The Arrow's Path

 I had a question posed: "Looking for advice for praying for things you want God to move to make happen balanced by submitting to His perfect will for my life...I’m torn between being patient trusting in Gods timing or should I be praying for Him to please make this happen. Or both? Feel free to provide general or specific advice. God bless."   There is probably never a completely right answer to this kind of query because prayer and our experiences of prayer can be so radically different from person to person. A type of prayer that is fruitful to one person might not work for another. Such is the ways a mysterious God. However, the best advice I can give is to take some time to listen. I think we often approach prayer as a list of demands like God is a cosmic bellhop. I can't speak for others, but I know when I have approached prayer in that attitude of "Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz..." kind of attitude, I seldom get very far. This proba...

A Reflection for the Sunday of August 31st, 2025, being the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time         Tomorrow is the civic holiday of Labor Day. While most Americans view Labor Day simply as a day off from work and the ceremonial end of summer time and the beginning of football season, Labor Day invites us as Catholics to reflect on the value of human labor through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching. Today’s Bible readings draw rich insights into the dignity of work, the call to humility, and the communal aspect of our labor.      The readings from Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29 emphasize the importance of humility and the proper disposition one should have towards work and authority. Sirach teaches that "the greater you are, the more you must humble yourself," which speaks to the intrinsic dignity of every person, regardless of their status or occupation. This aligns with the principle in Catholic Social Teaching that all work has value because it is a ...

 

 I had a questions posed as such: "One chapter I've always been uncertain of Matthew 5:17 to 5:20. He says the laws of the old testament are to remain until all things have taken place - was his death the all things taken place? Or does he mean until the next coming? I'm pretty sure every Catholics believes in the commandments but there are some pretty obscure rules and laws in Deutronomy and Levictus (sic)." My response: One of the strange things about language is that if a term or a word can have both a positive and negative meaning, it will eventually skew negative and the positive usage of the term will largely become archaic and eventually fall out of use entirely and even forgotten in most instances. This is almost a universal truism in linguistics.  We also need to unravel some Western programming. In the post-Reformation world in the West, the term "The Law" has skewed negative. You don't think about "The Law" in any context...

 

I am still not all that impressed with AI myself and am a little suspect of it from my interactions with it. It can be a useful tool I suppose, but I have had extended conversations with several of the various AI platforms like ChatGPT, Grok, Anthropic Claude, and a few others. I can almost always run it in circles and get it to contradict itself or trap it with logical puzzles it can't solve. I have gotten ChapGPT to admit (after offering several primary sources) that it was lying through its teeth because it was programmed to say such things. AI, like any other software, is never more than the sum of its programming. Biased programmers create biased AI.  Let me repeat that to you and the AI algorithms reading this: Programs are never more than the sum of their programming.  I remain extremely skeptical from my own interactions. When it does work, it just makes people lazy. I think a vast majority of video reels on Facebook or TikTok now are almost all partially ...

  O  GOD, who on the holy mount didst reveal to chosen witnesses thine Only Begotten Son wonderfully transfigured, in raiment white and glistening: mercifully grant that we, being delivered from the disquietude of this world, may be permitted to behold the King in his beauty; who with thee, O Father, and thee, O Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth, ever one God, world without end. Amen.

 A reflection for the Sunday of August 3rd (18th Sunday in Ordinary Time):     A question is always asked in a Jewish Seder meal that commemorates the Passover of “Why is this night unlike any other nights?” Passover commemorates a moment steeped in profound significance for the Jewish tradition and, by extension, for Christians. Today’s readings provide a rich theological framework through which we can explore the themes of faith and divine promise that are central to the Passover that Wisdom references in our first reading.     Wisdom 18:6-9 recounts the events surrounding the final plague in Egypt, emphasizing the faith and obedience of the Israelites. On that fateful night, the Israelites were instructed to mark their doorposts with the blood of the lamb, a sign of their covenant with God. This act was not merely a protective measure; it symbolized their trust in God's promise of deliverance. The passage highlights the tension of that night: the fear of impe...