John H Armstrong

Dr. Miguel Diaz: The Presidential Nuncio to the Vatican

Miguel Diaz was named as President Obama’s appointment to serve as papal nuncio a few days ago. Both friends and critics have spoken widely about Diaz but few seem to understand who he really is. His story provides a glimpse inside the debate over abortion in the Catholic Church and the wider culture.

Diaz is a 45-year-old professor at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Collegeville, Minnesota. (I have been on the campus of St. John’s. It is a Benedictine university with a beautiful campus!) Diaz brings some interesting credentials to this new appointment. He is fluent in Italian, French, Spanish and English and has a doctorate in theology from Notre Dame. His academic work was on the Trinity and immigration and the Hispanic experience. He is a board member of the Catholic Theological Society of America, former president of the Catholic Hispanic Theologians of the United States and is a member of the Karl Rahner Society. For those who do not recognize these affiliations they represent the less traditional/conservative Catholic mainstream within academia.

It is wrong, however, to suggest that Diaz is pro-choice, though pro-life advocates are wary of his appointment. Diaz has made it very clear that he is a committed Catholic on but he confuses people because of his support for various pro-choice Democrats, including Barack Obama and Governor Kathleen Sebelius. He even served as a member of the Catholic advisory team Obama assembled before the 2008 election and gave $1,000 to the Obama campaign.

Evangelical author and professor Paul Kengor writes: “In Diaz, it looks like Obama got exactly the kind of Catholic he wants: one who doesn’t let his alleged pro-life convictions get in the way. Is that what the Vatican is looking for?” Diaz has said Obama desires to work with Catholics who are pro-life and deeply respects people who hold this position. Kengor obviously views this stance with a wary eye.

The argument Obama, and his pro-life friends, make is that they are committed to reducing the number of abortions. Many believe this is true and assume that since Roe v. Wade cannot be reversed in the foreseeable future this is a good policy in the present circumstances. At the same time these pro-life Obama supporters believe there is much more to a Christian application of social policy than the single issue of legal abortion.

Benedictine Abbot John Klassen, of St. John’s Abbey, said:

Professor Miguel Diaz is a skilled Trinitarian theologian who is passionate both as a teacher and a scholar. He is a strong proponent of the necessity of the Church to become deeply and broadly multicultural, to recognize and appreciate the role that culture plays in a living faith. Born in Havana, Cuba, his is a leading Hispanic theologian in the United States” (From a statement on the St. John’s University Website).

A friend of Diaz called him a “brilliant theologian . . . just a phenomenal man.” This same individual told Our Sunday’s Visitor, a conservative Catholic publisher, that Diaz “believes relationships between human beings should mirror the relationship of God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Spirit.” And this same person described Diaz as “incredibly open to dialogue.”

This appointment mirrors the stance the Obama administration has taken. The president advances some of the most indefensible positions on life issues in American history while at the same time he shows personal respect for the people he opposes. When Alan Keyes ran against Barack Obama, in the 2004 U. S Senate race in Illinois, Keyes argued that Obama was not a Christian. Keyes, a fervent conservative Catholic, ran some very strong ads to which Obama expressed real dismay in his book, The Audacity of Hope. 

The problem here is fairly evident and it is not new. Raymond Flynn, also a papal nuncio and pro-life Democrat., says he was reprimanded by the Clinton White House for his pro-life stance. But Flynn says he was never told to change his position. Flynn actually gained a great deal of credibility with Pope John Paul II who knew he was acting with courage in the way he dealt with the White House. Will Diaz do the same? My guess is that he will. But many will still find his stance unacceptable.

Diaz will replace Mary Ann Glendon, who was appointed by President George W. Bush in 2007 and left her post when Obama took office. Many Catholics, and non-Catholics like me, will be watching to see if Diaz acts with courage. Let us pray that he does. Meanwhile the debate will go on and Christians would do well to learn some of the people skills that Dr. Diaz is praised for having in abundance. 

