Spirituality

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Images of bombings, smoke, freedom fighters are strewn across the news sites once again. Heavy sigh.  Over 30 years after the tearing down of “The Wall” in Berlin and the subsequent breakup of the Soviet Union—hardly even a generation—Russia sets it sights westward once again, making incursions into Ukraine, then…? Peace shattered in Europe once again. As General MacArthur remarked in his farewell speech to West Point, it does seem that “Only the dead have seen the end of war.”

Obviously—lamentably—there are always wars, rebellions and conflicts throughout the world. Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

“People spend money they don’t have/
to buy stuff that they don’t need/
to impress people they don’t like.”

This short adage seems quite true—the first two lines maybe the most. We read news articles stating that increasingly more Americans are living paycheck to paycheck, and that household debt is at all-time highs. Also, that people have more trouble sleeping these days, and that anxiety is also at an all-time high. Hmmm … a correlation there, you think?

Yes, “dress to Impress” is advice often given to those applying for a job, grant, scholarship, etc., but to do so in order Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Well, here we are in yet another election year.  Oh boy, oh joy … to be regaled once again by politicians in their bids to be elected, they trying to walk tightropes between extremes so as to glean the max possible votes. If it wasn’t so serious, it would be amusing as they tread on eggshells during debates and press conferences so as to not offend—or offend as few as possible—likely voters. Thus, experience has shown that positions in public debates held during campaigns to curry max favor are typically poor barometers of predicting ultimate actions in office.

We’ve all seen people Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

We have sort of a love/hate relationship with our mailbox, or, in these days, maybe our inbox. Oh boy … maybe I’ll get some letter/email from a friend or long-absent relation whom I’ve missed, or some other good or fun news. But … then there’s the inevitable bills, taxes, periodic bad news, unexpected problem that crops up—some more often than others.

So, we often get consumed with our day-to-day concerns and problems.  Indeed, we tend to magnify even the more minor things until they seem looming above us like the mythical sword of Damocles, sometimes making for toss-and-turn Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

In the movie “Eye in the Sky”, a covert operation is tasked with finding and eliminating certain terrorists. The terrorists, known for arranging suicide bombings which had killed scores of innocents and are about to deploy for further attacks, are found and targeted with a drone armed with Hellfire missiles.

But, just as the strike is authorized, a little girl sets up a table to sell bread within the projected blast radius. So, continue the strike to the almost certain death of the little girl, or abort the strike and potentially sacrifice tens, if not hundreds, of other innocents? Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

We all witness the seemingly endless barrage of negativity in our day—rising crime, rising tensions, rising tempers. Much has been made of the incivility that has raised its omnipresent ugly head in both social and mainstream media outlets, not to mention with day-to-day interactions. Simply completing a sentence uninterrupted has become a frequent challenge in discussions; before you’re halfway through, someone barges in with a contradictory—or even barely relevant—point, sometimes just to deflect challenge to their own unsustainable or weakly-supported position. Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Those who have been part of a church, charity or just about any community organization know that the organizers and leaders are always looking for help for various projects, leadership roles, etc. Frequently people say to pastors: “I know I should help, but I just don’t feel called to do such and such particular role.” And that’s fine; few are skilled in, or have the aptitude/personality for, every role. The introvert may not be good at contacting people, or the extrovert fit for sitting quietly to work patiently on a tedious but necessary project. But almost always there’s some Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

So, we come to yet another new year—a “turning of the page” (we often hope) to a new chapter for ourselves, our families, our nation and the world; may they all be blessed, safe and peaceful. To further these goals, we traditionally gin up some new year’s resolutions: how can I become a better version of myself that I just KNOW is in there. Somewhere!

But few good things come to us without effort, and the benefits we receive are proportional to the efforts we put in. It’s not unlike the second law of thermodynamics: that there is a natural tendency of any isolated system to degenerate Read More

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

I do hope you had a good and blessed Christmas, dear reader.  Another tough year gone by with this COVID still raging, and thoughts and prayers go out especially to those families missing friends and family from their tables and hearths this year. We in the Catholic Church of northeastern New Mexico lost many ministers, brothers and sisters—our faith family—with COVID even if some may not have been due to COVID. May God grant us the blessing of a universal morally-acceptable-to-all COVID vaccine this year. I hear the Army may have one in the works (LINK); let’s pray for its successful Read More