I used to think the mocking expression Nyeah, Nyeah children repeat in a lilting chant was an English language phenomenon, until I heard children chanting it in Spanish some years ago in the Mediterranean town of Torremolinos. I learned later that...
In 1938 Elizabeth Fanning was born in Dearborn, Michigan. Betsy, as she was known, suffered from childhood leukemia, which at that time was a death sentence. She was listless, wouldn’t eat, and was losing her hair; doctors would have recommended her...
In Humility: Act I, we saw how God relates to us in humility through the very act of creation. Creating us, sustaining us and breathing his life into us. Through the incarnation, God’s taking on human nature, joining His nature with ours, and then...
The second reading for the 26th Sunday in Ordinary Time is from the second chapter of Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (2:1-11). The reading contains one of the most beautiful Christological hymns in scripture. Paul begins by telling the Philippians...
It has been several months since I contributed the first article, Humility: Act 1. Sometimes being humble requires that we fulfill our daily obligations with work, family and other responsibilities over and above what we would prefer to do. I would...
The Gospel of Matthew (11:25-30) tells us about the Heart of Jesus. It gives us these words of comfort: “Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of...
Ask any good Franciscan and they will tell you how proud they are to practice the virtue of humility. Humility is at the core of Franciscan spirituality. St. Francis expressed this virtue not only by living a life of simplicity and poverty, but also...
For many years the nation of South Africa used a political system called apartheid, in which the ruling white minority brutally oppressed the black majority, denying their human dignity and severely restricting their freedom. Despite the strong...
