Spirituality

By Rev. Glenn Jones

One thing very all too evident in our day is the impatience and incivility manifested in so much of our public (and likely, private) discussion. I often lament to hear of persons walking out on talks, lectures, sermons/homilies etc., simply because some (even perhaps all) of the speaker’s points do not coincide with the “walker’s” own ideas.

One wonders how the walker will understand accurately the speaker’s views and ideas if exiting the moment he hears something “offensive” or not in accord with his own? After all, are we Read More

By Rev. Glenn Jones

As most know, we Catholics have the sacramental rite of penance, or “confession”, of sins, asking God for the forgiveness of sins through the mediation of priests. The rite begins with the words, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned…”

And so … bless me, my brothers and sisters, for I have sinned…

Well … now that I have your attention! Isn’t it strange how we are drawn to scandal and controversy so strongly? I’d bet that even people who have never read my weekly column did a double-take, and are at least perusing the first few Read More

By Rev. Glenn Jones

“Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow … I weep; my eyes flow with tears…” (Lamentations 1:12)

“A voice is heard … lamentation and bitter weeping. [She] is weeping for her child; she refused to be comforted for her child, because she is no more.”  (cf., Jeremiah 31:15)

Few scripture verses better capture the agony of parents who have lost a child to the scourge of death, which came Friday to a beautiful 27-day-old angel who stretched her wings and flew back to God … “the silver cord is snapped … and the spirit Read More

By Rev. Glenn Jones

The Las Vegas shooting, of course, dominated the news this week, as tragedies often do. Remembering that massacre, it’s timely that the Gospel that we read at our Catholic Mass this weekend is the parable of the vineyard owner and the rebellious tenants (Matthew 21:33-43). One very poignant verse in that Gospel passage comes when the owner had finished preparing his vineyard, and “…he leased it to tenants and went on a journey”—a seemingly almost offhand remark, but it speaks volumes about our world.

As we think about Las Vegas, Read More

By Rev. Glenn Jones

You may remember the movie “Letters from Iwo Jima” that came out about 10 years ago. “Letters” is fairly unique (in American cinema, at least) in telling the story of that World War II battle from a Japanese point of view. A particularly moving scene is when a Japanese soldier who knows English translates a killed Marine’s letter from home to a group of Japanese soldiers—a letter which transforms their attitudes from viewing the Americans as barbarians to seeing them as fellow men and warriors also simply doing what they see Read More