In our world today we see war and violence everywhere it seems. From the fight of Ukraine for independence, Israel and Hamas fighting in Gaza. to violence in our schools and cities, it seems inescapable and impossible to get away from violence. Listen to the news and we are confronted with it. Many would claim…
Dear Family, As we celebrate Palm Sunday I would like us to consider where we stand concerning Jesus. In today’s readings taken from Mark 14:1-15:47. It starts off with the religious leaders trying to figure out how they can arrest Jesus without starting a riot. They can’t find any legitimate way to take him so…
Back in the 1960’s the 5th Dimension sang a song called “Age of Aquarius”. In the song, So they claimed that the dawning of the age of Aquarius was happening right then. What is this age about? What will it be like? How can we identify it? Can it be a reality or is it…
  Dear family,  In the Christian world, you often hear talk about backslidden Christians. This even though the word never appears in the New Testament. It is an Old Testament concept meaning to fall away. In Zephaniah, chapter 1 we read of judgment being called down on Judah because they have forsaken the…
Dear. family, Why did Jesus die? Many Evangelicals would answer to appease an angry God. God was upset with the fall of our first parents and was going to send everyone to hell. Jesus came then to solve that problem and save all who would believe in him. However, is that the case or is…
As we begin this story in I Samuel 3 we find Samuel ministering under Eli. He was given to the Lord by his mother Hannah and has been living with Eli learning to be a priest. However, it did not teach one to hear the voice of the Lord and recognize it, Instead, they were…
In Matthew 2nd chapter we are introduced to a group of men call Magi or wise men. These were men highly skilled in astrology, astronomy, predicting the future, and were sought after by kings and emperors as advisers to them. In the world of their day they would have been unsurpassed yet I believe that…
In recent weeks I have been thinking about how to live victoriously and triumphantly in Christ. I have been thinking about Hebrews 12:1-2 and the fact it says that for the joy that was set before him Jesus endured the cross Hebrews12:2 in the New Revised Standard Version says “…looking to Jesus the pioneer and…
Dear family, Â Enclosed find a study I did for a group on Saturday I belong to. I thought others might be blessed by it and want to participate or share with others. There are no right or wrong answers. It is intended to get us thinking about the true meaning of Christmas for each…
Dear family, During this Advent season as we approach the coming Christmas season I have been drawn to thinking about and contemplating land, Mother Earth, nature, my cat Mowgli. Especially the song they sing to me and the words of wisdom they speak to me. It’s a song of life, of going on, of new…
What Can We Learn From An Adulterous Woman? Dear family. For several weeks now I have been stuck meditating and thinking about the woman caught in the act of adultery by religious leaders looking for a way to find fault with Jesus. The story is found in the Gospel of John chapter 8:2-10. Jesus had…
Dear Family, Many when joining a monastic community change their name as I myself did. Why do we do this? What is the meaning of it? Is it something the Catholic Church dreamed up or is there a biblical basis for the practice? In my last post I shared how I changed my name and…
Dear family In the last few months during the having to be shut in due to the Coronavirus I have had a lot of time for reflection and contemplation on various aspects of my life and how well I may be doing in seeking to be more like Christ and fulfilling the ministry he has…
Dear family Here is my next chapter. Hope you are enjoying this and comments welcomed. Brother Lawrence Damien Cos  Down The Mountain To The Valley To Confront Life (Chapter 2) In our last chapter we were on the Mount of Transfiguration with Moses, Elijah, Jesus and God. What an experience that must have been….
Dear family Enclosed a draft of a new book I am considering writing and a draft of the first chapter of what I believe will be many more to come hopefully. Interested in getting reaction to what I have to say and as always all comments welcomed. Look forward to hearing back from you all….
