In his inaugural address of 1861, President Abraham Lincoln begged the American people to turn away from enmity. “Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection,” he said, asking listeners to be open to “the better angels of our nature.”

You are called by God to be a saint! And that all important calling from the Lord is not just to be seriously considered on All Saints Day – but every day!

No memories of my mother Dorothy are as powerful as watching her saying the rosary at the kitchen table every morning. Whatever was going on with our family, her day would start with coffee and one of the mysteries. 

It’s time to order your 2020 Oregon Catholic Directory, available in print or as a searchable PDF.

“We were instantly ordered to stop playing this riot creating music and we instantly switched to “In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus” and other beer drinking songs.  We completed our evening playing Schunkelmusik, but were never hired to play at Mount Angel again.”  

Sometimes, we stop noticing stupendous incidents right before our eyes. It’s usually because they are so steady, so dependable. How often do we feel a thrill of gratitude that drinkable water spurts from our kitchen taps? Do we throw our hands up in spontaneous praise when we inhale and just the right life-sustaining gases flow into our lungs? Such may be the case for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

Because suffering almost always imposes itself on us during life, and especially at the end of life, it can be helpful to reflect on the need to accept some personal suffering as we die, even as we recognize the importance of palliative steps and other comfort measures.

Remember the writing assignments teachers would spring on unsuspecting students their first week of school? Bleary-eyed kids waxed eloquent on such profound themes as: “What I did over summer break,” or “How going back to school is ruining my life.” It’s been many moons since I’ve considered these critical questions, mostly because — for numerous years as a busy wife, mother, and worker bee — the words “break”’ and “summer” didn’t compute.

Almost 75 years after the last of the Nazi death camps were liberated, the world is watching a new generation succumb to the poison that many had assumed had been eliminated when the world was shown those horrors.

The new edifice is beautifully located at the Eastern extremity of the city and is built in the Gothic style, the main edifice being sufficiently large to accommodate the congregation of East Portland for many years to come. 

In the words of Pope Francis we need to create a “culture of encounter” with all people – even our enemies.

We can trace virtually our whole situation to the mollycoddling of our bodies that goes along with sitting, watching, snacking, watching, snacking, watching, but also to the powerful preaching of demons that has poured into our homes for decades and decades as we let down our guard ever further.

Those taking Deacon José to task appear to be of the mindset that to be a Christian is to be effete, “nice,” and never offer defense or make anyone feel uncomfortable about what they are doing. Apparently real action, appropriate to the situation, is somehow forbidden to the Christian.

It is beyond wrong; it’s evil. To excuse it is to acquiesce to the “culture of death” that St. John Paul II warned against in Evangelium Vitae. And the Bible isn’t silent about immigrants.