Michael's Random Thoughts and Photos on Spirituality

How many times do I have to forgive my brother or sister?  Seven times?  No, Jesus answers, seventy times seven times.  Now if you are counting on your fingers trying to figure out how many times you need to forgive someone - you’ve missed the whole point of the Gospel. Jesus is asking for universal forgiveness, a kind of universal spiritual healthcare.  Jesus is calling forth in us an attitude of forgiveness in all times and places.  I can hear the voices being raised:  nice ideal, impossible, can’t be done, there are just too many jerks wandering around… the list goes on and on.  We can only contain so much; anger, resentment, negativity,, ticked-off-ness before we reach a breaking point.  Not only our spiritual wellbeing, but our physical and mental wellbeing are at stake here. Forgiveness takes many forms.  The word, forgive, says it all; you give, before all else, expecting nothing in return.  A forgiving word may, or may not...

Letting off steam

I am full, completely full, of partial forgiveness, of others and of myself. “I will forgive only in so far as….” You fill in the blank: only if the other person doesn’t do it again, or is really REALLY sorry - whatever. In today’s Gospel Jesus is bluntly saying “THE HATE STOPS HERE.” We often forget that Jesus was not a Catholic (we only began to be called Catholic some three hundred years after death and resurrection Jesus.). Jesus wasn’t even Christian (we weren’t called Christian until around 44ad, some 14years after His death and resurrection. We forget that Jesus was a Jew, a very good Jew who knew the Law and the Prophets and he practiced His faith. Early believers were simply Jews who believed Jesus was the promised Messiah; they continued to worship in the temple and obey the Mosaic Law, though they added going to their homes “in the evening” and “break bread” in memory of Him as He told them and us to do. The relationship between Jews and foreigners, as in today’s Gospe...

My Movie from Michael Evernden on Vimeo .

FEAST OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE 2017 This weekend we Paulist Fathers celebrate our community feast day, the Conversion of St. Paul the Apostle.  Our founder, Servant of God, Fr. Isaac Thomas Hecker named our community after St. Paul, to do in North America what Paul did in the Middle East;  to preach the Good News of Jesus Christ in new forms to all who will listen.  Paul did not want simply for people to “believe” in Jesus Christ, he invited them and us into a new way of life.  Paul invites us into a new LIFE-STYLE where it is no longer we who live but Christ who lives in us - giving shape and direction to our lives. What happened to Paul on the road to Damascus some 2,000 years ago?  I am going to dare and say that Paul was not converted, from anything into anything.  Paul, rather, had a deep, personal, piercing INSIGHT, an aw-ha moment, an inner experience of Jesus Christ; and it changed everything about him - forever.  Paul was transformed....