I remember that after my brother died I had, what I would now call, an interesting outlook on Lent and fasting. It still makes me chuckle to tell the story to others of how as a child my brother, during one Lent, declared that he was giving up of all things – circuses!…

Willpower is a curious thing.  It can serve both positive and sometimes negative ends.  The endurance that we need to maintain persistence and consistency in our endeavors can be critical.  The question of the value in our use of willpower seems to fall within the assessment of what is “achieved.”…

Bourbon Street is an interesting place to be after Midnight in the first hours of Ash Wednesday morning.  As the clock strikes midnight, police on horseback clear the quarter.  As the raucous clamor of carnival celebration ceases, there is an almost eeriness to the atmosphere. …

“Had I but wings like a dove,
I would fly away and be at rest.
Far away I would flee;
I would lodge in the wilderness.”

(Psalm 55: 7)

This is the temptation, to flee from all that overwhelms.…

“Beloved: Who among you is wise and understanding?”

James opens up today’s scripture with a question (Jas 3:13-18). My sense is that the term ‘wisdom’ has become one of those words that we throw around in a way that perhaps doesn’t allow us to really consider the true depth of its significance.…