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Bible Study Leftover

william — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:51:30 +0000

At our weekly meetings to discuss the Sunday Readings, we have had a number of parables to consider lately. The members of our group often speculate about what kind of circumstances or mentalities might have gone into the development of the situation portrayed in the parables, but how much speculation about surrounding circumstances is appropriate to taking the message conveyed by a parable to heart? I always assume that Christ’s parables were not accounts of actual happenings to be analyzed after the fashion of a law court, but rather ‘made up’ stories intended to make a point about how we are to live. So, it doesn’t matter what was in the mind of the other brother in the Prodigal Son parable, or whether the dishonest steward wasn’t so bad if he was using his ill gotten gains to feed the homeless.

artless cartoon

william — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:36:15 +0000

Pupil in class, answering question:

“Names of angels? I can think of four: Michael, Gabriel, Raphael, and Behold, an angel.”

Bible Study Leftover

william — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 16:32:42 +0000

Yesterday’s meeting was devoted to some degree to consideration of the story last Sunday’s in the gospel according to St. Matthew about the master who entrusted talents to his servants before going away and then, on return, heard the servants’ reports on how well they did. By coincidence, the gospel of yesterday’s Daily Mass was St. Luke’s very similar account, differing in that the master entrusted coins rather than ‘talents.’ Differing also in that the servants are explicitly told by the master to trade with the coins and obtain increase, so the servant who goes and buries his coin is clearly disobedient. I suppose the same imperative is implied in the Matthew story, but I sometimes think of the wicked, slothful servant in Matthew as perhaps being dopey, vacillating, neurotic or something, somehow lacking ‘what it takes’ to wheel and deal in the marketplace, and therefore not totally guilty.

artless cartoon

william — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:24:02 +0000

One priest to other:

“I subbed at the charismatic church last Sunday. It was Mass hysteria!”

SUFFERING, SORROW NOT SYNONYMOUS

william — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 01:38:57 +0000

How often do people say ’sorrowing’ or ’sorrowful’ when the apt term would be ’suffering.’ Sorrow relates to something we deeply regret (such as we feel about Jesus’ suffering). Sorrow can be deep sympathy and feeling of sadness for another; suffering only resides in the victims of painful happenings. It might be accompanied with related sorrow for poor decisions that led to the pain which is being experienced. It is true that one might feel such strong and deep sorrow that it actually becomes a form of suffering; this must have been the case for Jesus undergoing His Passion, who felt infinite sorrow knowing all the sins of mankind.

artless cartoon

william — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 17:48:39 +0000

As chubby people with big bellies file into church hall carrying dishes of food, one volunteer says to other:

“Now I see why it’s called a POT luck dinner!”

Little Girl Paints Portraits of Jesus

william — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 18:35:51 +0000

I saw a story on my Multiply “Catholic Friends” network about an enormously gifted girl with a great blessing in the form of amazing artistic abilities. I found it particularly fascinating because I am associated with a professional portrait painter in the Chicago area and am getting more and more interested in this line of work. Actually, the story first ran 2 or 3 years ago, but I never caught it.

Akiane Kramarik: Dream Child
This 10-year-old prodigy, who says God shows her what to paint, is using her gift to help the needy.
By Mary Berryhill

from: http://www.christianitytoday.com/tc/2004/004/7.24.html

artless cartoon

william — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 15:20:50 +0000

Kid, teling about St. Peter sinking into the sea after trying to walk on water:

” Peter yelled ‘Lord, save me! I need a bail out plan!’ “

BIG, WORSHIPFUL EYES

william — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 18:25:52 +0000

The theme of the children’s Mass this morning was Love. As I sat there watching the children and listening to Father’s homily I thought about how the kids live in a world of love and care, and they are full of love, although they don’t doll it up in a lot of words, and express it spontaneously with big, worshipful eyes, hugs, giggles and immense trust.

As I sat through the Mass and watched the children, the words of the homily and the little introductory speeches by the children about Love reverberating among the regrets in my 70-year-old brain, I began to think about the degree to which the world is full of powerful traps, shiny, highly tuned and hyped up attractions in their lives that they will be at a loss trying not to ‘love’ — the sins, excesses and flesh pots they will have looming up before them as though they were being force marched through some Satanic house of horrors of the future.

How much is sinking into those little heads as they attend their Masses, and are taught what’s right and what’s wrong in the classrooms of their excellent Catholic school? Will it be enough to counteract the siren corruptions of the world, or at least hold them to a standoff?

artless cartoon

william — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:12:13 +0000

Child picking the petals off a daisy:

“I was naughty, I wasn’t naughty, I was naughty, I wasn’t naughty …”