The other evening on the radio, I heard an excerpt of a TED talk.  The topic was how infants and toddlers think and learn, presented by Alison Gopnik, a professor of psychology and philosophy at UC Berkeley.  [https://www.ted.com/talks/alison_gopnik_what_do_babies_think#t-954295]She marveled at the ability of toddlers to take in reams of disparate information: one moment a crawly … Continue reading Speed Filing

When You’re Hanging on a CrossGood Friday meditationI read an anecdote some years ago which initially bothered me, but which has also lingered in my memory for its striking analogy. The story was of the Dalai Lama, a tireless advocate for justice, who had just finished giving a speech at a major university.  Afterwards, two … Continue reading When You’re Hanging on a Cross – a Good Friday meditation

There's a well-known Rembrandt sketch I like to ponder around Good Friday. Known as "Three Crosses," it portrays a crowded and chaotic crucifixion scene... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rembrandt_Harmensz._van_Rijn_-_Christ_Crucified_Between_the_Two_Thieves_(%22The_Three_Crosses%22)_-_Google_Art_Project.jpgBlending into the crowd under the crosses on the hill is a clearly Renaissance-era man, purported to be either the artist himself or the patron of the painting (often done in … Continue reading Under The Cross

I love being a “voice for the voiceless.” It's one of my great privileges to be able to whisper into the ears of the wealthy about the needs of the poor, and hope that God got there ahead of me.  But on my first day back from a trip to El Salvador, I read a … Continue reading A Whisper and a Voice

I started my Lenten observation last week with a sunrise Ash Wednesday mass at the cathedral in San Miguel, El Salvador.  The church covered a full city block, and the doors on three sides were all flung wide open, giving a wonderful sense of worship in the midst of life's noisy activity, of respite at … Continue reading DQ’ed

The mystical night approaches quickly now, full of mystery and magic. And so it is that a boy, a young Palestinian Christian, prays to God for Santa to be able to cross the border checkpoints and come to visit even them. This prayer was read a decade ago at World Vision’s annual Day of Prayer, … Continue reading Praying… for Santa

We took Christmas Eve dinner to Janet's stepmother's home this evening.  Alice lives alone with a caregiver, and at age 93, dementia is coming on quickly.  After dinner, she opened her gift basket, and the highlight was a small set of photos Janet had assembled in an accordion-folded photobook.  She created it as a memory … Continue reading The Child of Christmas (from 2010)

I have no idea what else she said.  It was one of those prayers where one sentence stops you cold. You wish you could just hit the brakes on the prayer and contemplate for a bit; but instead the pray-er keeping truckin’ down the road and you find yourself left at the curb, gazing into … Continue reading Still Waiting for God

Yesterday, on the 50th anniversary of President Kennedy's assassination, I re-read JFK's inaugural address, considered one of America's finest by some historians. Buried amid the oft-quoted sections, one line jumped out at me which I hadn't noticed before, at the conclusion of this paragraph:  "To those people in the huts and villages of half the globe struggling … Continue reading Saving We Few Who Are Rich

My heart is heavy this morning for the people of the central Philippines. Initial reports seemed that Typhoon Haiyan had moved over the islands with such speed as to avoid the major destruction of flooding and mudslides. But subsequent reports of a deadly storm surge of seawater (think Katrina, Sandy, the Asian tsunami) up to … Continue reading Philippines Typhoon latest