Monday, July 12, 2010

Go Fish!


We got a late start on our fishing this year, but now we're making up for lost time.  We're not really big fish eaters, and we don't particularly care if we catch anything, it's more an excuse to just get up to the lake for a few hours.  It also saves hundreds of dollars on massage therapy, as gazing out across the water, casting and reeling in, or just going for a walk relieves all the pent up tensions of the week.


It is nice to catch something once in a while, even if it's just a crawdad.  There's a feeling of accomplishment.  Fishing played a big part in Jesus' life.  Many of the apostles were fishermen.  Jesus told Peter and Andrew He would make them "fishers of men".  What does it mean for me to be a "fisher of men"?


Surely not to just sit passively and gaze across the lake.  After the wonders of God's creation have filled me up and pushed out all the garbage of the material world, what next?  Eventually it is time to drive back home and take up the daily tasks again.  Fishers of men...to be Jesus to everyone around me.  To extend kindness...to smile...to cheerfully lend a hand.  To suffer interruptions joyfully, because it may be in that moment that the "fish" God has sent me takes the "bait".

Monday, July 5, 2010

God Bless America


It warms my heart to hear people sing the Star Spangled Banner. In recent years, it seems I've noticed alot of people who don't know, or refuse to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or sing our National Anthem. As a student in Catholic schools for ten years, not a day went by when we didn't say the pledge, and the anthem, as well as other patriotic songs were frequently included in our morning singing.

Undoubtedly, our country has severe flaws. Our president is less than inspiring to many of us. Our lawmakers are a big disappointment, to say the least. But we Americans, we Catholic Americans, come together on the Lord's Day, and encourage each other; we receive the nourishing body and blood of Christ and are strengthened to go out and do what little we can to be the change we want to see happen.

O' say, does that star spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave?
As long as it continues to wave, and we continue to pray, there is great hope for our great country.