Today's Sermon: The Miracle Of Lowered Expectations

Some people handle snakes...




Some people walk on fire...




Some people's palms bleed spontaneously...




Miracles?

Hardly.

Sign Language

God Speaks Through Tiny Miracles, and the Faithful Know How to Listen

By DeNeen L. Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer

They say a good man was to be buried this morning, a pure, peaceful man, a man on fire with the Holy Spirit.

People lined up for miles to mourn the loss of Pope John Paul II, sending thousands of prayers, hoping he is up there.

Some say he is a saint or should be a saint. Surely in heaven, but they are praying for him anyway, because he needs prayers until there is certainty he has arrived.

To prove he is indeed up there, people have gone in search of good, of hope, searching for an ease in the suffering.

Searching for miracles.

Not big miracles like the parting of the Red Sea, the turning of water into wine, the feeding of a multitude with five loaves and two fishes.

But inexplicable coincidences, like when you need $29 and you look in that old coat and pull out three $10 bills. Like when you hear the news about the pope's passing and you and your husband both start crying at exactly the same time.

Perhaps it's a miracle when you reach in your purse to pull out your prayer beads and instead of finding one string you find three, and you give two away. Like when that old knee doesn't give out after riding in the back seat for two hours to Mass. Like when you look up in the sky, beyond where airplanes fly, and you think you see angels.

Or like when a woman goes to bed at night in despair and wakes up in the morning to face a new day -- and a bright sun slips through her blinds. MORE...

If finding money in a pocket, waking up to see the sun shining, and even looking down to see your palms bleeding spontaneously are miracles...

Canonize me!

At least once each year, when I check coat pockets before sending my winter coats to the cleaners in March, I find money in a pocket.

I wake up hundreds of times each year to see the sun shining outside my window.

And, at high altitude (Aspen & Mexico City), my blood pressure becomes unstable, and the creases in my palms bleed...

Miracles?

If you say so...

Even though crucifixion didn't include nails through the palms.

If those occurrences qualify as miracles, then this recently published newspaper correction is truly miraculous...



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THUS ENDETH TODAY'S SERMON.

Go forth and believe what you will...

But get your facts straight!

I mean it, damn it!