HANGING IN AND HANGING ON

 

Peter got out of the boat and began to walk on the water toward Jesus. But when he 

saw how strong the wind was, he became frightened; and, beginning to sink, he 

cried out, "Lord, save me!"

Matthew 14:22-33

Even though I have been a priest for fifty-six years now, I have never forgotten that I was ordained during one of the most tumultuous periods of modern church history. I have been reminded of it almost every day! As I was being ordained in 1970, many priests and Sisters were leaving. In days previous, their leaving was certainly looked down on and some who left were given a religious cold shoulder socially! Before my day, priests and Sisters were placed on pedestals. Staying was praised and rewarded. Then, about the time I was ordained, the tables flipped. Those who left were admired for their courage, while those of us who stayed were pitied for our cowardice! Personally, I do not want to go back to those so-called "good old days" of pedestals! I would much rather be in the ring where the real struggles are taking place. In the words of Theodore Roosevelt, I would rather be "the man who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly...."

I was in the thick of all that leaving as I was preparing for my First Mass. I decided right then and there that I needed an image that would remind me to “hold on” no matter how much the winds howled and how deep the water rose! I was adamant that my tombstone would say in the end, “Ronald Knott, Priest!” The image of “solid rock” seemed to be one I could identify with! It so happened that there was a popular Quaker Hymn at guitar Masses back then that seemed to fit my needs. I had it sung at my First Mass and I have sung it, or listened to it sung, on every one of my 56 anniversaries. That hymn is called “How Can I Keep From Singing?” It talks about being “anchored to a rock” in spite of the "darkness and chaos" of the world around us, all the while hearing the faint, but steady far-off music, that sings of joy and hope.

My life flows on in endless song;

Above earth's lamentations,

I hear the real, tho' far-off hymn

That hails a new creation;

CHORUS

No storm can shake my inmost calm

While to that rock I'm clinging;

Since love is lord of heaven and earth,

How can I keep from singing?

Through all the tumult and the strife

I hear that music ringing;

It sounds an echo in my soul—

How can I keep from singing?

Although the tempest loudly roars,

I hear the truth, it liveth.

What though the darkness 'round me close,

Songs in the night it giveth.

When tyrants tremble, sick with fear,

And hear their death-knell ringing,

When friends rejoice both far and near,

How can I keep from singing?

On my 25th Anniversary, I chose today's gospel reading about Peter’s walk on water and how he was able to accomplish that feat by keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus, rather than how deep the water was or high the winds blew! I had learned, by my 25th anniversary, that the secret to surviving constant change was having something solid to hang onto and that there was nothing more solid and dependable than clinging to Jesus the "rock!” That required "having your priorities straight," as we say today!

After my 25th anniversary, I started publishing my own books. To encourage myself even more, going forward, I chose the Greek word "sophronismos," from Paul's Second Letter to Timothy (1:7). Sophronismos means, "the ability to know what to do in the face of panic" or "knowing how to keep your cool under pressure." (Ah, yes, that's exactly what I need going into old age "the ability to control myself in the face of panic.") I want to be able to handle any storm without being upset and falling apart all the time! As a reminder, I named my little publishing company "Sophronismos Press."

Timothy, fellow missionary of Paul, was a young man who faced his own crisis at the beginning of his ministry and offers us a model of fidelity in spite of crushing disappointment. In his second letter to Timothy, Paul writes to a young man who wants to give up and come home. His ministry was bordering on being a total failure. Paul reminds Timothy that the Spirit gives pastoral ministers three things during difficult times to help them continue their work: dunymis, agape and sophronismos. Dunymis means "strength." Agape means "a practical support kind of love rather than a sentimental feeling."  Sophronismos means "the ability to control oneself in the face of panic."

Every priest, every religious, every married person, indeed every believer, if he or she is to survive and thrive in today’s church and in today's world, must find that peaceful center, that inmost calm that no storm can shake, that anxiety-free place where one waits in joyful hope, that place of grace under pressure, that solid foundation on which they can withstand any storm, that peace of mind and heart that only God can give. This is why our prayer life is so essential! Our relationship with Christ is that "sure foundation" where we can withstand any storm headed toward us!

These times of crisis are a normal part of life whether it's in ordained ministry, religious life, marriage or membership in a faith community. These crisis times are not signs that we have made a mistake, but signs that we are on the right path. If they are normal and to be expected, then we need to develop the inner strength to face them, deal with them and overcome them. I actually feel sorry for those who have nothing solid to hang onto these days! Eleanor Roosevelt put it this way, “You gain strength, courage and confidence every time you look fear in the face. We must do the thing we think we cannot do.” In other words, we must be able, like Peter, to "walk on water!" Why must we do it? In the end, we must not forget the gospel’s final words of Jesus to us, “I will be with you always.”

No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that rock I'm clinging!

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #40

LOCAL HEROINES OF HISTORY

Pictured are Sisters of Charity of Nazareth Catharine Siena Speak, Emmanuel Dyer, Mary Leander Eiting, Mary Clarissa Reith, and Christiana Snyder with others in 1905-1906 who lived at St. Helena Convent and served as nurses at Camp Zachary Taylor during the Influenza Pandemic in the Fall of 1918.

