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Obama’s Endorsement of Gay Marriage Fails Us All

May 10, 2012
1 min

Obama’s Endorsement of Gay Marriage Fails Us All

How tragic that the most influential political leader on earth would use his power to redefine marriage. He bowed his knee to the lie that justice means giving gays all they clamor for, rather than what they need. In that, Obama failed to love gays well. He has failed to act authentically as a Christian, and has failed generations to come whose foundations will be further shaken by yet another battering of marriage. My hope is that Obama’s delusion would wake up all Christian

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Andrew Comiskey

May 8, 2012
2 min

Broken and Beautiful

As one who shares that struggle, I often feel like the rather clueless disciples, stumbling about in the dark with the risen Christ. Disoriented by mixed signals from the church and world, ‘harassed at every turn’ (2 Cor 7:5), I fail to see Him among us. And yet in blessed moments, He opens our eyes and we see Him as He is. His tender power surpasses our deepest need and transcends moral abstractions. In an instant we realize that our need is only Him—His Real Presence, the l

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Andrew Comiskey

May 2, 2012
2 min

No Doubt

Thank God for Easter. Thank God for the season of Easter that spans far beyond its six weeks in the Church calendar; Jesus’ resurrection reminds us daily that He has trumped our old nature and activates us afresh to resume our pilgrimage. Following the Risen Christ is always a path toward maturity, with clear markers for our sexual and relational humanity. United with Him, we ascend slowly towards a horizon of boundless light. Each morning I rejoice in these words I share wit

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 25, 2012
2 min

Pray More

If we want to be more like Jesus, we must be with Him more. And do less of everything else. Our roots must sink and stay deep in the Source if we want to bear fruit that remains. I do badly when first thoughts of the day revolve around unsolved problems. I start striving, and my words and actions become cutting. I know right away that I am not in Christ; I am worldly, and thus unable reveal Him to the world. I used to wake up each morning and see if the little red light was f

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Andrew Comiskey

Apr 8, 2012
4 min

Intimate Authority: Easter’s Enlistment

This is the seventh and concluding post of my Holy Week Meditations for 2012. Please click here for the archive list of posts. Annette and I, as well as the staff here at Desert Stream Ministries, wish you a deeply blessed Easter. He is Risen! — Why was Mary Magdalene the first disciple Jesus entrusted with His resurrection? According to John’s Gospel, Peter and John raced to the empty tomb but could not comprehend Christ resurrected. Both John the Beloved and Peter the Rock

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 4, 2012
4 min

Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3

— Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 3 Intimacy with Jesus made an ex-prostitute the bearer of the most important event in human history. God entrusted a woman, not one of the 12, with Christ’s resurrection. That’s why the Roman Catholic Church names Mary Magdalene the ‘Apostle of Apostles.’ Mary’s surrender to Christ was marked by weeping and lingering, two earmarks of loving another with all one’s heart. Such sustained intimacy gave Mary authority. Such reliance on

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Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 3, 2012
5 min

Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine

Merciful Discipline 6: Humbled, We Shine ‘When You disciplined us, we could barely whisper a prayer.’ (IS 26:16) ‘Christ’s abiding presence in the midst of our suffering is gradually transforming our darkness into light.’ Pope Benedict The sexual abuse crisis in the Church brings us to our knees. We do not kneel politely but painfully, a sprawl rather than a pose. On behalf of those felled by the weight of a priest’s perversion, we too stumble and fall. Behold the scandal we

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Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 2

Andrew Comiskey

Apr 3, 2012
3 min

Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditations, 2

— Intimate Authority: Holy Week Meditation, 2 Luke 7: 36-50 introduces us to Mary Magdalene. Mercy drew her out of fear and shame, and compelled her to offer herself to Him. Jesus embodied that Mercy for a prostitute. Imagine that: a kind, strong, handsome man who only wanted her good, nothing from her but her dignity. And a holy man who did not fear her and the entanglement of desires she lay at His feet. She wept and lingered there. His Mercy was magnetic, a good match for

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 30, 2012
1 min

Merciful Eyes

— Merciful Eyes 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 38 To see the image of God in every sister—all love of neighbor must flow from this motive. (861) May I never boast except in the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world…what counts is a new creation. Peace and Mercy to all who follow this rule. (Gal. 6: 14-16) Jesus, grant us merciful sight for the lost and deeply loved. Anchor our sight in the truth of