Do The Thing You Are Afraid to Do

Fear is a powerful emotion. There is good fear and bad fear. Good fear will keep you from doing things that are foolish and dangerous. It will also keep you in a place where you rightly fear God, which is the beginning (or foundation) of true and lasting wisdom. Job was said to be a righteous man, thus he was a person who "feared God and shunned evil" (Job 1:8). The writer of Proverbs says that a noble wife is one who "fears the Lord" (Proverbs 31:30b).

But the wrong kind of fear can cripple you and keep you from God and your duty. The beloved apostle wrote: "God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment; In this world we are like Jesus. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:16-18).

Recently I read this quote, which I assume to be anonymously cited: "Do the thing you are afraid to do and the death of fear is certain." The thing I think we fear the most is often love. Strange as it is we fear that if we love deeply we will be deeply hurt but this is how we grow, through the love and the hurt. We must do what we fear and fear will slowly die. In the middle of great difficulty there is often great opportunity. Look for the opportunity and wage war against your fear.

The American Way of Life?

The oft-used phrase "The American way of life" or "the American Way" is often heard in the oratory associated with July 4th in the United States. The term has its origins, interestingly enough, in the free enterprise system. It was used by Alf Landon in his 1936 campaign against Franklin D. Roosevelt. He had a slogan that was "Save the American Way of Life." This was aimed at FDR's radical new measures advanced in the New Deal. At the Chicago Tribune telephone operators answered the phone by saying: "Only ___ more days to Save the American Way of Life."

An American diplomat named Eric Johnson, who was also a film studio executive, said this phrase was a euphemism and that the word used should really be capitalism (1958). Richard Nixon, who was not a strong political conservative, used the ideas and words in a different way. Perhaps the most interesting development came in the 1980s when the television producer Norman Lear used the phrase in the title of a new liberal group, People for the American Way.

So what value is there in this kind of rhetoric when we hear it today? Likely very little. It is a political piece of oratory that no longer rings in the hearts of modern voters. If you believe the era of expansive government is a growing problem, and I do, then you need to find new language that will clearly communicate this problem. Even the terms capitalist and socialist, used so broadly in the most recent election, do not resonate with people deeply today. (I am not sure these are the options anyway since unfettered capitalism is not the best option for a just and compassionate society.) I think there is a great challenge here for genuine intellectual conservatives to find a more nuanced and effective way to argue that bigger government, with its massive entitlements and the tendency to bad management because of political patronage, is almost always a bad option for a just and truly good society.

Mistakes Are the Portal of Discovery

I have made so many mistakes that I stopped counting. To count them only leads to depression, not to the type of repentance that produces real joy. Mistakes can be faced honestly and become our friends, at least in a one way. We learn from our mistakes or we will repeat them. Sometimes we keep making the same mistakes again and again, which creates a deformed, or poorly developed, character. If we overcome our mistakes, by the grace of God, we become more and more like Christ our Lord. Our mistakes can become the portal of true discovery. We can gain true "self knowledge" through the knowledge of God and by the discovery of our mistakes. Learn to enter into the depths of spiritual joy through the portals of your mistakes. You will be much stronger and healthier if you do.

Oprah and Crazy Talk

Weston Kosova and Pat Wingert believe television celebrity Oprah Winfrey possesses a “lifelong quest for love, meaning and fulfillment [that] plays [itself] out on her stage each day. In an age of information overload, she offers herself as a guide through the confusion” (“Crazy Talk: Oprah, Wacky Cures and You,” in Newsweek, June 8, 2009). I can’t think of a better description of the star appeal of Oprah Winfrey than that—she is a guide to millions of viewers who see her as a normal person, just like them in some ways. She struggles with gaining and losing weight, with aging and health, beauty and friendship, and most of all, with the deepest moral and spiritual questions being asked in our culture. She speaks to people who feel that no one else speaks to them so plainly and humanely. In a previous post I praised this very quality in Oprah.