The Sisters of Charity of Nazareth were some of the first to answer when the 1918 Influenza Pandemic hit. At its onset, a number of SCNs were already volunteering at various hospitals, orphanages, and military camps. When influenza struck these camps, there were far more ill than there were nurses to care for them, most notably at Camp Zachary Taylor in Louisville, KY. At Camp Taylor, many women religious from around the area were called on for their aid, numbering eighty-five Sisters in total coming from five congregations. Thirty-four of these were Sisters of Charity of Nazareth. Due to such a large influx of both patients and nurses, barracks were converted into makeshift hospitals for the soldiers and housing for the Sisters, as well as other lay nurses.

LUNCH WITH THE POPE

July 11, 2026

CASTEL GANDOLFO

Pope Leo XIV’s Summer Residence

a lunch with 200 “vulnerable people” from the Diocese of Rome

“I came without a prepared speech, but I did come with hunger — hunger for justice, hunger for genuine charity, hunger for a Church that truly knows how to open its doors, to welcome and receive everyone; where there is love for all and no one is an enemy, where all of us know how to live reconciliation, forgiveness and peace,” Pope Leo said, welcoming those present. Pope Leo recalled that one of the pope’s titles is the “Pontiff — a builder of bridges.” “And today we too want to build a bridge with all of you, with your families, and with the society in which we want to live — a society marked by justice, where the causes of poverty can be eliminated and where the causes of the injustices that still exist in our world can be overcome,” Pope Leo said. “This,” he said, “is the Church we want to be.”

WITH OUR HELP, BISHOP MHASI'S DREAM (AND OUR'S) COMES TRUE

CARDINAL POLYCARP PENGO CATHOLIC PRIMARY SCHOOL

FINALLY OPENED ON JULY 30

A SPECIAL THANKS TO ALL THOSE WHO HELPED US THIS FAR

Bishop Filbert Felician Mhasi - Bishop of the Diocese of Tunduru-Masasi, Tanzania

CLASSROOMS ON THE RIGHT AND LEFT - ADMINISTRATION BUILDING IN THE CENTER

KITCHEN AND DINING ROOM BEING CONSTRUCTED ON THE LEFT OUT OF SIGHT

ONE OF THE NEW CLASSROOMS WITH BLACKBOARD, TEACHER'S DESK AND CHAIR

OFFICIAL ENTRY INTO THE NEW SCHOOL WHILE SINGING AND CLAPPING

"THUMBS UP" IN GRATITUDE AFTER SEEING ONE OF THEIR NEW CLASSROOMS

STUDENTS SINGING "WE ARE HAPPY TODAY" AND GIVING A "THUMBS UP" SIGN

click on arrow, expand the screen and turn up the volume for a treat

SETTELING INTO ONE OF THE NEW CLASSROOMS

A TEACHER AND A STUDENT TRYING OUT ONE OF THE NEW BLACKBOARDS

Bishop Filbert Mhasi told me on the day they opened, July 30, that they opened with their first 25 pupils. He expects others to be registered in October and even more in January. In January, he hopes to have more than 60 pupils in his new school - Cardinal Polycarp Pengo Primary School. Before he was chosen to be the Cardinal Archbishop of Dar-es Salaam, Tanzania, Bishop Pengo was the first bishop of Tunduru-Masasi Diocese where Bishop Filbert Mhasi is now the bishop. The school was named to honor Cardinal Pengo who died last year, right before Christmas. He had actually blessed the foundation of the school a year or two before. Construction had stopped because of a lack of funding. However, he died knowing that Father Knott and Father Judie had become involved in helping to complete it!   

This is a unique Catholic school in as much as the local Muslim community leaders asked if their children would be allowed to attend. Bishop Mhasi welcomed them because he believes that it is a wonderful opportunity to address the chronic problem of Muslim-Christian conflicts around the world. His diocese is also predominately Muslim. Without his welcome, these Muslim children would probably not have access to education. As they grow up, the hope is that these children will remember this welcome from Christians and have a completely different attitude toward Christians - and Christians toward Muslims. The girls in the photo above, with white head coverings, are Muslim children. 

Father John Judie, my brother priest from Louisville with whom I have partnered in this effort, took the first of three suitcases of  school supplies to Bishop Mhasi. We were able to help Bishop Mhasi finish constructing the school, build some desks, drill a water well and buy some cattle for meat and milk, along with the water, for the school kitchen and dining room. New outhouses for the school were also constructed. 

For more information about our work on completing this school, especially since last Christmas 2025, scroll down and read some of the past several month's blog posts about this project. To be able to welcome even more children, we still need help to complete the last two classrooms by Christmas of 2026. If you are moved to help with this effort to help Bishop Filbert Mhasi eliminate generational poverty, Muslim-Christian conflicts and alleviate any possible need for migration in the future, write your tax-deductible check to Father John Judie Ministries and send it to me. I will see to it that it is deposited locally in his charitable account.

One of the pressing needs right now is TEXTBOOKS to fit the primary school syllabus and other books for the LIBRARY (which Bishop Mhasi, surprisingly, has named in my honor). Sadly, we cannot accept donated children's books. Such paper would be extremely heavy! It would cost a fortune to send them over there - three or four times as much as they are worth! It would be much cheaper for them to buy the books over there with our donations! 

