vincentian spirituality

The God of Creation

Images for God — metaphors and visuals that catch something more fundamental and grounded than ideas for God.

Bottom Land (Mt 5:21)

We all know the phrase, “getting to the bottom of it.” It means digging down beneath the outside appearances to the inner core of something

Who’s In/Out? (Mark 3:20-35)

I remember a man complaining that there was too much dissention in his family. He used a memorable phrase to describe their connections: “In a given month, who’s in and who’s out?”

The Power For Oneness (1 Cor 12: 12-13)

The motto on the great seal of the United States is the Latin “E Pluribus Unum.” It’s translated: “Out of the Many, One.”

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

A Family Gift: Practical Integrity

A Family Gift: Practical Integrity (Mk 3:1-6) If you were hired as the Public Relations director for the Jerusalem Pharisees and Scribes mentioned in Mark, you wouldn’t want this section of the gospel to get too much circulation. In their confrontations with Jesus,...

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

Heavenly Gaze

A scene setter. You’re out in the cold night fields, keeping close watch over your flock. And suddenly this light is shining at you and all around you. From out of this radiance a voice of an angel sings out news about the infant in swaddling clothes lying in a...

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

Sensing Grace

Sensing Grace (Lk: 1:26-38) The angel Gabriel reveals to Mary that she’s “full of grace.” And so the question, what is this “grace” that Mary is filled with? There are few better answers to be had than the one in the five words that follow. “The Lord is with you!”...

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

Attuned To The Fear of the Lord

Attuned To “The Fear of the Lord” (Isaiah 11:1-5; Lk. 10: 21) In Isaiah’s description of the special one God will send (“A shoot from the stump of Jesse”), he lists a number of qualities this person will have. Wisdom, understanding, strength, and so forth. But one of...

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

Counsel for An Anxious Time

Counsel for An Anxious Time (Lk. 17:20-25) All through Luke’s gospel, the underlying movement is towards Jerusalem. From the beginning that’s where Jesus is heading, and as He gets closer the pace picks up and the tensions rise. This is not only because of the...

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

Belief Under Pressure

Belief Under Pressure (2 Maccabees, 7; Luke 20: 38) One of the things that has sharpened inside me on my journey into the senior years is a sense of time passing (where did it go?), and an accompanying wonderment about what happens when it does pass. What’s on the...

Three Epiphany Words (Mt 2:1-12; Is 60:1-6)

Lost and Found

Lost and Found (Luke 19:1-10; Wisdom 11) Throughout Luke’s gospel, Jesus tells a good number of “lost and found” parables and incidents. There’s the lost and found coin, the lost-found pearl and earlier on the lost-found tax collector, Levi. And last Sunday we come...

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