“The Gift of Adversity” Michael Jinkins Several years ago a friend gave me a small marble plaque with a quote on it from Sir Winston Churchill: “When you’re going through hell, don’t stop!” While you could always count on Sir Winston to find just the right phrase to buck up the faint-hearted, it doesn’t […]
“Some Christians Give Christianity a Bad Name” Michael Jinkins Some Christians give Christianity a bad name. This is not a new thing. Skip a stone across the ripply surface of history and we are likely to hit so many shame-filled incidents starring Christians as villains that will make us cringe, blush or run […]
April 19, 2019 “The Passion Never Ends” Michael Jinkins Today is Good Friday when we observe the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus. Today is the hinge on which turns Holy Week. Together with Maundy Thursday, Good Friday provides that point in time and remembrance when betrayal leads to arrest; when disciples, who promised […]
“Risen Life” Michael Jinkins I hope I am not alone in wondering why T. S. Eliot described April as “the cruelest month.” It was not ironic. It was not allergy-related either. From what clever literary scholars tell me (far cleverer than I), April mocks us with its new life. That’s what Eliot meant. We […]
April 5, 2019 “Fallow Ground” Michael Jinkins Steam rises from a fallow field. You may have seen it, driving through the countryside early some morning at a change of the seasons. I remember one early morning almost thirty years ago when Debbie, the kids and I drove out north of Aberdeen, Scotland, along […]
March 29, 2019 “The Green Frog Cafe” Michael Jinkins “From the time that I could walk he’d take me with him to a place called the Green Frog Cafe. There were old men with beer guts playing dominoes, lying about their lives while they played,” go the lyrics of one of the late Guy […]
The Heart of the Matter Michael Jinkins I had been sitting in meditation a long while when across my mind came an impression, as though I were somehow looking over into the heart of a galaxy where I could see stars and clouds of stardust whirling around a center that was consuming them all, […]
This conversation happened several years ago, and I am still amazed by what it set in motion. The thing I recall most distinctly about it was my initial skepticism. It was my first meeting with any spiritual director, and my first with the person, Father Paul Scaglione, who would become my spiritual director and friend. […]