But the problem, say Kosova and Wingert, is that Oprah not only offers some pretty good advice, mixed with the success stories that multitudes believe should be their own story but she gives people guidance that is often false, even bordering on quackery. The Newsweek authors provide numerous examples of this point. (I am sure Newsweek had this article critiqued by good attorneys before it was published. Newsweek, under the guidance of editor Jon Meacham, has become my favorite general news magazine.) While the authors of this article give a generally positive nod to regular guests like Dr. Oz, who is my personal favorite, they are wary of guests like Suzanne Somers, Jenny McCarthy and Dr. Christiane Northrup, a regular physician on the show. (I do not watch Oprah faithfully but I have seen enough to get a good feel for her show and sometimes watch it, by reading the closed captions, while I am exercising at my Lifetime Fitness center.)

Oprah holds up almost all of her guests as “prophets.” She clearly has the power to summon the most learned authorities on any subject. But again and again she “puts herself and her trusting audience in the hands of celebrity authors and pop-science artists pitching wonder cures and miracle treatments that are questionable or flat-out wrong, and sometimes dangerous” (Newsweek).

One of the more shameless and sad Oprah moments, at least for me, was the appearance of former pastor and NAE president, Rev. Ted Haggard. Haggard appeared on the show with his wife. I watched in utter amazement as this “evangelical confessional” unfolded before millions of viewers. (The HBO documentary on Ted Haggard, done by Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, was more responsible television journalism but still a very one-sided and unbalanced account that made Haggard out to be a person somehow persecuted by his former elders.) The whole Ted Haggard episode, and the way he has presented himself after his fall, is a sad commentary on the kind of media-made confession that is prominent in evangelical circles. In reaction against the Catholic “private confession” we have developed an incredibly dangerous and spiritual misleading way to confess sin and speak about repentance and recovery. It is a veritable cottage industry in our ranks. Oprah taps into this need in strange ways, thus speaking to millions who I feel sure are Christians of some sort.

But evangelicals too often clean up their own sub-cultural mistakes by attacking each another in public. I associated this with Oprah in my previous piece (May 7). She makes an inviting target for evangelical prophets who want to show a sinister motive and connect her directly to the work of the devil. My sense is that there is nothing sinister about her at all. She is a “self-made American” if there ever was one. She is a truly great story. She sells well and people love her. There is a lot to like in Oprah but there is also enough to make us wary of whether she represents real virtue to the wider culture. (One could make the case that she sometimes opposes real virtue since she always takes the popular line on everything related to sexual morality!) The odd thing to me is that the very ministers who make an industry out of attacking celebrities like Oprah have a deep need to be celebrities in their own right. At least that’s how I see it. 

The President Finds a Church Home

One of the criticisms some Christians have leveled against President Obama is that he has been without a church home for more than nine months. After the fiasco at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and Jeremiah Wright's very public rants about race, the Obama family has been without a settled place of worship and a spiritual home all year. President Obama promised that he would choose a new church after he became president. When this process took more than five months some used this delay to criticize Obama as disingenuous and lacking in any serious spiritual commitment to his Christian faith. I found this attack unfair and said so to some.

Now we know his choice, according to Amy Sullivan of Time, and we even know how he made it. On Monday Obama announced to White House aides, in what was described as an unexpected move by the writer who broke the story, that he would not have a church home in Washington, D.C. but will follow in the steps of President George W. Bush and make his primary place of worship Evergreen Chapel, a nondenominational church at Camp David. (This means he will not join this church formally since there is no membership there. The White House added, on Monday afternoon, that he would not close the door on doing this down the road.) Apparently aides visited a number of churches and sought a non-controversial place for the Obama family to attend. The president even sampled a few churches, including 19th Street Baptist on the weekend before his inauguration. He also visited St. John's Episcopal, the "Church of Presidents," on Easter.