Father John Judie Ministries Inc.

for local deposit into that account send you check to:

Rev. Ronald Knott

1271 Parkway Gardens Court #106

Louisville, KY 40217

REAL LOVE IS NOT A WARM FEELING, BUT A DECISION YOU MAKE

 

I am convinced that nothing, neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor the present, nor the future, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any creature, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus.

Romans 8:35, 37-39

This “unconditional love” that God has for each one of us, whether we are his friends or his enemies, in good times and in bad, sounds like our traditional wedding vows! It is the template for how we are to love each other, whether they are good or bad, our friends or our enemies!  Loving each other, like God loves us, is the very heart and essence of our Christian faith. This love is not based on the feelings we have for each other, but on the choices we make about how we want to respond to each other, day in and day out!

It might surprise you to know that the last fifty-six years of my life has been about trying my best to love other people, even unlovable people, “for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, until death do us part” and thereby set an example for them about God’s unconditional love for all of us.  To free me up to do this, to be able to focus mainly on that, I made a Promise of Celibacy.

Celibates can live without sex, but they cannot live without loving others and being loved by them. Just as one can have sex without love, one can love without sex. A “close loving relationship” is called “intimacy.”  Intimacy requires sharing oneself deeply with others, sometimes with sex and more often without it. Love involves developing caring connections with people. A deeply caring connection is fundamental to truly “loving” anyone!

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that there are two Sacraments geared toward the salvation of others: Marriage and Holy Orders. That means marriage partners and those who are ordained are both called to be “love-givers.” Marriage partners are called to be “love-givers” mainly to their spouses and their children. Those who are ordained are called to be “love-givers” mainly to that part of the church entrusted to them by the bishop in whatever ministry they are assigned. We are both called to be “love-givers” - love-givers to both friends and enemies, no matter what, whether it feels good or not, on any particular day! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make.

I am proud to say that I have a wide-range of intimate friends! I am friends with people I grew up with, with people I went to seminary with, with people I have met in ministry and with people I have met from various countries all over the world. I have women friends, long-time friends both male and female, whole-family friends, friends from other religions, friends without any religion, rich friends and poor friends, educated and uneducated friends, new friends, old friends and friends who used to be enemies.

Jesus talked a lot, and often, about the importance of the word “love.” In our American culture, we talk a lot, and often, about the word “love” as well. Even though we both throw the word “love” around a lot, we are not talking about the same reality.

When we talk about “love” in our culture, we mean “having strong feelings of attraction for someone or something.” We say, things like “I “love” my girlfriend ever since we “fell in love.” I “love” the way she looks and the way she talks. We “love” the same movies, books and music. What the person is actually saying there is that he is “attracted” to everything about her – from her looks to her tastes. “Love” in that context is basically a “feeling” one has – usually a “feeling of attraction for” this or that!

Because it is basically a “feeling of attraction for,” that kind of so-called “love” can shift, wane and even disappear. Because it is based on “feelings,” a person who easily “falls in love,” can also “fall out of love” just as easily. Because it is based on “feelings,” it is basically “self-centered.” At its core, it really expresses what that old 1990s Toyota commercial said about their cars: “I love what you do for me!” A more precise word for that experience is “cathexis,” meaning an intense investment of mental or emotional energy in a person or object. A person under the spell of “cathexis” has an almost blind fixation or an obsession with another person, object or idea for “what it can do for them.”

That’s not at all what Jesus meant when he talked about “love.” When Jesus talked about “love,” he was not talking about a “feeling,” he was talking about a “decision.” When Jesus talked about “love,” he talked about making a decision to take loving and constructive action toward a person that he or she may consciously dislike or even find repugnant in some way! To “love,” in the way Jesus talks about it, goes beyond any feelings. It rises to the level of a conscious “decision” and that decision is not “self-centered, but “other centered.”

The teaching about “love” in our second reading today is quite powerful! God's “love” is unconditional - God’s actions toward us in spite of our actions toward God. True “love” is not focused on what we receive, but on what we give! That is the relationship God wants to have with us – a mutual unconditional relationship of love with friends and enemies! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make.

Let me give you two practical examples of true “other focused” love - one from the lives of some of the families I have known and the other example from my own life.

EXAMPLE ONE

I am reminded, first of all, by a quote from the Gospel of John that says, “This is my commandment: love one another as I love you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.”  Yes, it certainly refers to the love God had for us when we see how Jesus laid down his life for us! However, what also comes to my mind is the love many parents have for their children. These parents are the most loving people I have ever encountered. They are willing to lay down their lives every day for their children. I am not referring to that common practice of crippling children by constantly giving into their whims and spoiling them, rather than training them in self-discipline. Spoiling them is not real love, that’s self-love and protecting themselves from not being liked by their children!