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 29, 2012
1 min

Mercy for a Broken Church

— Mercy for the Broken Church 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 37 Observing myself and those who are close to me, I have come to understand how great an influence I have on other souls, not by heroic deeds, but by small actions like the movement of a hand, a look, and many other things too numerous to mention, which effect and reflect in the souls of others. (1475) I find pleasure, not in large buildings and magnificent structures, but in a pure and humble heart

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Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 28, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests

Merciful Discipline 5: Hopeful, We Fight for the Dignity and Integrity of Our Priests The fine work and selfless dedication of the great majority of priests should not be obscured by the transgressions of some. – Pope Benedict I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do what is in My heart and mind, and his house will be firmly established. (1 Samuel 2:15) As a new Catholic, I have a fresh appreciation for the honorable, difficult office of the priest. I rely upo

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 26, 2012
2 min

Mercy for the Church

— Mercy for the Church 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 34 What a joy it is to be a faithful child of the Church! O how much I love Holy Church and all those who live in it! I look upon them as living members of Christ, who is their Head. I burn with love with those You love; I suffer with those who suffer. I am consumed with sorrow with those who are cold and ungrateful. (511) Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to those through whom they

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Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 21, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust

Merciful Discipline 4: Hopeful, We Rebuild Trust We do not want you to grieve…as those who have no hope. (1Thes. 4:13) Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. (1Cor. 4:2) Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who depends on flesh for his strength and whose heart turns away from the Lord…He will dwell in the parched places of the earth. (Jer. 17: 5, 6) One struggles to consider a more profound violation of trust than priestly abuse of chil

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 18, 2012
2 min

Humility and Mercy

— Humility and Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 26 God has surrounded me with His special Mercy precisely because I am the weakest of all people. (1099) Humility is nothing but the truth. (1502) Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus, who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant… (Phil. 2: 6,7) I put up with this Church in the hope that one

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Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 14, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame

Merciful Discipline 3: Broken, We Endure Shame In the Church, God has put Himself into hands that betray Him again and again. – Pope Benedict Do not hold against us the sins of the fathers; may Your mercy come quickly to meet us, for we are in desperate need. Help us, O God our Savior, for the glory of Your Name; deliver us, and forgive us our sins for Your Name’s sake. Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” (PS 79:8-10a) We repent on behalf of the abuse-broken chu

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Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse

Andrew Comiskey

Mar 7, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse

Merciful Discipline 2: Broken, We Repent for the Church’s Mishandling of Abuse ‘This crisis isn’t about sex abuse. It is about covering up sex abuse.’ Spokesperson for victims of priestly abuse ‘God’s justice summons us to give account of our actions and to conceal nothing.’ Pope Benedict to priests who abused children As the Church, we are united as members of one Body. When one is abused, all suffer. When abuse is covered up or mishandled by Church leaders, the abused are a

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Andrew Comiskey

Mar 7, 2012
1 min

Everything I Have is Yours

— Everything I Have is Yours 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 15 At the moment of Your death on the cross, You opened an inexhaustible spring of Mercy for us, giving us Your dearest possession, the Blood and Water from Your heart. Such is the omnipotence of Your Mercy. From it, all grace flows to us. (1747) For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified,…so that your faith may not rest on men’s wisdom but on God’s powe

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Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused

Andrew Comiskey

Feb 28, 2012
4 min

Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused

— Merciful Discipline 1: Broken, We Pray for the Abused No wound runs deeper in the Church today than the sexual abuse of children by her priests. Over the last 30 years, the wound has become apparent as brave, broken souls throughout the world have dared to confess the perversion deposited in them by priests. We the Church bear this wound. We are the broken: bewildered, angry, more tempted to strike the Church than to heal her. And yet we are ‘her’, the wounded bride, as nee

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 28, 2012
1 min

False Mercy

— False Mercy 40 Days of Mercy Devotional – Lent 2012 – Day 7 The great sins of the world are superficial wounds on My Heart, but the sins of a chosen soul pierce My Heart through and through… (1702) Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness… (Isaiah 5:20-21) Father, grant us clarity as to what pleases You and what does not. Thank you for the clear witness of Scripture and the Church. Help us to discern ‘blind guides’; mo

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Andrew Comiskey

Feb 20, 2012
2 min

Rousing a Captive Culture

‘How can I not?’ he reasoned, as he listed the divorces, affairs, co-habitation and children born out-of-wedlock in his family. We are inundated daily with the breakdown of holy boundaries in heterosexual relating. A new poll reveals that 61% of US singles have sex on their first date; not surprisingly, for the first time in US history, more than half of births to American women under 30 now occur outside of marriage. The devolving of heterosexual morality in our culture is t

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