The White House says a number of factors drove this decision. These included both political and personal concerns. For cynics from the Right, I would simply ask, "How could the political not impact this decision?" (It clearly does when the shoe is on the other foot if everyone is honest.) But more than any other issue the president desired to worship without being on display and without prompting trouble for a congregation. When Obama visited 19th Street Baptist in January crowds started forming three hours before the service began. The time and cost to the Secret Service is immense and a congregation is overwhelmed when the president attends. Obama rightly wanted to protect his family and not harm the integrity of a local congregation. His choice, from all accounts, seems to be an excellent one. (When Obama visited St. John's at Easter people snapped photos endlessly, using their cell phones.)

The difficulty of worshiping in public, and praying in peace, has long been a problem for presidents. Since 9/11 it has been an even bigger problem for the Secret Service. Obama is said to have avoided an African-American church because he worried that his presence would turn worshipers out of their pews for visitors who would be there as sightseers.

Evergreen Chapel has a 150-seat worship chapel with an average of 50-70 in worship each week. The rustic structure was built with private funds two decades ago and dedicated by President George H. W. Bush in 1991. At that dedication ceremony Sandi Patti sang and the late Cardinal James Hickey of Washington delivered a sermon calling the chapel "a witness to our common belief that we need to seek divine guidance in the conduct of our national affairs."

Each week, whether the president is present or not, the congregation meets and provides services for the military personnel and staff at Camp David. Camp David's current chaplain, Lieut. Carey Cash, leads the services at Evergreen. Cash is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, and a Southern Baptist minister. A native of Memphis he is a graduate of the Citadel and the great-nephew of Johnny Cash. He served a tour of duty as a Marine battalion chaplain in Iraq and baptized nearly 60 Marines during his tour of duty there. So, Obama's new pastor, assigned by the Navy to serve at Camp David, is a Southern Baptist. The last chaplain at Evergreen said that President Bush hardly ever had personal contact with him. Most expect this arrangement to be much the same.

So who does President Obama turn to for private spiritual counsel? Obama is doing what several other presidents have done. He seeks counsel from several ministers that he trusts. Two of his inner circle, to the surprise of some who do not follow this closely, were also confidants of President Bush; Kirbyjon Caldwell, a black Methodist minister from Houston, and T. D. Jakes, a black charismatic minister from Dallas. Caldwell, who offered prayer at Bush's first inaugural and officiated at Jenna's wedding, openly endorsed Obama. He even launched a Website when James Dobson accused Obama of "deliberately distorting the traditional understanding of the Bible to fit his own worldview." Caldwell, an atypical United Methodist, is committed to evangelism and compassion and preaches the Bible with confidence and moral earnestness. Obama chose T. D. Jakes, a very well-known television preacher, to preach at a private service the morning of the inauguration. The president has also called Jakes for private counsel. The other three leaders that Obama turns to are Otis Moss, Jr, a retired Baptist minister who once served with Martin Luther King, Sr. at Ebeneezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Moss's son followed Jeremiah Wright at Trinity but the father is called a "proper old school preacher and a father figure.") The other two spiritual advisers to Obama include Joel Hunter, a white evangelical who pastors a mega-church in the Orlando area, and Vashti McKenzie, the first female elected as a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. That is a pretty interesting mix of Christian leaders, all of whom are people of faith and piety, if you know anything about them at all.

Again, I am again impressed that Barack Obama shows a growing spiritual hunger while he is engaged in the business of the country day-in and day-out. While some critics attacked him regarding his church relationship his public choice now seems to be both wise and rightly guarded. I think the best thing that we could do, as Christians, is to keep praying for him and his family. Regardless of your views of his leadership and policies he remains the president of the nation. What some Christians did to the Clintons was frankly despicable. We can hope this changes with regard to the Obamas. Everyone is entitled to worship as they choose and to pray without being analyzed by conservative Christians in the media. I strongly oppose this president on a whole host of issues but none of these should ever stand in the way of Christian love and prayer.

