Want to know how policy is generated and how governments evaluate challenges and future direction? Companies like Moss Adams present interesting research they do.
In this interesting discussion, Richard Florida (author of Rise of the Creative Class and award winning commentary on socio-economic urban studies) points out the misconceptions and changes facing cities in 2023 and beyond. He gives a really interesting summary of how things are (which is very different than what the media tells us), and will likely change, since Covid.
It’s an interesting take on how cities are changing and likely futures.
Ultimate cosmic powers, Born into a blue collar family
If you were the President of the United States, Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, the Queen of England (or any of the most rich and powerful people in the world) and wanted to help people struggling with poverty, disease, oppression by an occupying military force, and wallowing in the results of social problems, how would you do it?
Consider how God, who created the entire universe, decided to bring salvation to us. God could have come on the clouds with hosts of angels and all the powers and awe of the heavens. Instead, He embraced our limited existence in every way. He spend 9 months in his mother’s womb and was born in a barn as a near helpless infant. He did not come in any glory nor power but into a very simple family. He had a father and a mother and grew up obedient to them (Luke 2:51-52). God. Obedient to His human parents.
This was not only to show God’s humble nature or His desire to share life like one of us in all things. It was also a resounding re-affirmation of the family – of parents and children. That the commitment, obedience, and love each family member has for each other is the perfect and happiest way to live. It’s no less than a mirror of the inner life of the Trinity itself.
This affirmation goes all the way back to Genesis which tells us being created male and female in the image of God, to be fruitful and multiply, to have authority over creation, and this pattern and order “was very good” (Gen 1:26-31)
Something to ponder on this Feast of the Holy Family.
In my post-Christmas days off of work, I went to morning daily mass as I often do.
While most people are excited for the run-up to Christmas, I think the days right after Christmas are a quieter time for spiritual reflection and enjoying the miracle of Christmas. Many places in the world don’t give gifts on Christmas day, but on Epiphany (Jan 6th, when the magi are said to have arrived). It’s a good reminder that Christmas is celebrated from Christmas day until the Baptism of the Lord, which usually falls on the Sunday after Epiphany (so, usually the second Sunday of January).
The day after Christmas while I was praying before mass, I wondered what it was like for Joseph and Mary with their 1 day old newborn. Surely Jesus was like every other 1 day old newborn. Equal amounts of being very tiny, vulnerable, precious, and probably the most beautiful thing their parents had ever seen.
While kneeling during the eucharistic prayer during mass, it occurred that this same Jesus, this same tiny child, was present there on the alter as the Eucharist.
It reminded me of the wonder and care we should have when we receive the Eucharist. It should be no less than that of how we would love, adore, and have care with that of a newborn child placed in our arms. The actual presence of Christ our Lord who is carried in us when we receive the Eucharist and go out into the world each day. A Lord who was not only the creator of the universe, but inexplicably, was also willing to become as vulnerable as a newborn infant.
This is an astounding demonstration of love – and one that utterly defeats the pride and arrogance of evil. God gives up an infinite heavenly paradise to join us in our daily lives of joys, toils, and struggles. This is who is present in the Eucharist and wants me to carry Him into the world.
How much of my own comfort am I willing to give up to help those who have it much worse than myself? Would I give up living in a palace to come live with and help the homeless, the spiritually and emotionally lost, the ill?
Perhaps that’s why we have so many saints who did exactly that – such as Elizabeth of Hungary who eschewed her royalty as princess and queen to put a leper in her own bed to care for him. She later used her extensive wealth to open hospitals and then cared for the sick in them. Another is the work of Mother Teresa, who picked up the dying poorest of the poor from the gutters if only to give them a little dignity before death. What am I called to do?
“Instead of planning for a vacation, create a lifestyle you don’t need to take a vacation from”. Helped me decide to pick low stress jobs most of my life, and I’ve noticed for me things have been phenomenally better than for most of my friends
If you want to start a life in Christ, do just one thing that Jesus taught in an area of your life he spoke about. Faith starts with a single act of trust. Test his wisdom and see if it is not a better way than yours.
Johnny Cash : Are you telling me that you don’t think I believe in God?
Sam Phillips : You know exactly what I’m telling you. We’ve already heard that song a hundred times. Just like that. Just… like… how… you… sing it.
Johnny Cash : Well you didn’t let us bring it home.
Sam Phillips : Bring… bring it home? All right, let’s bring it home. If you was hit by a truck and you was lying out there in that gutter dying, and you had time to sing *one* song. Huh? One song that people would remember before you’re dirt. One song that would let God know how you felt about your time here on Earth. One song that would sum you up. You tellin’ me that’s the song you’d sing? That same Jimmy Davis tune we hear on the radio all day, about your peace within, and how it’s real, and how you’re gonna shout it? Or… would you sing somethin’ different. Somethin’ real. Somethin’ *you* felt. Cause I’m telling you right now, that’s the kind of song people want to hear. That’s the kind of song that truly saves people.
