I have written a prayer for you to pray and to forward to your many friends and contacts in your address book via email. I urge you to do it now. There is great power and thanks when many people pray and the Lord grants favor. See II Corinthians 1:11. So, please either forward this page or cut and paste this prayer, but in some way, get it out into cyberspace so that many more people can uphold those who are in harm's way. Please do it now.
Read more"St. James was exercising its free-speech rights when it broke with the diocese, issued a news release declaring its estrangement and amended its articles of incorporation to write out any references to the diocese.
Read moreLet me add that I write this as one who genuinely loves the city, though more for its gritty, everyday blue-collar virtues than for its celebrated domestic architecture, its Creole pretentiousness, and its rather dull and unspontaneous parading of its putative naughtiness.
Read moreThen the Bishop came on and told us that at the laughably misnamed riot called "The Peace" he didn't want us merely to shake hands but to "hug one another"-and not just to hug one another, but to put our arms on our neighbor's shoulders and say three times, "You are everlastingly loved." When, with varying degrees of squeamishness, grown men fawned on one another in this way, the Bishop came on again in full pantomime mode and said, "Not loud enough!
Read moreIn the Acts of the Apostles we read of the ministry of deacons and the Church as a whole as it ministered to the needs of God's people. Ironically it is not until later that the Council of Jerusalem met to deal with the internal struggles of an emerging Church. What is clear, however, is that the Church was totally committed to preaching, teaching, and ministering to those who were in need.
Read more"I make peace and create evil".
"I the Lord do all these things".
Now wait a minute! God creates evil, our loving God?
Evil in the Hebrew language is "rah". The Hebrew word for sin is "chate".
"Rah" is translated 430 times in the Bible as evil, not sin.
BELOW IS THE LETTER I RELEASED TO THE PARISH ON AUGUST 26, 2005
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
Read moreWho is Jesus in all this? He is a great teacher, example, martyr and more, but he is not the Only Begotten Son of God who took to himself human nature and flesh in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, and for us and for our salvation provided expiation and propitiation for our sins.
Read moreThese survivors weren't looters, gang members or rapists. They were like my 77-year-old in-laws or your neighbors down the street, only black and smelly and scared and tired. They were so grateful as we led them up, one at a time, into the Astroarena seats to wait for processing, only because they knew that finally someone with organization and the means to help was holding their hand and telling them they were going to be okay.
Read moreAnother blackout in New York, years later, was much uglier. And what has been happening now in New Orleans is uglier still. Is there a trend here?
Fear, grief, desperation or despair would be understandable in people whose lives have been devastated by events beyond their control. Regret might be understandable among those who were warned to evacuate before the hurricane hit but who chose to stay. Yet the word being heard from those on the scene is "angry."
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