This is a special Memorial Day edition of the YIM Catholic Community Prayer Intentions List. In the United States, Monday, May 31st is a federal holiday. On this day we honor those who have given their lives while serving in the armed forces of our country during armed conflicts. As the resident Marine on the blog, writing this post is a duty I must fulfill. Truthfully, I didn’t want to write it. But then I started remembering two Marines who... Read more
It’s the Friday before a long weekend here in the U.S.A. which means it’s time for me to break out a Friday night movie. Remember those movies I was posting during Lent? I had a great time doing them. I hope you enjoyed them too. When I went to Mass during lunch today, they had posters up for a viewing of this in the Parish hall on June 16th. Confession time again (never ending for me it seems!), I ‘ve... Read more
I “met” Ricky Jones earlier this week after he responded to a guest post on the universality of the Church. Meredith Cummings’ post talked about how, as a white woman and a convert, she grew to understand the Church is not just for Hispanics. Her post spoke to Ricky, who is an African-American man married to a Latina. Ricky, also a convert, designs websites for Catholics. He is an advanced student at the Instituto de Formación Bíblica, sponsored by the Archdiocese... Read more
The other day I wrote a post about how small an amount of time I am committing to Our Lord. The number I came up with was shockingly small. Given the years I wandered in the wilderness, the number probably has a couple of more zeros to the right of the decimal point. But that is in the past. One fact about Our Lord is He doesn’t keep bringing up the past and how much I neglected Him or, more... Read more
I know of Father Abram J. Ryan (1838-1886) because he was once the pastor of the parish where I usually attend daily mass. Each day I walk by a historic marker that tells the story of this “poet, patriot, priest.” The thing is, he was a Confederate loyalist, which makes him a rebel patriot. Thankfully, the rebels lost the war. But even the Confederate troops needed a chaplain, and that is how Father Ryan served. Father Ryan is best know for... Read more
Mark your calendars YIMC Book Club members, because it’s time for us to take up the runner-up in the poll which C.S. Lewis won last time. What, you had forgotten? No worries, I will keep you up to date. I’m talking about The Great Heresies by Hilaire Belloc. Now, before you all mutiny and go whining about how it’s summer-time and school is out etc.,etc., do me a favor. Save the complaining for another time. Sheesh, it’s starting to sound like... Read more
Sometimes it’s dangerous putting a calculator into my hands. I can come up with some pretty wild ideas. This past Sunday, when visiting a different parish while on a trip to Georgia, the priest mentioned in his homily that if we only think about being Christians once a week during mass, then we are only giving Our Lord 52 hours a year, or only 2.167 days out of 365. Gulp! That’s nothing.Later on, I played with this information a little... Read more
Tis is the season of school music concerts. Our oldest son, an eighth grader, loves playing the upright bass in his middle school jazz band. As a parent, I find it such a joy to watch 25 awkward middle school students, most of them boys, transform into confident jazz drummers, saxophone players, trumpeters and bassists. Much of what they play is swing music, a form of jazz music that became popular in the 1930s. The music, has fans worldwide, speaks... Read more
Guest post by Meredith Cummings“And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.” (Acts of the Apostles 2: 4). I grew up in Southern Colorado in a small town that was more or less half white and half Hispanic. Common white names were Smith, Jones or Anderson. Common Hispanic names included Trujillo, Archuleta or Garcia. My parents taught me that there was no difference between us. We all... Read more
Today is Pentecost Sunday, the day we commemorate the coming of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit of Life. In the Paulist published book entitled Light of the Cross in the Twentieth Century, the following passage is attributed to Monsignor Louis Gaston de Ségur and describes in beautiful detail the scene that played out on the first Pentecost that we read of today in the second chapter of the book of Acts. These thoughts of Monseigneur de... Read more
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