The blog you received today was written by Maureen McCarthy, OSU. It was mistakenly posted to the wrong site. Look for Mary Ann’s blog Monday morning, December 14th.
Finding the Peace of Advent
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com My current personal medical isolation, the inability to get around on two feet, and a sudden crippling snowstorm, have each contributed to a perfect vortex for the season of Advent! I have no choice but to be still and know that God is here. An article in The New York Times of last Sunday threw a little heat into... Continue Reading →
‘Good Grief!’ We Almost Lost a Christmas Tradition
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com In December 1965, the nation was at war in Vietnam. Young Americans were being conscripted into the military. The hippie movement was taking hold, political assassinations and the fight for civil rights were de rigueur. We were grappling for some sort of sanity in our chastened democracy. Along came Peanuts, by then a wildly successful cartoon strip already 13... Continue Reading →
Gratitude During the Isolation
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com I’m in quarantine! Nothing at all related to Covid-19. I underwent foot surgery this past week for repair of a peroneal tendon which, medical literature says, usually develops for people who are extremely active athletes. Or, as my doctor says, who are undergoing physical degeneration, the euphemism for aging. Guess which category I fit in! Tendons are like taffy holding muscle to bone. My... Continue Reading →
The Asteroid, Environmentalism, and Faith
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com A few weeks ago we got word that an asteroid was careening toward earth. I was beyond excited. I am a total amateur scientist, though I taught environmental and health reporting at John Carroll University. I took classes in several universities and even corporations to learn as much as I could. I wanted... Continue Reading →
The Common Good and Healing the Nation
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com Plato developed the idea in his The Republic; Aristotle argued for it in his political writings; James Madison, along with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, underscored its importance in The Constitution of the United States and The Federalist Papers. The idea I am talking about is the common good. Madison underscored that “…political institutions... Continue Reading →
Homeless Jesus and What I Can Do For Him
Photo Credit: Susan Zion, OSU Within twenty minutes of placing a life-sized figure shrouded in a blanket and stretched on a bench near St. Barnabas Episcopal Church in Bay Village, Ohio, someone called the local police about a homeless person because “it doesn’t look good.” Did the caller mean it doesn’t look good for the person wrapped in the blanket who... Continue Reading →
What I Can Do to Feed the Hungry
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com October is “Hunger and Homelessness Awareness” month, and from November 15 to 22, it will be “Hunger and Homelessness Awareness” week. I thought we should look at hunger first and next week take on homelessness for reflection and action. Such reflection might become a way in which we can measure our personal belief in Jesus... Continue Reading →
Reaching Out to Dilute the Loneliness
Photo credit: Pixabay.com These are days of extraordinary loneliness for many people. Several of my past blogs have mentioned the kindnesses of people reaching through the fog surrounding others to let them know they are thought of and loved. Please contact the lonely, here is why. You may have read my post two weeks ago on the death of our beloved dog, Finn.... Continue Reading →
Voting is a Sacred Duty
Photo Credit: Pixabay.com How could anyone not vote? Especially in a democracy? Just take a look at Belarus these days. Or, some of the struggling neo-democratic countries teetering on tyrannical rule. Let me give you some examples I have experienced about freedom and voting these past 60 years. In the 1950’s when I was in religious formation, communism governed... Continue Reading →
In All Things Charity 