A Piano Man and His Monkey

Unable to let go of impending work filled with requirements and timelines, I sat quietly, though impatiently in a chapel along with a few others awaiting our host on an obligatory three day retreat. I’d committed to the shortest time required. I considered it a blessing our meeting time ended at noon. After lunch, I’d planned to substitute work I needed to complete during the designated time I was to be contemplative with Christ during our retreat. After all, I could contemplate Him any time I wanted and He’d understand. He’s always around … right?

Morning sunlight through the stained glass radiated dust suspended in the air. Interrupting my busy mind, a priest from Kalamazoo, Michigan … with a small monkey seated on his shoulder, hobbled across the room. Perhaps in his late forties, he used a cane to assist him for a leg he’d lost earlier in life. He silently settled on a piano bench with his back to us while he faced the altar. The monkey hopped to perch on the bench’s edge to stare at us mirroring our stare at him.

Greetings from Medjugorje

It's a beautiful morning.  The sun is warming the cold morning air as buses and pilgrims bustle back and forth.  We're in Medjugore, in the southern part of Herzegovina.  Like Fatima, Guadeloupe, and Lourdes, this is a place where Mary has been appearing to seven children for 33 years.  But these appearances are still going on.  We are staying at the house of Mirijana, one of the visionaries.  Being surrounded by so many devote Catholics might be part of the euphoria that stands in stark contrast to our daily lives back home.  My wife came years ago and had a life changing experience.  A true conversion of heart, and a new found devotion to God, His son, and our Mother.

Has God been in your life recently?

By Jim St. Louis

Has God been in your life recently? In what ways has He been present? What God moments have you had in your life?

I have been reading a few different books and pieces of Catholic literature lately and a question was asked of me. But before I get to that, how has God made Himself known to you in the past. For me He has been active in my life through other people, whether it has been a text by friend when I have been down or a quick hello from a friendly face. He manifested Himself one time when my wife and I couldn’t afford our groceries that week with a neighbor inviting us over for dinner not knowing our situation or a different friend giving us the extra bounty from their vegetable garden that week. Or during those stressful times when Deb and I are stretched so thin with getting the kids everywhere they need to be that a friend takes one of the kids for a time and it eases our schedule. During these times, especially the ones where I have had no money, I have prayed for deliverance. Or times of pain and depression I have prayed to be lifted up.

Who has been used by God’s hand in your life?

A Better World - One Man At A Time

Once upon a time there was a very successful business owner. His company had faithfully served millions of customers for many, many years. But lately, business had not been so good, and his competitors were just waiting for him to fail. For weeks and months, the man pondered the crisis, but the problems were so complex, and solutions seemed nowhere to be found.

Everyone was wondering what would happen to this great company, so finally the businessman announced that he was hosting a dinner for all his employees to unveil a plan that would save the company and return it to its former glory. He wanted to convey to them how important each person was to the future success of the organization.

The morning of the dinner, he was sitting in his study at home working on his speech, when his wife came in and asked if he would mind watching their son for a few hours while she ran some errands. He was about to say, "I really need to focus on finishing my speech," but something caught his tongue and he found himself agreeing, reluctantly.

Trust In God

by Fred Vilbig

As I am writing this, Putin is taking over the Crimea. There are mass protests in Venezuela over what socialism has wrought there. Syria is experiencing a Civil War. There are ongoing conflicts in a number of African nations with tens of thousands of deaths in recent years. There was a bombing in a Russian train station and an organized stabbing in a Chinese train station.

In the Church, we have the Vatican Bank scandal which from a distance seems to involve fraud and corruption. We have the “Bishop of Bling” in Germany, and I hear that the name is being applied also to a Bishop in Newark, New Jersey. And then there is the ongoing sex scandal involving priests and primarily young boys (yes, it is primarily homosexual in nature no matter what the New York Times’ editorial board wants you to think).

In the midst of all of this, it is hard sometimes to find God.