As we wind down the year, we seem to hear of more and more people who are dealing with illness and hospitalization.
Category: Columns
Surprising lessons from YouTube viewers
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Just last month, my media ministry Word on Fire marked a milestone: 10,000,000 views on our YouTube channel.
This achievement fills me with gratitude both to God and to the many people who watched one or more of the videos I’ve produced. It also provides the occasion for me to reflect a bit on both the pitfalls and advantages of evangelizing through the new media.
An experiment
When we commenced our outreach through YouTube seven years ago, we did so in the manner of an experiment. YouTube had just come into being at that time, and it largely featured crude, homemade videos of cats jumping off the roof and babies gurgling for their mother’s camcorder.
I thought we should try to invade this space with the Gospel, and so I resolved to make short video commentaries on movies, music, current affairs, cultural happenings, etc.
Christ heals through Sacrament of the Sick
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On August 4, 2013, a 19-year-old girl named Katie Lentz got in a serious accident along a Missouri highway.
She was barely clinging to life, and her vital signs were fading when she asked rescue workers to pray with her. Suddenly a priest appeared from nowhere. A rescue worker welcomed him with the words, “Father, we need all the help we can get now!”
The priest prayed, anointed the girl, and gave her absolution. Fire Chief Raymond Reed said that after the anointing, a peaceful calmness seemed to come over the girl and rescue workers. When he turned to thank the priest, he was gone.
The unknown priest became known as the angel or mystery priest. Eventually his identity was discovered. His name is Fr. Patrick Dowling. He told ABC News, “I have no doubt the Most High answered the prayers of Katie and the rescue workers. I was part of God’s answer, but only part.” Katie survived and is in the long process of recovering.
Message for November 4: Vote
In Wisconsin, voting is a basic right enshrined in our state constitution. Voting is also a solemn obligation of all faithful citizens charged with a responsibility for the affairs of the community.
There are several powerful reasons for all of us to take the trouble to vote in the coming election.
Many don’t bother to vote
For one thing, the vote is a powerful weapon for those who use it, and too many of us don’t bother to vote.
Are changes in taste normal with aging?
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Q My mother has been a very healthy person, and her diet has been what I would call balanced.
She always had fresh fruit and vegetables, limited sugar, and watched her salt.
A short time ago, I noticed that she is eating less and less. She has also started to use quite heavy doses of salt on her foods.
When I ask her, she says things don’t taste the same, and she just gets full quicker.
Is this normal, or is it something to have checked out?
(A daughter in McFarland)
A ‘miracle baby’ is born
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On March 3, 2013, I received a telephone call from a pretty distraught gentleman who was waiting in his car in the Planned Parenthood parking lot while his girlfriend had her abortion consult appointment.
Curtis kept referring to abortion as “intrinsic evil,” yet he felt that abortion was the only option to hide the fact that he had premarital sex.
Curtis had recently come to the Catholic faith and held a position on a board and was involved in prison ministry. He couldn’t imagine his peers knowing of his choice to engage in premarital sex.
An extraordinary synod, indeed
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According to Vatican-speak, a specially scheduled session of the Synod of Bishops is an “Extraordinary Synod,” meaning Not-an-Ordinary Synod, held every three years or so.
In the case of the recently-completed Extraordinary Synod of 2014, extraordinary things did happen, in the “Oh, wow!” sense of the word. And if this year’s Extraordinary Synod was a preview of the synod for which it was to set the agenda, i.e., the Ordinary Synod of 2015, that synod, too, promises to be, well, extraordinary.
How was the Extraordinary Synod of 2014 extraordinary? With apologies to the Bard, let me count the ways:
Good news for families
At my age, it is not too surprising to have a bad health day that keeps me home. But when it happens on Sunday and I must miss Mass, I find myself asking, “Why, God? Why today? Don’t you want me to go to Mass?”
Have patience for ‘sausage-making’ synod
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The midterm report on the deliberations of the Synod on the Family has appeared, and there is a fair amount of hysteria all around.
John Thavis, a veteran Vatican reporter who should know better, has declared this statement “an earthquake, the big one that hit after months of smaller tremors.”
Certain commentators on the right have been wringing their hands and bewailing a deep betrayal of the Church’s teaching. One even opined that this report is the “silliest document ever issued by the Catholic Church,” and some have said that the interim document flaunts the teaching of St. John Paul II.
Respecting life outside our comfort zone
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True respect for life requires us to get out of our comfort zone. Oh, we might say, “I respect life, I vote for ‘pro-life’ politicians who claim they will work to end abortion.” However, in a democracy voting is usually easy and comfortable.
But are we willing to regularly stand outside of an abortion mill on a freezing winter morning or hot summer afternoon praying and witnessing to the humanity of our unborn brothers and sisters? That’s harder and somewhat uncomfortable.
War kills life
Now for those who are willing to get uncomfortable in support of the Catholic Church’s efforts to protect unborn human life, try to move into an even more uncomfortable zone: acknowledge the truth that war does much to disrespect life. War kills life — mostly innocent life.