Presby-Musings

In years past, I've often begun the new year with a desire to fix whatever I perceived to be wrong with me by making resolutions, vowing to replace bad habits with good ones, and generally making promises to myself that ultimately I was unable to keep.   I've learned that I am not alone in this endeavor. Many of us start the new year in repair mode, hoping to fix ourselves and become the people we believe we ought to be.   I've had more than my share of failures over the years as I've approached the new year with a fix-it mindset, but there is one thing I did that took root and has perhaps been the single most important "resolution" I've kept: writing these Devos.   For over a decade, I've been writing these devotional messages every morning, most often preceded by reading, journaling, reflection, prayer, and other practices that I've adopted into my daily rituals.   What started as a resolution was actually an act formation that grew over time in...

This week's Daily Devos will focus on how to approach the new year in ways that help us become better versions of ourselves, in ways that are doable and sustainable.   God knows, I need "doable and sustainable" ways to begin a new year.  I've learned over the years that simply making resolutions has never really worked that well for me.  Like most people, I always have the best intentions, but my New Year's resolutions tend to fall away rather quickly.   It's not that I'm a particularly weak person; it's just that my resolutions for the new year are pretty lofty and generally unattainable. I dream of being a different person, reinventing everything about me, and becoming an idealized version of myself that I think I ought to be.   The turning of the calendar often tempts us to believe that change requires reinvention. A new year, we assume, demands a new version of ourselves—more disciplined, more productive, more impressive.  And we want it...

  It’s still Christmas!   We are nearing the end of The Season of Christmas, one of the shortest of the Church's historic liturgical seasons.  Christmas is a time to reflect on the implications of the Incarnation—God with us.   Today, we will explore the preamble to John’s Gospel, which retells the Creation story with Christ at its center.   "Christ isn't Jesus last name." - Richard Rohr.  I've always been intrigued by the quote above from Fr. Richard Rohr, from his fantastic book  The Universal Christ.   A more accurate way to phrase Jesus' widely known "name" is "Jesus THE Christ."  In other words, Jesus embodies the Christ, a name for something far more mysterious and eternal.  The Scriptures refer to Jesus as the Christ, Messiah, Son of God, Emmanuel, and, as we will discover, something altogether different and new that the author of John's Gospel essentially creates new language to describe.   As Rohr puts it:  “For...