For more than thirty years and as a Christmas gift to his family and friends, Father Skip wrote original short stories as his Christmas homilies. We hope you will accept this whimsical gift from 2008 in the spirit in which it is offered.

For more than thirty years and as a gift to family and friends, Father Flynn wrote short stories for his Christmas Eve homilies. This Sunday, December 15, is celebrated as Gaudete – “Rejoice” – Sunday in the Anglican/Episcopalian and Roman Catholic, Lutheran and some other Protestant Churches. 

Please accept this story from 2018 as a Gaudete Sunday or early Christmas gift.  

Please keep it a secret.

Just between you and us.

If Florida’s governor and the charming Mom’s Against the Freedom to Learn and Think (including the Sarasota politica and her politico husband who were accused of three-soming; he – the one-time Florida Republican chair - was also accused of sexual assault/rape) hear about it, they might develop carpal tune syndrome while pearl-clutching.

Whoa!  

Is he kidding?!?!?

‘Cause news outta a Texas roadhouse “church” is…

It’s wackadoodle Taliban-esque.

Somebody’s gotta say it.

So, we will. (And we’re repeating ourselves.)

We don’t want to go back to a 1950s-style America.

Sometimes I need to explain my punctuation.

Happily (I hope), I learned better-than-average punctuation and grammar from the good Sisters at Epiphany School. Nonetheless, there are times when I depart – not without reason – from the “correct.”

For the moment, we have dropped seven words from the following quote.

“Do you know the country without freedom, 
the country of terror and tyranny?
Yes, you know it well, but are afraid to talk about it. 
They have intimidated you to such an extent 
that you don't dare talk for fear of reprisals. 
Yes you are right…
Through their unscrupulous terror tactics 
against young and old, men and women,
they have succeeded in making you 
spineless puppets to do their bidding.”
Helmuth Hubener

Almost forty years later, the feeling comes back.

Summoned by unwanted memory.

A singular moment during twelve years of being surrounded by murderers, high level drug smugglers, robbers, rapists - often genuinely frightening men. Except for that one event, I had never feared for myself. 

“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car
into a group of innocent bystanders,
I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe,
then comfort the wounded and bury the dead.
I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the 
hands of the driver.”
Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Woe to the wicked!
Disaster upon them!...
Woe to those who call evil good and good evil,
who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight…
who deny justice to the innocent….”
Isaiah 3:11; 5:20-21, 23

It’s a good bet the in-the-name-of-the-Almighty Missouri politica never read the works of Christian Johann Heinrich Heine, considered on the most significant German Romantic poets.

Dear Mr. Candidate,

Because we continue to note reports that you converted to Roman Catholicism – after, apparently being reared as an “evangelical” and spending time as an “atheist” (The Sisters in school always taught us “Cattle are ‘raised,’ children are ‘reared.’”), we thought we would take time to offer some insights.

[EDITORS’ NOTE: We sincerely pray for your pardon 
for the brutality of this post and the accompanying photos. 
There are too many photos from
which we might have might have chosen,
but too horrible to even view.
Nonetheless, brutality is what happens when individuals, 
governments and political candidates “other” people. 
As Americans complete their ballots and prepare for Election Day, 
our priestly and prophetic roles demand that we stand against othering.]

Sometimes God just ain’t too subtle.

But He, She, They – we’re dealing with The Trinity here; pronouns can be difficult – does/do enjoy an occasional word game and a challenge.

Although not impossibly difficult, the message – truly old school ‘cause it was in disappearing ink – seemed designed to make these reporters “work for it.

“It’s not fair.
A leader of this country should not use people
as pawns in a way that bypasses someone’s rational thought.
I just think it’s really sickening that politicians
in this country are not touchable,
but individuals [like my dad] are painted
as the leader [of the events of January 6].”
Peyton Reffitt

Thank you, Gus!

Thank you!

Through your tears, you taught a nation what it means to be a loved and loving son of a loved and loving father. 

It’s a simple mistake. 

So common, even the 45^th president of the United States made it as recently as August 15 when he referred to “the Congressional Medal of Honor.”

It seemed the calls always came in the darkest pre-dawn hours.

And began with an apology: “Father, I’m sorry, but…”

Either a baby in the Intensive Care Unit had “just died” or death was imminent.

“Can you, please, come… Now!”

We’ve heard the stories too often.

In the secrecy of the confessional and the (please, God) safety of the counseling setting… Too, too often.

They’re “pillars of the church” and “such a good Christian family.”

Except, the brutal truth is that they aren’t.

Holy Moly!

The independent, for-profit World Population Review doesn’t engage in polemics or fearmongering, but these numbers should have some folks shaking in their boots:

• “Providing real-time statistics for diverse topics, the reference website Worldometer put the population of Cuba at 11,173,678 on July 16.”