Author: Fr Matthew+
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From South Bend to Southwest
What is a border? A boundary is made by whom and for what? Who decides how it’s maintained or kept or changed? Our group of Indiana pastors made it here to San Diego tonight. We crossed a half dozen states not to mention TSA security checkpoints. Tomorrow we go “south of the border” and cross…
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Preparing for Pilgrimage
Tomorrow I leave with sixteen pastors from different denominations around the state of Indiana. We are bound for Tijuana. We’re part of the Lilly funded Wabash Pastoral Leadership Program. Our goal is to engage in with poverty just over the border and look at the human faces behind immigration and deportation. I don’t expect we’ll…
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Lent Pilgrim
We are all pilgrims. But where is it we are bound? I love the way the English language works on this last sentence. On the one hand it asks, “Where are we headed? What is our destination?” Yet, it also asks us about what binds us, what has our attention in a way that keeps…
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Home again, home again jiggity jog
We said farewell to most of our crew on Tuesday evening while thirteen of us ventured on to Jordan to see Petra and Mt Nebo. Or fellow pilgrims arrived safe and sound the other day, and now we have too. The remainder of us are now safely home on US soil once again. We have…
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Finding Nebo
Moses wasn’t lost. His was simply an extended tour. He wanted to make sure future generations would make stops in the desert to experience complete reliance on God in barren places. And to have a good place to eat and pick up souvenirs to show they were in one of the most amazing places on…
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Nunc Dimittis
He had only one thing on his bucket list. Simeon was one of those kind old men who lingers long after the religious service, blessing with his smile everyone who looks at his face. He wanted just one thing before he died. And God had promised him that he would get it. A glimpse. Before…
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Hawking Holiness Here
Israel’s chief export is holiness. And holiness here flows from a complicated network of sources and streams, often competing with one another to meet the market’s demand. We have been praised by our guide for being the most polite of countries that visit, and also told by him that there are times we should not…
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Jerusalem, Jerusalem…
“Now our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem.” Psalm 122:2 Today was another amazing whirlwind of history, archeology and a journey of faith steeped in cross cultural immersion. We started with a tour of the Church of thr Garden of Gethsemene where I saw a grove of ancient olive trees. What made it…