Was Priest Kidnapped by Diocese?

Members concerned about priest

No Shadow=Earlier Spring

With temperatures forecast to be no higher than the single digits over the next week, I guess we are going to pay for a short winter with an extremely cold one while it lasts.

More Ways to Procrastinate

And of course the #1 Book on Amazon today is:

Big Storm Heading Toward Florida This Weekend

The Problem "My" Versus "The Disciples of Christ"

I found this column interesting, because I think it once again shows forth the crux of the problem that we face as Catholics. Stephanie Salter aligns herself with the liberal end of the Catholic Church and distinguishes that Church as "My Catholic Church" over and against "The Disciples of Christ"--meaning those of us who believe in the sanctity of life. Bravo!!!!

Thank you, Stephanie for showing that there is the "gathering" of ego centered Catholics who focus on "My" as their operative word and then there are those who no less "ego centered" like "me" who strive to die to themselves and to be a student, a disciple of Jesus Christ. At least you don't put your group in that camp and I laud you for that!


Stephanie Salter: Remembering the greats of my Catholic Church

Thinking About Marrying a "Mother's Boy"?

Not a good idea...

From the Telegraph UK:

Being tied to your mother's apron strings is sufficent grounds to annul a marriage by the Vatican, it has emerged.

Officials ruled on several cases of men and women who were judged to be so dependent on a parent that they were unfit for marriage.

Judges on the Roman Rota, the top Catholic tribunal in the Vatican, agreed for an undisclosed number of marriages to be annulled on such grounds, according to a review of the judicial year.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel

The original name of this blog, that first came out in 1997 was The Graven Image Journal...taken from the great Jewish Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, one of the greatest spiritual writers of the last century...who said in one of his writings that God broke His own commandment when He created man and woman in His own image...just that thought alone is enough to give you an insight into the remarkable thought of this great figure of the last century.

From USA Today:

This year at the centennial of Heschel's birth, Jews and gentiles alike are remembering him as more than one of the most influential theologians of the 20th
century. For people of varied backgrounds, he also is an enduring role
model.
For the centennial, academics will debate Heschel's significance at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass., on March 11-12. Another conference is Sept. 7-9 at the Thomas Merton Center at Ballarmine University in Louisville. Yale University Press will release Volume 2 of his biography.
Scholars will have plenty to discuss. Heschel's classic titles, including The Prophets and God in Search of Man, have made him a staple of undergraduate courses on religion.
Yet unlike his colleagues at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary, who
commonly regarded God as a set of abstract principles, Heschel wrote passionately about the Sabbath and the quest for a personal God in ways that earned him a broad appeal.
"Heschel's central idea … was a God of pathos, a God of emotions, a God who cares about human history and what human beings do, even individuals," says biographer Edward Kaplan of Brandeis. "It's a kind of astounding doctrine."