It takes a lot of other-focused love to raise a child well because raising a child into a thriving adult requires teaching them reliability, generosity, consistency, independence, responsibility, maturity, self-confidence and kindness by promoting positive behaviors, being clear about expectations, adopting positive language, modeling good behavior, offering them choices, helping them deal with the consequences of their own choices, showing them how to do active listening, reinforcing positive values and correcting them when they do wrong.  These actions and this teaching, year in and year out, is the essence of real love. Doing that, day in and day out, does not always feel good! It requires a great amount of attention and concentration! That kind of love does not always result in a positive response from their children, like feeling appreciated by the very children they are teaching and forming into thriving adults! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make.

EXAMPLE TWO

The second example of “love,” from my own life, involves the decisions I made when I retired. I have been taught my whole life that retirement is a time to sit back, relax, enjoy oneself and be pampered. I did not know exactly what I wanted to do when I retired, but I definitely knew I did not want to do that!

For my 80th birthday, a wealthy friend of mine offered to plan a birthday party for me. As a priest, I have been called to be a “love-giver” more than a “love-getter” so I told her “no” because that year, in gratitude for making it to my 80th birthday with so much to be grateful for, I wanted to “give,” rather than “receive.” I told her that, in celebration, I wanted to personally underwrite the Diocese of Kingstown’s annual diocesan Christmas party down in the poor country of St. Vincent and the Grenadines where I used to volunteer until COVID hit and their volcano exploded. The bishop down there usually gives his 12 priests, 4 Religious Sisters, 4 Religious Brothers, 7 Deacons and 4 Chancery Staff members a bottle of inexpensive wine, a ham and a small monetary gift. I heard that his diocesan finances were so limited that year, where the minimum wage is $12.00 a day, that he would have to cut back and not be able to give them a small monetary gift that year. So, starting with my $1,000.00 tax refund, I decided on a personal goal of underwriting his whole diocesan Christmas party, as well as be able to give all 40 of them a small monetary gift.

I was so grateful on my 80th birthday, that I had a burning desire to “give” love, rather than “receive” it!” In our country where “love” is more and more about something we “receive,” rather than something we “give,” I wanted to go against that trend and be that “love-giver” that I am supposed to be as a priest! Giving, rather than receiving, is what really made me happy on my 80th birthday so that is what I did!

After that, rather than me traveling the world and enjoying myself on some beach, I decided to help build a church in Kenya, a home for a single mother and a new grade school in Tanzania (which opened last Thursday with its first 25 students and 35 more expected by January) while helping out in two nursing homes. two parishes, publishing my four times a week inspirational blog posts and leading short parish retreats here in the diocese. 

In telling you this, it is not my hope to get you to admire me for doing those things, but that these two examples will inspire you to perform similar “love-giving” actions, for your family, friends, strangers and even your enemies! That, my friends, is what real love is all about! As the Book of Proverbs says, “Those who water others, will themselves be watered.” Real love is not an exchange of warm feelings between you and somebody else! Love is not a feeling you have, but a decision you make. Real love is a “decision” you make to do good to others, even to those who cannot, or will not, be good to you!

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHURCH CHAT #39

 

RIGHT UNDER OUR VERY NOSES

Some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Jesus,

“Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you.” He said

to them in reply, “An evil and unfaithful generation

seeks a sign, but no sign will be given it except the 

sign of Jonah the prophet.

Matthew 12:38-42

This gospel reminds me of something St. Paul said in his first Letter to the Corinthians 1:22. He said, “The Jews demand signs and the Greeks look for wisdom.” Paul is saying there that it was characteristic of the Jews of his day to ask for signs and wonders from those who claimed to be messengers of God. It was as if they said, “If you are so special, so God-sent, prove your claims by doing something extraordinary.”

Jesus refused to give them the “sign” they wanted because they were guilty of one fundamental mistake. They desired to see God in the abnormal; they forgot that we are never nearer God, and God never shows himself to us so much and so continually as he does in the ordinary things of every day.

I am reminded of the great poem of Elizabeth Barret Browning where she says, “Earth’s crammed with heaven, and every common bush afire with God, but only he who sees takes off his shoes, the rest sit around and pluck blackberries.”

My friends, the bottom line of this gospel is that God comes to us especially in the very ordinary, rather than the spectacular and dramatic, events of life. The Scribes and Pharisees were always looking for “signs” – dramatic and spectacular happenings and personalities to “prove” that God was active in the world. Truly, God is to be found in the ordinary events, in the ordinary moments and in the ordinary people of this world. That is why so many people missed Jesus when he was here on this earth. He was so ordinary, while they were looking for something spectacular. While they were looking “out there” and “up there,” while they were looking among the famous and the powerful and the well-connected, God’s “sign” was standing right in front of them. They missed him because he was just too ordinary.  Jesus tells them that the only sign they will be given   is his preaching and wisdom – better than the preaching of Jonah to the people of Nineveh and the wisdom of Solomon that the queen of the south sought out in her day.

 

Our traditional Christmas story is told by the evangelist, Luke. Luke wrote for the underdog, the little people, the left-out, the losers of the world. When he tells the story, he emphasizes the dismalness of Christ’ birth: a poor young mother delivering her baby in a barn amid the smell of dung and donkey breath; greasy, crusty, bumbling sheep herders; doves dropping their stuff from the rafters; the restlessness of cows and no one to care. Luke wants his readers to know that God comes, not just for the rich and famous and powerful, the young and healthy, but especially for the lowest of the low, in the most desperate of circumstances. God comes for, and loves, every human being who has ever lived on this planet no matter how insignificant they may be in the eyes of others.

