2014

Fr. Frans van der Lugt was a Dutch Jesuit priest who had been living and working in Syria since 1966. He was known as “Abouna Frans,” our Father Frans. He was beloved by both Christians and Muslims in the old city of Homs. Two weeks before Easter, just days before his 76th birthday, an unknown assailant shot him twice after beating him.

Fr. Frans was the last Westerner in Homs, a city bitterly contested by both sides in Syria’s ongoing bloody civil war.Last January, a truce among the warring factions allowed for1500 people to be evacuated, but Fr. Frans refused to leave since he was operating a clinic, which provided health care and education for disabled children. His clinic also assisted many Syrian families displaced by the war.

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Saints Peter and PaulRead More »

Psychologists say that if we paid attention to every sound we hear or everything we see, we would literally go nuts. To protect ourselves from doing that, we block some things out of our consciousness. Psychologists call this process “habituation.” Parents and teenagers call it “tuning out.”

The drawback to this is that after awhile we begin to take certain things for granted like sunsets, flowers, and friends. One evening, a couple was sitting on their back porch. Both had worked long and hard that day. As many of us might do on a deliciously cool evening, the man fell asleep in his rocker. As his wife continued to relax, a spectacular sunset began to appear. Thoroughly enjoying its beauty, she woke up her husband so that he could appreciate the sight too. He yawned, “It’s just another sunset,” and went back to sleep.

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Corpus ChristiRead More »

This week many seniors around the country celebrated their graduation from high school and college. A milestone they will long remember although they are not likely to recall years from now the words they heard when they wore their caps and gowns. Nonetheless, they may recall the spirit of the advice they heard that this special moment was not just a graduation; it was also a commencement exercise.

They have ended one phase of their lives and are about to begin another as they move from familiar comfortable surroundings to new settings and experiences, be it another campus, a new job, enlisting in the armed forces, getting married, to name but some of the paths they could take. As Tom Wolfe once said, “You can’t go home again.”

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PentecostRead More »

We often harbor the illusion that if only we were able to see the Risen Jesus with our own eyes, we would be firm believers, we would be at home. The reading from the gospel of Matthew should cause us to pause and reflect. As the eleven gather on the mountain in Galilee and catch sight of Jesus, the gospel relates: “When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.” They actually see him, they know he is alive, yet their faith is not as firm as we might have imagined.

Then are St. Paul’s words in his letter to the Ephesians when he prays; “May the eyes of your hearts be enlightened, that you may know what is the hope that belongs to his call.”St. Paul reveals that there is a different kind of seeing, leading to a deeper kind of knowing. The inner heart has “eyes” that see, a gift of the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation.” These eyes give sure knowledge of the hope that is ours, the hope of sharing in the glory that is our destiny and our home.

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Ascension of the LordRead More »

Back when GPS and smart phones didn’t exist, I relied on Thomas Brothers Maps to find my way around the rural areas of Snohomish County to visit parishioners. A family invited me one Thanksgiving to join them for dinner. The husband told me that he was going to deep fry the turkey. With great excitement, I studied the map to find the way to their home, located miles outside of Arlington.

When I got to their street, I couldn’t find their house. When I reached the end of the road, I studied the map again and discovered, that like many roads in Snohomish County, this one resumed on the other side of the hill. That meant driving all the way back to Arlington and taking another road out of town to get to my friends’ home. By the time I arrived, they had finished dinner. Too bad I didn’t ask for directions before leaving the rectory!

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5th Sunday of EasterRead More »