Do you still get a buzz (or chill) at the beginning of a new calendar year? I do. Especially the “chill” factor here in snowy southwest VA! It’s all about starting over and re-imagining who I can still be on life’s undulating journey. After all, isn’t beginning again and starting fresh encoded in our DNA? According to medical science, the human body completely renews itself every seven years. The cornea replaces itself every 24 hours, the skin every 14 days, the... Read more
Chasing short-term profits at the expense of social responsibility can no longer be the business model of the future. As Unilever CEO Paul Polman put it, "Investing in the common good, investing in the long term, is a better investment than just your short-term self-interest." Read more
I’m in the pharmacy with my 7-year-old son. He points to an item on the shelf and asks, “Daddy, may I have this for Christmas?” I look at what he’s pointing to. It’s a black Darth Vader watch. So I ask him, “Why do you want this for Christmas?” To which he responds, “Because all the boys in my class have one.” Hmm…my dilemma: my son has never seen a Star Wars movie; he knows little or nothing about the film and... Read more
It was the summer of 1999; I had just flown from London on a one-way ticket to San Francisco, having been accepted as an ordination candidate for ministry with the Catholic Diocese of Oakland, CA. Prior to commencing a final two year stint at the seminary, I got to ‘acclimate’ to California by staying at a parish in Oakland. I had a blast: sight-seeing around the culturally eclectic and stunningly beautiful bay area; being wined and dined by many of... Read more
No! Padre G has not lost his marbles: Of course love, sex, and the cosmos are deeply inter-related; in fact Love is what literally makes the world go round – and what propels the evolutionary thrust of the cosmos forward. But I’m speaking here of a dynamic, ever new and emerging, Cosmic-Love- Energy; not an idealized or romanticized idea of love. Isn’t everything in creation subject to the ‘laws’ of attraction and repulsion / bonding and rejection? Gravitational physicists, systems... Read more
Live well, Love much, Laugh a lot – This much co-opted line from Bessy Anderson Stanley’s poem, ‘Success’ speaks to the essence of what constitutes a healthy outlook on and relationship to life. So if you are someone who values the place and importance of endorphin-releasing laughter in your life, then pull up a stool, put your smiley face on and let’s take a gander at the healing gift of spontaneous joy and laughter in God’s infinite dream of humanity…... Read more
I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul. Invictus, William Ernest Henley Fifteen years ago I completed my theology degree back in Dublin. Over the course of my studies, and as part of my Bio-Ethics class, I studied the subject of Euthanasia and ‘Assisted Suicide’ in depth – from a Catholic theological perspective. The term ‘Assisted Suicide’ has now morphed (in modern parlance) into the term ‘Physician Assisted Dying’ – and I’m happy... Read more
You know the New Testament account: St. Paul struck by a literally blinding light that knocked him off his horse en route to Damascus in early 1st century Syria – a life changing event that led him to cease persecuting early Christians and to become a follower of Jesus. It was, in a word, a profound conversion experience. Fast forward to 21st century Damascus, VA and let me introduce you to Jon and Carole Towers who are also in the business... Read more
Pit Stop for the Spiritually Bamboozled
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In