 

Where should we look for God working in our world today? Fatima? Medjugorje? Lourdes?  I am sure God has worked there, but we don’t have to go to those places to see God working. He is working right here, right under our noses, right now in this very place! We just have the eyes to see it! We just need to look at this place, and the people in it, through the lens of faith! Miracles are happening every day, right here and right now! As Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke (10:23-24)

“Blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings wanted to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it."

 

 

 

THOSE WHO ARE CURIOUS SEE THE WORLD DIFFERENTLY

I have stated many times, in speeches to priests around the world and in my weekly blog posts, that "the biggest shortage in the Catholic Church is not priests or money, but imagination." It seems to me that our lack of imagination is being stunted by our lack of curiosity about new and untried ways. The "old" is important, yes, but so is the "new!" Therefore, I would like to share with you 75 quotes about "curiosity" from some of the world's great thinkers. 

1. “Be curious. Read widely. Try new things. What people call intelligence just boils down to curiosity.” – Aaron Swartz

2. “Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity.” – Billy Cox

3. “The best in business have boundless curiosity and open minds.” – Robin Sharma

4. “It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent, lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that.” – Tove Jansson

5. “Let your curiosity lead you down a road that is less traveled.” – ATGW

6. “The love of knowledge is a kind of madness.” – C.S. Lewis

7. “I set out to discover the why of it, and to transform my pleasure into knowledge.” – Charles Baudelaire

8. “Curiosity is, in great and generous minds, the first passion and the last.” – Samuel Johnson

9. “When curiosity is alive, we are attracted to many things; we discover many worlds.” – Eric Booth

10. “Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect.” – Samuel Johnson

11. “Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

12. “Human curiosity, the urge to know, is a powerful force and is perhaps the best secret weapon of all in the struggle to unravel the workings of the natural world.” – Aaron Klug

13. “I want people to believe in themselves. I want intellectual curiosity. I want someone who realizes that they don't know it all and that they're dying to learn.” – Kevin Plank

14. “Curiosity, the rover, and the concept is what science is all about: the quest to reveal the unknown.” – Ahmed Zewail

15. “Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will.” – James Stephens

16. “Curiosity is lying in wait for every secret.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

17. “I had discovered that learning something, no matter how complex, wasn't hard when I had a reason to want to know it.” – Homer Hickam

18. “If you can let go of passion and follow your curiosity, your curiosity just might lead you to your passion.” – Elizabeth Gilbert

19. “A single conversation with a wise man is better than ten years of study.” – Chinese Proverb

20. “I think I benefited from being equal parts ambitious and curious. And of the two, curiosity has served me best.” – Michael J Fox

21. “A burning itch to know is higher than a solemn vow to pursue truth. To feel the burning itch of curiosity requires both that you be ignorant, and that you desire to relinquish your ignorance.” – Eliezer Yudkowsky

22. “Curiosity about life in all aspects, I think, is still the secret of great creative people.” – Leo Burnett

23. “It is so important to allow children to bloom and to be driven by their curiosity.” – May-Britt Moser

24. “You can teach a student a lesson for a day; but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity, he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.” – Anonymous

25. “Curiosity is the very basis of education and if you tell me that curiosity killed the cat, I say only the cat died nobly.” – Arnold Edinborough

26. “Curiosity is the fuel for discovery, inquiry, and learning.” – Anonymous

27. “Lean into your curiosity about any issue, and there will likely be people to share a little bit more of their knowledge and insight and give you ideas on how to make change.” – Opal Tometi

28. “I'm always wondering about the what-ifs, about the road not taken.” – Jenny Han

29. “Creatures whose mainspring is curiosity enjoy the accumulating of facts far more than the pausing at times to reflect on those facts.” – Clarence Day

30. “Remember that things are not always as they appear to be. Curiosity creates possibilities and opportunities.” – Roy T. Bennett

31. “I think that we all absolutely have curiosity. It brings about knowledge. It's energizing. It's spiritually empowering. It makes us more interesting as people.” – Brian Grazer

32. “Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.” – Marie Curie

33. “People say: idle curiosity. The one thing that curiosity cannot be is idle.” – Leo Rosten

34. “Curiosity is as much the parent of attention, as attention is of memory.” – Richard Whately

35. “Healthy curiosity is a great key in innovation.” – Ifeanyi Enoch Onuoha

36. “The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.” – Dorothy Parker

37. “Satisfaction of one's curiosity is one of the greatest sources of happiness in life.” – Linus Pauling

38. “Curiosity is a willing, a proud, and eager confession of ignorance.” – S. Leonard Rubinstein

39. “Curiosity is the lust of the mind.” – Thomas Hobbes

40. “Those with less curiosity or ambition just mumble that God works in mysterious ways. I intend to catch him in the act.” – Damien Echols

41. “Do stuff. Be clenched, curious. Not waiting for inspiration's shove or society's kiss on your forehead.” – Susan Sontag

