John Rae

Author -- 32 posts
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Cookie Comfort

The future Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his book Introduction to Christianity that the cross "expresses the primacy of acceptance...

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Gathering and Scattering

In Luke 11:23, Jesus says, “Whoever does not gather with me scatters.” What is Jesus talking about? A journey into linguistics...

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Tupperware and Clay

Given the current state of the world, bewilderment might be the next pandemic. Catholic scholar Luke Burgis makes an...

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Saving Face

1 Chronicles 21 begins, “Satanrose up against Israel and incited David to count the people of Israel.” This did not go over...

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Who Are You Serving?

Catholic philosopher Remi Brague makes an interesting observation: “In Spain, when a cab is for hire and looking for a...

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Swirling Currents

The other day, I was following a conversation on Twitter about how, right out of the blue, you could be ostracized socially,...

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Culture of Invitation

At Saint Benedict, we are encouraged to enter into a culture of invitation. On one level, it’s about welcoming and bringing...

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Dealing With Good News

In session one of our parish’s Lenten study, The Rescue Project, Fr. John Riccardo says that we all inhabit some story, or...

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The Prime Reality

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus urges us: ”...Be like the wise man who built his house upon the rock.” How do we determine...

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God Woos Us

One of the images of God in the Bible is that he is a loving, wooing bridegroom, and we are his bride. He pursues us as the...

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Viral Load

In 1931, the Austrian logician Kurt Gödel published his ‘incompleteness theorem’, which states that any logical system must...

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Conspiracy Theories

The word ‘conspiracy’ is being used a lot lately. It is being pulled out of a lot of different hats in an attempt to come to...

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Thick and Thin

Not all desires are created equal. The Trappist monk Thomas Merton noted that before his conversion he felt that he was...

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Jacuzzi Spirituality

The other day, I received an email asking me, “What would be your dream vacation?” I thought, ‘What if God sent me an email...

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Our Stories

Martin Buber, the Jewish philosopher, shared a story about the famous Rabbi the Baal Shem Tov, who was kind of a Jewish...

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The Cross

At Easter, we identify the cross as an implement of execution, but is that the only image that the cross can imprint on us?...

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The Name of God

Originally written by Sandra Thurman Caporale, scripture added by John Rae. “Then the Lord God formed the man of the dust...

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Seeking Sustenance

In Luke 5:27, it says, “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ he told him,...

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The Missionary Disciple

In Isaiah 50:4, Second Isaiah (a disciple of the prophet Isaiah, or First Isaiah) says of himself: “The Lord God has given me...

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The Medium is the Massage

In the mid-1960s, Professor Marshall McLuhan noted that the new medium of television was changing how people processed the...

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Awakening Grace

We may be living in a post- Christian culture, but it is not a post-religious one. There are a few secular ‘religions’ plying...

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Truth vs. Blame

There are stories of truth and stories of blame. In chapter nine of the Gospel of John, Jesus and his disciples come across a...

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Our Mother Tongue

                                                                        In Matthew 18:3, Jesus says, "Truly I tell you, unless...

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Individually Loved

In Matthew 9:11, the Pharisees ask Jesus’ disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” The Pharisees...

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Inviting Jesus into your Heart

Through the evangelistic efforts of the Church, we are encouraged to “invite Jesus into our heart.” For someone seriously...

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Spilling Blood

The night of Jesus’ arrest on the Mount of Olives, blood was shed twice. Jesus sweated drops of blood, and the servant of the...

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The Paraclete

This reflection was originally published on June 13th, 2020. Over my lifetime, I have lived inside various spiritualities,...

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Spiritual Metabolism

This reflection was originally published on May 16th, 2020. With the COVID-19 pandemic, there are a lot of issues for us...

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The Tomb Is Empty

This reflection was originally published on April 11th, 2020. I’d like to relate a story told by Harry Pritchett: Philip was...

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The Forerunner

This reflection was originally published on March 7th, 2020. Back in the world of large sailing ships, it was not possible...

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Sacrifice and Guard

This reflection was originally published on February 8th, 2020. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, Saint Paul tells us, “You are holy,...

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Great Compassion

In Hebrew the word rechem is the root word for compassion, mercy, and womb. It is also the root for one of the Biblical names...