In December of 1914, Reginald Hobbs, a 24 year old British soldier, wrote a five page mud spattered letter in pencil to his wife on a frosty moon lit night. It was December 24th 1914 and on this Christmas eve he was in a waterlogged trench on the Western Front in the region of Ypres, Belgium. Fifty yards away was the German trench. In his famous letter he told her that the guns had fallen silent along the Western front…
The role of fate in our lives is a mystery.There is an old fable about fate that involves the story of a merchant in ancient Baghdad who sent his servant to the market to buy supplies. When the servant returned he was hysterical: "Master, Master! As I walked through the market I saw Death. He peered at me in such a way I knew he had come for me here. Lend me a fast horse so I may flee to…
Today at church a white haired man in his late 70’s wheeled a woman of the same age in a wheel chair to the area in front of the pew where I was seated. He had on thick rimmed eye glasses that went out of style a long time ago. He had an old fashioned pair of suspenders holding up his somewhat baggy pants that were already firmly secured by a belt. I was distracted by his actions towards his…
The first permanent settlement of the Colony of Virginia had been established May 14, 1607 when a group of English settlers arrived in December of 1619. Their arrival was observed as a "day of thanksgiving" to God. Captain John Woodleaf held the service of thanksgiving. In 1621 it was decided to set aside a day of thanksgiving after the first harvest of that year. On October 3, 1789 president, George Washington proclaimed Thanksgiving as a national day of celebration. So,…
Mark Link is a Jesuit priest who has written a number of books. He has published a series of small booklets dealing with spiritual observations. One of these is Mission which is for praying scripture in a contemporary way. In this one he writes: "Mohandas Gandhi is often called ‘the father of India.’ He once listed seven evils that destroy not only individual persons but also entire countries: Politics without principle Pleasure without conscience Wealth without work Knowledge without character…
My childhood home town newspaper, The Anacortes American, does a feature of republishing excerpts from old news. This week one of the items was from October 20, 1932, three years before I was born. It read: "Submitting several communications from men, who desired to pay their water bills, but were unable to for lack of funds, William B. Short, water superintendent, took up the matter of using wood at the city hall with the city council Tuesday evening. Mr. Short…
In William Barclay’s book Day by Day, he talks about a time when he was considering retiring as pastor for a church. He writes that he was torn in mind as to whether to stay at his parish or leave to teach. He talked about his indecision to a member of his congregation he admired about it and the man said: "It’s a wise man that kens when tae lay doon the barra" which roughly translated means "It’s a wise…
Have you been watching Ken Burns documentary War on public television? He’s done a great job of making the program interesting as well as informative and it’s a pleasure not to have to endure commercials. How horrible war really is and how real World War II was to me even though I was child. We lived through World War II. I remember the Sunday when Pearl Harbor was bombed and what I was doing. I was six years old and…
I saw a tee shirt I thought I should buy for myself. It read: "To err is human..To forgive is Devine…Neither are my policy." There were two letters to the National Catholic Reporter by women that were responding to an article about women in the Catholic Church. One referred to the "stained glass ceiling" in talking about the Catholic church and its policies against women. Another letter to the editor expressed the complaint: "…the Church, …endlessly preaches about abortion and…
Jane Wyman died last Monday. She was 93 years old. She was married to Ronald Regan in 1940 and they later divorced, which explains the bumper sticker during Regan’s campaign for the presidency: "Jane Wyman was right." What I admired about her was her refusal to say anything negative about Regan with the media after he was in politics. She was quoted as saying "…It’s bad taste to talk about ex-husbands and ex-wives… Also, I don’t know a damn thing…