Alternative Medicine: Real Benefits and Real Problems, Part Two

When the various attacks upon alternative medicine are considered it should be pointed out that mainstream physicians are not trained in alternative medicine. The exception, and these are growing by leaps and bounds, is that regular physicians are increasingly embracing alternative medicine as they learn the benefits it offers to patients. But they come to this view in a way that is outside their actual medical school training. This is, of course, less true for those who were trained outside the United States or in a less mainstream practice of the healing arts, like osteopathy. If you are a fair-minded reporter, and you want good information about anesthesia, who should you ask? Obviously, you would seek information from an anesthesiologist. If you want information about the benefits and problems of alternative medicine then it seems only fair that you would interview physicians who have developed an appreciation of alternative medicine by actually studying it and using it with their patients.

Another problem in this debate is that we, the general public, are done a great disservice when facts are reported out of their context. Herbs and dietary supplements have not cured any disease. There is no solid research saying that they have. But the fact is this: most of the medicines doctors prescribe have not cured specific illnesses either but they are used because there is good evidence that they can and do help. There is also, in almost every case, abundant evidence of many “side effects” (often quite serious) associated with almost every medication used in the West. The fact that people may die, or be made worse, from these side effects is effectively under reported in the media. The one major exception to my statement is antibiotics but even here there are downsides that are increasingly being discovered as our bodies resist these drugs when they are over used. Herbs and dietary supplements can be abused, and often are, but they generally have less serious side effects than prescription drugs.

One of the biggest problems with supplements is in manufacturing. Poor quality control and labeling issues are serious issues but even pharmaceutical companies are now producing supplements. In time this industry will shift and develop accountability as was done with drugs. The FDA does not regulate supplements but it has the authority to do so. Why hasn’t it done this? The answer some suggest is that the FDA is understaffed and overworked. Complete manufacturing standards are slow in developing. When a problem is found it is addressed as quickly as possible. More needs to be done.

Finally, research in alternative and complimentary medicine is a new field. It needs to be given time and be tested and held accountable. The potential here seems apparent, especially for millions who deal with chronic health issues medicine has no answer to at present.

A good example of a commonly recognized benefit of the new medicine is Vitamin D supplementation. I recently had a blood test in which I discovered that I was low in Vitamin D. We now realize the clinical benefits of Vitamin D in preventing heart disease and Alzheimer’s. I expect this will prove to be the tip of an iceberg but time will tell. I do know that cell biology is bigger in medicine than it ever was and this will have its impact over time.

All therapies and approaches to medicine should be scrutinized and studied carefully. The new alternative treatments need to be tested but when mainstream medicine refuses to take these alternatives seriously there can be no serious advance in knowledge. This is not good science, it is bias built on supposition. We need to use all therapies that do no harm and thereby offer people relief wherever possible. We also need to advance meaningful dialogue, with less passion, in an area that presents great potential to the advance of medicine and health.

Alternative Medicine: Real Benefits and Real Problems

In a recent two-part post on this site (June 18 and 19) I wrote about the new physics and the new medicine. I am very aware that this conversation has some strange extremes to be found at both ends of the spectrum. The mere mention of “new” medicine makes some people react with intense passion, pro and con. I am not on the extremes of this debate thus I want to explain how I have come to appreciate alternative medicine without buying into the “hype” that so often surrounds this subject.

One of the first questions people ask when this subject comes up is very basic: “Why are so many competent and good physicians so negative about complimentary, or alternative, medicine?” If this is really beneficial why are so many opposed to it?

If my non-scientific sense of things is accurate the mainstream media presents a lot of negative information about the flaws of alternative medicine and the hype often associated with it. The truth of the matter is that there is a lot of hype in alternative medicine. The media does us a favor by pointing this out routinely. Even if you believe, as I do believe, that there is a lot of good to be discovered in alternative medicine, you should always welcome good criticism. Every gain, in any field of research and study, has positives and negatives.

