Skeptical Faith

Google Image Looking out our bedroom window, I like watching for wildlife: birds, squirrels, rabbits, the occasional deer and sometimes a rodent or two. I sometimes think about how they are not bothered by time. They have no idea what time it is, nor do they need to know. Whether nocturnal or diurnal, the position of the sun - and perhaps some more subtle signs - tells them all they need to know. We humans, on the other hand, are slaves to time. We use all our technological savvy to measure it down to the nanosecond. America's official time, according to a recent article on the National Public Radio web site, is kept at a government laboratory in Boulder, CO. "Exact" Time And the people there help us know the “exact” time. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) “broadcasts the time to points across the country. It's fed through computer networks and cell phone towers to our personal gadgets, which tick in perfect synchrony. Humanity's ever

Google Image Christmas is not my favorite time of the year. Don’t get me wrong. I love the idea of celebrating the birth of Jesus. After Easter, Christmas is arguably the most important holiday for Christians, and I thoroughly enjoy the church liturgies of the season, filled with the Messianic prophecies from the Hebrew Bible, the music that celebrates Christ’s birth and the apparent spirit of giving that prompts so many people to think of, and act in behalf of, others. But you have to ask the obvious question, whether celebrating the birth of Jesus is actually what we’re doing at this time of year. Is it still about Jesus’ birth? It doesn’t seem that way. On the contrary, Christmas seems to be the definitive symbol of the secularization and commercialization of society. I’ve often thought that Christians should perhaps just give up Dec. 25 to the advertisers, the extreme decorators and extreme gift givers - the people who have forgotten or simply ignore the meaning of Christmas.

Google Image I’ve adopted a practice called “Centering Prayer.” My brother, a priest in Kansas City who died in 2008, was an enthusiast and teacher of Centering Prayer but I tried it several times and could never get the hang of it. I started trying it again, first thing in the morning, a few months ago. I’ve been thinking of writing about it but am still a rookie and don’t feel ready to describe my experience in detail or recommend it to others. If you want to know more, my “teacher” is Thomas Keating, a deceased Trappist monk, who has a series of videos on YouTube. Just go to that online site and type in his name to gain access to the videos. In general, Centering Prayer is a way of attempting to come closer to God through relaxation and “emptying oneself” of all the usual thoughts and distractions, allowing God to fill the void. Practitioners recommend doing it for 20 minutes, twice a day. So far, I’m doing it for 20 minutes only once a day. The idea is to rid the mind of all th

Google Image Back in October, I wrote a blog in which I was somewhat critical of evangelical Christians. I quoted an opinion piece in Rolling Stone magazine about Lance Wallnau, an evangelical Christian who is also known as a Christian Nationalist. The article said that Wallnau “is a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, whose followers believe that we are living in an age of new apostles and prophets, who receive direct revelations from God. NAR believers hold that the second coming of Jesus is fast approaching, and that it is the destiny of Christians to accelerate the End Times by exerting ‘dominion’ over the world.” I then went on to write that Wallnau is among evangelicals, and other believers – including some in my own Catholic faith – who believe Christians should impose their beliefs on the rest of society, and even promote a “Christian” state, and that this idea has been a continual thorn in the side of Christianity, and indeed, of religion in general, f

Monks at New Melleray My college and much of my post-graduate education was provided by Benedictine monks. For those unfamiliar with Christian monasticism, it’s an ancient form of living the gospel through a combination of prayer – including contemplative prayer – and work. Inspired by references in the New Testament about Jesus going to solitary places to pray, the roots of Christian monasticism began to sprout in about 270 AD with people such as St. Anthony of Egypt going to the desert to find solitude and the peace needed to pray and meditate. Spirit of Balance, Moderation and Reasonableness The “mono” – meaning one - in monasticism implies solitude. Monasteries came later as the “desert fathers” (and mothers) began coming together to pray in common. And a major step was taken by St. Benedict of Nursia in Italy (d. 548). He wrote the famous “Rule of St. Benedict,” which, according to Wikipedia, “has a unique spirit of balance, moderation and reasonableness.” His rule, someti

Google Image I’ve developed the habit, during night prayer, to think of the people I’ve met and who have helped me during the day. They include clerks in stores, waiters, workers who’ve come to fix things in our home, our real-estate agent, doctors and dentists and if a weekend, the clergy and people I’ve been with at church. Yes, most are getting paid for what they do, but they are still serving my needs and I’ve decided that the truly human response to their service is gratitude. As a believer, I also feel the need to thank the ultimate provider of those people and of their ability to serve. In my youth, I was greatly inspired by the life of Helen Keller, whom I haven’t thought about in years. In case you’re unfamiliar with her, Wikipedia describes Keller as “ an American author, disability rights advocate, political activist and lecturer.” She died in 1968. At Sea in a Dense Fog “…At 19 months old, Keller contracted an unknown illness described by doctors as ‘an acute congesti

