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The Rest of the Story

My December 31, 2023, sermon on the Historic Campus was entitled, “Christmas: The Rest of the Story” (click here to listen). Using the second chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel as my primary text, I focused on the truth that we must move beyond “the sentimentality associated with Jesus’ birth” to grasp “the reality associated with Jesus’ death” . . .

By |2024-01-11T12:39:56-05:00January 11th, 2024|Padre's Ponderings|

War Surplus

Wars and rumors of war set the context for my early childhood years . . . I suspect I would have hardly noticed the transition from World War II to the Korean War were it not for two events: my father (a career naval officer) was stationed ashore and I discovered the Army-Navy Surplus Store on King Street in Charleston, SC.  

By |2023-09-13T11:00:54-04:00September 13th, 2023|Padre's Ponderings|

An Easter Memory

As we walked about the Historic Campus, she confessed to an existence more hellish than holy: fifty-plus years of dysfunctional relationships, brief periods of hopefulness followed by seasons of hopelessness. Unsuccessful efforts to combat the resulting loneliness had given rise to the mounting sense of helplessness that ultimately prompted her Easter appearance. 

By |2023-04-05T16:31:19-04:00April 5th, 2023|Padre's Ponderings|

Padre’s Ponderings

“We think in generalities, but we live in details.” I’ve been focusing my pre-Lenten pondering on this statement made by Alfred North Whitehead close to a century ago. Why? Because I prefer to see myself generally so as to avoid a more detailed examination of the old man in my mirror . . .

By |2023-02-08T16:35:47-05:00February 8th, 2023|Padre's Ponderings|

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

It has quietly come and gone again this year.  Like the ebb and flow of the tidal shroud embracing the USS Arizona, “the date that will live in infamy” is inexorably becoming a date that lives only in the memories of a diminishing few.  My father was there on December 7, 1941; as a young naval officer aboard the USS Tangier, he was among those who exchanged fire with the Japanese planes wreaking havoc on Pearl Harbor . . . but unlike many aboard his ship, he survived that Sunday morning’s violence to fight on, pursuing peace in the Pacific throughout World War II and the Korean War.

By |2022-12-07T10:59:21-05:00December 7th, 2022|Padre's Ponderings|
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