The phrase ldquo Give it up rdquo signals two very different practices which are part of two equally different occasions The more recent meaning is a call to applaud a musical or dramatic performance of quality the traditional understanding is a summons to penance particularly during Lent As

We have many expressions for assuring each other that the mistakes we have made will not be held against us The most familiar include ldquo I forgive you rdquo ldquo Don rsquo t worry about it rdquo ldquo That rsquo s O K rdquo and more recently ldquo No problem rdquo These are simpl

Sometimes we may be willing to support good works as long as they are not set up in our neighborhood It may be true that property value plummets when someone opens a halfway house or a hospice around the corner This decline in value may also happen when the owners of that trendy ethnic restaurant

Job seems so pessimistic Life is a drudgery I am assigned months of misery I am filled with restlessness Will this ever end And in the next breath he declares My days are swifter than a weaver rsquo s shuttle my life is like the wind Where did the time go nbsp And that is the long and sho

Some of our most beautiful architectural creations are synagogues cathedrals mosques temples of every kind Believing people express religious sentiments in the structures they set apart for prayer It is there that they unite themselves in a special way with God so the place itself is considere

God seems to choose the most unlikely people to proclaim the good news a prophet who tried to escape his call and was carried to his ministry in the belly of a large fish simple fishermen who knew a lot about bait and nets but little about preaching a tent-maker who became a disciple when the po