Father Ron’s Blog

A prayer for challenging times

2009-11-05T08:27:17Z

May God bless you with discomfort … At easy answers, half-truths and superficial relationships, So that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with anger … At injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, So that ...

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Leadership

2009-11-05T08:21:05Z

In his book The New Realities (New York: Harper & Row, 1989) Peter Drucker asks seven questions of leaders. They are as applicable to church leaders as to managing directors. 1. How well do we know our people? There is no substitute for "...

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Letter to Lewis Smedes about God's Presence

2009-11-02T03:57:09Z

I have to look in cracks and crevices. Don't tell me how God's mercy is as wide as the ocean, as deep as the sea. I already believe it, but that infinite prospect gets farther away the more we mouth it. I thank you for lamenting his absence...

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Enough!

2009-11-02T00:05:47Z

The Rev. Richard Schauper shared a story with the congregation of St. Clare's that has stayed with me. It goes like this: A billionaire threw a part somewhere on the Eastern seaboard shore. While there were many at the party, two of the guests ...

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The Reign of God

2009-10-31T19:47:53Z

I've just returned from my first session at Trinity Wall Street's Clergy Leadership Project. Here is a profound story I learned about the reign of God as told by the staff and Chaplains of CLP: The Chambered Nautilus The nautilus is a living f...

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Prayer of Archbishop Oscar Romero

2009-10-30T12:25:14Z

It helps, now and then, to step back and take a long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work. Nothing we d...

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Balance

2009-10-29T16:46:08Z

Pastors working according to the Word restore balance in the congregation. Where there is too much, they reduce. Where there is too little, they add. Their people are neither overly busy, nor lazy and idle. They resist the temptation to contr...

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Leadership and Managment

2009-10-29T02:48:37Z

When Noah heard the weather forecast he ordered the building of the ark. --That was Leadership. Then he looked around and said, "Make sure the elephants don't see what the rabbits are up to." --That was Management

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Reconstruction

2009-10-27T01:32:59Z

Sometimes, like an Andy Goldsworthy assemblage, you take us to the very edge of our collapse. And when it happens, and the ice is eaten away by its own melting, and wind takes the straws, there You are, ready to rebuild with endless patience. Y...

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The Journey

2009-10-26T12:23:50Z

One day you finally knew what you had to do, and began, though the voices around you kept shouting their bad advice--though the whole house began to tremble and you felt the old tug at your ankles. "Mend my life!" each voice cried. But you didn'...

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