Spiritual Musings

About the Book:

NOTE: Almost all topics written about in this book concern articles of faith all Christians believe. These letters are not words of mine but you will find they are words of Jesus Christ just put out there with thoughts for deeper study. There is nothing in this book to promote any particular denomination, just Christianity as Jesus taught.

These "Spiritual Musings" have been written over a period of 38 years. They are actually small talks leading to discussion given to patients in about seven individual departments at UAB Hospital on Sunday mornings.

The topics generally followed the Sunday epistle and gospel Bible readings at church services. I also tried to keep them focused on a few topics relevant to the patients, such as God’s love and forgiveness; forgiving yourself; the Ten Commandments and their importance; the body as a temple; spiritual seasons such as Advent, Christmas, and Easter; response to disasters in life; the sacraments and their importance; and looking at the Lord’s Prayer and the Blessed Mother and her importance. Some of these “Musings” were not given to the patients but developed for my own instruction, such as The Big Question, Adam to Enoch, and other sensitive or historical or specific Catholic theological teachings and ideas. The majority of the patients were not Catholic; in fact, many of them did not know how to pray The Our Father.

I credit first The Holy Spirit. Much prayer has gone into each of these thoughts. I credit the Holy Spirit because when I actually sat down to put words on paper, they usually flowed easily and quickly to the pages. Thoughts and organization for their presentation came quickly as I typed. Development was unusually easy. The verbal presentation seemed to go even smoother. I know for sure my mind or speaking skills are not so well developed. In all matters in life, I have had to study and practice very hard on any project before I succeeded. I am very comfortable acknowledging help from The Holy Spirit, the Third Person of The Trinity.

Also, getting up very early most every Sunday morning, going to early church, then heading to a hospital, was actually easy. I looked forward to going with enthusiasm. Why in the world would I do something like that instead of drinking coffee and reading the paper? The Holy Spirit had me by the collar and was moving me out the door, of course.

That said, interacting with people, and hearing and discussing spiritual topics and ideas were very important for the development of these “Musings.” Also, over the years, Msgr. Muller organized many priests and lay people to make interesting and informative Lenten and evening retreats for us at Our Lady of Sorrows Church. One of the best was, I believe, a Mr. Harmon. His presentation on forgiveness was eye opening.

The New American and Jerusalem Bibles and many commentaries on Bible topics, Catholic and Protestant, were studied for deeper understanding. The Catholic Exchange, EWTN, National Catholic Network, and other religious websites had many informative articles on eye opening spiritual topics.

An important note: To get the full impact and message being given in “"Musings", be sure to read the referenced Bible verse shown for each of the papers.

I will always get back to The Holy Spirit, as I was amazed at the words and presentation that came each Sunday. Many times, hospital staff would gather when I was there and thank me for coming. Later, I would most of the time just shake my head and wonder where those words came from, but then I smiled and knew exactly where.

So, maybe this ministry is over, but as I looked at these papers, my thoughts were: if these topic papers were so important in the past, would the Holy Spirit want them to just disappear? Guess we will see what He wants.