Spirituality

Fr. Glenn: Success And Failure

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

We all likely know the elation of success, and also the dispiritedness of failure, whether in sports, in intellectual pursuits, business, etc. But might remember Thomas Edison to whom the invention of the light bulb is often attributed, to whom also is attributed the phrase (there are various versions): “I have not failed 10,000 times—I’ve successfully found 10,000 ways that will not work.” We see such determination today in the SpaceX program. Whatever you might think of Elon Musk, it’s hard not to marvel at that program’s success, a venture widely ridiculed in its beginning Read More

A Season Of Renewal And A Special Introduction At Los Alamos Jewish Center

By Donna Milanovich Srajer
President
Los Alamos Jewish Center

As the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah approaches, I feel its coming in the beauty of the change of seasons, the holiday’s prayerful time of self-reflection, the seeking of forgiveness, and the desire for renewal. It is a time of gratitude, of hope, and of community.

One of the most meaningful aspects of Rosh Hashanah is gathering with our Los Alamos Jewish Center family — friends old and new, along with visitors — who together create a warm and welcoming space where our tradition thrives.

This year, our community has something especially Read More

All Shall Be Well: One Wild And Precious Life?”

Clergy from left, Deacon Amy Schmuck, Deacon Cynthia Biddlecomb, retired, The Rev. Mary Ann Hill and The Rev. Lynn Finnegan. Photo by Nate Limback/ladailypost.com

By The Rev. Mary Ann Hill
Rector
Trinity on the Hill

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

I would not be surprised if you are already familiar with this quote. Memes have been made of it. It’s been tattooed on countless arms and printed on myriad coffee mugs. It’s the last line of a poem by Mary Oliver. In this poem, entitled The Summer Day, Oliver reflects on creation and the brevity of life. But she doesn’t Read More

Los Alamos Good News Clubs Begin Monday Sept. 8

Los Alamos Good News Clubs start next week after school. Courtesy photo

COMMUNITY News:

The Los Alamos Good News Clubs are starting next week. Each Club meets 2:40-4:30 p.m. once a week after school and features Bible and missionary stories, Scripture memory, songs, games, snacks, prizes and occasional crafts.

The Clubs are non-denominational, are entirely free, and run from September through the end of April.  No Clubs on snow days, holidays, or parents’ conference days. Parents must fill out a registration form.

Schedule:

  • Mondays beginning Sept. 8: Aspen (library), Mountain (music
Read More

Fr. Theophan: Remember To Love Your Town

By Fr. Theophan
Rector
Saint Job of Pochaiv Orthodox Church

This past week I had the pleasure and great opportunity to attend an iconography workshop in Carnegie, a small suburb of Pittsburg. I stayed with my parents in West Virginia right across the state border. Adjacent to the class, I conducted a wedding ceremony in a beautiful Orthodox church in Greenville, S.C., and served a liturgy in Anderson, nearby.

I feel like breaking into song with Johnny Cash, “I’ve been everywhere, man…”

Other than the airline trip back home, which is worth a novel in itself for all the twists and turns it made, the Read More

Fr. Glenn: The Toughest Teaching

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

As you no doubt have heard, on the morning of August 27, 2025, the Church of the Annunciation in Minneapolis became the site of a horrid scene. During a Mass celebrating the first week of school, a shooter fired through the church windows, killing two children and injuring 18 others. This Catholic community, a place where generations of believers had gathered for baptisms, weddings, and communions, was shattered by violence that struck at the heart of innocence and faith. Why, why, WHY, we cry, strike at children?!

How do we make sense of such evil? Where is God in the midst of suffering? Read More

Intro To The Jewish High Holy Days: A Two-Part Exploration

Courtesy/LAJC

By RABBI JACK SHLACHTER
Los Alamos Jewish Center

In communities around the world, countless rabbis are at this very moment engaged in the enormously challenging task of exhorting Jews to attend the local synagogue for the upcoming holidays of Rosh HaShanah, the “New Year,” and Yom Kippur, the “Day of Atonement.”

As in everything, however, Los Alamos is unique – our rabbi (yours truly) is only gently encouraging Jews to come to the Los Alamos Jewish Center for these Jewish High Holidays. If ever there was a time in the past several decades when identifying with the Jewish community Read More

Op-Ed: Which Side Are You On?

By ANDI KRON
Los Alamos

I recently reunited with an Israeli friend who was visiting the Lab on official business. It had been 2 1/5 years since I last saw him in Israel. “How are things going in Israel?” I asked with trepidation. “We are traumatized,” he answered. His brother is a surgeon and has been on reserve duty for months as a medic in Gaza. His wife is a lecturer in universities and lost several students in the massacre of October 7, 2023. Her parents live in the south where Hamas terrorists infiltrated and killed residents of their community. He needs police protection when he travels to Europe Read More

Fr. Glenn: Years Of Love Forgotten

By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Many of us have probably lost friends of long acquaintance due to misunderstanding, slights perceived but not meant, grudges over trifles. One wonders if it’s not a sort of psychological self-protection mechanism—and expectation of being inevitably betrayed sometime in the future, so we “head it off at the pass” before it could do greater damage. “If even Jesus could be betrayed, what chance do ANY of the rest of us have!?” may be a subconscious, though erroneous, justification. Will I, too, have to bear the biblical treachery: “… it is not an adversary who deals insolently Read More

Stradling: Why Does God Care?

By GARY STRADLING
Los Alamos

Why, in a universe of trillions of star systems, does God care about us?

As a child, I read the 1944 book by James Corbett, “Man-Eaters of Kumaon”. This story of man-eating tigers of India was exciting and illuminating for a boy in Belen, NM. One interesting thing that came to me from it was the question, “Why? Why did tigers eat human villagers?”

The author, if I remember correctly, attributed the tiger’s interest in humans for food, in at least one case, as resulting from a deficiency, a broken jaw, that kept the tiger from foraging on its traditional prey.

Courtesy photo  Read More