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When you have to choose, choose faith

Readers might be tempted to skip the first 17 verses of Matthew’s Gospel. After all, it’s just a genealogy of who “begat” whom, a list of names we don’t recognize and can’t pronounce. We’re tempted to move on to the good stuff. But don’t, because there’s good stuff right here. Buried in that list are the names of 5 women. In a patriarchal society, that proves God’s inclusiveness. Looking at the individual stories of those women, however, reveals more than simply their role in God’s plan. The first woman mentioned, Tamar, appears in Genesis 38. There, Judah, one ...

Italian postal service sees surge in mail for Pope Francis, much sent from children

ROME (AP) — The Italian postal service has seen a huge increase in mail addressed to Pope Francis since his Feb. 14 hospitalization, with some letters clearly written by children, bearing stamps from around the world and simply addressed to the pope at “Gemelli Hospital” in Rome. Postal workers sort the mail into big yellow boxes, labeled “Papa Francesco.” Each day hospital workers come to take the letters away to make sure they get to the 88-year-old Francis at the 10th floor hospital suite where he is recovering from double pneumonia. The mail arrives first at the primary ...

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Last week’s Presidential Address to Congress was a disappointment. Shame on President Trump, who acted anything but “presidential.” With the opening lines of his speech, Trump began to taunt the Democrats. He opined that President Biden was “the worst President in American history,” a thought that didn’t need to be shared. Trump later paused to remark that no matter what he said, no Democrat would ever applaud his words. In a speech that could have pointed America toward unity in solving our common problems, the President picked a fight. Shame on the Democrats who joined ...

Pope receives cake and glad tidings on the 12th anniversary of his papacy, marked in the hospital

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis marked the 12th anniversary of his pontificate Thursday in the hospital — the first pope to do so in modern church history — as he received increasingly positive medical news on his recovery, a cake and hundreds of messages wishing him well. The pope spent the morning in physiotherapy, followed Lenten spiritual exercises of the Roman curia and stopped to pray at the chapel in the Gemelli Hospital, where he has been under treatment for a complex lung infection since Feb. 14, Vatican sources said. In the afternoon, he received a cake from hospital ...

What it means to have potential

As a minister, when asked to write a letter of recommendation for a young person in our church who is seeking a job, I often find myself using the word “potential.” They have it. They are smart, personable people who have grown up in good families and who understand the value of work. They will be a great addition to someone’s work force, and an investment in their future is also an investment in the future of any employer that they serve. I won’t assert that anyone has “great potential” unless I really believe that they do. Still, when I write those words, I’m reminded ...