Category: Discussions

Mary Magdala Community

The time of covid: Communitarian Individualism NOT individualism vs communitarianism

Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div., Ph.D.     jimryan6885@gmail.com I ran across Fons Trompenaars the other day.  Fons, a native of Holland, is an organizational theorist, management consultant and creator of the Model of National Cultural Differences.  He specializes in guiding corporations on getting things done from the standpoint of acknowledging and addressing multicultural differences.  In this covid…
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Prophets Speak for God, Priests Become One with God

Rev. Jim Ryan, PhD  — jimryan6885@gmail.com Co-pastor of Mary of Magdala, Apostle to the Apostles Community 2nd Sunday of Advent —  December 6, 2020 You may be aware that the Prophet Isaiah was, along with being a prophet, a priest.  His call was dual – the prophet speaking for God and the priest becoming one…
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McCarrick who?

Rev. Jim Ryan, M.Div., Ph.D.     jimryan6885@gmail.com Not that anyone cares, but I will not read the McCarrick Report, not a synopsis, not an abstract, not an article about it, not one page, not one word.  Get the picture?  Who needs to fill one’s brain with one more piece of evidence about Roman Catholic Episcopal malfeasance…
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Who will catch us?

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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Lessons from the Cranes OR When it comes to covid who’s smarter?

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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I believe in voting and here’s why.

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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Stay Awake, Get Ready, Be Prepared

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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Thomas Merton, Joan Baez and their Midnight Run to Bardstown, KY

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

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 – 25 yrs. later

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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