People know when you’re being authentic or not. When your actions or words are coming from the deepest part of who you are or if you’re just putting on a mask. They may not say it, but people almost always can tell when your lying, acting the part, or just feeding them a line you know they want to hear. You’re putting on a mask. When we wear masks of lies too often, what you experience is that people slowly drift away from you until you wonder – how did I get here? Alone and just with superficial relationships.
People have a deep seated hungerfor real relationship. Relationships are based on authenticity, truth, and vulnerability. It’s in the very core of our being – and we create it if we don’t have it. Right now, we’re seeing LOTS of different groups trying to fill that need for relationships using words like ‘community’ and ‘culture’ as we cast off previous social norms.
As we cast off the past, we cannot cast off our need for belonging and meaning. We have replaced belonging and meaning in business by creating and promoting certain ‘cultures’. Non-profits and activist movements try to build ‘community’ around values. The problem is those entities, without real truth, just create more masks.
Each community and culture constructs a narrative and sets up rules and expectations of behaviors. If you challenge those behaviors, rules (written or unspoken), or leaders – you are immediately causing disunity and problems. I have seen this kind of clash happen in business environments and in non-profit and activist movements. Increasingly, many of them act more like cults under charismatic cult leaders than the ‘enlightened’ groups they claim to be.
We are doing this at a more and more furious pace than ever before as we tear down the ‘shackles’ of past community and culture – only to replace them with a new community and culture. We have largely given up on reforming cultures as we throw out the values of forgiveness and repentance. Instead we tear them down as soon as they fall out of favor to only be replaced by a new one with even more dubious leaders with even shorter track records. It is no wonder that people are exhausted and increasingly skeptical running from one new movement and activist group to the next. It seems businesses embrace new cultural values each year. Activist movements come and go with breakneck speeds. Leaders are again and again outed and canceled for hypocrisy, embezzlement, and lies. It’s activity that creates emptiness, disillusionment, and hopelessness for many people.
The real answer is that we need to see ourselves and the desires of ours hearts, in the light of real Truth. That is not something, in our broken world and limited understanding, we can do ourselves. Instead, we need to see ourselves in the light of something that is proven to be True. Something that has stood scrutiny for literally thousands of years – and not just a movement/philosophy of this day, this week, this month, this quarter, this year, or this decade.
There is such a real Truth – it is the teachings and life in Jesus Christ. It’s not about following a rulebook/wrote behavior (as Sam told Johnny Cash) or chasing a fad movement of today. A set of rules or guidelines is empty song we’ve heard a thousand times. Instead, Christ offers real and true relationship with Him – and the promise of eternal life with Him forever. Where every tear is wiped away, everything that has ever been done revealed, every hurt healed, every wrong righted, and every relationship repaired. All we need to do to start the journey is to turn to Him today, invite Him in, and live by his teaching. This requires work. We need to dedicate ourselves to learning what Jesus taught and converting our lives and behavior to become His friend.
So, just like Sam Philips would say, don’t just repeat the words of someone else or give the same pat answer – respond with your whole self authentically and be amazed where a life in Christ leads. I can confirm you’ll never be the same – God will take you places you never knew were possible, met people you never imagined you’d meet, open doors to things you never thought possible, and change your and other lives in ways that are nothing short of miracles.
Want to figure out how much pride and willfulness is in your life? Ask yourself this:
How many times in the day do you get angry because of an inconvenience?
The ease and degree to which you get angry demonstrates the lack of peace in your heart. From slow line at post office/grocery store, bad driver, coworker that causes an issue, getting stuck at a train, etc. Each inconvinience demonstrates how attached we are to our own will, our own plans, and our own agendas.
Instead, use those moments to invite the King of Peace into your heart and mind. Every moment can be offered for some gain to yourself or the world.
This world is passing and fading but the relationship you form with God hour by hour lasts for eternity.
It sometimes happens that we make light of little things [in the spiritual life]. There is nothing little in the spiritual life. Sometimes a seemingly insignificant thing will disclose a matter of great consequence. Many spiritual undertones are concealed in little things.
A magnificent building will never rise if we reject the insignificant bricks. Sin depends on the degree and light within the soul. Sometimes we consider these faults as sins only in the strictest definition (discounting them as trivial). This is also true in [what seems like mild] imperfections. Yet these petty things are of great importance to a soul that is tending towards sanctity. They should not be treated lightly, but with patience and kindness to open the way to the innermost secrets of the soul.
