“Our Brother, Jack Watson, RIP” © Thoughts on the 24st Sunday in Ordinary Time, September 16, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com Jack Watson, husband of Sue, father of Emily, Elizabeth, and Victoria, father-in-law and grandfather, and member of our Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community died on Sunday, September 9 at 1:52…
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“Communities Choose – Peter Speaks” © Thoughts on the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time, August 26, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com “From this time on, many of the disciples broke away and would not remain in the company of Jesus.” (John 6:60) So here’s the situation we find ourselves in as we hear the…
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“Voyager 1 looks over its shoulder” © Thoughts on the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 29, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com This summer’s post-sundown evening skies have been a delight! If you are fortunate enough, as we are, to have a clear and open view to the southern sky then you know what…
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“Will the Interpretation-Understanding Circle be Unbroken?” © Thoughts on the 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 8, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com Today’s 2nd Reading familiarly recounts Paul’s mention to the Corinthians of his “thorn in the flesh” that stood for him as a humiliating weakness. It seems to refer to a disability, perhaps…
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“The No-Trick Surplus Brought on by Balance” Thoughts on the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 1, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com St. Paul has recently been quoted by the Attorney General to justify the obscene policy of separating children, including infants, from their parents. It is unlikely that today’s passage from St. Paul…
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“7:47 and 1/3”© by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com In another time of autocratic rule, when those who had the title of Peoples’ Representatives stood by and did nothing, the Nazi government followed Hitler’s lead from his tome, Mein Kampf, and engaged in the practice of the Big Lie. In 1951, following what…
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“Thoughts on the 50th Anniversary of the Loss of RFK”© by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com Could there have been a more simple time? Remember? Remember. Well, there was the war. Never again would a war be so long, right? And the riots. And discrimination. And family conversations- some would say disputes, some would say outright…
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“Corpus Christi past, present, future. Will liturgy survive?” © Thoughts on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi, June 3, 2018 Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com This year’s Solemnity of Corpus Christi finds me wondering about the future of liturgy. Many of us have memories of processions, incense, and multiple altars on which monstrances were placed. Back in…
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“When there’s no awe in awesome and there’s nothing absolute about absolutely.” © Thoughts on 4th Sunday of Easter, April 22, 2018 by Rev. Jim Ryan, jimryan6885@gmail.com So, when you select your entrée from the menu and you tell your server your choice, has it happened to you that the server says, “awesome”? Or, when…
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On Thursday evening, April 4, 1968, at approximately 7:30 PM, I was one of two white folks at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) Washington, DC headquarters on the corner of 14 th & U Streets NW. Built in 1907 for the Fourteenth Street Savings Bank – “THE ONLY NIGHT BANK IN WASHINGTON” – there…
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