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Welcome!
Thanks for
coming to my web page. I hope you will find something of interest here.
Let me know what you think. This is a blog in some respects. I am
always happy to hear your responses as well.
Prayer
for Lent
Almighty
God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of
sinners; grant your people grace to love what you command and desire what
you promise, that among the swift and varied changes of the world, our
hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found through
Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy
Spirit, one God, now and for
ever. Amen.
[Guide us, Lord, to walk in the path
in which you would lead us.....]
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GOOD FRIDAY (4/5/85)
St. Mark's Episcopal Church Paw Paw, MI
THEME: "Through His wounds we are
healed......(Isaiah 53.5)
BY: Fr. Joseph
Clayton Neiman
"Why do bad things
happen to good people?" That's the title of a recent and popular book by
Rabbi Harold Kushner. And it's a good question, for it is one each of us
has been tempted to raise when suffering has come into our lives or into
the lives of people we know or love.
It is a question we
ask when we look at the thousands of People dying of starvation at this
moment in Eastern Africa - 900,000 alone have died in Ethiopia this Year
according to United Nations statistics.
Suffering brings out
those kinds of questions. It makes us move from the day to day activities
and discussions to the more profound questions about the meaning of life.
We ask "Why?" when something bad happens, and we begin to formulate
answers that have a lot to do with our own self concept and our concept or
understanding of God, and especially our understanding of why Jesus died
on the Cross on that Friday evening in Jerusalem so many centuries ago.
Rabbi Kushner has
this to say at the end of his book about the question of why God allows
suffering to happen today:
"God does not cause
our misfortunes. Some are caused by bad luck some are caused by bad
people, and some are simply an inevitable consequence of our being human
and being mortal, living in a world of inflexible natural laws. The
painful things that happen to us are not punishments for our misbehavior,
nor are they in any way part of some grand design on God's part. Because
the tragedy is not God's will, we need not feel hurt or betrayed by God
when tragedy strikes. We can turn to Him for help in overcoming it,
precisely because we can tell ourselves that God is as outraged by it as
we are." (P. 134)
This conclusion, this
outlook stated so well by Rabbi Kushner is the profound conclusion that
can be drawn by a person of faith out of the Law and the Prophets, out of
what we Christians call "The Old Testament." It is a profound and deeply
religious outlook, a statement of deep and abiding faith, but it is not
the teaching of Jesus. It is not the conclusion which we as Christians
should reach for we know that Jesus has come to fulfill the Law and the
Prophets.
(continued here)
-0-
[Photobooks
published by Fr. Joseph Clayton Neiman. To see some pages or to order
copies, click on picture which will take you to www.blurb.com.]
In celebration of t... By Fr. Joseph Clayto...
Meditations and Ima... By Fr. Richard Carl ...
In celebration of J... By Fr. Joseph Clayto...
Created in the Divi... By Fr. Joseph Clayto...
A book of poems, ph... By Fr. "Dick" (R.C.)...
Meditations in word... By Fr. Dick Adams an...
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Daily Meditation
written by Henri Nouwen
_........................................................._
Third Week of Lent An excerpt from "From Fear to Love", Henri J.M. Nouwen
Returning to Trust In my own life I well know how
hard it is for me to trust that I am loved, and to trust that the intimacy I
most crave is there for me. I most often live as if I have to earn love, do
something noteworthy, and then perhaps I might get something in return. This
attitude touches the whole question of what is called in the spiritual life,
the "first love." Do I really believe that I am loved first, independent of
what I do or what I accomplish? This is an important question because as long
as I think that what I most need I have to earn, deserve and collect by hard
work, I will never get what I most need and desire, which is a love that
cannot be earned, but that is freely given. Thus, my return is my willingness
to renounce such thoughts and to choose to live more and more from my true
identity as a cherished child of God.
[From Fear to Love: Lenten Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son,
(c) Henri J.M. Nouwen. Published by Creative Communications for the Parish.]
[My Motto]
The Lord God has given me
the tongue of a teacher,
that I may know how to sustain
the weary with a word.
Morning by morning he wakens—
wakens my ear
to listen as those who are taught.
5The Lord God
has opened my ear,
and I was not rebellious,
I did not turn backwards
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“Repent
and believe the good news…" 
