The Commons

A story told by the late Anthony de Mello SJ: There was once a devout woman who was filled with love for God. Each morning as she would go to church, children would call out to her and beggars would plead with her, but so immersed was she in her…

Some of the most important preaching we will ever do is at funerals. I will be sharing a lot more in the future of what is in my overflowing files, but let this start the flow, which can be used not just for funerals. It comes from Bob Dixon’s essay…

St. Leo the Great (d.461) wrote in one of his sermons (Sermon 71:2) that Jesus rose as early as possible on the third day, not only to fulfil the Scriptures, but also so that “the disturbed minds of the disciples might not be racked by prolonged grief.” We need the…

In the mid 1850s the California gold rush was slowing down. Many miners moved their operation to Nevada to search for silver. The two Grosh brothers, sons of a Pennsylvania clergyman and trained as mineralogists and trained by the California gold rush, staked a claim in 1857. But all their…

With experience come some rewards: A Colorado mine operator found that the combination on his office safe had jammed. He called the nearby state prison and asked whether any of the inmates might know how to open it. In a short while, a convict and a prison guard showed up…

A bass who couldn’t sing refused to quit the church choir despite hints that he serve in other capacities. Finally the choir director demanded that the pastor get rid of him. “If you don’t, I’m going to resign and so will the other choir members,” the director said. “His wrong…

The task of the sermon, said Augustine, is threefold:  tenere, docere, and flectere. Tenere is to hold the attention and awaken the imagination. Docere is to teach and instruct. Flectere is to persuade, convict, and incline the will.  

Three men were trying to come up with a definition of “success.” Said the first man, “I would consider myself successful if I could have a private, personal conversation with the President of the  United States in the White House Oval Office.” The second man said, “I would consider myself…

Sometimes our attempts to discipline our kids can backfire. One mother was so fed up with her teenage son’s slovenliness and slobbery that she imposed a dollar fine on every dropped book, clothing, towel, etc. If she had to pick it up, he owed her a dollar and at the…

There is an old, beautiful Irish story of a priest and an old man walking together along a country road in Ireland. A storm came up suddenly and they took cover in an old barn where they remained warm and dry. As he sat on an old pile of hay,…