Some of the criticism provided by mainstream Western medicine reminds us that no complimentary therapies have been found to cure cancer thus we should not rely on such theories in treating it. I agree, but with one caveat. We have no single proven approach to cancer, though great advance has been made and some Western models are proving beneficial in major ways. I would opt for a combination approach to most illnesses, including cancer, for which we have no proven (single) cure. Since I have an illness that the medical world in the West offers no solid cure for I speak from some experience at this point.

However, many of these critical articles and news releases contain some implied facts that are not proven on the opposite side of the debate. For example, bio-energy fields are real and measurable. This study has been going on for more than thirty years. I gave, in my two previous articles, an example of how the new physics and the new medicine had combined in producing a way to break up kidney stones with a totally non-invasive approach based on sound waves. These studies are not based on placebo effects or “self hypnosis.” The mind is powerful and habituated patterns of thought can be changed. There is much more to learn in this field. My appeal is that we become open to learn more and to use all that science reveals to us, including the way the mind works to promote healing and wellness. Surely Christians, who have read so much in the Bible about the mind and human thought, can be open to such an approach to health.

Success Is Never Final

We are often too focused upon our success and not enough upon our failures. We can major, as I said previously, on our fear of failure and never try to do what we should do. We can deny our mistakes and live fruitless and self-centered lives. But we must realize that success is never final. Even when we have enjoyed our greatest success there is the opportunity to fall and fail again. This should drive us to Christ alone. Only there will we find any hope of lasting success.

Michael Barone Analyses the President

Michael Barone is one of my top five favorite writers on politics and American culture. He is sensibly conservative without being on the fringe. He is willing to see the good in those he disagrees with but he doesn't throw out his mind in the process. This is what made his recent article "Dodge Facts, Skip Details, Govern Chicago Style" so engaging. I urge you to read it.

Michael Barone makes three telling criticisms of President Obama. In the process he significantly corrects my expression of good will about the president's approach to international tensions that I posted late last week. He refers to the president's policy toward Iran as "propitiating" our avowed enemies. I like that term better than some of the other criticisms I have read. I also think that after my piece appeared a great deal of new information suggests that Obama's "coolness" is potentially miscalculated. Barone writes that the president's "friendly words" are based on an assumption that the hearts of Kim Jon Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejab can be melted and then shaped for a new day of peace. Barone rightly questions the very argument I tried to make last week and reminds me of how much I want to see the perspective of this president in a good light but how often I am growing disappointed day-by-day. Barone makes my case far better than I can.

This all demonstrates why I do not wade into politics too often. I try to read and form my own opinions but when all is said and done I am not an expert, just an educated citizen with profound interest in the well-being of my nation and peace in the world. I guess what I find unattractive about so many conservative arguments is the way they are made and the failure to deal with modern issues in the light of true conservativism. Sometimes the arguments certain conservatives make are excellent but the manner in which they are advanced is too rhetorical and polarizing. My interests are far more in the advance of Christ's missional Kingdom and the making of disciples than in the advance of American values. One thing I am sure about---the two are simply not the same.

Alice: A Modern Monk?

Today's blog is written by my friend Ed Holm from Newport, North Carolina. For 33 years Ed taught school, first in the Baltimore County Schools in Maryland and then at Gramercy Christian School in Newport, North Carolina. He left teaching to become a parish administrator at his local church. Recently he returned to teaching by working at a home for troubled youth sponsored by the Methodist Home for Children. Ed is a graduate of St. Mary's Seminary & University (Baltimore) and holds a Masters in Theology degree. Ed is also a Third Order Franciscan monk in a group called The Company of Jesus. This article "Alice" is about a woman Ed worked with over 10 years ago. I found it so appropriate, following my own posts over the last four days, that I couldn't pass on letting others read it.