St Faustina Notebook I – entry 52
For those willing to dig deeper, I find the modern world is continually re-discovering the inner truths that Christianity has known for millennium. St Faustina is describing an element of what we today would call emotional intelligence, self-awareness, etc. For those seeking improvement, self awareness comes from reflecting on ourselves (prayer and reflection), paying attention to even our little behaviors, getting feedback on how we’re behaving (measuring our actions against standards of behavior/sin), and then hold ourselves accountable for change (via confession). While the world does this to it’s own constantly changing standards, the Christian measures themselves against the teachings, example, and living relationship with Jesus.
Despite hundreds or even thousands of years, just about every historical document from humanities earliest days shows the same human frailties exist. Most are just as true today as a thousand years ago. Just like the equations of gravity that rule the orbits of our planets to the tensile strength of certain kinds of steel, we can put our complete faith and trust into what they tell us. We trust our planet won’t fly out of orbit to our doom and build bridges out of steel will hold the cars we drive over it. In the same way, this is the true shocking meaning of putting your trust in the teachings of Christ. They do, and have, worked through all time. Two thousand years of proof is pretty compelling.
In reading this quote from St Faustina, I found the observation to seriously consider even the small bricks as important when building a beautiful edifice to be really worth reflection. We all have likely seen something that has been put together by masters. One of the hallmarks of a master is the amazing attention to the smallest details.
Yet, in today’s very distracting world, many of us rarely attend to our inner and spiritual lives because we’re too busy distracting ourselves with near constant, often largely pointless, ways we waste our time: music/noise, travel, careers, money, buying new things, clothes, popularity, consuming social media, etc.
If there was one thing I can recommend to this modern age, it would be this: slow down, viciously defend your quiet reflection and prayer time, and listen to the inner voice of your soul. It is only there that real peace will come.
28 As they approached the village to which they were going, he gave the impression that he was going on farther. 29 But they urged him, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening and the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them. 30 And it happened that, while he was with them at table, he took bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them. 31 With that their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he vanished from their sight. 32 Then they said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning [within us] while he spoke to us on the way and opened the scriptures to us?”
The Road to Emmaus is a personal favorite and one of the most powerful stories after the resurrection of Christ. It contains just about all the major themes (theology) and experiences of Christian life – a life believers understand well today. It is a pattern for the mass, for conversion, His presence in the Eucharist, and many other wonderful teachings about how God works to reflect and meditate on.
This year though, I was caught by verses 28 and 29. Even after talking and walking with Christ along the way (but not recognizing him), having him explain the scriptures to them, he still acts as if he’ll keep moving on. It wasn’t until the 2 men INVITED him to stay that he came, ate a meal with them, and then revealed in the Eucharist that He had been with them all along.
It’s a reminder that we need to make explicit invitation for Christ after we have had an encounter with Him. Sometimes that encounter comes clearly through reading scripture or receiving Him in the Eucharist during mass. Sometimes its encountering Christ acting through others, through healing and answered prayers, a visit or kind word when especially needed, sometimes it’s the odd coincidences that make us think we had an encounter with God. But in all cases, Christ will never invite Himself in. We must take the initiative and explicitly do so – or He might continue on His way. This doesn’t just happen once, we must make this invitation again and again as we meet Him in all these different and unexpected ways like the 2 disciples walking to Emmaus.
It’s a good practice, at least once a day, to explicitly invite Jesus into your life and whatever is going on. Maybe as simply as saying, “Lord Jesus, you are my Lord, my savior, and My God. I invite you to stay here awhile with me and be with me through <whatever this is I’m doing> today. Stay and rest in my heart and there break bread with me so we may live like this through eternity.”
I had not seen Fr Chad Ripperger’s videos before, but I think he’s spot on in his observations about trends we see going on in the world. What’s interesting is that his observations are independently backed up by many scientific studies about happiness, social media, and news reporting.
This shouldn’t be shocking that science is slowly confirming many of the very core beliefs that Jesus and the Catholic Church have taught about what brings us happiness and fulfilling lives. Contrary to Hollywood’s incorrect take on religion as anti-science, Catholics believe religion and science are not in conflict but in unity for centuries. Certainly longer than most every current country on earth. Some of the most famous scientific discoveries such as physics (Newton), genetics (Gregory Mendel), and even the Big Bang (co-discoverer Fr. Georges Lemaître) were theists or religious who never saw a conflict with their faith – quite the contrary in almost all cases.
So when it comes to human behaviors and social trends, it should be no surprise that the teachings of Christ tell us how we should and shouldn’t act as well. What things bring division, hatred, destruction, and evil – and which bring joy, peace, and relationship. Give his talk a listen. Even if you don’t believe in God or don’t like the words ‘spiritual warfare’ – you should see that the core ideas and teaching are still correct whatever words you’d like to use.
