Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div., Ph.D. jimryan6885@gmail.com On this 34th and Final Sunday of the Year, Cycle A, I extend an invitation to consider the last 3 Gospels that have delivered this end – all of them taken from the 25th Chapter of Matthew. These 3 parables comprise the bulk of this chapter. First (32nd Sunday)…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div., Ph.D. jimryan6885@gmail.com The leaves are fallen. Last week’s wind and rain put an end to them. The atmosphere has stabilized (for now) with an extended period of High Pressure and the Jet Stream has arced southward. That’s all the alert that cranes need. Two days this week at mid-day the sky…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div., Ph.D. jimryan6885@gmail.com Romano L. “Ron” Mazzoli represented the citizens of Louisville, Kentucky in Congress for 24 years, 1971-95. I was a “Friend of Ron.” Well, actually, many of us were “Friends of Ron.” This story, though, starts before I even knew that “Friends of Ron” existed, before I was proud to…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD — jimryan6885@gmail.com Co-pastor of Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time — November 8, 2020 I have two things to say today – neither one necessarily connected to the other. But each one relates to items we just heard about in the readings for today.…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div.,Ph.D. jimryan6885@gmail.com I, along with 5 other young Passionist monks, met Joan Baez and Thomas Merton on the same day in the same place. The place was Gethsemani Abbey, Bardstown, Kentucky. I have lost track of the actual day. It was either Fall of 1967 or Winter of 1968 – I’m betting…
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Paul & Epaphroditus – brothers, co-workers, comrades in arms © Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD — jimryan6885@gmail.com Co-pastor of Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time — October 11, 2020 The Letter to the Philippians has been the second reading in the Sunday lectionary for the past four weeks. …
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The Single Issue Catholic Voter by Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div.,Ph.D. jimryan6885@gmail.com On March 25, 1995 Pope John Paul II (JPII, initials for brevity) issued Evangelium Vitae (EV) (Gospel of Life). It is his encyclical letter that, now 25 yrs. later, serves as the basis for the moral rectitude, the established justification, and the political implementation…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD — jimryan6885@gmail.com Co-pastor of Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time — September 20, 2020 Read today’s passage from Paul’s Letter to the Philippians (1:20-24,27) and search within his statement of the benefit on either side of living or dying in Christ. You just may…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD — jimryan6885@gmail.com Co-pastor of Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53213 On Friday we kept the Memorial of September 11th. The day continues to stand as the national tragic encounter with the depths to which hatred, violence, and extreme polarization will go in the living of human-to-human…
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Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD — jimryan6885@gmail.com Co-pastor of Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time — September 5-6, 2020 This weekend we made a little history, we think. We made that history with one other community called Inclusive Catholics. Our Mary of Magdala Community is based in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin,…
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