“Or wait—try All Saints. That’s what they call places when they can’t decide on a single saint.” -Garmus, Bonnie. “Lessons in Chemistry: A Novel” Chemist and television...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2023/11/let-us-now-praise-famous-men.html
Frank Tracy Griswold III, tenth Bishop of Chicago and 25th Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, died March 5 at age 85. A scion of a prominent Philadelphia family and a descendant of two ...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2023/04/frank-tracy-griswold-rip.html
The Feast of the Presentation, also known as Candlemas, celebrated February 2, forty days after Christmas Day, marks the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, as told in Luke, 2:23-24 : “...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-feast-of-presentation-candlemas-and.html
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise up...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2022/01/god-in-man-made-manifest-feast-of.html
"Nathaniel said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" -John, 1:46 (NRSV) In the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, the Gospel reading ...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/12/saint-john-evangelist-and-marcus-borgs.html
What happens when a persecuted faith becomes a favored religion? The story of Saint Martin of Tours, whose feast day is November 11, provides some clues. Martin was born in Pannonia (mod...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/11/saint-martin-of-tours.html
“I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever bus...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/09/saint-phoebe-and-path-to-female-deacons.html
“When evening had come, and since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the sabbath, Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself waiti...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/08/joseph-of-arimathea-feast-day-august-1.html
MARY MAGDALENE, “APOSTLE TO THE APOSTLES,” JULY 22 We don’t know a great deal about the first generation of Christians, especially the women. But in the case of Mary Magdalene,...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/07/mary-magdaleneapostle-to-apostles-july.html
"'The Spiritual Life’ is a dangerously ambiguous term; indeed, it would be interesting to know what meaning any one reader at the present moment is giving to those three words. Many, I am afra...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/06/evelyn-underhill-theologian-and-mystic.html
For several months I was part of Autonomy, a online platform created by HarperCollins to discover new writing talent. It finally shut down in 2015 , with an announcement almost entirely in th...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/03/henry-kisor-reviews-gun-in-cheek-1987.html
“Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2021/02/lent-aint-what-it-used-to-be.html
Sixty years ago, on January 20, 1960, America’s first Roman Catholic president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, took the oath of office. Even those who are too young to have heard his inaugural ...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2020/12/gods-work-must-truly-be-our-own.html
St. Luke, the Social Justice Warrior Each of the four Gospel writers has a distinct point of view. St. Mark, the first to write a Gospel, gives us the basics. St. Matthew is writing ...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2020/10/luke-social-justice-warrior.html
Of Jesus’ twelve disciples, Thomas, to me, is the most intriguing. There’s the mystical Thomas, of the Secret Gospel of Thomas, to whom Jesus chooses to divulge his secrets:(1) Jesus...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2019/04/saint-thomas-human.html
When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the t...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2018/12/on-fourth-day-of-christmas-life-isnt.html
"Nathaniel said to him, 'Can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him, 'Come and see.'" -John, 1:46 (NRSV) In the Anglican and Roman Catholic churches, the Gospel reading for C...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-third-day-of-christmas-can-anything.html
Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. A...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2018/12/the-second-day-of-christmas-blunt.html
“My point, once again, is not that those ancient people told literal stories and we are now smart enough to take them symbolically, but that they told them symbolically and we are dumb enou...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2018/12/on-first-day-of-christmas-audaceous.html
“Having spent much of my productive life at the state and federal levels observing, studying, regulating and then leading a rail management team, I am appalled with what increasingly appears t...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2018/07/dont-kill-magic-airline-man-takes-over.html
I just finished watching "Roads to Memphis" about the journeys of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Earl Ray, from April, 1967 to April 4, 1968. The documentary then follows Ray to his even...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2018/04/watching-roads-to-memphis-in-age-of.html
It's really been 50 years. I was all of fifteen years old. On the evening of April 7, 1967, I boarded a Trailways bus at the Iowa City bus terminal in the old Burkley Hotel for Cedar Ra...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2017/04/its-really-been-50-years.html
Here in the States, February 2 is Groundhog Day. But that celebration springs from the ancient Christian holiday of The Presentation at the Temple, or Candlemas, along with various pre-Christ...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2017/02/from-presentation-at-temple-to.html
I should have known. As soon as Donald Trump chose Mike Pence as a running mate, he was bound to win. You see, Mike Pence is a Hoosier. "Indiana is the mother of Vice Presidents; home of more se...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2016/12/mother-of-vice-presidents.html
I'll never have another chance to beat Terry Strader at Scrabble, though even if I did, my chances would be about the same as winning the Powerball jackpot. She always won. But the prospect o...
http://ontheslowtrain.blogspot.com/2016/01/anne-therese-terry-strader-rip.html