After years of hearing the popular parable of what is known as The Prodigal Son, currently, two particular lines strike me the most:

        “… the younger son collected all his belongings and set off to a distant country.”

                “ While he was still a long way off, his father caught sight of him…”

Distance is a peculiar phenomenon, especially nowadays when technology has allowed us to, so to speak, ‘bridge the distance’ between places and people. …

In the pair of Lenten readings we hear today, we find the themes of ownership, stewardship (care), and the sometimes unfortunate ways that we as humans deal with these issues.  In Gn 37:3-4, 12-13a, 17b-28a, we hear part of the great story of Joseph, who is looked upon with envy and loathing by his brothers because he appeared to be the favored child of their father Israel (Jacob). …

“More tortuous than all else is the human heart, beyond remedy; who can understand it?”
– Jeremiah

Can we fail to have a ‘self?’ The Danish Philosopher, Kierkegaard, wrote about an existentialism that described an anxious self that will not accept the idea that being a self is based upon a fundamental gift from God.  …

Have you ever been told, “Don’t ask me, because you may not like what the answer is?” Someone to whom I am very close is known for sometimes brutal honesty. Friends will ask for his opinion and receive, many times, more than what they had asked.…

The ego can put on a spectacular show!  It loves to talk about itself and others.  The bravado it portrays very often masks the insecurity that it has, should it be found out to be lacking, inadequate and quite vulnerable.  It is terrified that it will lose something if others find out that there is a chink in its armor. …