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FAMILY REUNION 2026

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I study the two images below: In one I see my brother and me in white, and my two nephews in red and gray t-shirts. I see us all at a certain point in time (Irish-time can be sort of fluid). When this picture was taken, I had just come back from a 'come-and-see' with the Benedictine Sisters of Erie PA and I was still working as a social worker in Downtown Toronto…  I return to the family reunion photo and look deeper: I see the people who aren't there. It's complicated. With the Irish Wishing Tree in mind, I fold an 8X10 black and white photo copy of the family reunion photo into smaller-and-smaller squares. I say a prayer and carefully tuck the folded photo copy into the ivy vines wrapped around my balcony railing. It's not an Irish Wishing Tree , but it's close enough. I think of Major Mark Hall saying in church that, "Satan attacks us through family, church, and our testimony." This resonates. I am told the answer to my worry about family is  1 Jo...
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STILL IN EASTER'S THIN PLACES

The fifth Sunday of Easter: So I take a few old family photos out of storage and place them around my apartment. The family is still seemingly permanently estranged, but I still have some power here. I can take them out of storage. I am struck by one photo in particular of us all gathered up north for Thanksgiving in the early 1990's. Looking at the photo now, all these years later, I think of a  Star Trek  episode where the  Traveler and Wesley Crusher characters are having a conversation in front of a group of warring people on another planet. The scene is paused-- the weapons frozen in their hands. I feel something like that happening now, in the spiritual realm of relationship with my family. Something is changing. What comes next (what I see in the photo) is truly hard to put into words: I see the family sitting at the Thanksgiving table up north… What strikes me the most, is the 'eye-contact' between  me in the photo then, and  me  pondering the ph...
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WEATHER ADVISORY GOOD FRIDAY

Big storm's moving in. A horn honks. A bird caws. His crucifixion's far away, and closer today … a siren,  a mass notification. Tires on wet pavement, another horn honks, another bird caws-- we stand by and wait. Cb Amen
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A LENTEN PAUSE …

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can camels swim - Search
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For Gabbie!

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unsplash for Gabbie+ Happy Valentine's Day! I know you love hearts!
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BRAVERY SPANNING THE GENERATIONS

Today I want to share three anti-ICE songs that are being passed around in my CAC Tears of Things community. Two are from the RagingGrannies, one from a new (to me) American folksinger Jessie Wells. All are humourous, prophetic, and inspiring. All are bravely staring down systemic evil. I'm going to go out on a limb and say these are also good Lenten songs. Enjoy! Join ICE   Bing Videos We Gotta Stop the Raids Hit the Road ICE . Bing Videos   Cb Amen
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SOMEHOW STILL ME

Heavy snow is falling again today. I skip ahead to this week's CAC Living School's reading assignment in  Falling Upward by Richard Rohr : I discover another reading in this week's module:  What Our Seasons Teach Us,  by Kaitlin Curtice. Paraphrasing Curtice, I imagine making snow angels with "my child self; my 15 year old self; my 20 year old self; my 30 year old self; my 40 year and fifty year old self-- and my self two months ago." I am blown away to read … "the relationship I have to my past selves who are all, somehow, still me." — Kaitlin Curtice. Thank you Kaitlin Cb Amen  
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