RBC Ministries publishes a useful daily devotional Our Daily Bread which I enjoy reading each day. On Mother's Day the devotional was entitled "Magnets and Mothers" and described a school teacher who gave her second grade class a test. One of the questions dealt with magnets and read "My name has six letters. The first one is M. I pick up things. What am I?" The teacher was surprised to see that almost fifty percent of the students didn't write "magnet" but, instead…
The AP Press reported that Jack Lohrke died last Wednesday in San Jose, California at age 85. He was a former major league infielder who played in the 1940's and 1950's. In his rookie year, in 1947 he hit the Giants 183rd homer of the season breaking a team record. Lohrke was two years with the Phillies and several seasons in the Pacific Coast league before retiring. He batted .242 with 22 home runs and 96 runs batted in during…
We have safely exited the border and returned to the United States without any known symptoms of the Swine Flu. As the news kept getting more and more grim about the flu we became concerned about possible restrictions getting home. In fact, today’s local paper quotes people in Congress, including Arizona’s John McCain, suggesting we might have to close the border. Our hotel had 295 cancellations during the week we were there and the hotel where we had our meetings was only thirty…
We are at the beautiful Las Ventanas Resort at Los Cabos, Mexico. This Rosewood Hotel Resort in Baja California Sur is a five star hotel that is as elegant and as nice a resort as you will find anywhere in Mexico. We are between San Jose and the town of Cabo, but closer, by far to San Jose. The hotel is on the sandy beach. The flight from Seattle on Alaska Air is an easy 3.5 hour flight and the immigration as…
In February of 2005 Robert Kearns died at age 77. He was made famous by a movie about his invention of the intermittent windshield wiper and his long legal battle for justice when the automotive industry used it without payment or acknowledgment. According to the 2008 movie Flash of Genius, staring Greg Kinnear, the story really starts on his honeymoon. While trying to open a bottle of champagne he was struck in the eye by the flying cork and injured it. Years later while driving…
Father Richard P. McBrien is a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame. He writes a weekly column and in the one I just read he discusses the history of the naming of bishops. He notes that throughout most of the history of the Catholic Church bishops were elected. They were elected from the local diocese clergy and voted on by both the clergy as well as the laity. The Pope had no direct role at all in this process during most…
Here are some quotes from the National Catholic Reporter (http://ncronline.org/) for April 12th: "How could a guy who is so good on poverty questions, dignity of labor, rejection of torture, be so unnuanced from a Catholic perspective on these fundamental life issues?" Notre Dame Professor Scott Applesby So, that's still no reason for all the yelling about an invitation to the President to speak at Notre Dame. No said he was being invited to give a lecture on theology. He is,…
Charles Slack has written a book Hetty about Hetty Green who, in the 1900's, was the world’s richest woman. At the time of her death in 1916 her personal fortune was estimated at $100 Million dollars or $1.6 Billion in today’s dollars. History has treated her as an eccentric miser, but this book gives the full picture of this amazing Massachusetts multi millionaire. Hetty’s fortune passed intact in equal shares to her daughter and son which was due to the…
New Jersey lawyer Tom Vespers sent an email with the the story I'm repeating here because I liked the concept so much. I often let someone else's bad manners change how I feel and, in turn, potentially impact my treatment of others. I hope you find it a helpful perspective to consider in your daily life. Here's the story Tom sent. One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We were driving in the…
Today is Good Friday when the Christian world remembers the death of Jesus. This Friday is part of Holy Week and the Paschal Triduum which precedes Easter Sunday. It also coincides with the Jewish observance of Passover. The title "good" possibly comes from the original "God's Friday" although exact reason for calling it "good" is unclear. For Christians it is a day to reflect on the meaning of the the death of Christ on the cross. On this day I…