42. “You can find a mentor; you have to ask questions, you have to show interest in what the other person is doing. You have to have curiosity, I think that people appreciate that and will want to help you.” – Nina Garcia

43. “What drove me and kept me going over the decades? If I had to use a single word, it would be curiosity.” – Eve Arnold

44. “Curiosity is the single most important attribute with which humans are born. More than a simple desire to discover or know things, curiosity is a powerful tool, like a scalpel or a searchlight. Curiosity changes us. It is also a way to effect change, perhaps even on a global level.” – Loren Rhoads

45. “The basic drive behind real philosophy is curiosity about the world, not interest in the writings of philosophers.” – Bryan Magee

46. “Learning is by nature curiosity, prying into everything, reluctant to leave anything, material or immaterial, unexplained.” – Philo

47. “I love learning, and I think that curiosity is a wonderful gift.” – Andie MacDowell

48. “Curiosity takes ignorance seriously, and is confident enough to admit when it does not know. It is aware of not knowing, and it sets out to do something about it.” – Alain de Botton

49. “I am generally fascinated by what are the big, challenging questions, and that’s behind my curiosity.” – Paul Allen

50. “One of the secrets of life is to keep our intellectual curiosity acute.” – William Lyon Phelps

51. “If one has curiosity, then one stands the chance of attaining a high level of scientific inquiry.” – Ada Yonath

52. “I'm naturally curious, and I've always been driven by my curiosity. Curiosity gets people excited. Curiosity leads to new ideas, new jobs, new industries.” – Anne Sweeney

53. “An understanding of the natural world and what's in it is a source of not only a great curiosity but great fulfillment.” – David Attenborough

54. “My favorite words are possibilities, opportunities and curiosity. I think if you are curious, you create opportunities, and then if you open the doors, you create possibilities.” – Mario Testino

55. “Critical thinking and curiosity are the key to creativity.” – Amala Akkineni

56. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” – Albert Einstein

57. “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney

58. “It's sort of a mental attitude about critical thinking and curiosity. It's about mindset of looking at the world in a playful and curious and creative way.” – Adam Savage

59. “I have a certain curiosity for life that drives me and propels me forward.” – Rachel McAdams

60. “Seize the moment of excited curiosity on any subject to solve your doubts; for if you let it pass, the desire may never return, and you may remain in ignorance.” – William Wirt

61. “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious.” – Albert Einstein

62. “Research is formalized curiosity. It is poking and prying with a purpose.” – Zora Neale Hurston

63. “Intelligence follows curiosity.” – James Clear

64. “If you aren't curious about it, you'll never be good at it.” – Naval Ravikant

65. “Curiosity is one of the great secrets of happiness.” – Bryant H. McGill

66. “Follow your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.” – Naval Ravikant

67. “Blessed are the curious for they shall have adventures.” – Lovelle Drachman

68. “The mind that opens to a new idea never returns to its original size.” – Albert Einstein

69. “Be curious, not judgmental.” – Ted Lasso

70. “Curiosity is life. Assumption is death.” – Mark Parker

71. “The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.” – Plutarch

72. “Curiosity killed the cat, but where human beings are concerned, the only thing a healthy curiosity can kill is ignorance.” – Harry Lorayne

73. “If you are curious, you'll find the puzzles around you. If you are lazy, you'll find the shortcuts.” – John C. Maxwell

74. “Curiosity does, no less than devotion, pilgrims make.” – Abraham Cowley

75. “I keep six honest serving-men, they taught me all I knew; their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who.” – Rudyard Kipling

 

 

 

THE PURPOSE OF PRAYER: WHO NEEDS TO CHANGE, GOD OR ME?

God answered Solomon’s prayer in these words,

“Because you have asked for this---not for a long life

for yourself, nor for riches, nor for the life of your

enemies, but for understanding so that you may know

what is right---I do as you requested.”

I Kings 3:5,7-12

I own a lot of books, even though I have culled through them several times over the years, especially when it comes to moving from one house to the next! Most of them, I rarely look at, even though I go digging through them for something every now and them. There are, however, a few books, maybe 10 in all, that I would really hate to lose, books that have changed my life in one way or another. One of those books is a 56 year-old book by Fr. Louis Evely entitled Our Prayer. It was the book that helped me really understand what prayer is all about! I turn to it often, especially when I talk to groups about the role of prayer in their lives! It’s now out of print! I would really hate to lose my copy! 

The insight I got from that book changed my prayer life and helped me make sense of the purpose of prayer.  I had prayed all my life, but I didn’t feel that it was doing all that much good.  I was like that old farmer in one of my former parishes who said that he never prayed for rain because “God’s goina do what God’s goina do anyway!” No matter how much I prayed, it has always seemed to me to that “God was goina’ do what God was goina’ do anyway.” That old book helped me discover that, even though I believed in Jesus and I thought I believed in prayer, I was actually praying like a pagan! 

