March 23, 2011

Complacency? Evil? Sin?

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I was reading, with Matins this morning, an excerpt from the treatise On the Six Days of Creation by Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.  In it, he is wondering where evil comes from.  He concludes “It is a pervasion of mind and spirit, swerving from the way of true virtue, which frequently overtakes the unwary.  … The enemy is within us. (more…)

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January 6, 2009

Thinking about Death and Dying

Posted by johnmangels under Religion | Tags: , , |
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I lost a long term parishioner this morning.  I joined his family around his body and we said prayers together.  I attended services for another long term parishioner in another congregation this afternoon.  Then I had coffee with a parishioner who is grieving various deaths in his own life.  He was trying to make sense of death and loss in his life.  So we got to talking.  Why do people die?  What could God possibly have been thinking?

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December 11, 2008

Feeling Like Job

Posted by johnmangels under Bible | Tags: , , |
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My daughter’s friend Aimee has undergone multiple eye surgeries to try to save her vision.  She has diabetes (as do I) and loss of sight is one of the complications that can result.  Aimee is about twenty five, and was married earlier this year.  And I found out today that a blood vessel in her good eye ruptured.  I hear she’s looking at surgery the day after Christmas.  And I hear she’s feeling like Job.  Which I understand.

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