These reflections are a result of more than 40 years of ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Most of these years I spent in the Diocese of Charlotte which covers Western North Carolina. Now I am retired, and live in Medellín, Colombia where I continue to serve as a priest in the Archdiocese of Medellín.

Friday, Week XX, Ordinary Time, St Bernard, abbot & doctor of the church, August 20

Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you!
For wherever you go, I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge,
your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” (Ru 1:1,3-6,14b-16,22)

One of the most beautiful lines in all of Scripture, used in songs sung at weddings, but not said by Ruth to Boaz (her husband), but rather spoken by one woman to another. It was Saint Bernard who said that in order to love others, we must first love God, but if we don’t love ourselves, we can never love God.