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Do you think of sin as though it pertains merely to religion and nothing else?  Do not let that word “sin” slip through your mind as though it is some abstraction that the Church has dreamed up as an excuse for her own existence.  Multitudes of people who know little and care less about the Church and her message are firm believers in the reality of sin.  Why is it that government at every level spends millions of dollars to maintain police forces, jails, prisons and courts of law?  The basic reason is sin.  Why is it that automobile manufacturers […]

This past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday and we begin the season of Lent.  It is a time for all of us to stop and to reflect and remember   Do you remember those days when you dreamed beautiful dreams?  You were thinking about the wonderful life that was waiting for your over there in the future.  Dreaming is a vital part of living.  Think how impoverished our world would be without dreamers.  Every great human accomplishment is nothing more than a dream come true.  The electric light was once a dream in the mind of Thomas Edison.  The Fifth Symphony was […]

Jesus once told a story about a man whom most of us would greatly admire.  He was industrious.  He was productive.  He managed his business affairs so efficiently and he became independently wealthy.  On top of all of this, he was fun-loving.  Hi philosophy of life was “relax, eat healthy, drink well, enjoy yourself.” That is the kind of person that most today would not only admire but would probably even envy a bit.  He is the prime example these days of a successful man.  But in the story, Jesus said that in the eyes of God this admirable, enviable, […]

Some time ago, a newspaper article was entitled, “Simple courtesy facing extinction in America.”  The writer told of four different instances in which he had gone out of his way to be helpful, and not one of the persons he had helped even bothered to say, “thank you.”  I guess that most of us can recall similar experiences.  You held a door open for someone carrying an armload of packages, and he passed through and hurried away without saying a word.  You paused to let a driver pull into your lane of traffic, which he promptly did without so much […]

The early fathers of the Catholic Church compiled a list of what they called “the seven deadly sins.”  Number one on that list was the sin of pride.  I doubt that you and I would have done it that way.  We may recognize that pride is indeed a sin, but most of us would not think of it as the first and worst of the deadly sins.  I can think of at least three sins that most of us consider to be more serious than the sin of pride – murder, adultery, and stealing. And is there not a sense […]