fbpx
31.7 F
Spokane
Sunday, December 10, 2023

Mark Azzara

Mark Azzara spent 45 years in print journalism, most of them with the Waterbury Republican in Connecticut, where he was a features writer with a special focus on religion at the time of his retirement. He also worked for newspapers in New Haven and Danbury, Conn. At the latter paper, while sports editor, he won a national first-place writing award on college baseball. Azzara also has served as the only admissions recruiter for a small Catholic college in Connecticut and wrote a self-published book on spirituality, "And So Are You." He is active in his church and facilitates two Christian study groups for men. Azzara grew up in southern California, graduating from Cal State Los Angeles. He holds a master's degree from the University of Connecticut.

How smart is a smartphone’s user?

I've noticed that smartphone users feel obliged to immediately check every email, every tweet, every Instagram message, even if, in doing so, they insult the person they're talking to.

Boycotts have limits but God doesn’t

The real burden of guilt, and the real responsibility for change, rests not on a company's customers but on those who authored, approved and carry out the abuse of employees.

Catholic bishops at their synod proved how human they are

I can't tell you how frustrated I am with the bishops. And yet they are no worse than me. If I can lose sight of God and fail to see things his way, then I can't fault the bishops for making the same mistake.

We only think we “know”

“Study often reveals to you how little you actually know and how much that you thought you knew you don’t really understand.”

Procrastination prolongs, even prevents the process

“Ministry,” “worship,” “charity” and other “Christian” activities can actually be forms of procrastination when they distract us from our essential need to surrender fully to God.

How can we attack poverty when we are poor ourselves?

True compassion and true sacrifice for others require that we surrender to God's influence over us, which will sustain us when our cheap human versions of those words fail us and we are tempted to put up the barricades and scream, “No more!”

Poverty is much more than a lack of money

In material terms, one man's poverty/need is another man's luxury. But in Matthew 5:3 Jesus speaks about spiritual poverty. This is the far worse poverty, the kind he wants to address in all of us.

Must read