Category: July4th

  • Waking from the American Dream

    THINGS LEARNED AS A CHILD: when flag passes in a parade, or when it is brought into the room/stadium/meeting in a formal manner, when singing the Star Spangled Banner, or when reciting the Pledge of Allegiance: stand up, take off your hat with your right hand, and, with the same hand, cover your heart with…

  • This is Not Pacifism

    ✙JMJ We heard this AM at Mass the familiar Gospel passage urging us to turn the other cheek and to pray for our enemies. I can’t find full lectionary citations because the page from the USCCB is blank. But it is assuredly not about pacifism. In fact, the whole Christian theory of a “Just War”…

  • Typology for the Fourth

    ✙ JMJ The Readings for Wednesday in the 13th Week of Ordinary Time (B2) Amos 5:14-15, 21-24  Matthew 8:28-34 Et vota pinguium vestrorum non respiciam. Neither will I regard the vows of your fat beasts.  Iconoclasm is the breaking of icons. In modern usage it tends to be a good thing: destroying “sacred cows” of the…