I am a coward when it comes to going to the dentist. I hope that ‘something will come up,’ and I will need to cancel that routine exam. But once I find myself in the dentist’s office, and am now waiting for my name to be called I inevitably find myself thumbing through a magazine. The Reader’s Digest holds several distractions that catch my attention and help me cope with where I am. I especially like those short articles that have short humorous anecdotes or the vocabulary building tests. They give me something to both laugh at myself and push me to go beyond where I am.

Sometimes I would wonder what would it be like to put together one of those ‘articles’ filled with humorous and thoughtful anecdotes. As it would happen I was rearranging my bookshelves (aka making more room for more books) when I pulled out a folder that I had been putting sayings, little stories and thoughts that I had been collecting over the few past years. So if I had an article in the Reader’ s Digest this is what it might look like.

“Is there really a time and place for bumper sticker theology?”

“Pray as you can and not as you can’t.” Dom John Chapman

“For Surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

“Compassion is proportionate to detachment; otherwise we use others for our own end under the pretext of love.” Thomas Merton

“Don’t worry! God is in charge.” A bumper sticker

“Be Christ this day my strong protector…” St. Patrick’s Lorica

“O Lord our God, grant us grace to desire thee with our whole heart; so that desiring, we may seek, and seeking, find thee; and so finding thee, may love thee, and loving thee, may hate those sins from which thou hast redeemed us. Amen.” St. Anselm of Canterbury

There are more. This is where I might begin. I am sure that you have stories, prayers, thoughts that have helped steady you on this our earthly pilgrimage. More to come and try not to be afraid of the dentist. Abundant blessings of peace and joy as we begin yet again this fall.