How do pagans pray?  They whine, beg, cringe and try to bribe their moody, mean and reluctant gods to loosen up and give them what they want! Their prayers are attempts to inform their gods of things that need to be done as well as how and when they should be done! Their prayers are attempts to get their gods to wake up and pay attention! Their prayers are an attempt to get their gods to change their minds and moods and do what they want through bribery or self-inflicted pain! Pagan prayer has been portrayed best in those old TV jungle movies. In those old movies, it was almost always the same. Poor people lived at the foot of an active volcano where they believed that their god lived! Their volcano god was moody and unpredictable and often blew his top, killing hundreds of their people. To get this god to be good to them, they lived in fear of him and their prayer was basically bribes to keep him at bay and do their bidding. Their sadistic god loved pain, especially pain that involved the shedding of blood.  So, if you cut yourself or whipped yourself till you bled, you had a better chance of getting a favor out of him. If that didn’t work, you threw the prettiest virgin in town into the bubbling lava!  Pagan prayer was always an effort to get the god to change his mind or change his sadistic behaviors or his indifference toward human beings.

I used to pray like a pagan. My prayer was more about telling God what I wanted, rather than listening to God tell me what I needed. I thought prayer was about informing God about what needed to be done in my life and in the world around me. I believed that I needed to work on God if I ever had a chance of getting him to do what I wanted! I felt that I had a better chance of getting what I wanted if I pleaded and begged and cried and starved and deprived myself. I even tried to offer bribes: I would light a 30 day candle instead of one of those cheap two-hour candles, I would say 50 rosaries instead of one. I would do a seven-day novena instead of saying a simple silent prayer, I would promise to make a big contribution to charity if my wish was granted. I would attend an all-night vigil instead of a few quiet moments during the day.  I probably would have pushed a virgin into a volcano, but there was a shortage of virgins in my town! Pagan prayer is all about getting the attention of a cold, distant, cruel and aggravated god and persuading him to alter his behavior through bribery and sadism. That, my friends, is no way for Christians to pray!

Today, we read one of my favorite readings about prayer in our first reading. It is the story of the wise and famous King Solomon’s prayer. We are told that God “appeared to Solomon in a dream one night,” “inviting him to ask for something in prayer.” Solomon points out to God that God had chosen him to be king of a huge nation, even though he was young and inexperienced. In his prayer, Solomon asks God simply for what he needed to do all that God wanted him to do: “an understanding heart” and “the wisdom to know right from wrong.” God was impressed with Solomon’s prayer and answered it, noting that he could have asked for selfish needs: a long life, riches or vengeance on his enemies! 

Solomon teaches us the real meat of all prayer: to do well what God wants us to do! Solomon teaches us the purpose of all prayer: to have us be changed by God, rather than having God be changed by us, as pagans try to do to their gods!  The perfect prayer, as Solomon knew, is to know what God calls us to do and to ask only for the “daily bread” we need to carry it out!

My friends, the difference between the way pagans pray and the way Christians ought to pray is very different. Pagans pray to persuade their gods to change. Christians pray that God will change them. We do not have a moody, disinterested or stingy God who needs to be bribed or woken up or persuaded to give us what we ask. Our God already wants to give us what is good for us. Our God simply wants us to open ourselves to receive the good he already desires for us. The perfect Christian prayer is a prayer of openness and gratitude. A perfect Christian prayer is the prayer of Mary, “Thy will be done!” The perfect Christian prayer is the prayer of Solomon, “Give me what I need to do the job you have given me!”  The perfect Christian prayer is the pray of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemani, “Your will, not mine, be done!”  God does not need to change, be instructed or informed. We do!

For my conclusion today, I turn to “bumper sticker theology.”  We are all familiar with the bumper sticker that says, “prayer changes things.” There is another bumper sticker that, I believe, is more accurate. It says, “prayer changes people and people change things.”     

 

CHURCH CHAT #38

 

NEW AT THE ST. THERESA FAMILY LIFE CENTER: A "MEN'S GROUP"

In early 2021, I started to lead the remodeling of the old St. Theresa/Cross Roads School in my hometown parish in Rhodelia, Kentucky, into a new St. Theresa Family Life Center and the old rectory into a  Guest House for presenters, private retreatants and visiting priests. One of the main features of the project is a museum room and a long hallway (both sides) old historic photo gallery. The project was dedicated October 15, 2022 - the Feast of St. Theresa of Avila. 

The idea was to build a place where the family life of the community could be celebrated, preserved, strengthened and empowered. A few groups like AA, Sunday Coffee after Mass and Youth Confirmation Retreats have already used the spaces. The parish offices are now located there. Even 30 American Bishops, who visited the grave in St. Theresa's old cemetery of the grandmother of Father Augustus Tolton, first black priest ordained in the US, had drinks and refreshments in the new Family Life Center. 

One of the newest groups to start using the Family Life Center is a Men's Group meeting each Thursday evening. Soon to follow will be a Women's Group. Father Knott had the opportunity to attend the July 2, 2026 Men's Group meeting pictured below. He was asked to present a "Saturday Afternoon Men's Retreat" on October 10 (2:00 to 6:00) followed by the Saturday evening Mass at St. Theresa Church next door. The retreat will be called "Get a Grip on Your Personal, Family and Spiritual Life." 

 BEFORE

AFTER

THE NEW PORCH HAS ROCKERS AND CAN BE USED FOR SHELTERED PICNIC BOOTHS

The old classroom for the 3rd and 4th grades was renovated into a meeting room for discussions. 