I have stumbled upon a rather wonderful little book called Lessons From the Monastery That Touch Your Life, by Basil Pennington, O.C.S.O. He is a Cistercian monk. Pennington suggests ways in which monastic practices might be incorporated into the secular lives that most of us live; ways in which the ordinary might be sanctified and become pathways to worship. Pennington has written this little book in response to an introduction he once received while attending a conference. The conference director, while meaning no harm, relegated Pennington and his fellow monks to being nothing much more than “old books on a shelf in a library.” At best, they were handy resources though which a modern person might view quaint antiquity but bore no relevance to life today. I suppose that the director held such old tomes to be of great intellectual value but of little practical use. Sadly, I think the director's perception is quite common, not only concerning monastic life, but concerning the value of scripture, contemplation and prayer in general as it is perceived by our culture. Faith is most always set on life's margins. But the very nature of faith itself flies in the face of such thinking. For the community of faith Christ is a fact, not a proposition. He is central and not marginal. Therein lies the rub between the culture and the Church.

I work with a wonderful saint named Alice who understands this dichotomy fully well. She is a custodian at my school. Alice follows the scriptural admonition to “pray unceasingly”. I don't think I have ever in fifteen years had a conversation with Alice that did not in some way allude to prayer. She prays for the teachers and the students, she prays for her church, she prays for my church, she prays for the neighborhood, she prays for her friends as well as her enemies. She prays particularly hard for her husband who does not share her piety and she prays for everyone and everything imaginable as far as I can determine. She comes into my office and smiles and tells me that she prays for me. I have walked by rooms where Alice is working alone and I have heard her praying aloud or singing a song of praise. It has gotten to the point that every time I see Alice, or even her cleaning cart, for that matter, I think about the subject of prayer. Alice is a sign of the Kingdom.

Those of us without the strength or courage of Alice are smaller, weaker signs, I suspect. We have too much to lose by confronting the culture which supports us. We are beholden and compromised. We are satisfied and perhaps even proud to be “books on a shelf.”  Alice is undaunted. Never one to flinch in the face of withering fire, she refuses to believe that everyone cannot have faith just like hers. She comes into my room and says things like, “I see you have been in the Word this morning Mr. Holm. I saw the book on prayer in your briefcase.” Or she will say,  “Have you got a Word for me today Mr. Holm” never thinking that one might live in a world where “a word” is something privately received and hidden under the bushel of ones self conscious fears. Sadly to say, most often I do not have “a word” for Alice because, unlike Alice, I neglected to start my day being fed by the Word. Not to worry, Alice always has a Word for me.

Sometimes my words and actions bespeak of a very poor spiritual witness. I will say things or do things that I wish I had not. Sometimes my comments have been cruel, unforgiving or diminishing of others. I have had the blessing on several occasions when I have been caught being the “other me” by Alice and I have seen the disappointment on her face and have felt shame. Indeed, her very presence is a work of righteousness that confronts my sin. Upon her lips I have seen the silent words of prayer, interceding for me or someone else in need of healing or forgiveness at that time. Alice, a valiant prayer warrior holds me accountable for my puny faith. Alice reminds me at those times that Christ is not a relic, an old book upon a shelf. I know His presence when Alice is around. That is why Alice is a saint.

Alice is a modern day monk praying for all others in all circumstances. The world needs people like Alice much more than it knows. The world needs monks and nuns and priests and saints and all of the faithful company of Heaven because, without them, our lives would suffer terrible spiritual poverty much greater than it suffers already. Without people like Alice faith would appear to be nothing more than a pleasant notion or a moment of wistfulness. Alice is an embodiment of faith. Her faith is incarnational in its blood, flesh and bone and she witnesses to a God she knows and one, she is sure, who knows and loves her.

The world holds tightly onto its disbelief but it cannot deny the substance of those who do believe and shine forth. Strangely, it is upon the human heart that God has chosen to make His strongest case for Truth. How fragile are the bearers of God's Word, and yet, how enduring; far greater than the loftiest tomes on library shelves is the power of one whose heart knows Christ. Thank you Alice for being that emissary from God's Kingdom. Thank you Jesus for Alice.