Dear family Today March 25 we celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation i.e. when Gabriel appears to Mary to tell she would become pregnant and a son to be called Jesus. So its nine months to Christmas and no, no one actually knows when the annunciation actually happened. Its celebrated now because Jesus birth is…
“To be like Jesus, To be like Jesus, All I ask is to be like Him, Through all life’s journey, From earth to glory, All I ask is to be like Him.” Dear Family Back in my Evangelical days I used to sing the above song a lot. Then would come the trials, tests…
Dear family Continuing on Lenten journey today I am reflecting on the Book of Revelation and what it may mean for those of us now in the age of Coronavirus. In my evangelical days I saw the Book of Revelation as pointing to the last days just prior to the return of Christ to this…
Dear family. In a few months, in June, those in the LGBTQ community will be celebrating Pride month, and our pride in who we are. Many from within the LGBTQ culture, as well as straight Christians, look to their faith for answers on what this all means, whether one can be gay or LGBTQ and…
Dear Family I was surfing on the internet and came across what were called “Living Humanist Values : The Ten Commitments.” They are based on the Ten Commandments found in the Bible but taken from a humanist standpoint and non religious platform. While I do not endorse Humanism necessarily I think the article makes some…
Dear Family, On September 29, in the Roman Catholic Church, Episcopal/Anglican Church, and many other church traditions, we will celebrate the Feast Of Saint Michael and all Angels. So why does the church have this celebration? First, to remind us that we have spirits we can call on, to help us through this life. The…
Dear Family, This past May I celebrated my 71st birthday and in October I will celebrate 53 years in ministry which is cool. So what have I learned in all that time? Am I smarter now than I was then? Actually no. I have gotten dumber in one respect. In my teens and early 20’s…
Read chapter 1 “A Passion For Compassion” first Chapter 2 “…and none of the condemned things are to be found in your hands. Then the LORD will turn from his fierce anger, will show you mercy, and will have compassion on you. He will increase your numbers, as he promised on oath to your ancestors-…
INTRODUCTION Recently many of my friends and I have been discussing compassion and the compassionate Christ. What is it, what would it look like are questions we have asked ourselves and discussed with each other. One important issue we need to address and think about is how do we bring the reality of a compassionate…
What can we learn from St. Mary the Mother of Jesus that can apply to us today? Is she relevant to us today? Does she have anything to say to us now that will help us today? Recently I have been studying about Mary and trying to understand, venerate and honor her properly. The following…
Dear family As I believe most of you know I am a monk and a member of a monastic community called “The Community of Solitude”. So what is solitude? It is my belief that the whole universal church is called to spend periods of time in solitude seeking God and yet for me and other…
I was 38 years old before it really occurred to me, hey who the hell am i, what do i really want out of life, and how do i get it? I should have tried to figure that out at 20, but when i hit the brick wall of responsibility i rebelled against childhood issues…
A New Feudal System The feudal system in the “dark ages” was justified by the belief that one group of people (the nobles) was inherently better than the rest (peasants, serfs, general peons, etc.) – there was a natural hierarchy due to their “breeding.” The “strong” could repress the “weak” because it was their natural…
Capitalism The goal of capitalism is to pay the cheapest wages, use the cheapest materials and processes and sell the results for the highest possible price, to result in the most profit or capital, which is then supposed to be reinvested to make more of the same. We know what the results of largely unregulated…
DEFINITIONS Let’s define some terms to eliminate some usual misunderstandings right away: Communism Communism is derived from the same root as community, common, and commune. Because of all the baggage, a better word is probably “commonism.” Communism is everything that is shared in common, owned collectively by we the people, including even now public roads,…
(NOTE: I didn’t mean for so many of my articles here to have the word “suck” in the title! But it just happened that two of them, written at completely different times, needed to be divided into multiple parts. Anyway, here we go…) The issue here is not really capitalism as a whole, it is…
What is an artist? Creative? Intuitive? Weird. Outside the box. What box? Outside of my own box. Raconteur? That sounds “rakish” but it really just means “storyteller.” We’re telling our stories and we must be arrogant enough to believe enough other people will relate to them for us to make a living at it. Freaks…
Who decided that if I tie something tightly around my neck I will work more effectively? What the hell is that? It’s bad enough that we’re judged by what we look like, what we have, what we do, who we know and how hip we aren’t. All of those assessments are based on the shape…
A little thing i wrote years ago, but, better late than never… Who needs coffee? Just wake up late enough so that if you catch one stop light red, you’ll get fired. It may take awhile of being late to work up to this point, but so much the better. I wake up by screaming…
Here’s a little something i wrote many years ago for a co-worker who left for a new job: Please mark your calendars for a celebration/mourning of sorts, as Diane is leaving our humble enclave for pastures at least as green (although she’ll still be outstanding in her field ? . ‘Twil be a mourning for…
Have you ever been told “pride comes before the fall”? Â It is one of those sayings we hear often that is attributed to the Bible but is not actually in the Bible. Â The idea is taken from Proverbs 16:8 which says, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall” (KJV). Â Taking hold…
Today I made a mistake, a major mistake. I was working from home tonight and needed to send an email to the whole church. Being at home, I did not have access to the all church email. So, I came up with what I thought was a solution. I looked at my sent emails, found…