25 men of the new Men's Group met on July 2, 2026 filling the above room. 

The new St. Theresa Family Life Center has an extensive hallway photo gallery and museum room celebrating the parish history from its founding in 1818 to the present. It also holds five parish offices, another large meeting room, a beautiful kitchen, a cafe room (below) and two updated restrooms. 

Four of several cases and wall displays in the museum room.

Historic photos fill both sides of this long hallway.

The whole Family Life Center is heated and cooled with an underground geo-thermal system and powered by an above-ground solar panel system pictured below. 

The old rectory (below) has been totally renovated for use as a Guest House for visiting presenters, visiting priests and private retreatants.

The living room has a flat screen TV and several recliners. 

One of the bedrooms (below)

The downstairs has a laundry room and more space for overnight guest use. 

"HE'S SMART, KIND AND HUMBLE, BUT HE'S NO PUSHOVER"

 

BEWARE OF THOSE OVERLY ZEALOUS WEED PULLERS!

 

…if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until the harvest.

Matthew 13:24-30

Religious fanatics have probably done more damage to religion than all the atheists, agnostics and public sinners put together! As Blaise Paschal said, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction!” Cock-sure and blind as bats, they claim to have perfect eye-sight when it comes to good and evil, setting themselves up as judge, jury and executioner! 

We are painfully familiar with fanatic Muslims who would fly planes into high rise buildings as a way to rid the world of “degenerate western influences” or our own Puritans who would burn so-called “witches” at the stake to keep their church “pure.” In our own church, fanatics had a heyday during what we know as the “Inquisition” and "Crusades." The “Inquisition” and "Crusades" were invented by religious fanatics who wanted to do a good thing: rid the world of heresy, error and sin, but they chose some of the most vicious, cruel, inhumane and un-Christian, methods imaginable to accomplish their goals! Many good, holy and even saintly people were brutally killed by those misguided people with their "good" intentions - all in the name of God, of course! I am scared to death of the “Christian Nationalist” movement that is gaining strength in our country for these precise reasons. As Jesus reminds us in today's gospel: beware of overzealous, fanatic weed-pullers!

Today's parable is one of my favorites. In it, Jesus reminds us that in his kingdom here on earth, the good and the bad exist alongside each other and nobody but God can really tell the difference! To make his point, he again turns to farming for a parable. He tells the story of a farmer who planted good seeds in his field, only to find out that, as they sprouted, weeds also appeared growing right there with them! 

In this parable, God is that farmer and we are his hired hands.  One day, the farmer’s hired hands came in to report the presence of weeds growing among the wheat and to suggest that they could fire-up their big weed-eaters and go to work on them!  The wise farmer gives them a quick and firm “no, don’t you dare!” “Leave the weeds alone and let them grow together with the wheat till harvest time!” Wisely, the farmer tells his hired hands that if they uprooted the weeds now, they would end up pulling up the wheat along with them because, at this point, no one could tell one from the other! 

This is a wonderful parable because the specific weed Jesus is talking about is an especially noxious weed that looks exactly like wheat when it is young and tender. In fact, people back then had a nickname for this particular kind of weed Jesus was talking about. They called it “bastard wheat!” Not only did it look exactly like wheat when it was young and tender, its roots also entangled themselves around the roots of tender wheat shoots! Not only can they not be distinguished, one from the other, their roots had become so entwined that if you tried to pull the weeds up too early, you would end up destroying the precious wheat crop by pulling up the wheat along with them! 

When the time finally came for harvest, the weeds and wheat would cut together and threshed. Threshing was the process of separating the seeds from the chaff. The wheat seeds had a golden color and the weed seeds had a slate gray color which made it easier to separate them. The weed seeds were slightly poisonous, having a bitter taste and causing dizziness and sickness, so they had to be destroyed. The precious wheat could then be stored in the farmer’s barn.  

The point of the parable is that, unlike human beings who tend to judge quickly, God is lenient and patient and wise. 

This parable clearly reflects Jesus’ own experience of being condemned by religious people. They thought of themselves as the precious wheat while the social outcasts that Jesus associated with as the useless poisonous weeds.  Jesus could see that often it was the other way around! As Scripture says, “People see externals, but God can see into people's hearts.”

My friends, the message for us today is simple! Good and evil exist side by side in the church and in the world, but we need to be very weary of overzealous fanatics who want to "pull weeds" and “clean house” – whether they come from the church or the government! More often than not, those people do more harm than good because they really cannot see what they are doing, or even understand the purity of their own motives, all that well! As Jesus put it, when he warned people about false, people-abusing prophets whose uniform was a woolen sheep pelt, "Be aware of wolves dressed up to look like sheep!"  

What to do with "weeds," has always been, and will always will be, a problem for the church! However, as the parable teaches us today, we also need to know that overly enthusiastic weed-pullers have sometimes created bigger problems than the "weeds" they so eagerly want to pull up! As Jesus said, "...if you pull up the weeds, you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest." As the great preacher, Billy Graham, so wisely put it, "It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict, God's job to judge and my job to love!"