Tag Archives: faith

Cancer, Everyday Life, Family, Health, Social Commentary/Observation

On Life, Struggles, and Faith

October 3, 2023 Ken Foreman 1 Comment

I’ve always been spiritual, and arguably, faithful.

Raised as Hungarian Reformed Protestant, Lutheran (ELCA), and later converted to Catholicism, I’ve been exposed to Christianity throughout my life.

I have never been Evangelical or Charismatic. I’d make for an extremely poor and unenthusiastic Missionary.

Over the decades, I’ve attended Jewish services in Synagogues, Sunday Services with Devout Pentecostals, Sundays with the Southern Baptist Conference, drum circles with modern pagans, and weekends with “Charismatic Catholics”.

While I appreciate the devotion of others, I honestly believe that it is our actions that define us as a Christians. Try as I might, I have severe difficulty understanding when some call themselves “Christian” and yet hate half our nation because they’re Democrat, or they’re Republican, or they’re immigrants, or they’re homeless, or they’re… whatever… “they’re not you.”

I paid attention during Matthew 25:34-37 where Jesus spoke about the poor, the homeless, the imprisoned, the sick. I must wonder if many of my fellow Christians conveniently forgot that part. For all our Nativity scenes, we forget that Christ himself was a refugee, an immigrant, and without a home at his birth.

My faith keeps me and sustains me through my life. I lost family and friends. I served in the military. I had a decent career between corporations and government contracting. I survived cancer, chemo, radiation, and being immunocompromised. I don’t shout it from the rooftops, but I quietly carry it in my heart as I hope to serve others by word and deed rather than charismatic and performative evangelism.

And so it goes. As I wait for the latest word and chapter in my life, I have faith. It sustains me. It is a quiet candle burning in my heart and shared together with my family.

As an Aside, On Faith

Apokatástasis

August 10, 2021 Ken Foreman

**Apokatastasis**
from *Cosmic World Mother* by *…And Oceans*

Apocatastasis (/æpoʊkəˈtæstəsɪs/) comes from the Greek word ἀποκατάστασις (apokatástasis) which means reconstitution or restitution. Acts 3:21 speaks of apocatastasis of all things, and although this passage is usually not understood to teach universal salvation, the word apocatastasis is typically used to refer to the belief that everyone – including the damned in hell and the devil – will ultimately be saved

The Vulgate translation of apokatastasis, “in tempora restitutionis omnium quae locutus est Deus” (the restitution of all things of which God has spoken) was taken up by Luther to mean the day of the restitution of the creation, but in Luther’s theology the day of restitution was also the day of resurrection and judgment, not the restitution of the wicked. In Luther’s Bible he rendered the Greek apokatastasis with the German herwiedergebracht werde; “will be brought back.” This sense continued to be used in Lutheran sermons.

Martin Luther explicitly disowned belief that the devils would ultimately reach blessedness.

references:

Family, Holidays, Our Shetland Sheepdogs

Happy Easter!

April 4, 2021 Ken Foreman

Together as Family at St. John Neumann (Reston, VA)

HAPPY EASTER!
Happy Easter, from our little family to yours… with love from Ken, Victoria, Kiyomi, Toshirō (and soon baby Sachiko!)

“Man’s fate is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath, man has no advantage over the animal. Everything is meaningless. All go to the same place; all come from dust and to dust all return. Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and if the spirit of the animal goes down into the earth?”

—Ecclesiastes 3:19-21

Cancer, Everyday Life, Family, Home/Life

Considering Lent in the midst of Cancer

February 12, 2020 Ken Foreman

*“From Dust You Came, and To Dust You Shall Return.”* (Genesis 3:19)

Everything that I *would* normally “give up for Lent” has already been taken from it:

I hardly eat red meats any more, despite loving steak and burgers with unrequited passion.
I can’t drink alcohol any more, despite loving hefeweisen, stouts, and blackbier. Alcohol, chemo meds, and cancer symptoms/effects aren’t exactly compatible.
Many of my “bad habits” were made possible by getting out, being social, being worldly. I’ve been housebound for two years now. Really the only thing I could give up is Social Media?

…so I’ll need to reflect some more on what my faith means to me, how I might best serve others as a human being and a follower of Christ, and how I might better practice basic human compassion, charity, and almsgiving?

I do have to say, I see precious little “basic human compassion, charity, and almsgiving” on Facebook and Twitter.

If people had to give up egoism, spite, materialism, self-import, how many of us could sit in Christ’s company and be without some need to remove the timber from our own eye before correcting someone else to remove the mote from their eye? 💕🤔

With much love and respect,

~ Ken

Cancer, Family, Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL)

Faith in the Face of Stage 4 Cancer

August 10, 2019 Ken Foreman

As my time at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD, draws to what we hope is a close, I’m taking some time to reflect on these last two years. Since being diagnosed with Stage 4 Mantle Cell Lymphoma (a Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma) last February, it’s been a trial and many heartaches. It certainly puts things into perspective. After four different chemo protocols and sixteen months of chemotherapy, finding a compatible bone marrow donor and getting a transplant at Johns Hopkins felt like a miracle.

What truly does feel like a miracle is that I had my bone marrow stem transplant on June 20th, 2019, and been at Johns Hopkins since without any major issues, infections, or complications. Most patients will get an infection or some issues after a transplant, and yet my only issue was a week of vomiting, dry heaves, diarrhea, and mouth sores. I was extremely fortunate to have no rashes, reactions, complications, or issues. Many other patients both younger and older than me weren’t so fortunate.

I credit some of my good fortune and health to my relative youth, determination, and medical science… but not all. Throughout this entire ordeal, we’ve been truly blessed to know so many praying for us, to have so much emotional, physical, and spiritual support, and our daily prayers and faith in God, the Holy Family, and Saint Peregrine (Patron Saint of Cancer Patients). We credit our faith, the prayers-and-support of our family and friends, and God for my good health, persistence, and recovery through these tribulations.

…and so we continue to pray and give thanks.

Cancer, Health

De Profundis Prayer

July 2, 2019 Ken Foreman

Christ and the Storm
Giorgio de Chirico, 1914

During the storm, Jesus’ disciples cried out to the Lord in desperation: “Lord, save us! We are perishing!” This is a “de profundis” prayer. Do you know the de profundis prayer? It comes from Psalm 130: “Out of the depths, I have cried to you, O Lord. O Lord, be attentive to the voice of my pleading.” It is the prayer offered at the darkest times of life, when we feel utterly incapable of helping ourselves.

Perhaps there are some people reading this right now who feel themselves in this precise situation. Perhaps you’re reading these words from your hospital bed where you are recovering painfully from surgery, or where you’ve just received some devastating news. Perhaps you find yourself caught in a terrible, unrelenting depression. Maybe you’ve just lost a loved one, and you’re awash in a sea of grief.

If that’s you, then pray as the disciples did. Awaken someone who can help. Jesus sleeping in the midst of the storm is a very powerful symbol of God’s sovereignty over even the darkest and most difficult trials that life throws at us.

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/070219.cfm

courtesy of Bishop Robert Barron, Tuesday July 2nd, 2019

Tayledras