At 16, he joined a religious community.
He came from a rural area in the Philippines. He loved people, loved animals, and was looking for a simple way to help.
He had no …
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By Mark Saucier
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7/9/25
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He always saw parishioners in the hospital and anyone else who wanted a priest or just a visitor.
Once, it was a woman, pregnant and gravely ill, a stranger in town with neither friends nor …
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By Mark Saucier
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6/26/25
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First, my older sister was admitted with a severe intestinal virus. Pneumonia set in. The stress of the two caused her heart to go into AFib.
As all this was spiraling down, another sister …
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By Mark Saucier
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6/12/25
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I will never forget where I first met my uncle, my mother’s brother Lester.
It was Plot D, Row 9, Grave 110 at the Manilla American Cemetery in the Philippines.
It was only a few …
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By Mark Saucier
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5/28/25
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Like so many, my eyes were fixed on the curtained doorway behind the empty balcony. I, too, was curious, excited, hopeful.
Finally, the door opened, a cardinal stepped out and proclaimed, …
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By Mark Saucier
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5/15/25
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Meandering through the museum, we found funerary art from ancient Egypt.
The wealthy deceased were mummified and often placed in a richly adorned wooden coffin. A stone sarcophagus would further …
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By Mark Saucier
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4/30/25
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We were moving into a building we bought for our ministry to women looking for redemption, recovery and reentry.
I was working with a man I’d never met, a volunteer from the church most of …
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By Mark Saucier
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4/17/25
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Genesis is the first book of the Bible and contains the creation narratives. But, it is Exodus, the second book, that provides the origin story of the Israelite people.
With Moses, the burning …
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By Mark Saucier
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4/2/25
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On an early-morning walk, I ducked into a church for a few minutes of prayer. It was a typical old Mexican church, drab with age and neglect, but filled with statues and 17th-century paintings that …
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By Mark Saucier
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3/19/25
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They were sitting in front of me. I happened to see when she grabbed her husband’s hand and held it between them.
It could have been a fleeting pain, though she didn’t appear to …
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By Mark Saucier
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3/6/25
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In Matthew, Jesus preaches the Beatitudes on the side of a mountain. In Luke, they’re preached on a plain.
“He went down with them and stood on a level place.”
In Matthew, …
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By Mark Saucier
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2/19/25
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One of our granddaughters was involved in a horticulture project at school.
Eager to pass on her learning, she told her little brother some of the things he should be doing for the aloe …
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By Mark Saucier
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2/6/25
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Jesus quotes Isaiah to define his mission: “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free.”
In this spirit of …
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By Mark Saucier
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1/22/25
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We call the Sabbath the Lord’s Day, a day of rest.
Most of us don’t work on Sundays, but that’s where the rest ends. We fill them with a flurry of activities, as if busyness is …
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By Mark Saucier
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1/9/25
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We’ve all been there. The obligatory Christmas pageants: where our related little ones try to recapture the simple essence of Christmas in story and song.
This one, like most, was …
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By Mark Saucier
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12/18/24
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As the first Advent candle flickered, the reality suddenly dawned on me: it’s December!
It’s not like I didn’t know it was coming. I had filled my calendar with December dates …
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By Mark Saucier
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12/5/24
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It’s the month of saints and sinners.
In church, we have a large scroll with the names of the parishioners who died in the past year. Saints and sinners all.
Looking at the list, I …
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By Mark Saucier
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11/20/24
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Coincidence or providence?
In the gospel reading on the Sunday before Election Day, Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment.
“You shall love the Lord your God with all …
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By Mark Saucier
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11/7/24
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I heard the disruption of the quiet fall afternoon from inside the house. It sounded as if everything was enveloped in a cloud of incessant clicks and whistles.
Stepping outside, I found the …
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By Mark Saucier
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10/23/24
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We gathered on the shores of Lake Norman.
We were physicists, lawyers, engineers, business owners, and assorted others like me.
What we all had in common was time.
Long before we were …
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By Mark Saucier
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10/9/24
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