September 6, 2026 Trinity XIV You may have noticed that things we wear are getting smarter. Not in the sense that our clothes know how to match our socks and shirts, we’re still on our own there — but smarter in the technological sense. Watches track our heart rates. Rings and wristbands monitor our health and sleep patterns. Glasses can display directions or translate languages. You might even wear devices that measure blood sugar or remind you to stand up and move around. I

August 30, 2026 The Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity Expressing negativity and skepticism has never been difficult for human beings, especially when it comes to self-denial. In today's Gospel, we can imagine that the actors in our story are doing much of the same thing. Especially when it comes to self-denial. We, as humans, struggle with self-denial quite a bit.Yet, this is precisely what Jesus requires of his followers. "Then Jesus told his disciples, 'If any want to becom

August 21, 2026 Trinity XII "Great moments are born from great opportunity."So says Kurt Russell in the movie Miracle, which tells the story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team's victory over the seemingly invincible Russians."And that's what you have here, tonight, boys," he tells his team. Great opportunity. "That's what you've earned here tonight. One game. If we played 'em 10 times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight

August 16, 2026 Assumption Sunday In lieu of a sermon, I thought I would give everyone a break and just give a little catechism on the Assumption of Our Lady. For the Liberal Catholic Church, it is not so much a doctrine or dogma, as it is a tradition. Depending on the branch, it is sometimes referred to as a teaching. Thus, from our point of view, it is an optional belief. It is one of those “bone-of-contentions” that non-Catholics have with Catholics. The reason this is so,

August 9, 2026 Transfiguration Sunday In his book about biking across America with his brother, Stan Purdum remembers being in Oregon early in the journey and discovering that, even though it was summertime, they should have packed some cold-weather clothing. After camping for the night in Prairie City, they set out heading east. The days so far had been quite hot, though chilly in the mornings. Here’s how Purdum described what happened next: “Although we were soon wet with s

August 2, 2026 Trinity 9 “Sermon” Version (My friends, in lieu of a sermon this week, I will read some words that I gave private letter to Abbott Gentzsch’s wife, with some private words meant for here alone removed. Many of you have asked how the funeral went, which I will explain after this missive.) When I first met Chuck (who I will occasionally refer to as “Fr. Charles” as he was known at the parish early on and then “Abbott Gentzsch” as he became more fondly known here

July 26, 2026 Trinity 8 It was a beautiful, sunny, summer day in Baltimore, Md. People in a neighborhood of neatly kept brick rowhouses were going about their usual business. A few minutes before 10 a.m. — BOOM! — a massive explosion rocked the entire neighborhood. A great plume of white smoke shot into the sky, and a hail of debris — bricks, scraps of wood, roof shingles — came raining down on the manicured front lawns. Articles of clothing were left hanging from tree limbs.

July 12, 2026 Trinity 6 Everybody knows about the Nobel Prizes, given each year in categories including physics, chemistry, medicine and economic sciences. But how about the “IG Nobels”? This set of awards is given for scientific research that “makes people laugh, then think.” As the word “ignoble” suggests, these awards are not particularly honorable. They carry much less social status than the lofty Nobel Prizes. (The Nobel Peace Prize that was coveted so much by “You-know-

July 5, 2026 The Fifth Sunday after Trinity St. Juniperro Serra On a sunny Saturday last year at Wimbledon, Centre Court had the pleasant buzz of a summer outing — the kind where spectators sip Pimm’s, nibble strawberries drowned in champagne, and pretend they are simply out for a gentle afternoon rather than watching world-class athletes battle nerves and destiny. Amanda Anisimova — young, immensely talented and having just played the match of her life, beating top-ranked Ar

June 28, 2026 Trinity IV You are staring at a frozen computer screen. Nothing happens, no matter how many times you click the mouse or how hard you bang on the keyboard. But, before you pick up the machine and take it to the trash in the fit of a temper tantrum, you move on to the last-ditch solution: reboot. Rebooting is what you do when something goes deeply wrong — with either your machine or one of its key programs. You probably had to learn how to reboot a computer at s

