Today is All Souls’ Day, not celebrated by most Protestants, but as my wife noted this morning, when you have lost someone very close and dear you begin to view such things differently. I still do not believe in Purgatory and recognize that much of the traditions of All Souls or […]
Grief
169 posts
Of the Daily Offices I have always appreciated most Compline. It is the prayers at the end of the day and were written at a time when people were far more conscious of the fact that any day might be the end of this worldly life for them. Most of […]
We miss him. This week marks the beginning of another school year and yet another milestone without Mack. We miss him to our very core. But our daughter continues to be such an amazing young woman. We rejoice in all that she does and the year ahead for her. Elizabeth […]
Psalm 88 Psa. 88:10-13 Do you work wonders for the dead? Do the shades rise up to praise you? Selah Is your steadfast love declared in the grave, or your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are your wonders known in the darkness, or your saving help in the land of forgetfulness? […]
Last Sunday I was driving home from Altoona, about a 40 minute drive, after having served as a supply priest for a small parish. It was a glorious afternoon and I had the topdown all the way. That calls for music and U2 was at hand. I set it all […]
[pullquote]When you die that does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and the manner in which you live.[/pullquote]Wonderful, wonderful speech that is making the rounds, as it should. Perhaps one of the most important things he said is that we […]
In the late 80s early 90s I read a bunch of Chaim Potok’s works, his famous books about young Jewish men growing up in a modernizing world. He came to speak at Wheaton College when I was there as a grad student. For those who do not know, Potok was […]
My wife has recently written about the fact that when we travel and there are churches or cathedrals to visit, we light a candle for Mack. We have done this since last summer, the summer after he passed. There are usually hundreds of candles burning there. People light them for […]
This week at the International SBL meeting, three Qumran sessions were given over to commemorating the work of John Collins on Apocalypticism. In the first session Prof. Collins, in his summary of his work on apocalypticism, said something that made me go “hmmmm.” Now, I should say that I may […]
The idea for this post came not really so much from reflecting upon the process of selecting Mack’s headstone, but on some recent conversations. People have a habit of using the phrase “I want my obituary to say…” as a way to express the impetus or motivation for their actions […]