Google Image At a recent weekend liturgy at the Jesuit church of St. Ignatius of Loyola in Denver, the church’s pastor, Fr. Dirk Dunfee, confided in his congregation during a homily about the confusing disconnections in his own family. His mother had two sisters, only one of whom was close to Dunfee and his family. The other, for a reason unknown to Dunfee, was never spoken to, or about. When the aunt who was close died, Dunfee’s family and the family of the estranged sister were on opposite sides of the room at the funeral home and spoke not a word to each other. And Dunfee said he has lost touch with that family, leaving him with no relationship with his cousins, the children of his estranged aunt. Many families have experienced something similar. Nothing is more precious than having a close, loving family. And nothing is bitterer than discord and animosity within a family. A Stretch? I’ve often thought about “church” in this way. It may be a stretch for some to think about chu

Google Image The human body, composed mostly of water, plus trace amounts of silicon, manganese, fluorine, copper, zinc, arsenic, and aluminum, is worth about $1. If you were able to include your skin, it would add about $4.50, according to the web site ThoughtCo.com, bumping the total value up to about $5. If you were able to separately sell your body parts, such as the heart, liver, etc., you’re looking at up to $45 million, according to counterplus.com, another such web site. Most rational people, of course, would not attempt to put a price on a human body, though many say that’s all there is to a human life, and many who advocate for or are indifferent about violence and hate seem to adhere to this view. Capacity to Save Ourselves So, if the dollar approach is not a rational calculation of the worth of a human being, what is? I believe the Christian view, though played out politically and socially in radically different ways, is the wisest. I believe it has the capacity to sa

Google Image Thank God, we’re almost through one of the worst “lying seasons” ever. That’s what I call the time before elections when candidates air campaign ads full of wild exaggerations, half-truths and downright lies. It’s appalling. It makes you wonder how the authors of these ads justify their creations. Does winning require searching for any possible damaging information about an opponent? And is winning all that matters? I imagine many producers of these ads, and the candidates that approve them, would say that if you can’t win, you can’t make the changes that the candidate promotes, as if life itself depends on a particular candidate winning. The explosion of these misleading ads makes me wonder about their effect on the public’s notion of truthfulness. I believe it erodes many people’s determination to be truthful. After all, if prominent people are willing to “bend the truth” to get elected, why shouldn’t I lie to get a job, procure a life mate, prepare my taxes? Got

Google Image I recently finished reading a novel called, “Have You Seen Luis Velez” by one of my favorite authors, Catherine Ryan Hyde. It’s an unusual title, I know, but no more so than the plot, which is about a 17-year-old boy named Raymond who befriends a 92-year-old woman who lives in his apartment building in New York City. The woman, Mildred Gutermann, a blind, German Jew whose family narrowly escaped the Holocaust, has been alone since Luis Velez, a modern-day Good Samaritan who visited her and helped her regularly, suddenly stopped coming. She spots Raymond in the hallway one day and asks, “Have you seen Luis Velez?” The subsequent conversation between the two blossoms into a deep friendship in which Raymond, who is black, substitutes for Velez, spending time with Mildred, doing errands and the task he takes on with dogged determination – finding Luis Velez. Knocks on Doors Finding 21 Luis Velezes in the New York phone directory, Raymond sets out to knock on doors. His

I’ve often wondered what motivated my grandmother, Julia McNulty Carney, to communicate with a cousin in Ireland she had never met. And this was in the age of “slow mail.” There was no email, messaging or WhatsApp. But her doing so opened a channel for me and my family that has proven invaluable. At about 10 years old at Julia’s urging, I started to write the same cousin – an already elderly woman in the town of Dromore in Northern Ireland – that led to knowing and loving an extended family I hadn’t known existed. As a result, our American family have kept in touch – including mutual visits – with our Irish cousins. On both sides of the Atlantic, belief seems to have faded, but the relationship has helped us on the American side at least understand where we come from, literally and figuratively. And in my view, faith is our most important Irish inheritance. Whether the Faith Fits You Obviously, you can’t “inherit” faith like you can a set of silverware. At some point you have to

Google Image  An opinion piece in a recent edition of Rolling Stone magazine by Tim Dickinson was about Lance Wallnau , whom he describes as “a self-styled ‘prophet’ and one of America’s most strident Christian Nationalists. “Wallnau,” says the article, “is a leading figure in the New Apostolic Reformation, or NAR, whose followers believe that we are living in an age of new apostles and prophets, who receive direct revelations from God. NAR believers hold that the second coming of Jesus is fast approaching, and that it is the destiny of Christians to accelerate the End Times by exerting ‘dominion’ over the world.” I’m not a regular reader of Rolling Stone and have never heard of Wallnau, but I do know that the idea that Christians should impose their beliefs on the rest of society, and even promote a “Christian” state, has been a continual thorn in the side of Christianity, and indeed, of religion in general, for centuries. Papal States Historically, my own Catholic Church has be