An uninvited Pope and the power of words

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A normal friend knocks at your door. An Argentinean friend opens the door and happily yells, “I’m here!”

It’s a funny list, but there’s something real going on here, which describes Pope Francis to a T, whether we like that T or not:

To the Pope, everything is personal.

Read the rest at the Register. 

Worth Watching Again: The Edge

The great part of this deft, brisk movie is that you can totally ignore these existential themes of being lost and being found, having direction and having a reason to live, and just watch it because it’s tense and exciting and has a really scary bear in it.

Read the rest of my review of the 1997 film The Edge at the Register.

“Something needs to be done,” Said the Princess

Are we done fretting about princess culture yet? Because I think I’ve found the final word on what it really means to be a princess.

Abzeita Djigma is a real live princess from the Western African country of Burkina Faso.  She is “a direct descendant of the famous warrior and legendary Princess Yennenga,” she has a message for us: “Go where people need you.” She wants to enlighten the lives of her people — literally.

Read the rest at the Register.

Shush. Your mother is trying to listen.

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If you came in in the middle of the process, you’d think I was being totally unfair. You’d see me letting one kid stand there and have center stage, while everyone else has to just stand around and listen to half-truths, exaggerations, and self-pity. You’d think I was a fool for listening gravely and seriously to what is obviously a biased, self-serving version of what happened.

Or maybe you’d see me letting one kid stand there and having center stage, while everyone else has to just stand around and listen to a bullying, overbearing, jerk.  You’d think I was a tyrant for listening gravely and seriously to what is obviously a harsh and inhumane version of how we should treat each other.

This is what it would sound like if you saw only part of the process. But I hope you’d have a different point of view if you tried to understand what I was actually trying to accomplish.

Read the rest at the Register.

Can American writers write happy endings?

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The British get Tom Jones and Dickens and Shakespeare’s comedies, but what do we Americans get? Death and sadness, that’s what — at least in literature.

Are there American novels with happy endings? Here’s our list . . .

Read the rest at the Register.

Your family is not your brand

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Even a family that is nuts doesn’t fit into a nutshell. Families are too complicated for that.

Read the rest at the Register. 

Blessed Are the Useless

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This is the connection that we need to hear over and over again: we’re not here, in this world, to get ahead. We’re not here to prove how useful we are, and we’re not here to use other people. We’re not beloved by God because of how useful we are to Him! We’re useless. We’re beloved in our uselessness, because God is too big to fit into a simple equation of cost and benefit, debits and credits, loss and gain. We’re beloved because we exist, and that’s it. And if we want to meet God, we will find Him in service to others who can do nothing for us, because He came here in service to us, who can do nothing for Him.

Read the rest at the Register. 

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A church of oddballs

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The woman is wrong if she thinks that a great church means a place where atheists and agnostics and Christians should be able to just hang out and be awesome together. (We already have that: it’s called Starbucks.) But she is painfully right when she reminds us that, in too many places, Christian churches are places where you have the choice of being fake or leaving.
Read the rest at the Register. 

Who do we really mean that Jesus is?

V0034729 Jesus appoints Peter as head of the church; Peter kisses his

Thousands of years after Jesus walked the earth, we need to understand that Jesus wants to put us on the spot, asking us the same question He asked His disciples: Who do you say that I am? If we’re catechized, we’ll know the right answer; but the hard part is putting those words into action.

Read the rest at the Register.

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Why does the Church make things so complicated?

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If a dumb sheep starts nibbling on the medicine spoon, rather than drinking the medicine, that doesn’t mean that vets aren’t necessary. It means the sheep needs to be redirected to the goal, which is being healed.

Read the rest at the Register.

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