The Love of a Good Woman Michael Jinkins A mega-church super-pastor of national renown recently got into trouble over an extra-marital affair, and the wise guys with whom I almost daily commune had a long virtual conversation about it. I would not, for anything in the world want to expose these guys to the […]
Good Advice is Wisdom in Comfortable Shoes Michael Jinkins The best advice I ever got on a horse came from a nun, but I didn’t take it. We were at Churchill Downs for a special event. Sister Mary Margaret and I were standing in line waiting to place our bets on the third race. […]
Be it Resolved Michael Jinkins Every year lots of folks make New Years Resolutions. I don’t anymore. They tend to lead to New Years Disappointments in my experience. I save my resolution for Ash Wednesday and the weeks that follow, thinking that I’ll have a better chance of being good if (a) the period […]
In All of Life We Are Dealing With God Michael Jinkins As you can probably imagine, your pastor has been struggling this week to find appropriate words to address the events that occurred in Washington D.C.. Recently a colleague with whom I was speaking, ended his conversation with words I’ve heard him say dozens […]
“Doom Scrolling:” My Phrase for the Year 2020 Michael Jinkins This is my choice for new word or phrase of the year, “doom scrolling,” the pernicious and addictive habit of scrolling through one bad news story after another on the internet or television. Someone coming up for air after watching two or three hours […]
The Language of Christmas Michael Jinkins Christmas doesn’t speak in prose. Not fluently, at least. It speaks in music and lyrics and poetry. How could it be otherwise? Christmas touches the face of eternity with the hands of an infant. Upon getting the news from Gabriel that God intended to make her the mother […]
Fairy Tales Can Come True Michael Jinkins We read “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” to our children when they were young. At about that same time, the BBC produced a film version for television. The production values weren’t what viewers today would demand. Actors in woolly suits pretended they were animals. But […]
Little Sacraments Michael Jinkins We left the restaurant and began walking up Clinton Street. At nine o’clock, the Village is just waking up, shaking off its dusky haze and getting down to business. But we four already had most of the day we planned to have. Scott and Amy had a sitter to relieve […]
In Pursuit of the Sublime Michael Jinkins It took years to find the right word for what I felt when, one fall morning, walking our children to school in Aberdeen, I passed by a garden in which there were small flowers of the most intense deep blues I had ever seen. The feeling they evoked […]
Love and Truth Michael Jinkins The prophets of Israel, the great Abraham Heschel, once indicated, suffered an exquisite divine pathos. He wrote: ‘The emotional experience of the prophet becomes the focal point of the prophet’s understanding of God. He lives not only his personal life, but also the life of God. The prophet hears […]