Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

ICE Out demo

Saturday saw a pop-up ICE Out demonstration in Louisville, one of the many that took place across the United States.

It was a cold, windy, and rainy day in Louisville.
There were few speakers. It was mostly a matter of presence and visible opposition to government policy.
Two women ministers from a Presbyterian church placed the event in a gospel context.
My family and friends were well represented.

Nick Rice’s funeral

Fr. Nick Rice was three years ahead of me at St. Thomas Seminary in Louisville and was ordained in 1967 and assigned to St. Lawrence Parish. Three years later he was transferred and I, newly ordained, replaced him at St. Lawrence. He was an exceptionally good priest and I started my ministry in the afterglow of his time at St. Lawrence. Later when Nick started Mass of the Air I worked with him to get sign language interpreters for the televised liturgies. Later he set up the deacon program in Louisville and then took positions in national church organizations. In addition to that he was just my good friend. He died last week and today we celebrated his funeral.

New Year Prayer


If you wish, take a few breaths and offer yourself this simple blessing:

May I carry forward what truly matters.
May I release what no longer serves.
May I walk into this new year with courage and care.
And then extend that light outward:
May we choose love again and again.
May our world remember its own goodness.
The light you seek for the year ahead is not waiting somewhere else.
It already lives in you—
in your capacity to begin again,
to forgive a little more
to open when it would be easier to close.
As this year turns, may you trust that something wise is moving you forward even when you cannot see the path.
With gratitude for you, and faith in what is unfolding!

~ Jack Komfield

Cambodia-Thailand Conflict

Bishop Olivier of Phnom Penh is a very active player in the life of the kingdom and always reaches out to the Buddhists to address issues, celebrate events, etc. In the current conflict between the kingdoms of Cambodia and Thailand, Bishop Olivier has gone to the front lines with a Buddhist delegation and has engaged with Buddhist leadership in praying for peace.

The joint prayer events take on a form not so familiar to Christian groups. Literally hundreds of Buddhist monks came together for this joint prayer service.

Christmas Time

John’s gospel begins with “In the beginning was the Word….and the Word was God…. All things came to be through him”. Creation spirituality asks us to consider that the Incarnation–God becoming human and part of creation–was not just a one-time event with the birth of Christ but that God was incarnate in creation from the beginning, from the Big Bang.

In Luke’s gospel, in his account of the birth of May’s son, he reminds us three times that Jesus was born in the city of David. There, when the promised savior is born, shepherds and angels–representing the land and the sky, the earth and the heavens, the totality of creation–rejoice together. The Incarnate One is part of all creation, not just the human species.

Christmas Time

On Christmas Eve, the psalm instructs all creation to rejoice–the sky and the land, the sea and the plains, even the trees–because God is coming to rule with world with justice. Likewise, the prophet Isaiah proclaims that the son to be born is cause for rejoicing because he upholds and sustains justice. People who have been burdened will stand up straight; those who walked in darkness will emerge into the light.