Good morning! I'm glad to be heading back home to Florida - Illinois is getting COLD! Today is the feast of John Paul II, and what could I say about him in this small space? Suffice it to say that I see him as a truly holy man, but also a truly great man, in the sense of being an important player in world events. To me, though, I always think of him as the guy who said, there are no coincidences. And I'm sure a lot of people have said that, but for some reason when I read it from him, it stuck - like I truly believed it for the first time in my life. I mean, we all believe things like that in principle, but not so much in practice. But once I committed to that idea, to live like I believe it, I really started seeing it. I've mentioned here before, I think, that very often the way God speaks to me is when I read. Not only Scripture, but other things, too, and for me, I often have the experience where I "just happen" to be reading two apparently unrelated things at about the same time, and something in one of them combines with something in the other to sound to me very much like the voice of God speaking to me at that very point in my life.
We were talking about this in my class yesterday, and one of these convergences happened for one of my students that same day! There are no coincidences!
Speaking of class yesterday, thanks for indulging me on doing The Journey from the classroom. I'm actually going to be teaching a course in January based on my book, Reading Scripture Like the Early Church, and I'm going to teach them how to do what I do in The Journey. It was fun yesterday, and it was interesting, I noticed that as I was talking about the meaning the Church fathers found in these passages, I found myself slipping into preaching mode. And I've long known that for me, the line between teaching and preaching can be a bit blurry. But why wouldn't it, since at least half of the primary sources where the Church fathers comment on Scripture comes from their sermons. So in a lot of cases, the reason we know how they interpreted the passages is that they were preaching them.
Incidentally, I made a comment at the end of the hour yesterday that I would "see" you next week in The Journey, but I forgot that next week, the 28th, is the one Saturday I have to miss, because my grandson is getting baptized. So I will see you next on The Journey on November 4th, but don't forget we have The Piazza next Sunday evening, Oct. 29th.
Pope St. John Paul, pray for us!
Dear friends - Please take 10 minutes to watch this personal update from me:
I'm back, up and running, and ready to go - I should have a new JOURNEY episode within the next week or so - and because you are my loyal peeps, here is an exclusive, just-for-you, behind the scenes SNEAK PEEK into my new office:
I mentioned in The Journey that I wrote a song based on Isaiah 2, which is one of my favorite OT passages:
In days to come, the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest mountain, and raised above the hills.
All nations shall stream toward it. Many peoples shall come and say:
“Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the house of the God of Jacob, That he may instruct us in his ways, and we may walk in his paths.” For from Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations, and set terms for many peoples.
They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; One nation shall not raise the sword against another, nor shall they train for war again. House of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!
I hope you like the song!
St. Albert the Great - teacher and mentor of St. Thomas Aquinas
The Original Church
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The problem with us men is that often we don't have the wisdom to be a father until we're a grandfather.
This may sounds like some ironic statement that makes you nod your head in agreement but shrug your shoulders in resignation, thinking, well there's nothing we can do about that. But the practical application of that is that it demonstrates how important it is for kids to grow up around their grandparents. But as in our culture the family becomes ever more fractured and spread out, that is harder and harder to do.
Lately I've been thinking that part of the problem is the whole concept of college. It used to be that everyone thought a person had to go to college to make a good living. Not only is that not the case (truck drivers make more money than I do) but now college has gone from useless to actually ruining our kids. But when I went to college, what you were supposed to do is figure out what career you wanted (as if anyone knows that at age 18) and then go away to the college ...
