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Many years ago, long before I became a Catholic, I worked as a youth minister at a midsize Presbyterian congregation on the east side of Atlanta. In addition to weekly hangouts, the annual youth conference in Montreat, North Carolina, and the occasional car wash, we would also gear up every couple of years to go on a mission trip.
In his book The Foundations of Christian Faith, theologian Karl Rahner asks us to think about a man engaged in the simple act of buying a banana at the grocery store. For the one making the purchase, everything you need to know is contained in that one transaction. He gives the clerk the money and leaves with the banana. End of story.
Have you ever made a decision based on very little information that will surely affect the rest of your life—as well as the lives of everyone in your family—and which has no assurance of success? At the end of this past summer, my wife and I made a decision like that. We bought a house.
It’s October, and the long sunlight in the afternoons and the coming chill in the air sing the approach of autumn. Fall has always been my favorite season, with hayrides and visits to the apple orchards south of Chicago with my family. It brings me deep joy.
Earlier this summer, I took a plane from Chicago to the Mississippi Delta to go on a pilgrimage around the Gulf Coast and deep into southern Texas to the border of Mexico. It was a five-day road trip put together by my friend Lisa Sharon Harper and her organization, FreedomRoad.us. The purpose was to look at the intersection of theology and economics in the deep history of the American South.
Every day, I carry a card among the items in my left pocket. I believe it was a gift from my wife, Kira (who has given me similar wonders through the years). It is a prayer card for Our Lady, Undoer of Knots.
In the picture, the Blessed Virgin is surrounded by numerous figures, each holding out tangled balls of twine. She stands in the middle, patiently at work, with a long strand of unknotted string trailing behind her.
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