Religion

Over the past six weeks, we have been led, step-by-step, into the desert time of Lent.
We began with Ash Wednesday’s clarion call to repent, to change our mindset, to change our hearts, to turn and return to God. The transformation calls us to be prophetic people. It allows us to ask inappropriate questions, to ask for God’s help and know that God is here with us.

Catholics worldwide are celebrating. Yes, Catholics...not just Roman Catholics, but those who are members of the Eastern Rite churches and those whose creed proclaims belief in one holy catholic church.
How can I say that? How can I put those words into print? For me, it is simple. The pope bears more than one title. The pope is not simply the bishop of Rome or the head of the Roman Catholic Church. The pope’s most precious and most significant title is, “Servant of the servants of God.” That role connects him to all religions everywhere.

Iowa City boasts a group of young men who intend to stop the progress of violence, as best they can.
Their mission is to eradicate the negative effect of bullying by positing the power of affirmations. Jeremiah Anthony is the lead person behind this effort. He is committed to the idea and ideal of empowering through praise and does so by sending messages randomly to his classmates and friends.

A familiar reaction to strangeness is to recoil from it. Whether the foreign entity emerges from within our very being or advances from outside of us, we begin a flight or fight response.
Our prejudices and biases rise from depths we never imagined. Instead of living in a world where we is the operative word, we reside in a dominion of us and them. Differences divide and diminish us where diversity could have excited and exhilarated us. Instead of opting to live in a brilliant universe of color, we choose to abide in the invisibility of grayness.