I’ve tracked down, collected, edited, and annotated the complete set of five-minute talks and invocations he invited me to give on those occasions. Rereading them after all these years, most of the material seems as fresh as when I first delivered it, and some is perhaps even more urgently relevant in today’s stridently polarized world-culture. Here are the titles to those reflections and a brief description. You can read the whole collection here, or each individual piece by clicking on the title.
I delivered this talk almost 20 years ago in a public forum, speaking of the significance of these two religious figures in California history. It’s still relevant because it tells why removing them from the US Capitol was/is a big mistake.
Three years after Pope John Paul II’s great encyclical Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”), many were ignoring the Holy Father’s emphasis on all situations of human life, including a strong condemnation of the death penalty as immoral in nearly every conceivable situation. Here I try to show that the Pope was truly upholding a consistent ethic of human life, no matter what the circumstances.
This year, I was invited to give the invocation at the beginning of the Independence Day celebration. The theme of my prayer was “The only nation worthy of freedom is one that seeks justice for all.”
The Declaration of Independence proclaims certain truths as “self-evident.” Do we really believe this? Or do our actions speak louder than our words?
This year I was invited both to give the Invocation and to participate in the Speaker’s Forum. The theme of my prayer was that “only in human solidarity will we find liberty.”
Delivered only two months before 9/11, this talk explores a point that has subsequently become even more relevant in the years between then and now: do we value the religious freedom of others as much as we want our own freedom to be upheld?
Within months after 9/11, the clergy sex-abuse scandal gripped the Catholic Church. What must we learn from these events? The answer – humility – seems as distant now as it was then.
Here I begin by exploring the history of how the phrase “under God” found its way into the Pledge of Allegiance. (It wasn’t in the text used for many years.) And I conclude with the question of its meaning. Ultimately, what does “under God” mean? And what do we mean when we say/sing “God bless America”?
2004 July 4 was on Sunday; no presentation
This year I was again asked to do both the Invocation and Speakers’ Forum. “May your peace rule our hearts, your justice guide our lives, and your gift of courage strengthen our service of your people.”
Following the death of Pope John Paul II, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was elected as his successor on April 19, 2005. Given his reputation, speculation about what this would mean for the Church was all over the map. So, of course, I added my two-cents’ worth. I don’t know whether I’d call myself “prophetic,” but I can still stand by what I said then.
This year I was again asked to do both the Invocation and Speakers’ Forum. One of the benefits of being the only Catholic Pastor in a small town. “Help us to continue the good work begun long ago.”
This may have been one of my most important talks, and least original. I quoted extensively from a wonderful essay, “Speak Softly,” by Ira Williams. Do we need a lesson in humility before it’s too late? Or is it already too late?
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