Drew Downs

Make a New Normal

secrecy

  • Jesus’s teaching on secrecy and openness is complex. A more fundamental truth is needed for making sense of it: honesty.

  • How can we talk about always telling the truth and being honest, if we are also keeping secrets and refusing to share with one another? The love (without hypocrisy) Jesus longs for Ash Wednesday |  Matthew 6:1-6,16-21 Secret Faith One of the historic battles around Ash Wednesday is based on this gospel passage. A church fight,…

  • confidentiality (countable and uncountable, plural confidentialities) 1. (uncountable) The property of being confidential. 2. (countable) Something told in confidence; a secret. As a priest, I get confidentiality. I respect not only those things told to me in confidence, but the person doing the telling. I understand the issues and the fear and how unconfident a person…

  • a Homily for Ash Wednesday Text: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Beyond Black Thumb Day Today is Black Thumb Day. What? Never heard of it? It is the day that priests all over the world put on nice white albs, dip their thumbs in black, flaky ashes, and smudge those ashes on everything. It begins with people’s…