I had an old friend many years ago that used to study a lot about faith and was very active in the church. One day she revealed what she really wanted: wisdom. She became a professional with a stable, comfortable life. But I don’t know if she ever found wisdom. A little while ago, another…
Happy birthday! Well, happy if you get something good. That’s how we think of birthdays, by parties and gifts and happy celebrations for another trip completed around the sun. But the original idea of a birthday was for remembering the day we were born. The problem is that, although we don’t remember it, we weren’t…
Last year during Holy Week and Easter, I was in the village of Chontal in Ecuador. Covid and other sicknesses were passing through, and on Holy Thursday, the priest called about 15 minutes before the Mass to let us know that he wasn’t feeling good. I have a lot of experience in the past celebrating…
So there is Moses heading out for a day’s work. He says good bye to his wife, who he is fortunate to have because He gets his shepherd tolls ready and heads out the door, and goes off to the pen where the sheep stay the night. After some time in his first greetings, he…
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Back when I was studying engineering in college and grad school, I was fully invested. I put in about 60 hours a week of schoolwork, plus a part-time job. And besides liking the coursework and labs, I thought I was on my way to becoming … rich and successful. I had confidence in my talent,…
Back in February, my mother’s cousin Sonny, died after a long life. The whole family came back to Boston for a funeral Mass at the end of April, and it was a special time for everyone who was close to Sonny to come together and experience her death, remember her life, and go forward into…
I’m always amazed at people that know how to find Bible verses. They know the book and chapter and verse of every saying, and where to find it. Me, on the other hand, I have general ideas of where things are, and I need a search tool to find the verse and where it’s exactly…
The other day, I stopped to give a homeless man a dollar and to talk. It ended up being a 10-minute conversation. He was grateful for the dollar and the opportunity to talk, and I came away grateful for the connection, inspired and filled with a new insight to my own life and path. This…
A while ago I was walking down a street in Boston and came across a homeless man who looked familiar. Once we started talking, I realized that he was someone I used to see about 20 years ago when I was living in that neighborhood. He’s a very talkative guy and so we got to…
Asian Giant Hornets. We all heard of them in the US during the pandemic. They were coming to the US, and they had a deadly nickname: murder hornets. The reason they are called murder hornets need a little explanation. Now, these hornets are huge, even up to 2 inches long. And they like to get…
I’ve been living this past year in a basement, underground. I’m happy and grateful to be here, and it’s a great place for me to be right now. But getting the kinks in the heat worked out in a basement doesn’t make the first winter here easy. One morning I work up at 50 degrees.…
Back in 2014, I had gone to the village of Chontal when first arriving back in Ecuador after some time out of the country. I was going to spend some time in another location, but I wanted to stop there for a visit first, as it was Mother’s Day weekend, and the relationship I have…
One day a long time ago, I got the chance to catch up with an old friend, and we got to talking about Eucharistic adoration. My friend was not a believer in it: the Eucharistic is meant to be consumed in the liturgy. It’s not meant to be stored, much less to be taken out…
Last year, I ran into a situation where I had to move out of my living situation fairly quickly. Apartments were about to get gobbled up in the August push, and I started thinking about moving in July. For a guy without a job, going back and forth to Ecuador for almost 10 years, it…
So, my friend is driving me along in his car, and I’m about to tell him where to go. We are approaching a rotary, which, if you’re not from Boston, you might call a circle or roundabout. Now, finding the right exit from the rotary is complicated, especially because there’s another turn option right away…
ALM 