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- Written by EJ Sweeney
Merry Christmas! Or should I have wished you a Happy Holidays? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. After purchasing a Christmas gift several years back, I turned to the clerk who helped me and wished her a “Merry Christmas”. In reply, she wished me a “Happy Holidays”. But not in a polite, joy-of-the-season way. She said it more in a scolding way. Maybe I was reading too much into it, but she seemed to be offended that I had wished her a “Merry Christmas” and was trying to correct me so that I would never make the same mistake again and only ever wish people “Happy Holidays” instead.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
My heart sank last week when the news came out about the latest COVID variant, OMICRON. All I could think was: Here we go again. This past summer things were looking up. It seemed like we were finally coming out of the pandemic. Then we were hit with the DELTA variant. As mask requirements were put back into effect, we all dreaded having to go through another winter of social distancing and lockdowns. But over the last month or so, we’ve been getting a better handle on DELTA and things were starting to look up again. Until the news about OMICRON. How can we not feel anything but depressed and defeated? How can there be any good in OMICRON?
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
In preparation for the 2020 Presidential debate, Joe Biden asked John Kerry to play the role of his adversary, Donald Trump. From the Biden Campaign’s perspective, Kerry’s ability--and willingness--to be as adversarial as possible during the debate prep was a good thing. It made Biden a much stronger candidate.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
“The Word Became Flesh.” In the beginning of his Gospel, John describes Jesus, the Eternal Son of God and Second Person of the Trinity, as the Word. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Jn 1:1) “In the beginning” conjures up the first line of Genesis, which describes the beginning of creation. But the beginning of creation is not what John has in mind.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
There was a very moving moment during Baseball’s All-Star game this year. It came when one of the starting players, Freddie Freeman, was miked for half an inning while he was playing first base.
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- Written by EJ Sweeney
Can you believe it’s been twenty years since 9-11? In a few days, we will commemorate the Twentieth Anniversary of that awful day. In anticipation of this commemoration, the National Geographic Channel has put together a new documentary featuring recent interviews from survivors of the attack. As they recall their experiences and as the timeline and images from that day are replayed, the emotions come flooding back. I was surprised to hear a good number of stories about that day that I wasn’t aware of. They are every bit as powerful and heart wrenching as any I have heard before.