Sixteen years ago at Thanksgiving 2002 I began a journey that would ultimately take me from the Evangelicalism of my younger years to my becoming a Catholic in 2008 which I still am. During that time as a man dedicated to following the “Word” and Jesus I have had a problem and wrestled over seemingly…
Recently the US under president Trump moved the its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in Israel sparking a lot of concern, consternation and violence by those opposed to the move mainly Arabs. Part of the problem as I see it is something called Zionism and the belief on the part of many that we…
 LAST CHANCE I know this is getting way long, so let’s move to the last game of the year. The pressure is on, i have to talk to her, it’s my one goal of the night (in addition to doing my job well as always ? ). But i decide to relax and wait for…
(Shortly here i switch to present tense, i don’t know why but it feels right so i’ma just leave it.) A BAD DAY At a concert i hadn’t seen her the whole time even after walking to the other side to see if i could. Once the event is over i am always hell bent…
Today is forty days since we celebrated Easter and the glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus from the grave. Now He is preparing to return back to the father and no longer be visible to the disciples and others whom He has just spent the last forty days with teaching and instructing them. The disciples…
This season, Veronica was joined by another girl (we’ll call her Jessica), at least as cute but she just seemed more approachable, so i thought i would make more of an effort if i could, plus with the two of them i could talk to both, less awkward. She is also very young though, and…
This got so long i split it into four parts. I wrote this partly to document it for myself, but i hope people can relate, regardless of the gender(s). Whenever i get a new job, especially a temp one, or join a new group or go to a meeting (or wherever! The grocery store?), i…
In recent years there has been a rise of Conservative Evangelicalism which has to pass itself off as the legitimate and only form of true Christianity. Theirs is faith-centered in a personal relationship with Jesus, and following a conservative theological understanding of the Bible, as well as a politically conservative agenda. Their idea is to…
Loving God and loving people are related. Since before the beginning of my ministry I have understood that in loving the Lord, I must also love people; and experience has born witness to this truth. To say that it has proven to be a difficult undertaking in the past is an understatement and the future…
It’s easy to say something like “I got ready and left for work” or even, “I woke up, ate, brushed my teeth, showered and left for work.” But that’s way over-simplified, isn’t it? Every activity is made up of a bunch of smaller actions, and if you are intent on each one, it can be…
The message of the Gospel or “Good News” starts with “Bad News”. It begins with a story of disobedience; God’s intended perfect creation got polluted by “sin”. The word “sin” is derived from an archery term used to describe an arrow shot toward its target, but falls short of its intended mark. God had made…
We have made it through Easter, encountered the risen Christ and are moving from there. The next two events are Ascension Thursday (or Ascension Sunday if the church doesn’t have Thursday services) and the ten days later is Pentecost which then leads to the beginning of Ordinary Times, which lasts to the beginning of Advent…
We have gotten through Holy Week and celebrated Easter and now its Easter night. The disciples are all sitting behind locked doors debating a message they had received earlier in the day. Certain women had gone to the tomb early in the morning to anoint the body of Jesus. When they arrived they found an…
Today we celebrate Good Friday, the day on which our Lord, Savior, and Master was crucified and buried. What is the significance of this day? Some may see it as a sad time and see no reason to call it good. Others may say that Christ couldn’t have died on Friday as that would be…
If the Bible is the word of God it has to be relevant to us today. If it is not relevant, it’s not the word of God. We can take the ancient text of the Bible, place it in its historic and literary contact and then lean forward and see how it may apply today. …
Last Sunday, we commemorated Jesus final entry into Jerusalem in what has become known as Palm Sunday. Jesus enters the city on a young donkey from the east, where the day begins. From the west, where the day goes to die, enters Pilate on a war horse with all the pageantry of the state. There…
After coming out as a gay man I left church, or maybe a more accurate wording would be church left me. For about a decade I was angry with God’s people who shamed and shunned me. I wanted little to nothing to do with church. At the time I was living in a rural community,…
Yesterday was a day to be inspired. Brandi, Brie, and I, along with buddies Lisa and Ashley joined approximately 1,500 of our closest friends to walk the streets of Rockford at the Second Annual Women’s March. The sun was warm, but the energy of the crowd sizzled. Chants were heard all along the route of…
The holidays came. And then they went. With barely a notice on my part. After enjoying a pre-Christmas celebration with my cousins, my tribe as I call them, I fell ill to a horrible stomach bug, followed by skin boils, followed by a head and chest cold. It definitely reminded me of Job. But this…
I have not written in a few weeks and this photo is one of the projects I’ve been doing in the meantime. Painting, lettering, jewelry, ink work have all been used to fill my soul. What has made my soul so empty? Once again, I have faced the possible suicide of a client. Rescued by…
My wise friend told me last week that she is going to make a T shirt for me that says, “Be careful what you you say to me. I might blog about you.” This conversation took place after I ranted for a few minutes about thoughtless things people say to cancer patients. I had been…
My dear Amber, Our history is rich with letter writing. A letter for going off to college. A letter when conflicts between us needed the reflection inherent in letter writing. Letter writing when I thought cancer might take me from you while you still needed a mother’s wisdom. And now, I am writing a letter…
Dear family Enclosed find a 21st rendition of the words of Jesus found in Matthew 25 I found on the internet. I believe they have a very pointed message for our time. Any comments would be welcomed. Brother Lawrence Damien Cos I was molested and you didn’t believe me I was LGBTQ and you dehumanized…