Faith
St. Oswald’s to hold Harvest Festival
SKIDMORE, Mo. — Family and friends of St. Oswald’s in-the-Fields Episcopal Church of rural Skidmore return each fall for a special service. This year’s celebration is the 128th Harvest Festival and will be held on Sunday, Oct. 4, beginning at 11 a.m. According to a news release, presiding at the service will be the Rt.…
Read MoreColumn: Come to ‘The Table’
In a world that grows louder by the day, many of us are trying to find ourselves in the middle of the noise. Between schedules, responsibilities, expectations and the quiet ache of disconnection, it’s easy to lose sight of who we are and even harder to find a moment of stillness long enough to remember.…
Read MoreParnell Catholic church to celebrate 100 years of serving God, community
PARNELL, Mo. — Filled with a century of faith and history of the Parnell community, the St. Joseph Catholic Church will open wide its doors for its congregation and the community on Sunday, Nov. 23, in celebration of 100 years since the dedication of the structure on Thanksgiving Day in 1925. The Rev. Peter Ullrich…
Read MoreRELIGION COLUMN: For God so loved
Easter is coming, and with it we turn our focus to the death and resurrection of Jesus. This is a pivotal moment in Christianity, the foundation of our very beliefs. Christ died so that we can have a relationship with him. He rose and defeated death. Because of this, those who follow him will have…
Read MoreColumn: Believe in God, who believes in you
“The God who gives life to the dead and calls into being things that were not.” -Romans 4:17 Let that sink in for a moment. God gives life where there was no life. God calls things into being that … weren’t. The next verse goes on to describe Abraham, believing for the child God had…
Read MoreColumn: Ordinary life
There is this alchemy in many of the stories and parables. This alchemy involves the transformation of the ordinary into evidence and witness to the extraordinary. Jesus draws so many of his stories from familiar, everyday experience. He speaks of mustard seeds, poor widows, a lost coin, seeds planted and a wayward son returning home.…
Read MoreColumn: The tyranny of judgment
“Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.” – Matthew 7:1,2 The character of Jesus is revealed in the gospel stories of his life and teachings. Three of the following questions,…
Read MoreColumn: Love is Action: The Water of Love
The Book of Proverbs advises us to make peace with our enemies (Proverbs 16:7). Jesus, in several instances, issues the command to “love your enemies” (Matthew 5:43, Luke 6:27). We find here a very high standard of conduct which confounds conventional thought and practice. These teachings are a challenge to normal, natural human feelings and…
Read MoreColumn: Doing beautiful things
Matthew 26:10: “Jesus said to them, ‘Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.’” In the last few days before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus was eating at the home of someone who had been healed from the illness of leprosy. Jesus had healed him and now welcomed him…
Read MoreColumn: Seek forgiveness, don’t carry guilt
When my son was very young, his imaginary friend named “Sopie” came to live at our house. Sopie was a menace. He colored on the walls, played mean tricks on my daughter, and fed vegetables straight from the dinner table to the dog. Sopie bore a lot of blame in our family. Oddly enough, my…
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