As the plane took off into the night, my heart cried: “Lord why so much darkness, so much hatred of you and yours?” As I prayed the plane rose over the city, I glanced through the small windows and was overwhelmed at the many lights below.
During Lent when we are asked to seek the Lord in prayer and the Scriptures, and to give of ourselves through service and sacrifice. At Catholic Social Services we hope to partner with you in providing a place to share your many gifts
Captain Nicholas Reid is a Catholic priest and Air Force chaplain at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where he was recently transferred. Here he talks about his coming-of-age on a military base in the Bible Belt, his vocation to the Catholic priesthood, and his military chaplaincy.
Blackfoot Chief Crowfoot, a Plains Indian who lived in the 1800s, said this: “What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset.”
Simply by casual observation over a period of many years, I have become convinced that most people around the world, whatever their culture or human background may be, are each and all instinctively concerned, even deeply anxious about their looks, how they appear bodily or socially in the presence of others.
Over the years, I have noticed that the crowds that attend Mass on Ash Wednesday rival any other day of the year, including Easter and Christmas. This tells us there is something attractive about being called to renew our relationship with God, about the penitential nature of the day and season that is fundamentally about conversion.