Posts by G K Zachary
The Catholic Imagination
My experience feeds my imagination, particularly when it comes to trial and suffering. I do spend idle time reimagining the experience as it could have been. Of course, this bordered on fantasy in my youth. The new screenplay adds a different setting, spiced with elements of dashing bravery, courage, and fantastical powers, delivering due comeuppance…
Read MoreThe Way
I apologize for this short post. It is more a trip report and less a reflection. Greetings to you from the City of Santiago de Compostela, the endpoint of the Camino de Santiago, the Way of St. James. Home of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the reputed burial place of Saint James the Great.…
Read MoreThe Imposter Phenomenon
Mt 5:48 says, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect”. There is a sense in which this is a literal imperative which seemingly, definitionally, is impossible to achieve. Its import leaves the reader wondering if Jesus was mocking our imperfections, and incapacity for perfection, from a higher perch. For a very long…
Read MoreThe Anxiety of Parents
The sixth division of the Book of Tobit narrates the return of Tobiah (Tobit’s son) to Nineveh and Tobit’s healing. It begins with a section subtitled, “Anxiety of the parents”. Tobit and Anna are “keeping track of the time Tobiah would need to go and come” (Tb 10:1). Anna is losing hope of seeing her…
Read MoreFatherhood
I remember the first time, as a child, that I was sent on an errand to the neighborhood grocery store. I had been to that store before with my father. While there, all I did was gaze intently at the jars of delectables placed out front and pester him for what I wasn’t allowed to…
Read MoreRewiring for the “Impossible”
The Greek Fathers describe the “process of temptation” in the Philokalia in stages. 1. Provocation, the initial incitement to evil, followed by stages of assent – 2. a Momentary disturbance of the intellect; 3. Communion, in which the mind pleasurably communes with the idea, without yet acting on it; and, finally, 4. Assent, in which…
Read MoreThe Tortuous Heart and the Fruitful Vine
The word “heart” appears around 900 times in the Bible, which begs the question, “What is the heart?”. Jeremiah 17:9-10 (one of my favorite verses) says, “More tortuous than anything is the human heart, beyond remedy, who can understand it? I the Lord will explore the mind and test the heart, giving to all according…
Read MoreThe Fractal Pattern in Divine Workmanship
There are days when I do get overwhelmed by the ideological onslaught of worldly “truths” against our families (“love is love”; “a woman is whoever identifies as a woman”, “anyone can be any gender”, etc.). Now, this attack on the family isn’t new. Afterall, it could be said to have begun in Genesis, which behooves…
Read MoreThe You-Don’t-Know-How-It-Feels Clause!
Have you ever been in one of these situations, trying to convince a child or a spouse or a parent of something, maybe, involving personal change? Just when you feel you are making headway, the conversation gets emotional, and they throw the you-don’t-know-how-it-feels clause at you. This clause is usually considered a hard stop. It…
Read MoreCycles of Habitual Vice and Healing
There was a blind gentleman who used to come to our home twice a year seeking employment. He specialized in repairing cane and wire furniture, a common enough fixture in homes around the neighborhood. Given the presence of two young boys, prodigious quality control experts in their own right, this gentleman was never short of…
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