South Carolina.  The dark hatred of ISIS spreading through the Middle East and beyond.  Climate change.  If ever we felt in a small boat in stormed tossed sea, now is the time.  Oh, by the way, Happy Father’s Day. Today is a VERY HAPPY FATHER’S DAY.  The answer to our quest, the answer to our need to celebrate is found in the boat Jesus is riding in.  Chances are you missed the source of happiness. Did you see it?  Did you hear about it?  What am I talking about?  Jesus’ head was on a cushion.  I have been pondering that pillow all week.  Where did it come from?  I imagined it as being embroidered, hand made.  My cousin Bonnie suggested to me that maybe His mother made it for him, the Gospel equivalent of a Teddy Bear. I wouldn’t  ...

    Tonight we remember.  We begin to remember that Love is stronger than death.  We remember this not just as something that happened 2,000 years ago in Jesus, but as something that IS happening to us, in us, right now on this Holy Night.     The death, that Love is stronger than, is not just our physical death, but all the deaths we endure in loving service of our neighbors.  St. Paul said, in his letter to the Galatians: “I no longer live but Christ lives in me.”  To experience this Divine Union in our lives requires a constant death to self so that we may rise in Christ and Christ rise in us.  The steps to this new life are remembered, and hopefully made our own, in the three acts of our Triduum service that we begin tonight.     Tonight’s action is humble service.  I know it is awkward, and you feel a little self-conscience but imagine what it was like for those at the Last Supper.  Dirty, sweaty, smell...

The film on this website will be presented to Pope Francis on March 17, by two of my Paulist brothers. Fr. Mark-David Janus, CSP will present the Pope with Cardinal Kasper’s newest Paulist Press book, “Pope Francis’ Revolution of Tenderness and Love.” Fr. Gil Martinez, CSP will present the film "Owning Our Faith" in a private audience after morning mass.

L2-2015-SPN     Can we talk?  In today’s liturgy of the Word we reflect on two mountains, Mt. Moriah  and Mt. Tabor both of which we are asked to climb.  We remember Abraham and Isaac, Peter, James and John; two encounters with God.  The first seems dark, even sinister, the second glorious.  In fact, they are both glorious.     Abraham lived in an era when child sacrifice was common practice among other religious traditions.  Abraham, delighted in a “new” God who had given him a child even when Sarah was barren, unable to give him a child.  Sarah and Abraham delighted in Isaac — the precious gift.  During the walk to Mt. Moriah Abraham must have suffered, must have wondered how in the world God would change joy into tragedy, leading him to the edge of committing the sin of murder.  This story is not about a punitive God who asks deadly things of us, but of a God who wants our full and undivided attention.  G...