It is two days before Thanksgiving and I went shopping for food the last time before this holiday, I hope. Tonight my wife is shopping via the internet for Christmas gifts. Since I cook most of the meals I can understand why I should shop for the food. But the very consuming work of Christmas gift shopping is something that leaves me cold and I am glad my wife, Pat, likes doing it. With her recent hip replacement surgery she has more time to shop but with online shopping she does not need to submit her new hip to lots of standing.

For me the computer and internet is a place to read and write not shop. However, there is no substitute for person to person conversation. A Catholic Worker friend came over tonight and we had a conversation about peace making and stopping the violence and killing that Marquette University, a Jesuit Catholic school, teaches. We both discussed of what distinguishes Marquette University from any other public university. What does it mean to teach Gospel values when you teach values, like killing without conscience, contrary to Gospel values, due to money it brings in?

We both are seeking nonviolent actions we can take to communicate our message that Marquette should stop teaching killing; but it seems the only weapons we have these days are our words, spoken and written. Words are powerful but as St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus, the religious order that founded Marquette, said: “Love is best expressed in deeds over words.” But sometimes words are all we got.

Eating healthy, speaking wisely and leaving the shopping to others may be good advice for me this season.

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