June 21, 2026 Trinity III One evening a while back in San Bernardino County, California, a car chase began about 6:30 p.m., coming to a conclusion about 90 minutes later. The suspect in a car theft took off from Chino and led police on a chase that ended in Hawthorne. The erratic and meandering journey took officers to the Ventura Freeway, where the suspect vehicle sideswiped a Prius and nearly hit a tanker truck. After driving in the wrong direction, the thief pulled the car

June 14, 2026 Trinity II It is not surprising that pastors and ministers are generally compassionate people. Makes sense. But is it possible that pastors might sometimes be the object of compassion rather than a channel of compassion? A certain pastor describes his own experience. “There I was, standing in a room full of treadmills, stationary bikes with huge fans and people with wires attached to their chests monitored by a group of nurses. I had a fresh scar running down my

June 7, 2026 Corpus Christi Sunday If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. According to journalist Megan McArdle, a lot of people are doing just that. Ahe says that the average woman in the 1920s spent about 30 hours a week preparing food and cleaning up. By the 1950s, she was doing this just 20 hours a week. Now, women average about five hours a week in the kitchen. And that's not because men are stepping in to help -- guys give only about 15 minutes a day to ki

May 31, 2026 Trinity Sunday He-Man, Skeletor, Teela, Man-at-Arms, Stratos, Zodac, Beast Man and Mer-Man. If you know these names, you grew up watching cartoons in the 1980s. They started as toys, small action figures with bulging muscles that could be used in imaginary battles. Then they were featured in a popular Saturday morning cartoon series, comic books, video games, magazines and several feature films. Novelist Brian Cave writes that they had “everything a kid could ask

May 24, 2026 Whitsunday (Pentecost) You have probably heard about the “Nones.” It’s a term used by organizations such as the Pew Research Center for people who describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” when surveyed about their present religion, if any. Religion? None. Further questions on these surveys often reveal that many Nones are not necessarily hostile against organized religion. Some even describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious,”

May 17, 2026 Ascension Sunday Most of us spend more time sitting in chairs than thinking about chairs, but maybe we should devote even more time to hunting for the perfect chair. There's a whole book about that pursuit. It's titled Now I Sit Me Down and it's written by architect Witold Rybczynski (Rib-shin-skee).He refers to some chairs as follows:+ used in ancient Greece called klismos, which had a curved backrest and tapering, out-curved legs;+ the yokeback chair of the Son

May 10, 2026 Sixth Sunday of Easter In the beginning, he was a freelance window cleaner, paid by the pane. Then a client asked him to clean a vacant property, one that was an absolute mess. From there, he started a company that will tidy up anything, no matter how repulsive. His name is Ben Giles. Along with the members of his team, he can clean everything from crime scenes to industrial accidents. According to The Guardian, he has become an expert in removing evidence of spi

May 3, 2026 Fifth Sunday of Easter “Satisfaction Guaranteed.” You see it stamped on boxes, printed on receipts, and splashed across storefront windows and websites. It is the promise we crave before we buy. The phrase was part of the consumer lingo-sphere long before Mick Jagger began complaining that he “can’t get no satisfaction.” Today, the concept of guaranteed satisfaction has wandered far beyond Jagger’s personal problems and the shopping malls of America. It is across

April 26, 2026 Fourth Sunday of Easter (Easter III) Many voices call out to us in our noisy world. Some are telling us to be afraid - very afraid. Others invite us to follow their programs, buy their products or support their candidates. Other voices give us strength and peace, even in the middle of dangerous situations. Whose voice are you hearing? Joan Mulholland was a Freedom Rider in the early 1960s. She was part of a group of Blacks and whites who rode on interstate bus

April 12, 2026 Low Sunday/Divine Mercy Sunday Who really shot JFK? Were the moon landings real or staged? Did Elvis really die in 1977, or did he fake his death in order to get some privacy? Was Paul McCartney actually replaced by a look-alike when he allegedly died in 1966? Was 9/11 staged by the U.S. government? Did Trump win the 2020 elections? Are all these questions crazy? Maybe it depends on the thickness of your tinfoil hat. Americans love a good conspiracy theory, and