Let’s Thank Our Altar Servers
If you attend Mass regularly, you are familiar with altar servers, those individuals (often children and teenagers, but sometimes adults) who assist the priest with the liturgy. They perform a wonderful service, yet sometimes we take them for granted. In today’s post, I’d like to give a little history of altar servers—including the practice of having female servers. I’ll conclude with an interview of a real, live 12-year-old altar server named Alex. (more…)
Slowing Down for Advent
The other morning as I was rushing to get my breakfast, I spilled the whole bowl of Cheerios onto the kitchen floor. Luckily I hadn’t poured the milk in yet. As I was cleaning up the mess, I had a little talk with myself. “Why in the world are you rushing, Melannie?” “Me? Rushing?” “Yes, you! Rushing!” I said. The truth was I hadn’t even realized I was rushing until the bowl flipped out of my hands. (more…)
The Gift of Fallow Time
When I ministered with the Jesuits in Detroit in the 90’s, I made regular trips between Detroit and Cleveland where my family and religious congregation were. Whenever I did, I was always amazed at all the farmland I saw in northwestern Ohio. For miles and miles, on both sides of the turnpike, flat fields stretched as far as the eye could see. In summer these fields burgeoned with green crops, mostly corn and soybeans. But in the fall, after the harvest, these same fields were brown and bare, plowed up and lying fallow. (more…)
What Truths Do Jews, Christians, and Muslims Hold in Common?
(Note: I wrote this reflection three weeks ago and scheduled it for today. The deadly attacks in Paris last Friday have deeply moved all of us, I’m sure. They make the topic of this post more urgent than ever.)
History is filled with stories of the animosity among Jews, Christians, and Muslims: the Crusades, the Holocaust, and 9/11, for example. Even our current headlines proclaim stories of violence and hatred among these three religions that all trace their origin to the Patriarch Abraham. But today let’s look at eight truths or practices that these three faith traditions hold in common. Hopefully, a greater appreciation of these commonalities can help build understanding among us. (I am indebted primarily to Msgr. Joseph Champlin for these ideas.) (more…)
The Wright Brothers
On a winter day in 1903, on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, two unknown brothers from Ohio did something no human being had ever done before: They successfully flew the first heavier-than-air powered machine carrying a pilot. Their remarkable story is told with clarity and thoroughness by David McCullough in his book, The Wright Brothers.
