Blog Posts for "Water"

An Odd Distance, a Common Problem

Easter Weekday I’ve now been running for 40 years. What started as “plan B” to earn a  high school letter after my basketball ambitions exceeded my talent and height has become a rewarding avocation.  Over that time I’ve covered tens of thousands of miles on six continents.  In the early years—high school, college and perhaps a decade after that, I competed and trained hard.  These days (especially after aortic valve replacement surgery about 18 months ago) I feel blessed just being able to get out there in the morning, put...

A Natural and Supernatural Resource

Lenten Weekday Ezekiel 47:1-9, 12; John 5:1-16   Both readings for Mass today speak of water that heals naturally and supernaturally.  The superabundance of water that flows from the temple in Ezekiel’s vision not only sustains the lives of God’s plants and creatures, it even makes the salt sea fresh.  The healing reputation of the waters at Bethesda draw a sick man there, yet it is his encounter with a man in the crowd, Jesus, that leads to his being able to walk.  At the entrance of our chapel at St. Clare Friary is...

Water is Thicker Than Blood

Ss. Timothy and Titus Mark 3:31-35 It has often been said that "Blood is thicker than water."  It means that the bonds of family and kinship trump (maybe I shouldn't use that word for a while) all other relationships or obligations.  As he so often does, Jesus in this gospel passage turns conventional logic on its head.  When his mother and other relatives come to see him, Jesus uses their visit to redefine what it means to be "family" to him:  "whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother. Through...